Pacific National driving vehicle "DV 1"

Model built by: Steve Williams, 2008

Prototype details: In 2001 the body shell and underframe of withdrawn locomotive Y7 were rebuilt into a driving vehicle for the Railton–Devonport cement trains. In one direction the driver travels in the DV, controlling the pushing locomotive (usually a DQ class) with a portable remote control set. After arrival at Railton, the driver loads/unloads the train from the ground, and then boards the train locomotive for the return trip. Information and photographs of the vehicle can be found here

Model Details: DV1 is scratch built to 4mm scale and as per the prototype is unpowered. The only parts not scratch built were the bogies, couplers and a few commercial detail parts.

I actually started building DV1 along with DQ2005 in 2005 but they both languished on my workbench until late 2007 when I decided that they really needed to be finished. This would also make my version of the Railton to Devonport cement train more complete for current day operations.

The model was built in 3 different parts; body including cab, underframe and footplate. The body is constructed of 0.030" (0.75mm) thick Evergreen styrene sheet overlaid with 0.010" (0.25mm) thick scribed styrene, and various shapes of Evergreen strip styrene to represent details such as hinges and door straps. The underframe is constructed of brass channel with various thicknesses of Evergreen styrene super glued on to give the frame an impression of depth. The bogies are off an Athearn GP38 dummy with the plastic wheel sets replaced by a set of suitable North West Short Line wheel sets. Bogie side frames were scratch built and overlaid onto the filed down Athearn side frames. Footplate handrails are all bent up by hand as are those on the body and roof.

After completion, the model was primed with grey primer and the underframe was sprayed matt black. The body was airbrushed first with Accu-Flex Wisconsin Central Cream around the areas where the yellow band is and left to dry. The band was then masked with Tamiya 6mm masking tape and the rest of the body was airbrushed with Accu-Flex Wisconsin Central Maroon. The masking was removed as soon as the paint was dry enough to handle and the loco was left to dry for a few days. After the paint had fully dried I decaled the body using home made decals, and added details such as door handles, rear vision mirrors, horns, wipers, uncoupling bars, marker lights and headlights etc. I then attached the body to the footplate with superglue. The front porch handrails were then added and painted white. Window glazing was added a few days later.

As DV1 normally only operates on the cement train, it has built up a liberal coating of cement dust over time. To simulate this I used artists chalks which were brushed on with a large soft paintbrush that I keep for such tasks. DQ2005 which was completed in parallel received the same paint and weathering treatment as well as the addition of the remote control equipment. Both vehicles were then added to their respective ends of the cement train (DV1 at the Railton end, DQ2005 at the Devonport end)). All I need to do now is build a couple of the later series HE cement wagons……….