Railway Misadventures

New project, new platform...

2008-05-08T17:14:00.003+02:00

So, I'm starting a new project, and on top of this, I'll be moving to a new blog. I seem to do strange things to most technical things, and I manage to mangle blogger fairly frequently. I found a service I seem to get on with, and which has a couple of nice little extra features as well. I've been blogging here and there for a few weeks, which is a bit wearing, but as it hasn't crashed yet, I'll be moving over there around Monday the 12th. If you subscribe to this blog -and remarkably a couple of tolerant souls do- you shouldn't notice anything different: in fact you should have got the last few updates from the new blog feed already. When you go there, however, you'll hopefully like the new look, and continue to be astounded at the addition of things like extra pages and other wonderfulness. I'm afraid it's unlikely to magically improve my writing, but at least it seems to be immune to my technology destroying tendencies...

There should be final entry on Westerooge before I go, so this is more of an advance warning. If you are one of the kind people who has a link to this blog, can you please change it to there?

In case you missed all the links above, then the place to go is almost the same as here: www.korschtal.wordpress.com

Nearly there...

2008-05-06T17:32:00.003+02:00

Less than a week to go, but Westerooge is almost complete. The scenery is down and the track works- most of the time. It isn't as smooth as I'd like but better than I thought I'd manage, so that's not too bad. Even the bit that went wrong is working this time around. The remaining jobs are to repaint the overly vivid sky, (maybe with a representation of some houses in the distance, and the road continuing, but only if I'm feeling brave), add some bushes and a small 'shed' to hide the points switch, paint the black band on the lighthouse and maybe add a crossing sign. On the other hand, I do have a heck of a lot to do before we get on that train on Monday, so I'm not sure I'll even have five minutes to stick things together, and of course I now have a distraction: I want to just play trains...

Even the track join of doom works, most of the time...

2008-05-01T18:00:00.001+02:00

Well, it can't always work...

So I started to make the scenery: newspaper all around and in between the rails. After everything had dried, on goes the diesel, and it ran fine except for one little section of track on the end of the sector plate. I suspect I broke a wire when building and painting the scenery. Off came the newspaper, and yes, there was the broken wire. It was a choice of digging up all the scenery until I exposed enough wire to cut back to, or running a fresh wire under the sector plate to power the line directly. I opted for the latter. So, in theory what I needed to do was de-solder the wires on the track, run the fresh wire into place, and resolder. What happened was that the soldering iron was too hot and heated the rails, melting the sleepers and eventually causing the whole lot to fall of in mangled mess.

Well, I wasn't totally happy with the way it was stuck down anyway, and at least on something so small, it isn't too much to replace. It still slows me down a bit though which isn't helpful when I'm so close to the deadline...

Railcar ideas- Class 650

2008-04-29T21:38:00.005+02:00

Westerooge is currently a gooey mess: I've added some form to the basic board, especially around the lighthouse base and the track, and I've covered the lot with grass and other bits. I'm now hoping that it sticks to the baseboard and not to the track. I'll get back to you on that.

This weekend I had to go and pick someone up from the station in Metzingen, so naturally I went early to take a few pictures. Metzingen is a junction on the railway between Stuttgart and Tübingen: German railways are often rather picturesquely known by the places they run through rather than the places they connect, so this route is called the Neckar-Alb-Bahn, after a river and range of hills.

Most trains are class 143 locomotives hauling double deck stock and this blog already has lots of pictures of these, so I won't bore you with them, but I also got the chance to photograph a these railcars. DB calls them class 650, although the many private railways using them call them Regio-Shuttle's, the name given to them by Stadler, their maker. There is a branch line from Metzingen to Bad Urach (the Ermstalbahn, if you're taking notes) operated is DB ZugBus.

650 012-8, the rear of the pair seen above. Notice the buffers.

I've wanted to make a narrow gauge version of one of these for ages. RS1's have a fair bit of power and the ones with conventional buffers have been known to haul the odd freight wagon, which I imagine would make them popular with the accountants of the Körschtalbahn- especially as mixed trains are common on other modern narrow gauge lines. I could well see one of those pulling a couple of vans into the hills. The only problem is that they'd be hard to build: I think I could get away with having tinted glass, which would let me put a normal motor inside and avoid making loads of tiny seats, but The question is how I can find a way to make those angled window struts and compound curves on the ends work.

I'm open to ideas. In the meantime Westerooge will hopefully be a lot less gooey and I can post some pictures...

Dark art of the sector plate -2

2008-04-22T17:13:00.003+02:00

It works...

After some fairly intense bodging, filing, soldering, and at least one length of mangled track, the first train on 'Westerooge' wobbled and lurched its way onto the sector plate this weekend. This in itself was good, but that it managed this without spilling itself onto the desk in an unpleasant mess was a real surprise.

In the event, the biggest problem wasn't the sector plate but the join with the scenic section I made last week: the rear track goes up dramatically as it approaches the edge. As I'd already managed to melt rails off their sleepers in a previous soldering attempt I went for the bodger option and filed down the top of the rail a bit so it doesn't make the train wobble quite so dramatically, and decided to ignore the rest.

Extensive 'testing' (playing) by daddy and eldest son have got most of the bugs out of the system, although although the mess van has a habit of clouting the side of the box file when I pull it out of the middle siding. Never mind: I can finally get on with the fun part: scenery.

And I've got two weeks to do it...

Active

2008-04-22T17:06:00.004+02:00

I am still here, and working on Westerooge. However, during a coffee break last week I came across 'Behind the Water Tower' , which describes itself as “An Anglo-Polish railway blog” but which manages to squeeze in a lot of useful information on railways in general. Right now they are concentrating on the campaign to save the narrow gauge railway in Krosniewice which was running freight and passenger until it had the temerity to get in the way of a local politician's pet town centre redevelopment project, and had its operating licence summarily revoked. As the blog puts it:

"The Krosniewice Railway, one of the most interesting Polish narrow gauge railways - which operated regular passenger services and carried a substantial freight traffic - is closing because the Mayor of Krosniewice has teamed up with a property developer. Krosniewice Coucil is in the process of acquiring the railway land from PKP, the Polish State Railway Company, for transport purposes. But the Mayor is planning a big property development and the railway workshops are in her way. SKPL, the operator of the line, opposed the demolition of the workshops and, for their pains, have had their operator’s licence terminated by the Mayor."

Behind the water tower want us to join them in a letter-writing campaign to the local and national politicians responsible for the decision, pointing out that it would be better for the town to run the railway and reap the tourist income, and incidentally keep a useful transport link which will keep traffic off local roads. As this blog is partially based on the idea that narrow gauge railways can be a useful link in a modern transport network, I'm joining in. If you feel the desire to help, they have all the details that you would need like addresses for the Mayor, the Polish transport minister and others, and a sample letter to use as a basis.

Downsizing.

2008-04-15T15:32:00.002+02:00

If you've been following my mutterings long enough, you'll know that I originally set out to make a modern narrow gauge line in the Black Forest in 1:43 scale, using 16.5mm (HO) track. In theory this scale is great for making making narrow gauge trains: you get hold of old HO/OO scale models: you take the top off, build your own slightly larger superstructure on the chassis, and you have a narrow gauge locomotive (and if you chose the right model, a body you can hack up for later projects as well) This is fine as far as it goes, but small HO/OO wheels can look a bit silly under a big locomotive, and with my grandiose designs, the Körschtalbahn's locomotives tend to be pretty big. (they are the same scale size as trains on the Zillertalbahn railway, although I don't think any of you believe me) One solution to this would be bigger chassis, from places like 'Hollywood Foundry'. Hopefully I'll be able to save up and get one soon, but until then I'll have to keep getting second hand models from places like Ebay or similar, so the wheel problem remains -especially with bogie chassis.

