A wooden kit from Spain by Occre. Available in the UK for around £50.
This is the Madrid version which I chose as it resembles slightly some the Paris tramcars.
The kit as supllied intended as a static model but motorising it is not difficult.
Mine was to be battery powered with a possibility of overhead pick up later.
All wood and fittings are supplied. Just glue paint and patience required for reasonable model.
You open the box and this is what you get. The main illustrated instructions were in Spanish with (in my case) a French supplement. These were adequate but there were some parts that I did differently from the text and sequence.
The sides need freeing from the sheets of ply and the windows cutting out from their tags. Laser cutting leaves small tags which hold the pieces in situ on the sheet. This is a tedious job. Care and safety are required with a sharp knife as the sides a quite thick.
The sides have a tumblehome which needs creating from flat ply. I soaked mine from the waist down in hot slightly soapy water for a few hours and gently bent them to shape.
The sides glue to ends, I used special thin white wood glue made by Bostik, (colle de blocage in France). This comes in small plastic bottles and is used for fixing small wooden fittings in real life. Elsewhere I used superglue.
A bit of fine filler on the sides to fill in a few imperfections although the wood quality is very good and generally smooth.
The rounded ends were made by flat strips of 5mm ply. These are pre-cut to width but you must cut to length. There is plenty supplied.
Again with some fine filler to fill the gaps.
Side view showing the body shape progressing. The roof frame is very flimsy at this stage and I was very lucky when I dropped mine!
First coat in primer and I’ve now done the clerestory part using some very nice hardwood strips. This is a loose fit to allow access to the interior later.
Don’t be shy with sanding! I used 200 then 400 grade for most of it then 1000 before final topcoats.
I‘ve also started the side frames. These are made up from hardwood strips and quite primitive whitemetal castings but with care they all fit okay.
This was my original start at motorising the passive chassis.
I was going add the motor later to a geared axle. These wheels at the moment are Bachmann but this was all to change after it was too flimsy and seeing Patrick’s Soller tram chassis.
So I came across this dismantled from a ‘Dickie’ train. This yielded a simple low voltage geared motor block.
And cleaned up would fit just about under the tram floor.
The wheels are now LGB which a truer and a better fit than the Bachman types.
Back to the body and some Humbrol red undercoat.
A good idea to try out the chassis too.
Final paint with Humbrol red gloss. The roof was made with strips of pre-cut hardwood pinned at the ends and glued. This was then varnished using exterior satin furniture varnish from the local DIY store, sanding between coats about 10 in all.
The brass rails were soldered up from solid rod from my stock as the supplied coil of brass wire was useless and their suggestion to superglue the horizontal rails was inept.
The working trolley pole was scratchbuilt from brass as the supplied static whitemetal affair was very primitive in the least.
There is some more to follow of the finished machine.
Please feel free to ask any questions.
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