1/32 scale Volvo PV 831 Railroad Inspection Car

[Sven J]

Hi all,

during research for my SJ Litt. S1 engine, I stumbled across a rather odd vehicle – a 1953 Volvo PV 831 taxi converted to a railroad inspection car. And as I like oddities, I decided to include it in my little 1/32 scale  „Swedish series“… so here it is:

The model is driven by a Circuit Cube motor with Bluetooth battery. The wheels are MS disc wheels from Bricks-on-Rails.

I also made a short video clip, which illustrates what I’d really appreciate: It would be great if the guys behind the Circuit Cube could come up with a higher-revving motor – speed is rather sedate… And a bit less noise would be nice, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best regards,
Sven

Edited September 15, 2022 by Sven J

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Hi Sven,
brilliant project perfectly executed!
The model according to your standards is very accurate!
Good luck for Octrainber 2022!

[Sven J]

Thanks a lot for your kind words, Emanuele! I'm happy that you like my odd little Swede.

However, I won't participate in the OcTRAINber contest this year. Maybe next year again...

[Paperinik77pk]

Oh! A PV on rails!!!  

Spectacular creation, it's immediately recognizable and surely a nice sight when running on your track!

I fully agree with your comments about noise and speed of the CC motors, I was thinking to run an old Technic 4,5v motor with the CC battery, it should work but will probably drain the small battery in a pretty limited time. Working at 3,7v it will be quite silent, and require a good calibration of gearing to properly move the Volvo.

In the meantime - I look at this beauty. Are you going to create also a road version, maybe in another color?

Ciao Sven!!! 

Davide

[monai]

Finally it arrived on Eurobricks, as you know I had the opportunity to see it on other sites. BRILLIANT as usual..

For the noise I agree but the velocity seems in scale, I don't think it run very fast on rails..

The inspection cars are an interesting argument indeed, do you remember the Sir Topham Hat (the fat controller) Winston? https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/Winston

gruss

Sergio

[Feuer Zug]

Lovely recreation of the classic Volvo. Building it at the scale you did and then putting it on O scale (?) tracks is brilliant.

[Sven J]

Thank you all for your positive feedback!

9 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

Are you going to create also a road version, maybe in another color?

I suspect there aren't many options... The PV 831 was almost exclusively used as a taxi, so most of them were black.
I actually made a (digital) taxi version, but it doesn't look very good as I couldn't find appropriate wheels - all LEGO wheels are either too small or too big/wide.

8 hours ago, monai said:

The inspection cars are an interesting argument indeed, do you remember the Sir Topham Hat (the fat controller) Winston?

Oh yes! And there is an endless number of other such vehicles... maybe a new theme for me when I've finally run out of space for locomotive models?

4 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

O scale (?)

It's gauge 1 track (45 mm).

[XG BC]

looks nice! only thing is the noise but thats not really improveable. my Breuer is just as loud. with these small motors and gearboxes there is no way around that.

[Paperinik77pk]

On 9/16/2022 at 7:06 PM, Sven J said:

I suspect there aren't many options... The PV 831 was almost exclusively used as a taxi, so most of them were black.
I actually made a (digital) taxi version, but it doesn't look very good as I couldn't find appropriate wheels - all LEGO wheels are either too small or too big/wide.

You're right !!! This is the 'limo' version, I thought to the PV544 body, without remembering it was 2doors only. Ok, the problem are the wheels...which were high, stretched...and way inside the body. More or less it seems that the custom train wheel is the right size, so an overall combination of rim and tire with the same diameter could be fine. Maybe I've an idea but I've to try it before !!!

 

[Sven J]

4 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

Maybe I've an idea but I've to try it before

Hi Davide,
I've uploaded the .io file and building instructions to Rebrickable. Feel free to use them and to modify the model!
Best regards,
Sven

[Hod Carrier]

Oh, I say!! Now that is something rather special. No doubt the slightly larger scale has helped, but it's still a small build and you've captured the iconic Volvo shape very effectively.

Personally I don't mind the slower speed of the Circuit Cubes motor, but man it is loud!!

[Shiva]

Sven J, I suspect this car is the odd vehicle :)

 

Original size: https://bricksafe.com/files/Shiva/eurobricks/IMG_20220730_140915.jpg

Front:

Original size: https://bricksafe.com/files/Shiva/eurobricks/IMG_20220730_134029.jpg

Nice model, Sven J!

Photos taken from Lokmuseet http://www.gbbj.nu/  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Museum_of_Grängesberg

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Shiva
Adding 1 more photo

[Paperinik77pk]

7 hours ago, Sven J said:

Hi Davide,
I've uploaded the .io file and building instructions to Rebrickable. Feel free to use them and to modify the model!
Best regards,
Sven

Ciao Sven!

Thanks for sharing this fantastic model!  Working on it was...well...educative.

As far as I can see, the PV831 has not so big tires, and wheel arches are in reality a bit more "closed" around the wheels. But In Lego it's quite impossible to reproduce them better than you did.

I therefore tried to work with real parts to recreate a bit bigger wheel diameter, starting from standard tires (in this case slick ones, but it works also with treaded ones).

Using the gear as wheel and forcing a bit the tire on it, you can pass from a bit less of 24mm to 25.5mm. Using old and a bit hard rubber tires works better since they do not bend too much. I added also an "hubcap" (sorry it's not in correct color!)

 it's the maximum I could achieve...hope it's sufficient and it's as big as the current train wheels. 

I prepared two renderings of the PV in Taxi version (with a modded tire part increased to 25.5mm) and the wheel seems proportioned to the body. How can I share it back to you?

Ciao!

Davide

[Sven J]

Thank you @Hod Carrier and @Shiva!

On 9/18/2022 at 2:51 PM, Hod Carrier said:

the slightly larger scale

In fact it’s almost Speed Champions size…

22 hours ago, Shiva said:

Sven J, I suspect this car is the odd vehicle :)

Indeed, it's that one that inspired me.

17 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

and wheel arches are in reality a bit more "closed" around the wheels

Yes, that’s right. It might have been possible to use mudguard parts, but I didn’t want to do that, because they have that protruding „lip“ which looks pretty inappropriate for that kind of car (in my opinion, that is). Besides, it would then have been very difficult to combine the 7-wide wheel arches with the 6-wide body.
So the slightly-too-large wheel arches are of course a compromise, but I think they look quite okay.

Clever idea with the gear wheels and the tires - thank you! I’ll have to look if I have some of these tires left somewhere.

I can send you a PM with my email address, if that’s okay for you. Or simply post it here – I’m absolutely fine with showing other folks’ modifications of my model in this thread.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Sven J

[Paperinik77pk]

3 hours ago, Sven J said:

Yes, that’s right. It might have been possible to use mudguard parts, but I didn’t want to do that, because they have that protruding „lip“ which looks pretty inappropriate for that kind of car (in my opinion, that is). Besides, it would then have been very difficult to combine the 7-wide wheel arches with the 6-wide body.
So the slightly-too-large wheel arches are of course a compromise, but I think they look quite okay.

Your choice was perfect, mudguards are really too specific and this car has a soft, clean shape to be respected!  

Ciao!

Davide

 

[zephyr1934]

As is your normal, that is an amazing build!

[Sven J]

Thanks a lot, @zephyr1934 !

Edited September 20, 2022 by Sven J

[Sven J]

The Swedish saga continues...

[Darkkostas25]

Yeah! great one! I love it! retro car on rail wheels. Great model!

[Sven J]

Thank you @Darkkostas25!