I reckon I've found a solution though. If I go down a bit in scale to 1:55, it brings everything down to a manageable size and things which are huge in the larger scale, suddenly look more reasonable, so I'm going to try building a couple of of 1:55 scale models and see how they turn out. 1:55 has been around for a very long time, and is often called "The Ffestiniog Scale" because it started with a series of kits from GEM based on the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn railways.

1:55 scale version: suddenly it fits...

Once I can play trains on 'Westerooge' I'll make a start on this Rhaetian Bahn-esque motor luggage van, a model I've wanted to make since my first attempts at scratchbuilding in the 1990's. I eventually gave up because it always looked terrible in 1:43 scale when squeezed on to a HO gauge chassis, but when I tried it out in 1:55 I found that it fits rather well. Running on HO track, this would scale up at about 3 feet or 914mm. This is a bit small for metre gauge, but there are a few 900mm gauge railways around Germany, and anyway, I'm not going to worry about it too much- for some reason it bothers me less than tiny wheels.

I've been dithering about this for a while- building 'Westerooge' was partly to gain some experience in 1:43 so I have something to compare the result with (and also as an excuse for procrastination), but I did join the 5,5mm Association a while back, and they haven't thrown me out yet, despite my lack of interest in all things Ffestiniog. They are running a competition to build a micro layout this year, which I may just enter when I come back from the UK...

What happened to the weekend?

2008-04-15T15:00:00.001+02:00

Well, I was working most of it so there wasn't much time to work on 'Westerooge', but there were some compensations like this artwork created by one of the teenagers I work with for a project focusing on abuse and forgiveness...

Head of Steel

2008-04-10T12:40:00.002+02:00

If I seem a bit excited today, its because a couple of nights ago I finally laid the track in the scenic section of 'Westerooge', making it not only the first model railway I've owned in the last 16 years, but also my first successful attempt at soldering in at least that time. I've decided I like variable temperature soldering irons.

I also moved into uncharted territory by using electrofrog points which have the advantage that they are live everywhere so your locomotives don't stall and embarrass you, but the disadvantage that if you don't wire them up the right way then they short-circuit the whole model and and embarrass you. After drilling a hole through the switch to take the brass rod, I wired it up to the track and turned the power on in the confident expectation of seeing the layout disappear behind a cloud of blue smoke. Remarkably, not only did that not happen, but the blue diesel moved, and in the right direction as well...

Point control and baseboard join: Not pretty, but it works...

So, having conquered this mountain, we can now start adding the ground cover and adding the bits and pieces that will hopefully make this look less like a box file and more like a model railway, and move onto the brave new world of the sector plate fiddle yard.

32 days to go.

Big Black Engine.

2008-04-04T22:30:00.004+02:00

I've finished the baseboard for Westerooge, but three sheets of card stuck together are not that visually interesting, so thanks to the wonders of digital cameras, here's a couple of pictures I took in Stuttgart station earlier today.

101 141-0 is one of DB's crack express engines, and is currently in a black advertising livery as part of a nationwide campaign against hate and violence. I saw it as it entered the station and scuttled around with my camera. The things I do for you, honestly.

Deutsche Bahn is one of the enlightened administrations that still runs trains behind locomotives, and they often change them here, which is why 101 141-0 is is uncoupled from its train. This operation is quite common in Termini like Stuttgart where it's as easy to put an engine on the back and pull the train out again on the next leg of its journey. They are pretty slick at it too, with the new engine following the train into the platform as it arrives, an interesting spectacle for those of us used to 'only one train in section' working. One of these fine days I'll post a video of this.

As I was going to the S-bahn (Interurban/rapid transit) train anyway I wandered along the ends of the platforms and took some pictures. There were the usual locomotives for Stuttgart: a smattering of units, and a few local trains with class 146 units and the class 143 'Einheitsloks' pulling them. For some reason I really like the class 143 locomotives so despite having loads of pictures of them already, I added this shot of 143 963-7 to the collection.

Now to go and see if the glue dried on those sheets of card. If it has, and they don't warp overnight, I may even get some track laid tomorrow...

Unterfeuer Westerooge

2008-03-31T11:07:00.019+02:00

While I wait for the electrical gubbins to arrive I've been working on the lighthouse that will hopefully set the scene and hide the fiddleyard a bit. Actually the model is not of a traditional lighthouse as much as an 'Unterfeuer' which I think translates as a 'Navigation light'. An Unterfeuer tends to be smaller than a lighthouse, and works with an 'Oberfeuer', which is much taller and usually further inland, so that ships can line up the towers or lights to guide themselves through river or sea channels. The model is based on an Unterfeuer at Baumrönne, one of several which work in conjunction with the Altenbruch Oberfeuer, and is not too far from where Westerooge is supposed to be. As an added advantage the height of the Baumronne Unterfeuer in 1:43 scale is almost exactly the length of a standard tube from a roll of kitchen towels.

I'm debating if I should have the windows clear or of they should have a card backing, as the picture of the original seems to show the windows being largely shuttered. I know I could make a detailed interior, but 'Westerooge' is supposed to be a short-term project and I'd like to finish it before we go to visit my family in mid-May. This isn't as ambitious as it sounds: I've ordered the remaining electrical parts so they will arrive any day now, and I already have all the track and scenic bits for finishing off what will be a fairly flat model, so I think things will speed up now, as long as I don't keep procrastinating.

I'm already planning the summer project: I'll tell you about it in the next blog entry.

[Update: Just as I was about to publish this entry, DHL delivered a box of electrical goodies]

Reservations

2008-03-25T14:25:00.002+01:00

Here's a free travel tip: next time you want to plan a train journey, use the Deutsche Bahn website. Seriously. Even if you're travelling entirely in the UK. It is more accurate than the National Rail enquiries website, as I discovered when planning a journey from London to Northallerton today. the British website suggested we take a train leaving 5 minutes before our Eurostar arrived, or offered the attractive option of waiting in the station until early the next morning. I had a sneaking suspicion that even in the UK trains leave the capital more than twice a day. A quick look on the DB site showed one running about an hour after we arrived. I called National Rail Enquiries with some trepidation (In Germany I call helplines as a last resort: they take ages to pick up the phone, operators are frequently unpleasant and unhelpful, and they charge premium rates) But the person on the other end was very friendly and confirmed this train was running. Perhaps they use DB too. I'm told British station staff often do.

This being the brave new world of the privatised rail network, National Rail Enquiries couldn't reserve a seat so I was connected to the train operating company help desk and I had a nice chat with 'Norman', who was very apologetic but said to reserve seats with a Britrail pass like the one we are travelling with, you have to go to London Kings Cross ticket office in person. Now call me awkward if you will, but this seems an odd requirement for a ticket which is not available to residents of the UK.

Norman was as helpful as he could be, and suggested we go to coaches 'G' and 'H', because of there is space it will usually be there, and that we talk to the conductor to find where there are some free seats.

So it seems that UK officialdom (as represented by the NR website and rules) is its usual haphazard self, but the people on the end of the phone are friendly and efficient. It will be interesting to see how this works over the three weeks of fairly extensive train travel while we are in the UK.

