Mapleton Tramways Coach/Guards Van - On30 - 1:48

thingiverse

The Mapleton Tramway was a short narrow gauge (2’ – 600mm) light railway built in the hilly hinterland northeast of Brisbane, Australia, intended to transport sugarcane down to the Nambour mill. Construction of the first section of the line commenced in 1897. Motive power for the steep, sharply-curved line was provided by a couple of small Shay locos. The line was not a commercial success and it closed at the end of 1944. It had a rather motley collection of rolling stock with only a single dedicated passenger coach (with guards compartment), although a slightly smaller wagon with open sides (designed to carry cream cans and other goods) was also occasionally pressed into passenger service. Canvas roller blinds covered the side openings in the passenger section during inclement weather and the wooden bench seats were arranged longitudinally. This On30 (1:48 scale) model was designed in a similar manner to the wagons I created for the Buderim Tramway, another narrow-gauge light railway operating in the area. The floor is held in place with eight M2 screws to tame any residual resin warping and it is designed to take Kadee HO archbar equalised bogies. Standard Kadee HO couplers fit into the recesses in the end beams. Very few photos and contemporary plans exist of the prototype so there are some details that are inferred. I have found no good photos of the non-guard end wall; some photos suggest it has window openings in it, although some sketch plans suggest none. The model has been designed in Tinkercad and I have broken it down into a kit of components that work to best advantage with my printer (Anycubic Mono X) and also allow practical painting and assembly. Sliced in Chitubox and printed with an 80/20 mix of standard resin and ABS-like resin. The model in the photo has been assembled from my first quick test print (0.05mm layers), which was pretty rough.