Hi Graham
Here’s a bit of video showing Karachi trams in operation, including some shots of how the controls were operated :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVnkS6Y8VVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVnkS6Y8VVI
The system (at least part of it) lasted longer than you suggested, with the final run 30 April 1975.
Tony G
> On 22 Jul 2017, at 2:12 pm, Graham Hockingpf4366@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:
>
>
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> This is my 1/24th scale model of a Karachi four foot gauge petrol tram
> as originally built in 1909 by The Lion Works, Lewes, East Sussex for
> the East India Tramways Company, later, in 1911 incorporated as the
> Motor Rail Company. The model was built in 2006 with a Mashima
> motor/ABC gears,and runs on 2 rail '0' gauge track.
>
> The original design featured the Dixon-Abbott patent two sped gearbox
> permitting equal speeds in either direction. Engineer John Dixon-Abbott
> was an East India Tramways director, and he and his father and brother
> were directors of the Motor Rail Company.
>
> These 1909 petrol trams plus some later examples were rebuilt over many
> years, were fitted with Perkins diesel engines, and after the creation
> of Pakistan in 1948, the company became Mohammed Ali Tramways, closing
> finally in ?1959, services having become very unreliable.
>
> Nothing remains today. Plan for the model supplied by Terry Russell,
> who served in Karachi durng his National Service in he RAF, and drew the
> plan from life at that time..
>
> Trading under the name 'Simplex', Motor Rail later moved to Bedford and
> famously made many hundreds of 2 foot gauge petrol tractors in various
> forms for trench railway use in the 1914-18 war, and light locomotives
> in many gauges with both petrol and diesel propulsion for many years
> afterwards. Today, Simplex Mechanical Handling is owned by Alan Keef Ltd.,
> who continue to manufacture and market the Simplex brand of small
> locomotives.
> Regards
> G.
>
>
> <IMG_0039.jpg>