Sinsheim 2008

2008-03-18T20:54:00.006+01:00

To one used to British model railway exhibitions, the 'Faszination Modelbau' in Sinsheim is immense. It covers just about everything: model railways, trucks, diggers, planes, boats, racing cars, and tanks. Eldest Son and I were going to meet Alexander Rainer and see his 'Rittigsmühle' model, but it took 20 minutes for us to even find the model railway section, and even then finding a shoebox-sized layout in the huge hall proved difficult. Eventually we stumbled across it by accident while craning to see around the back of a well made N scale model:

Rittigsmühle: The new circular section with incline.

Track going off bottom right leads to the mill itself.

The Mill yard with Alexander's diesel shunting.

Wood delivery waits to be unloaded.

I'll admit I went a bit overboard with pictures- but It's been so long since I went to an exhibition, Alexander's scenery was really nice, and besides, I'd been invited to take my little diesel and mess van to do a guest turn, and despite them being far too big for the tunnels, I wanted to take pictures of them on a real railway as well. I've tried to keep down the pictures here, instead putting most of them in a new album on my fotopic gallery

My loco in the yard at Rittigsmühl,
pretending it is small enough to go through the archway.

The one place the diesel could run: on top of the incline.

Diesel in the trees.

The mess wagon spent the day exiled on here with the workman vainly trying to push it.

Of the other layouts, the majority seemed either to be in the 'Overgrown train set' style, with lots of automation but rabbit warren tunnels and carpet-like grass, or very, very big (although very beautiful) modular layouts based on German and American prototypes. Fortunately, around 'Rittigsmühle' there were a couple of other small models which not only looked as if they would fit into a normal house, but were also very well built and presented.

'Blockstelle Eselsbrücke'

One of these was 'Blockstelle Eselsbrücke' in 'N' gauge, which looked like you could hang it up in the living room. Maybe that's what the owners do when at home. It was backed by a massive sandstone cliff, with a double track main line running along the bottom, along which trains ran every few seconds.

Freight bursts out of the tunnel.

View of the slipway to the river. Another freight passes.

The cliff fronted by a double-track electrified main line is probably based on a famous section along the Rhine between Frankfurt and Köln, and like that line, trains ran past every few seconds. It was also carefully detailed without being overdone, with some German details like the cliff top viewpoint and the cross on an overhanging rock. The model had sound, but this was confined to a CD of birdsong playing on a continuous loop. Very nice. On second thoughts, I wouldn't hang it on the wall, I'd put it where the TV usually stands.

Weimar railcar on the Döppenauer Kreisbahn,
complete with the drivers bike.

The other layout I found myself repeatedly looking at was the 'Döppenauer Kreisbahn', a narrow gauge local government railway in 1950's West Germany. It took me a while to figure why it looks so open, but I think it was the way the track is angled to the front of the model, and the scene rises gradually towards the rear, rather like a stage in the older, grander theatres.

This model also had a lot of Cameo scenes, but what I really liked was the way the line and station was part of the landscape, and the separate scenes were linked by the railway. I guess I'm also biased because it had some nice big diesels as well...

Diesel-hauled train running into the station at Döppenau.

Freight yard at Döppenau

Of the larger layouts, my favourite was 'Balen', a visiting model from the Netherlands which included this Dutch street and fortress. The townscape had a boat running past through the canal.

Further along it had this realistic modern double junction, with a large construction site behind.

American outline models aren't really my thing, but this little scene caught my eye, and appealed to my dark sense of humour

One of those days...

I think I'm failing in my education of eldest son though. As we came into the hall for the first time, he saw these and fell in love, and all the rest of the time he kept asking me to take him back for another look:

Oil rig supply ship and fire launch on the boating lake.

All the way home he was talking about radio controlled boats.

I think a new project is coming soon...

Stuck.

2008-03-10T21:55:00.006+01:00

I'm stuck. It's inevitable when working in a different country where things aren't always the same as you are used to: Sometimes there is an annoying delay while you hunt for bits. This time, the bits in question are electrical -an area I'm not too confident in. I've found a shop on the internet that sells what I'm after: plugs, and slider switches, which is a step forward in that I know what to ask for, (Thanks to Zabdiel for the Wiki tip) but lack of knowledge makes me a bit cautious about forking out €20 in one go, which is the minimum for an online purchase. I'm searching for a local electrical shop where I can have a good look at the components first.

Which is a bit frustrating, so let's talk about something more interesting. I've got a train ticket to go to a model railway and toy exhibition with Eldest Son this weekend, where I'll hopefully be able to meet Alexander Rainer, a German member of the Gnatterbox, who will be exhibiting an model railway in a shoe box. He wants me to take my mess car along for a visit. I just hope it fits on his model.

Meanwhile I'm still hoping to get this model done by May, after which we will go to visit my family in the UK. After we come back, I've got another idea for a project, which is just a few sketches and a vague idea at the moment. I'll give more details as I know them. It is another attempt at the Körschtalbahn, although Sägewerk Pfeifle will have to wait still longer until my boys desist from climbing up the furniture.

The dark art of the sector plate -1

2008-03-05T15:10:00.005+01:00

Ever since I started Westerooge I've had the same nagging thought at the back of my mind, namely that I hadn't a clue how to make the offstage area, usually called the 'fiddle yard', which represents the rest of the Island. I knew I would have to attempt a sector plate, a sort of sliding table for trains to save space offstage, but sector plates always seemed to be a dark art: a mysterious knowledge knowledge passed down to the initiated, but never divulged to the masses. That's why I've been putting off working on the fiddle yard in Westerooge for ages now, but the trouble with that is it became even more of a barrier in my mind, so yesterday I decided it was time to have a go.

The box 'closed' with the cutout fitting into the same attachment as the fiddle yard.

Remarkably, it seems to be working so far: the base fits into the side of the board and hasn't warped, sagged, or fallen off.. I'd hoped to get the deck for the track completed before posting this, Next job is working on a deck for the track and hopefully getting the electrics sorted out, and I can finally play trains and start the creative scenery bit.

On the subject of electrics, if anyone out there knows the name of DPDT switches (Seen here on 'Plankerton Wharf') in German, and where to get them, Please let me know...

How 'narrow gauge' can work.

2008-03-01T17:30:00.005+01:00

In case you think I've forgotten about modern image narrow gauge, here's a short (90 second) impression of the Matterhorn-Gotthardbahn in Switzerland, showing how effective a narrow gauge railway can be if we just give it the chance. It's not trying to restore something from the past, laudable though this is, but it is a modern, if small railway serving the local area. The passenger trains and 'Glacier Express' in the video are just a part of their traffic: they carry a lot of freight and even have motorail services on one section of the network.

I like the covered bridge that opens onto the railway shown in the video. I'm fortunate as well that the Schwarzwald has a lot of these all over the place. I think a smaller version may turn up one day. Those B-B electrics look good too.

Industrial Archaeology.

2008-02-27T12:19:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I was in a warehouse visiting the location shooting of a film project I'd helped out on last week. This isn't half as glamorous as it sounds, but while I was there and everyone else was busy doing important technical stuff I don't understand, I happened to see a wagon turntable in the ground, which turned out to be part of a small system which I estimate to be 50-60cm gauge. The track looked pretty old and clapped out, but then so did much of the warehouse, and one of the staff said that they still use it regularly. He also said I could take pictures, so I ran off and did before someone else came along who thought otherwise.

