Pechot WW1 Bogies in 7/8ths Scale (Revised Edition)
A little history behind the Pechot bogies:
Prior to WW1 the French army developed a 60cm gauge light railway system for logistics support for the front line troops, in particular the artillery. Under the supervision of General Pechot (in conjunction with Decauville) an entire light railway system for the French forces was developed. This system employed a standard range of locomotives and wagons, many of which carry the General's name in recognition of his effort. Both UK & USA created similar rolling stock but the Pechot name became the standard for the type of bogie used.
Decauville:
The Decauville manufacturing company was founded by Paul Decauville (1846 - 1922), a French pioneer in light railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel sleepers; this track was portable and could be disassembled and transported very easily. The first Decauville railway used 400 mm (1 ft 3 3/4 in) gauge; Decauville later refined his invention and switched to 500 mm (1 ft 7 3/4 in) and 600 mm (1 ft 11 5/8 in) gauge. By the First World War, the Decauville system had become a military standard and the French and British eventually built thousands of miles of trench railways track.
Here is a gallery of some pechot bogie examples:
I had originally built the pechot bogies using the excellent books written by Dr. Christian Cenac as my source of plans and information. The original bogies were cast in resin and handled any track they were thrown onto incredibly well. Regardless of track condition or radius the bogies tracked perfectly. Their narrow wheel base and central pivot point are key to their success. Now ten years later and I am yearning to re-build the bogies only this time in cast Britania metal. The inspiration to rebuild the bogies came to me when I was searching for a SWAP car idea. (SWAP is an exchange program that takes place annualy on the SE Lounge™. All those who participate build an item of builders choice for an assigned recipient. The recipient is kept secret until the items arrival.)
Here are the original pechot bogies that were cast in resin:
Sourcing Plans:
If you are interested in modeling WW1 light rails there are two books that you must have :
I also discovered a great set of plans in the Forums LR PRESSE on which I have also based a lot of my desing elements.
Fast forward to 2010-2011
Alright so here we are two kids, two house moves and ten years later, and I am back to building Pechot Bogies in 7/8ths scale. So what has changed? My first build was resin and mostly comprised of 7 parts per bogie. As can be seen in the photos above the sides were done as one complete casting with all the spring details included. This worked really well although it lacked a certain realism to the overall appearance. When I started casting in Britannia metal it is very addictive and you find yourself searching for projects to cast in metal. As mentioned earlier the SWAP project had started and what better reason to push oneself out of the comfort zone and into new turf. Over the last two years I have spent a lot more time working on 3D cad (using Viacad). This really changed how I model and has allowed me to try assemblies before building parts. This also allowed me to assemble various versions of the sides and deck to see which would mold best. Here are some of the final 3D elements:
Project Start:
The simplest starting point for me was the bogie sides. Partially based on appeal (lots of rivet detail and yes I did count them ) My approach to the sides is to cast the components individually;
- Side unit with rivet detail in casting
- Seperate axle boxes
- Seperate spring detail
- Sides are attached to end buffers using 00-90 bolts where a rivet would be.
- Spring mounting blocks as a seperate unit
The side frame was made up of 10 laser cut styrene parts with rivets glued in place. This was them molded and cast in Britannia metal. Shown below in photos:
More to come....
