Thursday, December 28, 2006

Spot The Difference


I notice from other people's blogs that you have all been equally busy during Christmas, so I don’t feel too guilty about the lack of updates. I have been working on G1 from time to time, which is hopefully evident in the picture. There is a difference if you compare it with the last one… five thin acrylic washes (and a clear varnish) have turned G1 from pink to red. Another red went on this evening. The final clear varnish will probably be added soon and I'll touch up the grey, which is already looking a bit scuffed in places from my constant handling. The picture is a bit better lit than before: I don’t have any lighting facilities except the sun and a south-facing window, so I had a brief rush to take pictures when the sun came out.

I’ve decided to try and finish the loco but work on other things like figures and couplings before I start detailing. I’m also looking to see what the next major project may be. I now have some money for a pair of Bull ant bogies from Hollywood Foundry, so I’m eventually going to build a railcar of some kind for the people of Spitzenwald, but I think the Growler looks a bit forlorn with no trucks to play with, so while I figure out how to order the power units, I’m going to get designing some freight stock.

Think intermodal...

Monday, December 18, 2006

Growler 1, now in Technicolor…


I entered the weekend determined to get something done on the Growler. I painted it with primer a week ago but since than it’s been gathering dust while I filled my time with unimportant stuff called “work”. I had a small delay when it dawned on the great brain that I needed to fit access hatches on the bonnets, which involved a rather dramatic discovery of what solvent based glue does to acrylic paint. On Saturday I finished and primed that, which brought me back to the place I’d thought I was two days earlier, and I finished the first coat of grey on the frame, and then on Sunday was able to make a start on the body, so at this moment I have a pink engine. Click on the photo to see more.

G1 is intended to be a “recent delivery”: a new locomotive that arrived on the Körschtalbahn a few months ago, possibly on lease, so it’s still going to be in its factory colours for a while. On the other hand I’m still looking for a colour scheme for the railway, and I’m impressed by the new livery Nedtrain have applied to the Vossloh units they’ve bought. Hmm…

More blatant publicity…

I've had another article published. This time it's in the January issue of “Continental Modeller” Magazine, about the Tälesbahn, a privately owned standard gauge branch line near here. CM used it as their “Plan of the month”. Living here gives me the advantage that I can research and visit these little-known places that almost no-one has heard of, and CM has two more articles waiting in their files which will be published when they are truly desperate for something to fill space. Another magazine has said that they will probably print an article in the spring. I’ll keep you posted…

Monday, December 11, 2006

Körschtalbahn History part 3: Rebuilding and Betrayal (1949-1979)

Continuing the history of the fictitious Körschtalbahn. To start at the beginning go here.

In 1945 anyone could see that the railway was severely run down. The one remaining Mallet had kept going in the final months of the war, as the generating equipment spent more time broken than operable, and the railcars were so worn out they sagged in the middle. A daily mixed train had run each way during the war but it was alarmingly apparent that the track was highly unstable, straight sections having taken on the appearance of a length of wet spaghetti. None of the signals worked and once a train disappeared up the valley no one knew where it was. There was nothing anyone could do except hope it would make it back sometime, and on at least one occasion the passengers spent an uncomfortable night on board as the crew pulled the mallet back on the track. All services stopped a week after the end of the war. The line lay unused until it became clear that permanent closure was not an option and the occupying French forces made enough repairs for a limited steam hauled service to run as far as Dachsburg by Christmas 1945, with trains returning to Spitzenwald in summer 1946.

As the “economic miracle” took place in West Germany the line found itself carrying more traffic. For a while the new Deutsche Bundesbahn dragged its feet on investment, but eventually the State of Baden-Württemberg stepped in and funded repairs to the permanent way and overhead wires, and a new electric railcar. Someone somewhere was pushing for electric operation to Spitzenwald: a study was carried out in the late 50’s but nothing came of it, and a used diesel was bought at the end of the decade to replace the two war era locomotives. It was joined by a MAN diesel railcar, either second or third hand -nobody was entirely sure- but it behaved well and growled its way through the upper valley every day with a couple of freight wagons in tow.

On June the 28th 1961 the line bade farewell to steam as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations, and promptly began running a summer tourist service with the Mallet a year later. In the mid 60’s the road to Dachsburg and beyond was rebuilt, but no amount of rebuilding could quite straighten it out and the railway continued to offer a competitive journey time. By now the line was operating a daily passenger service with the main peak in the morning, a school service mid-afternoon and a second smaller peak in the early evening as people returned from Wildberg and beyond.

On paper the line seemed secure, but already there were clouds on the horizon: ever more trucks were coming into the Körschtal, causing damage and pollution to the pristine valley, and undercutting the railway. The Körschtalbahn management and local towns had been clamouring for investment in freight transfer facilities, seeing that an ability to handle containers would be vital to the line’s future, but all was in vain. As the 1970’s drew to a close DB seemed deaf to all requests and calls for improvements, even when the local governments offered to foot the bill. It seemed that the national railway company was uninterested in further work on narrow gauge railways and quite happy to allow the Körschtalbahn run into the ground.

(To be continued)

Still here…

I’m still around and doing what I can with the model, which isn’t a lot as work has been very heavy of late. There was no letup even this weekend, although that means that I’m able to get a couple of half days in lieu, so hopefully there will be a bit more action in the near future…

Monday, December 04, 2006

Test Piece


I’ve been slowly painting a test piece of plasticard (One of the failed chassis pieces, which has since been drilled, cut and glued to test all sorts of stuff) over the week the better to figure how to use acrylic paint, the results are shown in the picture above. As per instructions from Dave Balcombe and others, I slapped on thin washes and allowed the colour to build up. I’m at seven coats and counting. The ‘Red’ side (Cadmium red dark) seems to be coming along nicely, not too much evidence of brush strokes and a generally strong colour, if a bit dark. The ‘Orange’ side (Cadmium red light) was a test to see what colour it came out. One issue is that even after using a primer I find the paint rubs off easily. I’m hoping that this will be remedied with a coat of varnish, and that I don’t have to avoid handling the stock…