The back of the works, looking out of the hall pictured above: disused track and chimney.

The only wagon I could find, lurking at one end of the warehouse.

Fairly heavy-duty cast turntable

View out of the front door. The tree is at the edge of the former standard gauge goods yard. The narrow gaige track is very close to the door and further along the street there are the remains of some standard gauge wagon turntables opposite similar factory doors. I did wonder if a standard gauge siding once came through the doors.

Overhead view showing the scales in the background. The disused track dissapearing bottom right goes into the offices where it runs along a corridor

I wanted to take a picture of the standard gauge turntables but unfortunately when I went back someone had parked on them in defiance of several 'no parking' signs. I'll try another day.

Spot the difference.

2008-02-25T21:12:00.004+01:00

On the face of it, there seems to be little change since the last time I posted, but the track is here, giving a far better idea of clearances and radii, while a friend who is a carpenters apprentice has carefully cut the front and sides of the box file out, I've built up the ground level inside the box, giving an eye-level, rather than 'lighthouse keeper's' view. The front folds back up, allowing the box to close normally.

I'm also working on a mock-up for the detachable fiddle yard, made from the usual cornflake packets of which I have an inexhaustible supply. This is proving to be the tricky part of the design, partly because I've never built anything like it before, but with work finally beginning to calm down a bit I'm really hoping to get the design together in the next week.

I'm planning to use plastic card as my construction material, which may seem odd but I want to keep weight down, and with such a tiny fiddle yard, (about the same length as the big freight wagons on the Körschtalbahn) I don't think it will cause too many problems. We shall see. All thoughts, feedback, etc, welcome.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

2008-02-23T14:21:00.000+01:00

This has been a very quiet blog for the last week, partly because of pressures of work which kept increasing since January, but also but also because of a severe cold/flu attack which kept me firmly horizontal for a while.

‘Westerooge’ is actually progressing faster than it would seem from the lack of updates here. I have been able to get track and a few other essential bits and I’ll get some pictures up as soon as I'm able to take them.

No news then good news

2008-02-14T16:18:00.001+01:00

Stuttgart-St. Pancras return tickets...

This blog has experienced a rather long silence, mostly because of time pressure from work and because Michi's sister and brother in law came with our two lovely little nieces. We’ve been showing them around Stuttgart for the bare five days they were able to be with us.

Today we dropped them off at Stuttgart main station on a train for Frankfurt, and at the same time we were able to finally get tickets so we can come to the UK by rail from May the 12th to June the 9th. We also have a ‘Britrail’ pass to travel within the country so hopefully we can get to a couple of places and see people, although the 7mmnga meeting in Burton won't be possible.

We've wanted to go by rail and the recent announcement by the local airport ("We need more money, so we're going to take more land and build another runway") made us only more determined not to fly. Besides, the airline industry is very creative imagining up extra ways to make life more miserable, like determining that you can only carry 100ml of water, shouting at you at every opportunity, and dreaming up lots of extra 'costs' so after you've booked your flight they add things like 'Airport Tax', 'Service charge', 'Administration charges', 'fuel surcharge', 'security costs', 'runway toll', and 'Mandatory Insurance'.

I may have got a bit confused with some of those costs as the list is very long and in very small print, but with these little extras and the overnight stop in a hotel because the plane lands in Manchester just before ten, and the taxi fare to and from the hotel, the train actually looks reasonable in comparison: it is definitely quicker door-to-door, and that at 10% of the emissions, much less noise, no massive runways, and no-one shouting at us about how much water we can carry.

Going up in the world.

2008-02-04T17:52:00.001+01:00

Westerooge takes shape. The unfinished lighthouse
lends a distinctly 'Steampunk' feel to the model.

If this entry seems even more disjointed than normal it’s because I’m writing it between dealing with a wriggly toddler and getting ready for the evening meal: life is hectic and doesn’t show any sign of slowing down for a while.

However, on Sunday I had a few moments to spare and it dawned on me that I can still work on the few structures which will be on the layout and the plan, so here is a progress shot showing how things are developing.

The two sidings are an attempt at an 'Inglenook' shunting puzzle (look here if you're wondering what that is): it looks a bit crowded though so perhaps I should remove the points and just have one siding to avoid cluttering the model. The 'main line' theoretically crosses the only road on the island (where the locomotive and wagon are sitting) and continues to the next clutch of houses. In fact, of course, it will drop off the front of the model.

It has dawned on me that I can squeeze one building on the model, and that is a lighthouse. This would not only set the scene as most definitely coastal, but also distract the eye away from the hole in the side of the box where trains will enter and exit the model. The excellent website at Leuchttuerme.net has lots of different designs and is packed full of information about the different types, colours and purposes of lighthouses which I'll ramble on about that when the model is more complete. for now suffice to say that the lighthouse will be a modern design, partly to place the model firmly in the present day, and also for other reasons too long to bore you with right now but which will become clear as the model progresses. It is about 11 scale metres at the moment, quite respectable for a small lighthouse, but I'm wondering if artistic licence requires it to be a tad smaller. I expect I'll have to build it to find out, but any thoughts are welcome.

And on that thought, I'll be off to make the tea.

Small Steps

2008-01-29T06:22:00.000+01:00

Current progress is slow, frustratingly so, but I’ve at least managed to paint the wagons so they look a bit more like the real thing. I’ve managed to get a bit of weathering and texture on a couple as well, but they are crying out for some rust to be added at some point.

As there is unlikely to be any progress on the box file this week the MFO staff say they'll try and get the couplings fitted and the Körschtalbahn wood wagon finished. Don’t hold your breath...

Storage Problems

2008-01-29T06:16:00.000+01:00

With Westerooge falling behind schedule the test track at the Maschinenfabrik Ostfildern is getting severely cluttered at the moment, so the staff are having to adopt new storage methods to fit everything in.

The High Tech MFO spray shop

2008-01-22T21:26:00.001+01:00

Newly installed painting equipment at MFO.
Heady stuff, especially before someone opened a window...

The Maschienenfabrik Ostfildern is proud to announce the opening of a new high-tech eco-friendly spray booth, made entirely of recycled materials found lying around the workbench. The wagon seen resting on the paint stand (found after a long search in the wood bin) is the high-capacity wood wagon being built for the Körschtalbahn. This has waited for about two months for the MFO staff to finally get organised, and had to be dusted before it was painted…

The stock for Westerooge is also primed and ready for painting up into their future work-worn state, so construction could finally commence.

Meik said it was the wrong shade of grey.

The wagons on Monday evening.
The MFO say they 'got a bit more done'
since then and promise to post pictures
as soon as possible...

Island or Hallig?

2008-01-17T12:27:00.000+01:00

Ockelützwarft, Hallig Hooge. The land in the foreground is flooded during spring tides. The houses are clustered on the small hill or Warft to keep them above sea level. Source: Wikipedia.

In my last post I was muttering about changing Westerooge from a deserted nature reserve to an inhabited island. I still like the idea of the nature reserve, but I’ve realised that for a whole host of reasons, one with people is probably easier to start with. I wasn’t going to make a plan until the track arrived, but I was getting distracted by ideas for the next project which I’ll inflict on you sometime, and I wanted to focus on the box file a bit. I sketched out an idea on the Gimp, which I'll inflict on you as well.

