Sky Cabs

The background to this Model.

Welcome to SkyCabs
the elevated passenger
transport solution for
the 21st century

For more information go to SkyCabs

Since we live in Christchurch New Zealand, we are interested in the rebuild of our City. Future transport solutions will be very much a part of this. Having heard about SkyCabs I offered to build a model of it to try and help in its promotion.

The cabs are electric powered and fully automated, (no drivers). They can seat up to eight people and have room for a wheel chair and a bicycle. The stations, which would contain three levels, are organised so that 'express' cabs can pass through. They do not operate to a time table, but provide a frequent service.

I started planning it using the free GoogleSketchUp, an easy to use 3D modelling program.

This helped me to visualise what the model would look like before I even started building it.

I then decided on a scale that would be practical for its overall size. N scale, 1:160, was chosen as people, cars and buses were availabe for purchase in that scale. The model would then be 800mm long x 400mm wide overall.

I used particle board for the box base and cardboard generally for the building structures. The SkyCab rails and support columns are fabricated from white styrene sheet.

The station building side details were drawn in a free draughting program, DraftSight, then printed and cut out. These were stuck to the cardboard construction with glue stick. The black areas indicate windows.

The actual cabs were vacuum formed in two halves, out of clear styrene. See vacuum moulding for this process. They were trimmed, sanded to size, and the bottom half only, painted on the inside. The window details were printed out from an inkjet and positioned inside the top half. The two pieces were then glued together to form the complete cab. Red and black insulation tape was stuck on to represent the stripes.

The two support cowls were also vacuum formed from white styrene and then filled in to create their rear surfaces.

Six cabs were made in all, five going onto the model, and one kept for me!