4 Wheel Gangers Hand Car

R-707 · Beginner Joined: Jun 17, 2007 Last Visited: Nov 19, 2008

Hi All,
I am currently restoring a victorian railways 4 wheel hand car, exactly the same as the one in the rail museum at Williamstown.
Ive started stripping back old paint and noticed red paint under the yellow. Were these originally painted red? Also does anyone have any idea of the type of timber used on these trolleys and does anyone have any detailed plans availible. As I have all metal castings but the timber has seen better days.
Mine has solid timber wheel centres, where the museums trolley has spoked timber centres.
If anyone could help me out, this would be much appreciated.

Cheers
R-707

perks · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:40 am

I can give you some info, but i dont know what stuff the museum has, hence what peice your talking about.

Gangers trolleys were originaly all red, i dont remember exact shade, but it was a later change to go to the safety yellow they ended up in.

Their are many types, but timber in them was all hard wood. I saw one done in oregan and it only lasted 1 year. I have found some red gum, but would assume thats a bit rare.

Timber wheels are an issue. I dont know much about spoked, but would assume its made from a peice of ply with sections cut out. Some were solid ply, some turned from a single peice of timber, some were small wedges that were aranged to make the center. All the ones i have seen still in good nick and the ones i replace are all marine ply, i had a pile of blanks turned about a year ago, and enough for 10 axles cost $350 in timber.

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