Here was my dilemma though: should it be an Island or a Hallig? A Hallig is a very low-lying patch of land, just barely above the sea, and left over from the days when the sea destroyed the coast in the Middle Ages. Instead of being ringed by dykes they are left open to flooding while any houses stand on a man-made hill, called a Warft, which keeps them just above the waves at spring tide. Thats a very rough definition anyway. For a more in-depth definition and history of these places, have a look here.

Luttmoorsiel-Nordstrandischmoor railway looking towards the Halligen in the distance.
Source: Wikipedia

In some ways the two Hallig railways are more interesting because they are the only connection to the mainland and the locals all have their own little railcars. They –the railways that is- are also flooded when there is a spring tide. And there was the problem: I wanted a building, and you don’t build those on flood plains. On the other hand, a building, however small, would dominate the model, so I’m going with Westerooge as a Hallig. No buildings but plenty of open space. Well… sort of.

Miscellany.

2008-01-12T16:01:00.000+01:00

I’ve got no modelmaking done so far this weekend, nor am I likely to as I’m working most of today and tomorrow, I’m waiting for some bits like track that I’ve ordered, and I managed to forget the money I needed to buy spray primer on Thursday.

So I’m mostly planning and ‘imagineering’ right now, and trying to figure out how to make Westerooge fit into a boxfile. I’ve been playing a bit with different combinations, but none seems to have fitted as yet, partly because I’m finding it hard to combine my goal of having a spacious model, and an interesting one to operate. I’ve also been wondering how to make it clear that this is a modern railway. I’ve been looking through collected photographs and ideas, and realised that with the ‘uninhabited island’ there is nothing that can date the layout in the present day, and also that what really interests me is how the railway interacts with people and the landscape around it. This is making me wonder if I should relax a bit and allow the island to be inhabited or maybe even have a link to the mainland. This would give me the chance to have a road across one part of the station and perhaps some signs dotted about, so a viewer can get an idea of the scale of the trains. I’ll keep doodling.

I’ve not forgotten the Körschtalbahn either: I’m keeping Growler 1 on the shelf by my desk, and occasionally working on stock even though it is going to be a while before I can actually build a layout in 0-16,5. I had a bit of a clearout a while back, and rediscovered those two Hornby chassis I had lurking away so I’ve been doodling ideas for them too. I’d really like to get them wired together and running vaguely reliably, because I’m still dreaming of of having my own Krokodil…

Layout inna box

2008-01-09T16:42:00.000+01:00

Westerooge continues to develop and I'm confronted with the problem of how to get a feeling of wide open spaces in a box file. The best solution I can come up with is to make everything very simple, so my plan is to play about with one set of points and a couple of bits of track until I get a combination which seems to work, and then start building.

It also occured to me that don’t know what to use as an exit point. Westerooge is an uninhabited island, so it’s not like there’s a convenient café to hide the fiddle yard behind, nor are there any bridges, pipes or even large trees. I think the most likely solution is a dune or a dyke with a gap for the trains, and then a ramshackle workshop to serve for small repairs, a few more rolling dunes and if I'm feeling brave, just a hint of the North Sea on the backscene...

Maybe I'll just say it's foggy that morning and paint it grey...

Train of thought…

2008-01-06T16:09:00.001+01:00

The picture above shows the extent of this weekend’s progress: I've adapted 7 wagons from the Black Dog Mining Co. to take DG couplings and glued underframes to bodies. I’ll put the couplings on after I spray the wagons with primer, which will be after I get some primer, probably on Thursday as I’m teaching English near the hardware shop then.

I guess I should have some belated new year resolutions here, so I can check in December and be reminded of them, but with Middle Son still doing the ‘King Kong’ impressions up the shelf, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start on ‘Sägewerk Pfeifle’ –especially as his smaller brother is already claiming the high ground on the Sofa, so he’ll be climbing anything with a foothold in a couple of months, so I doubt the model will be safe in the near future. On the other hand ‘Westerooge’ is moving along if a bit slowly, and if I follow my plan to keep it in a box file it should be safe from small fingers (and teeth) so track permitting, this will probably be the main project for the year.

I’m also hoping to go and see a few other railways, especially local Narrow Gauge lines, as there is a lot of the local area that is accessible by rail, the most civilised transport form, and I’ve not had a good look at it, and as I have a railcard offering a 25% discount it’d be silly not to use it more, so I’ll aim to be taking lots of pictures and I’ll inflict my stories on you all as well.

But then, “The Körschtalbahn” is a bit redundant as a blog name if I’m going to be writing more about prototype railways, and the model I am building this year is based on the North Sea coast, so to reflect all these changes, I’m changing the title -for now at least- to the broader “Railway Misadventures”. I’ll see if I like it enough to keep it…

The Körschtalbahn still remains my first interest though, so I doubt I’ll be able to stop working on buildings and stock for Sägewerk Pfeifle, ready for the day when the smaller persons are less prone to try and eat it…

Complete Mess

2007-12-30T17:27:00.001+01:00

Meik was getting on my case about fixing the mess van so I finally got it together yesterday. When tested on the normal chassis the it showed a tendency to dive nose first into the track when moving which spilt Meik’s coffee. After Meik calmed down the chassis was duly lengthened, and a test run was accomplished without further damage.

The roof is made from the same deluxe materials as the walls, namely cereal packet card although it does have an overlay of recycled printer paper. I figured Meik wouldn’t want to mess about with an arched roof, so I made it pitched, and added shutters to protect the windows when the van is stored outdoors. These two measures make it look like a garden shed on wheels, but there we go.

Rear view of the van while Meik was shunting.

I’m wondering about having red and white warning signs on the corners like a lot of German work vehicles do, so I tried it out using the Gimp:

And then, as I was using the Gimp in any case, I couldn't resist one for the British ‘modern image’ enthusiasts…

2007-12-24T11:47:00.000+01:00

Twilight at our local Christmas market, Esslingen.

Many thanks to the long-surffereing readers of this blog for your encouragement, suggestions, ideas and friendship over the last 12 months. Wishing you a happy and most blessed Christmas and new year...

Making a Mess

2007-12-20T14:41:00.000+01:00

The smaller island and Hallig railways all seem to have at least one stores/mess van in some form or another: when working away from the main depot it’s possibly the only form of shelter for a long way, and on Minsener Oog it's the only way from ship to shore.

Naturally the Westerooge line needed its own version, and true to prototype it is made up of scrounged materials, in this case low quality cardboard which started life as a cornflake packet, but which proved pretty strong when two sheets were glued firmly together. The main superstructure was built from this with ‘metal’ strapping from sketch paper.

The walls need painting so they look a bit more like real wood, and the windows will need shutters for protection against the elements. I thought I’d finished the outside but looking at the photo I’ve forgotten a couple of corner pieces.

The inside is complete though. Meik was insistent that there had to be a stove and a decent table inside.

The table cloth is a bit askew, possibly Jan left in a hurry. He seems to have left his coat hanging by the door as well. Hopefully he'll remember it before he goes home on the boat tonight

Complete Loco

2007-12-12T11:45:00.000+01:00

I've not posted for a while- mostly because I had some dental work done with a general anaesthetic, which put me off modelmaking for a bit. However, I was able to get the Westerooge diesel finished enough to be presentable...

Rear view showing rudimentary controls and Meik peering out of the window

Front view again, showing the other side. This view hides a couple of bodges, but it doesn't do the glazing any favours. At least the glazing itself is clean though.

I've also found that the self-removing paint problem I've been having is probably because of the primer I've used up to now, which is a brush-on Acrylic. Apparently I need a spray primer so I'll be looking for a car respray shop. There must be some in Germany, but as I don't own a car I've never looked before.

