The Mt Vernon Railway's Deutz loco is a small 4 wheel diesel loco, suitable for hauling coal skips and freight traffic. It is made from cardboard and powered by a 9v battery. There is still plenty of work to be done on it, including revamping the motor/power system to be more reliable.
That said, it is a very simple loco to make and looks quite attractive.
The basic design of the Deutz came from the following photos...
Some of the Deutz's had cab, some didn't. They were made by a range of builders for a range of gauges. Popular with the German army during WWII, I believe. The OME model had a single cylinder engine and the OMZ was two cylinder.
A rough plan of an OME117 (328kb) was traced over in a drawing program to create cardboard cutting templates. Download the templates here (60kb).
Here is some info on the rough plan above from Neil Bowden (member of the 16mm narrow gauge modelers list):
The gauge is 900mm. The book 'Auf schmaler Spur am Bergwerk' about the Grube Fortuna line gives the following for the Deutz 117
Length - 2560
Width - 1100
Height - 1410 (cabless?)
Wheelbase - 780
The Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum guide book has similar dimensions, but a wheelbase of 950 and a height over the cab of 2180.
The cardboard cutting templates were printed and attached to some think cardboard. 1mm or 1.5mm generally gives a good strong result. The parts were cutout and assembled. Balsa was used to make the curved edges of the bonnet.
In order to get a good smooth ride on undulating track, 3 point suspension was incorporated. To do this, make the driving wheels fixed to the model. The trailing wheels are given elliptical cutouts to allow some vertical movement. The pivoting mechanism is then attached to the wheel set and the wheels are set to the required height.
Drive to the wheels is via a small DC motor super glued to the chassis. A rubber band links this to a worm gear which then drives onto the main axle.
The model was primed, then painted a rusty colour, then weathered using engine grunge diluted in meths. This smells wonderful and is great for making your models dirty! Note that it is very dirty itself and may need to be sealed with some kind of sealant if you want to avoid wearing the grease yourself!
There is much work still to be done on the Deutz. Coupling rods were a distinctive feature of the prototype, but these are yet to be fitted. Also the control system and drive-train leave much to be desired. Additional weight needs to be added and a PicAxe control system may be fitted to give better slow speed performance. Some cab detailing still needs to be added as well.
Watch this space!