OT Class Oil Tank (Substations)

OT 8 was one of the very early VR oil tank wagons and was quite special as it was allocated to Jolimont and used for meeting the oiling requirements of the substations as part of the electrification of the Melbourne suburban Network. As such it is very appropriate to the layout and I set about backdating the exquisite later-configured model of this tank made by Precision Scale Models. Below are after/during/before pictures with a picture of the prototype also.

Picture: Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV)

Changes were removal of the later additions (ladders, platforms, presumed breathing pipe on top, couplings), and fabrication of the hose box and supporting struts below chassis (styrene), switch box (styrene), pump (modified train bits and chopped up machine guns from my misspent youth modelling war subjects), valves (chopped up aircraft landing gear from that same misspent etc.) and screw link couplings, before a respray and very light weathering. With thanks to members of the Victorian Railways forum for detail on operations of this wagon, and Phil Dunn for accurate information on the changes.