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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.