Hellas-Express

Hi to all,

my modelling mojo is back on track and I decided to do something at last....

Now...long story short. I gathered information for the 1950 Italian coaches and mail/baggage vans that SEK bought. I would like to make them for Ep.III because I tend to concentrate on this era the past few years.

All the historical details here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=139

Models....hm...ACME of course Carrozza tipo 1946. The only problem is that they are expensive. 60 euros each is ouch. By chance I found a guy in Italy that offers the 2nd class tipo 1946 coaches in kit form for 34.90 which is kind of acceptable. I bought six of them but I wont tell yet what I will do with them... . I have taken into account some comprimises like the bogies have a wheelbase of 2800mm as the greek ones have 3000mm. Basic conversion that affect all models are the modification of the bogies with brass shouldered bearings and RP25 axles with a length of 23.8mm. All 12 bogies have been built and they are rolling like a dream!

Here the link for the kits: http://www.trenogheno.com/listini_htm/l ... rrozze.htm

I will just give you a small teaser from the first mail van rolling out of the Zurich shops.... Mail van Εφπτ 1641-1646.



More details from the construction in the following days. I will also start now with the detailing of the body that will hopefully finish next week. Construction up to now took me about 3 weeks although 11 days out of this time I was away on holidays!

Cheers
Andreas

The smaller of the two rivets below the step should be a little to the right

What wonderful creation Andreas! Thanks for sharing.

christo.

The first job that I did was to assemble the bogies. Each bogie in the kit has 3 pieces and 2 axles. Because I run my rolling stock on RP25 profile wheels I decided to modify the bogies.

1) I drilled a 2mm hole in the plastic bearing in the sideframe of the bogie all through so that the moulded bearing does not show the FS anymore.



2) I pressed the pin pointed shouldered bearings from Markits in the holes. No glue was used.
3) Because the bearings are protruding slightly on the inside of the bogie I used wheels with shorter axles (23.8mm) than the standards used by ACME.
4) I assembled the bogie using MEK.



Result is that the bogies run sweetly and look nicer because of the RP25 Wheels. Total time for the conversion and assembly of all 12 bogies about 2hrs.

Cheers
Andreas

The smaller of the two rivets below the step should be a little to the right

What wonderful creation Andreas! Thanks for sharing.

But there are no rivets...they were welded...

Thanks Christo!

Cheers
Andreas