Like all of you since childhood I have always been very fond of trams. In particular, the old trams, those made of wood with a very high floor, with a wooden roof lined with tar.
I had love at first sight when I was 5, when in Rome I saw for the first time a tram type "MRS".
As with many of you, this passion coincided with the desire to represent the trams I like.
I started as a child to model a tea box, then to make cardboard models, then I worked plasticard then brass. Each time, however, there was something that did not give me satisfaction. Too many compromises and modellistic "standards" to follow.
After a few years from the latest models done, thanks to the lock down, I decided to try again.
In the era of 3D printers that reproduce everything with extreme precision, it can seem really stupid to play with your hands again, creating models without the aid of prints or laser cuts.
However, this is not the case if the idea is to do something different.
Here my idea is to create H0 models looking for realism instead of geometric precision.
Starting with the materials. My intention from the beginning was to reproduce the Rome (my city) trams of the first half of the 20th century, consequently the only materials allowed are wood and iron. No plastic (except the windows where I use 0.8 mm trasparent rigid pvc).
The constructive principle must then reproduce the constructive principle of the real tram. So, in my case, a frame of wooden beams to which iron panels (brass or copper) will then be "nailed".
The whole car, therefore internally and externally must follow the original. So, for example, the roof with skylight, in its internal part must reproduce all the staves and beams that characterize it from life.
Finally the functional part.
I remember for years I wondered how it was possible that man arrived on the moon but that 100 grams of h0 model could not be propelled by an engine that is not as big as that of a kitchen blender! They told me there were small engines, but they didn't have torque.
Today, thankfully, thanks to the Chinese friends, I met these fantastic coreless micromotors, extremely precise and fairly powerful and above all capable of a footprint that makes them invisible in the cabin. For the lighting, instead of the usual pre-built strips, the idea is to insert the (orange) LEDs one by one in balsa lamp holders (obviously I'm talking about the internal lighting).
In short, this is the premise, I don't know if I'll be able to make it happen, but the important thing is to try.
I am writing on this forum because the German tram modellism is the Marakana for every model maker in the world
.Here are the first photos of the "project" in progress:
