Drawings

Spent the last day or so in Photoshop drawing up the rollingstock used at Maylands Brickworks in 1:64 scale. The measurements are roughly scaled from pictures with a lot of guesstimation. The cab interiors are kinda improvised and not quite accurate. One day I'll get out to Whiteman Park with a tape measure and camera!

(click on image for PDF)

Also decided to do a quick 1:64 paper mock up. The nose is a bit high and the roof is over scale but you get the idea. You can print out and fold up your own (not to scale) version here.

Early Planning

Locos
2 feet in 1:64 scale roughly works out to be 9.5mm, which will allow for easy substitution of 9mm N gauge track and mechanisms in construction. But that also means a 6 foot high loco is barely 3cm tall! After searching through some 009 modelling forums and pages I discovered that the smallest commercially available power bogies are found under the N scale KATO Portram and Centram models. The KATO trams have two power bogies in each model and can be delivered to your door direct from Japan for ≈AU$90 (exchange rate permitting that's $45/motor!). Each bogie weighs less than 5 grams and has a wheelbase of around 12mm with the bolster sitting about 4mm above railhead (Dad's considering using one or two to re-power his N scale ballast tamper).  P.s. Don't buy the cheaper Tomytec tram as it has a much larger mechanism.

KATO Unitram advert.

KATO Portram power bogies.

Two locos are planned to be built on the power bogies; the Planet Type 'Y' numbered '1' and the curved roof homemade loco with yellow chevrons. These will be pretty much entirely scratchbuilt from styrene and brass. Alloy Forms do a variety of great white metal detail parts. Their 1:87 '3 Engine Kit' will hopefully have some useful parts to represent the Holden and Ford motors and help to add some much needed weight.

Alloy Forms 1:87 (HO scale) 3 Engine Kit: Ford flathead V-8, Chevy small block V-8, Dodge flathead 6 cylinder.

Holden 186 Red Motor.

Shovels

Lesney Matchbox produced model 22-RB Ruston Bucyrus shovel slightly smaller than 1:64 scale between 1959 and 1965. At least two of these will be kitbashed to represent shovels used at Maylands. The toys seem to be pretty ubiquitous on the internet, going for anywhere between $5 and $150. The rubber tracks tend to disintegrate, but replacement tracks are available for less than 10 bucks. 

Lesney Matchbox M-4 Major Pack 22-RB shovel.

Engineering Model Developments also do a great 1:50 scale 22-RB Ruston Bucyrus working model. Unfortunately it's probably a tad too big for my needs.

EMD 1:50 22-RB shovel.

Hoppers
Owing to the homemade nature of the brickworks hoppers, most commercially available side-tipper hoppers appear to be too obtusely angled and generally the wrong shape to be useful for Maylands Brickworks analogues. This will most likely mean that each hopper will be individually scratchbuilt with a styrene hopper and soldered brass frames.

Bachmann On30 'V' dump hopper illustrating the common commercially produced hopper shape.

Modules

The layout will be DC controlled for practicality. Due to the small motor sizes the whole layout will be able to be run off a single 9V battery. The trackwork will be handlaid or heavily kitbashed propriety track. In 1:64 scale, Maylands' trackwork is at least 9000mm in length! So a bit of compression is in order. The layout is planned to comprise of three modules roughly 1600-1800mm in length and two or three removable fiddle tracks to allow trains to disappear off scene and be manually loaded and unloaded. Baseboards will be a lightweight wooden frame construction with aluminium legs and foam board landscaping (the tramway sits at least 12 feet below ground level). A very quick mockup of the baseboards is shown below. Next step is to draw the plan out in full scale on butchers paper!

Rough baseboard mockup.

Lesney Matchbox 22-RB shovel and KATO Portram power bogie.

Rollingstock

Locomotives

Planet Locos
At least five locomotives were used at various times during the history of the Maylands Brickworks.
Early on, the brickworks acquired two four-wheel Type 'Y' Planet locos built by Messrs F.C. Hibberd & Co. Ltd., Park Royal, London. They were both fitted with Ford 10 engines. Numerous examples of Type 'Y' locos were used around the world. Two almost identical locos were also built for Whiteman Brickworks in Helena Vale.

One of the Maylands Planet locos was numbered with a yellow '1' on the rear of the drivers cab and featured a laterally curving roof. The second loco had a forward curving roof and appears to not have been numbered. The rooves were thought to be made of masonite.

One of the original Planet Type 'Y' locomotives numbered '1.' photographed by Weston Langford at Maylands in 1966.

Closeup of number '1.' from a 1966 photo by Weston Langford.

The second unnumbered Planet Type 'Y' locomotive photographed by E. Woodland at Maylands in the 1960s. 

Whiteman Type 'Y' Planet loco "Gertie" photographed by Weston Langford at Helena Vale in 1976.

A Whiteman Brick Planet loco after it was re-engined (note the overhanging radiator) photographed by Keith McDonald at Helena Vale in 1971.

Homemade Locos
The Planet locos were underpowered for the brickworks needs and were written off by the end of the 1960s. As a replacement for the Planet locos, three four-wheel petrol locomotives were built by the brickworks. They were powered by red Holden 186 6-cylinder engines with automatic transmissions and a chain-drive.

The homemade locomotives can be differentiated by their rooves, fuel tanks and engine covers. One loco had an angular roof and the other two had curved rooves with yellow chevron on their nose. One of the curved rooved locos had a slightly different frame and also had planks of wood on the roof.

The homemade locomotive with angular roof photographed by Nicholas Pusenjak in 1970.


The same loco photographed by D. Beazley in 1970.

One of the homemade locomotives with curved roof photographed by Jim Bisdee in 1980. Note planks of wood on roof.

The same loco as above showing the yellow 'V' chevron photographed by David Whiteford in 1980.

The second curved rooved homemade locomotive photographed by Geoff Murdoch in 1973. (LR 43)
Note the angled chevrons and slightly larger engine hood compared to the loco pictured above.

The same loco as above photographed by Jeff Austin in the late 1970s.

All locos were around 6 foot high and painted green. 'Doors' consisted of hessian bags sewn together on a makeshift curtain rail.

Hoppers

The side-tipping hopper wagons were originally pushed by hand before motive power was employed. The wagons look to be homemade due to each hopper being slightly different in size and shape. There appear to be two main types of hoppers; some with channel end frames, but the majority had box end frames. Some hoppers have dual end support struts, while others have a single angled support. The wagons were coupled together with a length of chain of about five or six links between each truck to form a train of around six (with Planet locos) to ten in length (with the homemade locos). Roughly 24 side-tipping trucks were thought to be in use in 1973, with numerous others discarded on the side of the line. Most of the hoppers had a number painted on the end and/or side, some with a white background.

1966 photo by Weston Langford showing the difference between the two main hopper frames.

More 1966 hopper photos by Weston Langford. Note the discarded early style hopper near the perway and the chain couplings on the ground.

Comparison of hopper types from a 1980 photo by Jim Bisdee.

Preservation

The two Planet locos are long since scrapped, but two homemade locomotives have survived into preservation; the angled roof loco (now known as "Maylands") and three hoppers were acquired by the W.A.L.R.P.A (Bennett Brook Railway) in 1981. One of the curved roof locos and 4 side hoppers were sold to Moonta Mines Railway in South Australia. The WALRPA loco was rebuilt with new body incorporating a curved cab roof and a bonnet from a Chamberlain tractor. The Moonta Mines loco has also been significantly rebuilt. It is unknown at this point what happened to the second curved roof loco.

A Planet 'Y' from Whiteman Brickworks now known as "Yellow Rose" is also preserved at Bennett Brook.

"Maylands" on one of the first trains on the Bennett Brook Railway at Whiteman Park photographed by Lindsay Watson in 1984. (The first wagon is actually built on the frame from an old Maylands side-tipping wagon)

Moonta Mines Railway loco "Maylands" photographed by Weston Langford in South Australia in 2002.

References:

Bradford, R. B. 2006. "Maylands locomotive (LR 187)". Light Railways 189

McKillop, B. 2006. "From Back Yard to Bennett Brook 1976-2005: A history of the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association". Light Railways 187

Murdoch, G. 1973. "The Metropolitan Brickworks Tramway". Light Railways 43

Watson, L. 2008. "Whiteman Brickworks Tramways, Middle Swan, Western Australia". Light Railways 204 

Shovels

While initially being hand shovelled, Maylands brickworks soon employed steam shovels, later followed by electric, then petrol/diesel. This post aims to highlight some of the shovels used in the quarries at Maylands. Most, if not all, were constructed by Ruston Bucyrus.

Unidentified Ruston Bucyrus shovel photographed by E. Woodland in the 1960s.

Unidentified Bell Brothers Ruston Bucyrus shovel photographed by Weston Langford in the 1966.

Unidentified Ruston Bucyrus electric shovel photographed by Nicholas Pusenjak in 1970. 

(Edit: possibly the same or similar to the one photographed by E. Woodland?)

Unidentified Ruston Bucyrus electric shovel photographed by Unknown in the late 1970s.

Same shovel as above photographed by Jim Bisdee 1980.

Unidentified Ruston Bucyrus shovel from a photo by Jim Bisdee in 1980.

 

22-RB (possibly 19-RB?) Ruston Bucyrus diesel shovel and unidentified (derelict?) electric shovel photographed by Jim Bisdee in 1980.

References:

Heritage Council of Western Australia. 1998. "Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation: Maylands Brickworks". Government of Western Australia. 
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Content/PdfLoader.aspx?id=ef5f7010-36f4-46c2-af1f-6a706fa02df0&type=assessment

Murdoch, G. 1973. "The Metropolitan Brickworks Tramway". Light Railways 43

Maylands Brickworks: A Concise History

Map of the brickworks in 1979.

From the 1920s to the 1980s a 2 foot gauge tramway was owned and operated by the Metropolitan Brick Company Ltd. on the Maylands Peninsula, around 4 kilometres east of Perth, Western Australia. 

Map of the preserved Maylands Brickworks infrastructure, 2016. Inset: Location of the brickworks on the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River).

The Maylands Peninsula has long been associated with clay deposits. In 1885, the Peninsular Brick Company established a plant in Maylands, which was later taken over by Mills & Sons for use as a pottery works in 1905.

In 1922 the Metropolitan Brick Company Ltd. was founded, which brought the existing Helena Vale and Armadale brickworks under the one name. The same year Mr Robert O. Law, an established Perth brickmaker, acquired 60 acres of land for the Metropolitan Brick Co. between Peninsula and Swan Bank Roads. By 1927 a complete brickworks was established at Maylands, including a Hoffman Kiln, drying sheds, pug mill and brick making extruder. Between 1927 and 1936, there was a single chimney, 19 chamber 15 foot diameter Hoffman Kiln, with a 7 million per year brick producing capacity. In 1934, a second Hoffman Kiln was relocated from Helena Vale to Maylands, and was operational by 1936. By 1941 the clay pit had extended south of Johnson Road.

By 1946 the plant at Maylands was described as the most highly technical plant in Australia. The transfer system within the plant was described as a masterpiece of ingenuity. It used small railway trucks to transfer bricks from the brick making extruder to the drying sheds and then to the kiln without being handled. The Hoffman Kilns operated on powdered coal until 1967 when they were changed to an oil fired system. When the Maylands plant was in full production it employed in excess of 130 employees, most of whom lived in the vicinity of the works. It became one the main industries providing employment in the area and as such has played an important part in the history of Maylands.

The second Hoffman Kiln at Maylands was demolished after sustaining damage during the Meckering earthquake in 1968. Metropolitan Brick Holdings Ltd. as it was now known was officially acquired by H. L. Brisbane & Wunderlich Ltd. (Bristle) in October 1973. The locomotives used in the quarry were out of use by then end of 1980 and the remainder of its time saw trucks and conveyor belts employed at the brickworks. Maylands Brickworks was finally shut down just prior to Christmas 1982 and the land was sold to the City of Stirling in 1983. The original Hoffman kiln, some of the drying sheds, a portion of the incline trestle, the workshop and a few other buildings have been preserved on the site. The clay pits now form an ornamental lake in a new housing development on the peninsula.

Photos from the State Library of Western Australia collection of the Maylands Brickworks in the 1950s

The brickworks originally had two four-wheel Planet Type 'Y' locomotives.  They were built by Messrs F.C. Hibberd & Co. Ltd., Park Royal, London and fitted with Ford 10 engines. They were underpowered for the brickworks needs and were eventually written off in the 1960s. As a replacement, two four-wheel chain-driven petrol locomotives were built by the brickworks.

Overall view of the brickworks by Jim Bisdee looking north and south respectively from Johnson Road in 1980. Also highlights the two different types of clay being quarried.

Looking south through the dual brick arch tunnels under Johnson Road photographed by Weston Langford in 1966.

A normal train on the brickworks line consisted of several side-tipping hoppers, weighing about 18 to 20 tons when loaded, with the loco always marshalled at the northern (incline) end of the train. The loco would push the empty hoppers along a flat single-line stretch before the line split into two and ran through dual brick arch tunnels underneath Johnson Road and out to the active clay pit area. As the clay was exhausted in one part of the quarry, the track was shifted or extended to a new clay face. Originally steam shovels were used, later replaced with electric powered shovels, and finally by petrol machines, all of which appear to have been manufactured by Ruston Bucyrus. Usually two areas would be worked at one time to obtain different types of clay (white and brown). Once loaded, the loco would pull its train back to the yard, where it would shunt its train to allow the loaded hoppers to be taken up the incline. The hoppers would be marshalled into twos and then pulled up the rope incline and emptied into the pugmill, before being rolled back down the incline. 

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Photos of the brickworks taken by E. Woodland in the 1960s (Rail Heritage WA Collection)
1. Eastern incline
2. Main incline
3. Looking north from the engine shed
4. Looking south from the engine shed

The 'yard' area of the line included two run-around loops which served two separate cable inclines, part of which were on trestles (one report says the second eastern incline and Hoffman kiln was out of use by 1973, another source says 1978). The main loop was covered by a lean-to shed, and an engine shed was located at the south end of the yard on the start of the single line section. Halfway up the main incline a transfer track was positioned at a tangent with main line and provided access to a small 5 foot turntable and to the workshop via another line passing under under the trestle. The track to the workshops had no pointwork, thus the locos and trucks were presumably taken halfway up the incline and lifted across to the transfer track. 

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Photos of the brickworks by Jeff Austin, 1970s. (Rail Heritage WA Collection)

1. Homemade Holden locomotive returning from clay pits with a load of white and brown clay

2. Main incline with the workshop behind the trestle

3. Wagon shed looking south

4. Wagon shed looking north

5. Looking south towards the engine shed

6. Looking up the main incline

A single signal was used on the line; an 18 inch disc on top of a 12 foot pole at the bottom of the old incline. The sole signal was needed for safeworking because the height of the embankments near the bottom of the eastern incline obscured hand signals given by the workers.

The lone signal photographed by E. Woodland in the 1960s.

References:

Bradford, R. B. 2006. "Maylands locomotive (LR 187)". Light Railways 189

Heritage Council of Western Australia. 1998. "Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation: Maylands Brickworks". Government of Western Australia.
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Content/PdfLoader.aspx?id=ef5f7010-36f4-46c2-af1f-6a706fa02df0&type=assessment

McKillop, B. 2006. "From Back Yard to Bennett Brook 1976-2005: A history of the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association" (Review). Light Railways 187

Murdoch, G. 1973. "The Metropolitan Brickworks Tramway". Light Railways 43

Palassis Architects,. 2013. "Maylands Brickworks Conservation Management Plan". City Of Bayswater.
http://www.bayswater.wa.gov.au/cproot/2491/2/MaylandsBrickworks-cmp.pdf