Research so far

Some very basic research and guess work has provided the following:

• Width of unit - 2900mm
• Height of driver cabin from deck - 2010mm
• Length of trailer unit - approx 40 feet (this is an assumption based on each trailer being able to carry 1 x 40' or 2 x 20' containers
• Length of power unit (two per consist) - this would be guess work. Each of these can carry the same as a trailer plus the length of the driver cabin. Looking at photos I am guessing at least another 20' could be added
• Height from rail head to deck top - no idea. Once again I referred to photos. One photo had a crewman standing on the floor of a service shed where the rails were embedded in concrete. I have made the assumption that the average height of a man is 5'10'' and the deck is about elbow height from the rail head to deck top, I would guesstimate a height of 105cm so maybe round down to an even 1m or 1000mm (?)
• unsure of wheel diameter, modeller's licence may prevail to obtain as close as possible match
• The Australian version's trailers run with dual axle bogies rather than single axle wheels as is the case with their European cousins. They could also run with 9 units in a consist rather than the maximum seven in Europe.
• It is a fairly angular vehicle so the potential to model in styrene is probably very good.
• As for the power units, a number of options come to mind; Tenshodo SPUD, Blackbeetle or Hollywood Foundary self powered universal drives. Reading various newsgroups would suggest the Tenshodo is rubbish. Blackbeetle is better but apparently hard to find in Oz. The Hollywood Foundry units are quite expensive. Doing a quick sum of the parts required to scrathbuild a five unit consist (minimum), the total cost would be close to what I could pay for a new/slightly used Marklin set of the DB CargoSprinter (~A$356 + P&H).
• Another power option suggested by my friend Craig was to get the power unit (or two) from a Bachmann (US) tamper vehicle. These are relatively cheap at the moment (~A$50-60 + P&H).
• The CRT Cargosprinter appears to have been mothballed for the moment. For modelling purposes, modeller's licence might prevail and the vehicle could be painted in an private operator's livery under the auspices of the original having been sold. something to think about.
• The main design points would be cheap to make, Motor and lights only DCC (one per end in consist mode) as no sound decoder for the Volvo truck engines!, rugged as this would be my first scratchbuild.

Next task, converting the dimensions to HO!