In the meantime I'll be working on building some some wagons for Jan and Meik to move materials and the generator around whilst repairing and maintaining the sea defences, and hopefully a small mess coach where they can retreat when caught on the wrong end of the causeway in a storm...

Technicolor Cab

2007-12-05T16:25:00.000+01:00

Slowly but surely the new cab takes shape on the Westerooge diesel. Last weekend I gave it some colour:

Remarkably I managed to mix a new batch of blue to roughly the same shade as the old.

Meik trying the cab out for size. He complained about the draught until I told him the alternative. I have since put some glazing in, and the sandwich seems to have been suiccesfull. The painting was less so. I have to touch up just from the handling required to put the windows in. I'm going to try spray-on primer in future I think.

I’m sure no-one will notice that there isn’t a door handle.

Ideal narrow gauge coaches?

2007-12-03T12:36:00.000+01:00

The Zillertalbahn's new push-pull train.
Click on the picture for more details (in German)

Every now and again in this blog, I have a bit of a whinge about how narrow gauge railways are treated essentially as heritage lines, and often end up using dated stock with several steps at the entrances (and narrow doors to make them really wheelchair-proof), arcane operating methods and low speeds. So what would my idea of perfect narrow gauge passenger stock look like?

Well, ideally:

Modern, not just a replica of an old coach but built for modern needs in a modern style.
At least partially low-floor
Probably loco-hauled for flexibility and maximum stock usage
Push-pull with a driver’s cab in the coaching stock to minimize runarounds
Air-conditioned
Wide doors with push-button operation, which actually close without allowing a draught
At least partially low-floor
Cassette toilets
Comfortable seats (with cushions)
Corridor connections
Proper passenger information systems
Quiet and smooth when moving.
Did I mention that it should be low-floor?

Essentially what we are becoming accustomed to on a bus or standard gauge train. This sounds a bit of a pipe dream I know, but the 760mm (about 2’6”) gauge Zillertalbahn in Austria has ordere new carriages which look remarkably like my description. The English page is for the tourists so it doesn’t mention them, but you can see an artist’s impression of the inside and outside here. You can also click here for pictures of the first units being delivered.

(Yes, they are partially low-floor)

Interior Decoration

2007-11-27T15:02:00.001+01:00

Meik is a big lad, and even with the 'extended' cab of the Westerooge diesel, the only way for him to fit inside would be drastic surgery to his lower leg. Omen figures are a bit expensive for that, so I'm modelling the cab door permanently open so his feet can stick out. Of course this meant some basic detail in the cab itself as it would have been odd for him to sit on the worm gear of the chassis...

I think it's getting closer to painting time. I was thinking of light grey for the cab interior, dark grey for the controls, and perhaps brown or green for the seat…

Projects galore.

2007-11-25T15:00:00.000+01:00

As 'Westerooge' is now the most likely short-term model, I worked a bit on the diesel yesterday and got the beginnings of the new cab together. As the main reason for the replacement was the flimsy old cab and the filthy windows this one is built like a brick bog with a sandwich of three layers of plasticard with a gap where I can slide the glazing in after painting. This way I get clean, see-through windows and a crisp edge on the colour. That's the theory anyway. I’m hoping to have the door open- Jan wants to stretch his feet out when he’s driving.

As a side point, I’m wondering how I managed to have so many half-finished projects on my shelf. Strictly speaking I’ve not really finished Growler one, which needs railings, and so does my big van. On top of that the wood wagon has been sitting on the shelf for so long I had to dust it off when I took this picture, and there is a further chassis I haven’t even touched yet that should eventually become yet another van. Where did all these come from?

Decisions, Decisions…

2007-11-21T17:12:00.000+01:00

Our Middle Son thinks he is indestructible. He is also a very creative climber, and he’s fascinated with anything that daddy does. We thought the Sägewerk Pfeifle would be safe 140 cm from the floor, but yesterday we found him clinging to the shelves and making a spirited attempt to swipe the landrover off the baseboard. As the effects of a two-year old on a scale model would be similar to Godzilla in downtown New York, it seems the Sägewerk Pfeifle will have to wait a bit until we get Middle Son beyond using the shelves as a climbing frame.

This brachiating tendency doesn’t look like it will disappear soon, so I'm now looking at alternatives for the short term. I’ve several options: I mentioned the idea of a small “Works siding” on my desk some time ago: I just never got around to doing anything about it. Meanwhile the small collection of 09 stock I’ve been working on will allow me to make something small that I can store easily as well. On this subject I’ve found a lot of inspiration from some Japanese websites, like this one where the builder has clearly put a lot of thought into storage and presentation. I’m not sure I’d go for the same style –I think it is possible to have too much colour and detail on a model- but the idea of having the outside finished in a way that protects the layout so it can be stored does appeal, like Colin Peake’s boxfile layout (although he eventually compromised by making a full height backscene). That way I can play, test stuff out etc, and then pack it all away on a shelf when I need to get back to work.

There's another possibility I'm looking at as well. I'll get back to you on that one.

Feeding time

2007-11-14T12:06:00.000+01:00

I know this is probably the last blog in the world to make this, but I've finally got around to steeing up the RSS email feed, which is just a fancy bit of computer gubbins that lets you read posts without having to log on to this blog all the time.

Some people already have readers and have been using that method for some time, but I've now put in another link (Which blogger has locked up above the profile for some reason, I'll move it soon) which lets you put in your email address. If you click on "Subscribe to my ramblings by email" a form will come up for your email address, and a confirmation will be sent to your email address. Click on this and the next time something is posted here it will be sent on to you by the wonders of the interweb thingy.

I've just done a test using a Gmail account and it seems to be working, so I'll keep it there. If you use it, please let me know what happens and how well it is working for you.

[Update: I've moved the feed at last, and changed the format of the signup so it is a bit easier to use...]

Big Harz

2007-11-10T21:24:00.002+01:00

1000mm gauge 'Combino Duo'
entering Nordhausen. Source: Wikipedia

Quedlinburg is the sort of name I could not come up with given a German dictionary, a thesaurus and three weeks to spare. Even if I could I doubt anyone would believe it. But last year Quedlinburg became the northernmost tip of an 8,5km extension of the Harzer Schmalspurbahn (HSB) in central Germany. Not only that, but this extension is along a standard gauge trackbed.

The narrow gauge used to meet the standard gauge at Gernrode, where the HSB have maintenance sheds and sidings, partly for their large fleet of steam locomotives that run all year round. After Gernrode the standard gauge skirted the northern side of the mountains, and eventually wound back to a junction in the town of Frose. In 2002 a bridge failed on the standard gauge line a short distance from Gernrode. Services from Quedlinburg ran as shuttles to Gernrode while the local government started a study to decide what to do about it. The study seems to have moved at the usual relaxed pace of government enquiries worldwide, and eventually decided that surprisingly, the narrow gauge should be extended to Quedlinburg.

Decision made, rebuilding began on18th April 2005. A metre gauge line was built which scythed through the standard gauge at Gernrode in a large ‘S’ to join the former standard gauge alignment, (you can find a track plan here) and by the 26th of June 2006 regular services were running along the line.

At Quedlinburg the station was rebuilt with the narrow gauge replacing standard on one platform. (Track Schematic) The HSB has regular steam services so there needs to be a run-around, and a siding was added ‘just in case’, but that was all. One signal box controls the lot. I imagine a similar situation at Wildberg on the Körschtalbahn. I’ll bore you about that another time.

