# new small pony cart



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi, 

The latest vehicle is totally at the other end of the scale to my last one! I wanted to split a set of the ‘passenger’ size wheels from NE Narrow Gauge, making a couple of single axle vehicles with them. The smaller wheels were dealt with first as they were I thought be the most difficult to find something using them. A search through my bits and pieces revealed that they could be use on a ‘pony cart’, and that I had a design for such a vehicle, that is in the Dover Publications book on ‘Horse Drawn Commercial vehicles’, and I could change the wheel size, to fit a ‘pony size’ horse quite easily. 

First find your horse: ponies are classed as being about 58” high or below at the shoulders, that was easy, Schliech maker a ‘Camargue’ horse which is 54” there, and it has a most appealing look to it. One was bought having checked the dimensions; and I then modified the drawing to fit the pony. 

The body of the cart is made from 1mm thick styrene card, with 1mm x 1.5mm ribs on the outside. The seat unit, which on full size vehicle slides backwards and forwards to balance the cart; is left separate for now the seat cushions are from 2mm thick PVC foam sheet scored and buttoned on the main portion. There is a possibility of the two layers of the sides and end of the body being visible at the top edge – add some paper strips to cover the joins here and that will give you a smooth finish. 

The shafts are from 1.5mm styrene square strips bent to shape and fitted to the body. At the back of them there is a cover over the end of the shafts to allow access to the cart, on the front of this there is a pivot for the swingletree to fit. This cover will also act as a step board for the driver’s feet when the seat is in the forward position, used when the vehicle was empty. 

The 4 springs are each built from a single leaf of aluminium, with the extra leaves of styrene card added to bulk the aluminium up, the top pair are across the body, with the lower pair being in line with the body, and the square strip axle being fixed to those. That means that they are a bit fragile, but when fixed to a base they are protected. 

The base has some planks scored into the sheet before assembly, and when the ribs have been added I painted it with a desert sand color as an undercoat, which does not need to be an even color, in fact the reverse is the case!. When dry, I used a semi-transparent enamel color (enamel has a finer particle size and so spreads better than acrylic for this purpose) to produce a wood color, make it uneven, as it will look much better, using a bristle brush, not a fine hair style one, it will help produce a ‘grain’, practice first on some scrap. Make the ‘grain’ horizontal inside and out. The wheels have had a tyre (of .010 styrene card fitted to them, ‘pre curve’ it and glue it on with a ‘contact type’ cement. Then paint the wheels; I added an extension on the outside of the hubs of the wheels using some small bits of tube, that are painted brass color. 

Be careful with the overlay color it will unless stopped ‘pool’ at the edges of the ribs etc, it needs careful observing whilst it is drying to eliminate it! When dry I added some painted paper stiffening pieces to the outside of the ribs and also the same locations inside. At the same time paint the floor a slightly different color, for contrast. They are a very dark brown/black in color. 

Before adding the (painted) wheels to the vehicle gently tweak the ends of the axle downwards a small amount to make the wheels slope outwards to the top, this applies to virtually all horse drawn vehicle as the wheels will not then throw the mud and water over the occupants. Full size wheels generally have a small taper applied to them, and this ‘tweaking’ of the axle ends allows the tyre to fit flat onto the ground. 

Finally to ease access to the vehicle I added a couple of steps, using paper clip wire, and I also fitted handrails to the front of the vehicle using some 1/2mm diameter wire. Don’t forget to add some tiny piece of paper to represent the fixing plates for the handrails. This little vehicle is amazingly light – it weighs ¾ of an ounce! 

The pony has a set of harness added in my normal style from .004 aluminum strip and colored with felt tip pens before adding it to he pony. The reins are quite amazingly long, make two and because of the ponies turned head the right hand one will need to be bent to drop down. They are (though it does not look like it) they are same length, one is pulled tight by the turned head and the opposite applies for the other. I work out a length ‘in situ’ then glue the drivers ends together and adjust/bend them, working towards the pony. 

Make the base that it will fit on, I had a smaller than usual piece of dark brown PVC sheet that was just right, so I had to make the cart for my lucky find of the PVC sheet! 

Fix the cart in position, and then place the pony in the shafts and add the four loops that fix the pony in position, two are on the ponies belly band, and two on the breech straps at the rear; finally fit the ‘tug’ ropes from the breast band to the whiffletree, and finally the reins. 

I made the reins from the aluminum used on food trays – it is a bit more flexible than the stuff used on the beer/pop cans. Both tug and driving reins have small thin wire loops on one end. The reins are for each end of the (supposed) bit, and the tug straps go on to the ends of the whiffletree; this is where the pull of the pony actually connects to the cart. 

Here are some photos of the small cart.






























and some that are comparisons of size with other vehicles 










with the peddlers cart












with one of my vans, and the large moving van.












Finally, a ground level view, the armless figure is one of Carlo Spirito's and is a scale five feet tall, so I think just about right! He needs to go to the hospital - for surgery to his legs he is too upstanding, and needs to relax a bit and lean back. His arms are ready, but there will be some small alterations done first. 

The other set of wheels, which are the large ones - they will be easy to deal with: I have a choice of two different single axle vans. Decisions decisions, I think there will be 'bits from each one combined together.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Delightful, Peter. What a rememberance of "days past".

Wonderful detail...


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

You're not horsing around, are you?  

They look great! I've got plans to get two wagon kits done by the convention. Hopefully they'll turn out half as nice. 

Later, 

K


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## Engineercub (Oct 18, 2008)

Wow Peter, those look incredibly real. I saw the bottom pic first and thought they were. Very nice job! 

-Will


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## dltrains (Jan 2, 2008)

Another hearty well done Peter. 

Dave


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