This is good news, in that the narrow gauge is being used for a public service, and economically providing a link people may actually want to use, but I can’t help feeling that the HSB is preserving what was, rather then developing further. I’m sure steam brings in the tourists, especially the amazing Br 99.23 & 24 2-10-2 tank engines the HSB has, but compared with the modern, low-floor, wide access units they are “replacing”, how attractive do the railcars or loco-hauled stock with a narrow door and steps look, say, for a mum with a pushchair shopping in Quedlinburg?

Fortunately, there are signs of further improvement in the town of Nordhausen, at the southern end of the system. The town has had a metre gauge tram system since 1900, but the long-desired connection to the HSB was not completed until 2004. For vehicles, Siemens shoehorned an 8hp BMW car engine into a combnio, and made the ‘duo’ which shares the low floor and wide doors of its conventional electric cousins, but which switch to diesel on the country section and run as far as Ilfeld-Neanderklinik. There is nothing ‘heritage’ about the three new units, so I doubt the tourists will go for them, but they are just what you need to go shopping or take your bike home in the rain.

Hopefully they will one day be joined by several more units running over the rest of the 140km system and into Quedlinburg. They would also be ideal for the Körschtalbahn to run through trains to Spitzenwald. I wonder if I could make one in 7mm scale?

(For more general information in English, with a map of the Harz, Wikipedia has a page here)

Supplies…

2007-11-09T11:59:00.000+01:00

There’s been a hiatus in model making this week, what with work and now having a cold, and also because I was waiting for the plasticard and other stuff from www.architecturbedarf.de which finally came through yesterday, so I think I have enough plasticard to keep me going this winter, and on top of that I finally some fine styrene for making the handrails on Growler 1. If I have the courage to take a drill to the model to fit them is another matter.

I also have the H-section pieces and wood to make the sides and cross pieces on the "big" wood wagon so I can move forward with that too. You can see the cross pieces resting on the wagon in the picture above. Only problem is that when I ordered the track somewhere in the distant past, I forgot to order rail connectors of any kind, so that has to wait for the next trip to Esslingen and the model shop...

Brave new world

2007-11-03T13:56:00.000+01:00

The great expanse above, being investigated by the Sägewerk Pfeifle Landrover, is baseboard number two, finally glued and laminated over the week. (This is not a particularly exciting process so I spared you the pictures) Now that’s done I’m planning to move into uncharted territory and actually make the track rise above the board a bit. Previously I’ve been a member of the flat earth society, and the majority of my models had as many hills as the Norfolk Broads, which was fine except they were supposed to be of the Peak District. The Black Forest may have some flat areas but I haven’t found them, so I’m going to at least try and make it look like the track was built into the hillside and winding its way around a landscape that was there long before.

That’s the plan anyway. Now to stop procrastinating and get on with building it…

9 999 to go?

2007-10-28T19:29:00.001+01:00

Thomas Edison was heard to say “If I find 10 000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...” I’m trying to see my first attempt at a baseboard in this er… light.

Not counting my attempt last year, It’s about 15 years since I last built a baseboard, and that was in the days when everyone knew chipboard and pine were the way to go. As a result the baseboards I made could double up as armour plate in the event of a national emergency. This time around I'm going for cardboard- lighter, easier to work with for a non-carpenter, and above all, free.

For the first attempt, I planned to start with three sheets of cardboard glued together to make a solid base, and then to build up from there with a track bed and landscape. Unfortunately things didn’t go exactly as planned, and what I got was a fairly bendy slab of cardboard that looked like it was just waiting for some track to be glued onto it before warping hideously.

Attempt one will soon be consigned to the recycling pile and I’ll set to making a more solid version, with masses of cross bracing to discourage warping. The problem is that there’s a fairly shallow space between the shelf the KÖB is to be built on and the one above, which doesn’t leave a lot of space for a deep frame, so I’ll have to make up for this with lots of cross bracing, and then more cross bracing in between… I’ll keep you posted on this. Hopefully the second version will work a bit better so I can start thinking about track and wiring soon. If it looks like I'll have to make 9 998 more before I get it right, I think I’ll go back to the armour plating.

Sägewerk Pfeifle

2007-10-25T10:15:00.000+02:00

The change of plan I hinted at in the last post is now in full swing: I'm putting "Spitzenwald" on the back burner for a bit, a and I'm going to attempt a basic two-siding affair, which will give me some experience and allow me to test out some ideas and relearn how to make scenery. A couple of nights ago I cut out a basic shape from a sheet of cardboard and fiddled with a set of points to see what I could do with it. Now I've trimmed the cardboard back to the shape I'd like, which just fits onto the shelves I'm using, and sent a copy to a couple of friends to make sure I wasn't making a horrendous mistake. So far I've had positive feedback, so I'll carry on...

The subtitle of the model is 'One of those days': several storms over the night have made both the road and railway almost impassable to Spitzenwald. Clearance teams have been removing felled trees since the dawn, and by now (about 0800) they have managed to clear the line as far as Sägewerk Pfeifle, (Pfeifle's Sawmill) about 3 KM from Spitzenwald, just before the line makes the final curve to the terminus. Here, however, they've found a lot of trees down on this section, all mixed up together especially where the line crosses the valley, and it's taking a lot longer than anyone would like. Trains are currently terminating at the halt by the mill, which usually is only a request stop catering for walkers and mill employees. The sawmill is working at fill tilt: It's not the biggest mill in the Körschtal, but the only plant this close to the damaged area, and the railway is running wagons up from Dachsburg to take wood from the cutting area itself and from the mill, as well as dealing with the regular output- and wouldn't you know it but the sawdust and a load of finished product was scheduled to be shifted today…

Here Endeth the silence…

2007-10-22T20:40:00.000+02:00

…Hopefully.

The “Big” project that I’ve been eating, breathing and sleeping for the last few weeks- “Baroness Isabella von Katzenberg’s evil and despicable plans for world domination” -finished last night with a pretty successful show. The team I work with dealt with all the last minute glitches and problems that beset these things with a level of patience and flexibility that would give some professional companies pause for thought and I’m really pleased with them, but I’m also rather glad it’s over and I have a bit of time to relax before the next one starts...

While I was working on that my shopkeeper friend has been stockpiling cardboard boxes. Lots and lots of them This means I can very probably make the baseboard for the model, so I expect this will take priority over the next week or so, although I hope I’ll be able to keep building stock. To give an idea of what can be done with a cardboard baseboard, here's an example built by Michael Mott in Canada, which he very kindly allowed me to reproduce here.

Having seen this I’m having second thoughts about starting with “Spitzenwald”, and wondering about a simple model with the railway running through a more undulating landscape: my thinking being that I’m trying out a lot of new methods, so having a simpler model is better if things really go poop. Possibly a bit pessimistic of me, but if it all goes swimmingly and works like a dream, I’ll have learnt a lot and have a nice model in the bargain. Either way I’ll be happy.

Corporate Blue

2007-10-15T21:19:00.000+02:00

I'm still moving a the speed of a geriatric tortiose but this weekend I finally managed to fix the couplings and get some paint on the bonnet.

The cab will either be bauxite or grey. I don't know which...

The story is that Meik and Jan, who represent the islands entire railway staff, kept sending requests to head office for ply and metal for rebuilding the loco shed, which were repeatedly ignored. The flimsy structure finally blew down in a storm last year, knocking a big hole in the cab of the one remaining serviceable loco.

Jan and Meik were told off for not repairing the shed and instructed to make a temporary cab from whatever was to hand, and that an insurance assessor would come as soon as possible to approve funds for permanent repairs.

Three months later head office sent an assessor to check that the shed really needed repairing, but his instructions didn’t mention the loco, so he refused to authorise a payment for it. When Meik picked up the ply and steel for the roof, he “accidentally” took a tin of primer and they built a temporary cab out of the two locos and some bits of sheet steel.

Six months later another assessor came. He reported that the locomotive cab was undamaged and cancelled the request for parts to rebuild it.

After I finished painting last night I realised that there's more than a hint of Corporate Blue there... Maybe I sould accept the inevitable and make a 1980's era British rail Narrow gauge 'Might have been': Welsh highland 3' gauge perhaps, or a connon carrier to Ullapool which has to be kept under Brirish Rail because it's an 'essential service'?

I need to get back to the Körschtalbahn brfore I have any more ideas.

1:1 Modelmaking

2007-10-12T10:44:00.001+02:00

There's been another long break between posts: modelmaking has been focused on making props for the next major production of our youth theatre company. I took a picture of the (almost) finished result in the workshops before I came home from work last night...

The whole story has a strong steampunk flavour, and this is the weapon for the heroine to use when she goes into the secret lair of the Evil Baroness Who Is Trying To Take Over The World. There's a short silent movie sequence where she blows up an evil machine with it too...

The whole thing is from recycled materials scrounged from local electricians and plumbers, and masses of laminated cardboard in the main box. It had to be obviously overdone and fake as it's an outdoor theatre piece so we don't want people panicking and calling the police- it has happened before. I also had to make it left handed, which is why the sights are on the other side and the "access" panel is visible in the picture. The heroine is very happy with it: since she got hold of the thing, she won't even let the props manager touch it...

Next week I'll be working on the "Self-reciprocating Salamanca four-way impenetrable death trap" with some of the team.

The show opens on Sunday the 21st...

Flying Bricks

2007-10-05T09:48:00.000+02:00

East meets West. Former East German class 143 (L) and DB class 111 (R) together in Stuttgart main station, Sept 24th 2007

October the 3rd was German unification day, to commemorate the time when Germany was finally reunited in 1989-1990. This seemed a good time to make poignant comparisons between locomotive design in the two Germanys (and thereby cunningly mask my complete lack of model making progress).

During the years Germany was divided, the two nations’ locomotives developed in different ways: the west bought locos from the Likes of Siemens and Krupp, like the class 111 in the foreground, whereas the DDR (East Germany) was supplied by centralised locomotive works in Eastern Europe whose policy seemed to be that styling was for the Western Imperialists. In some cases it seems that locos able to start, stop, or pull the skin off a rice pudding were considered suspect as well, judging by some of the less successful clunkers that were built.

Some did work though. This class 143, previously East German Railways (DR) class 243, is one of several hundred capable units that were made more or less redundant after the DDR was brought into the Federal Republic, and freight on the former DR dropped faster than a barometer in a hurricane. The class was successful enough that the first locomotives built by after reunification were of this type, althought that was a was a political move: the locomotives became a symbol of reunification, but German railways would really have preferred a loco capable of 200kmh, not 120.

'Aerodynamic' cab?

Apparently the cab is supposed to be aerodynamic. I can’t say that’s how I'd describe it, but I do like these locos. I could see a model version running on the KÖB one day, under the scenario that they were subsidised to help production in an east German locomotive factory. In fact I could end up building a whole fleet of flying bricks if I'm not careful -partly because I like them, or more likely because I’m too much of a coward to try difficult-to-make compound curves like those on the front of the 111 class...

The Works...

2007-10-02T15:54:00.000+02:00

Time is very short in this season, but I’ve managed to build the cab on the little Westerooge diesel. I’m trying to use lots of different methods in this project to see what works, so I made the cab as a home-made riveted job to protect Jan and Meik from the elements. Jan is already complaining at the gaps around the door…

To supplement this I’ve been working on a background for taking pictures of locomotives and stock made by the “Maschinenfabrik Ostfildern”, partly to learn how to make printed backgrounds and buildings, but also so that I’m able to keep doing some model making. This is a (heavily scaled down) version:

I figure that I can make this into a back wall, with the end turned so the track goes in front of the wall, and through the blue door, and maybe even set the track into concrete. At the very least it’ll make a nice display for the shelf by my desk…

Stuttgarter 'Zacke'

2007-09-28T14:59:00.001+02:00

Marienplatz: lower terminus of the Stuttgart funicular railway

Amongst its other charms, Stuttgart is the only city in Germany with a funicular railway. This line is metre gauge, and has connected Stuttgart centre and the town of Degerloch, 2,2km away and 205m up the hill, since 1884. It used to be steam operated, and follows the “Alte Weinsteige”, which was the only rail or road connection to the city for anyone living in the eastern suburbs until 1904, when a more direct, easier graded route -and tramline- replaced it. Now it is an isolated metre gauge railway in the standard gauge system and I happen to like it very much. It is slower than my usual route home, but it has a very nice laid-back independent feel, it runs along, or across the street with great views across Stuttgart; and it will always carry your bike (uphill) for free, every 20 minutes if you feel inclined.

I happened to be in the centre last week with a bit of time and a desire to travel above ground, so I went along to the Marienplatz and boosted the ridership figures. At no extra charge to you, I even took a few pictures before I got on to show what a modern narrow gauge system could look like.

1001 Approaches the platform (where I'm standing) over the Bridge.

Cyclists dream: Trolley for bikes to help get up the 17.5% Alte Weinsteige.

Quick shot of the catenary for a certain future project...

Why I have dual gauge track.

2007-09-25T14:20:00.000+02:00

Minimum gauge "Critter 01" with Jan trying the motor block out for size.

Alert readers may have noticed a reference to some kits from Black Dog Mining, well… ages ago. I’ve been adding to this over the weekend with a handful of scrap plasticard and a 9mm gauge Bachmann chassis I’ve had kicking about for ages. The main point of the loco is to try out a few ideas for making different doors and other small features that I can then make use of on Spitzenwald, but I’ve also got an idea of making a really small micro based on the narrow gauge lines in the extreme north of Germany, like the Halligbahnen at Dagebüll and at Lüttmoorsiel, or the costal protection line on the uninhabited Minsiner Oog. All are still working, so this can still be said to be a 'modern image' project

It’ll not be a scale model by any means: there are no 15 inch/381mm lines on the German islands, so it will be more of a sketch loosely based on some of the features of some of the lines. It’ll also be a long term thing which I’ll work on as and when I can, as a change from work, which is heavy at this time of year, Spitzenwald, and another project that I’m keeping under wraps for the moment, but I’ll tell you about a bit later… Watch this space.

Lokalbahn Mixnitz-St. Erhardt

2007-09-18T10:57:00.000+02:00

Another video, and some great evidence for the premise behind the Körschtalbahn, that narrow gauge railways can effectively transport goods and people. Longer suffering readers will know this is a regular theme for this blog, and the line looks a lot like the imaginary KÖB, even down to the track gauge and electrification. The commentary is in (Austrian) German, but it’s worth watching for the pictures, and I can give a rough idea of the history of the line and current status thanks to Wikipedia Germany .

The 760mm gauge 800v DC line is in the state of Steiermark in southeast Austria. There used to be passenger services but they were withdrawn on the 31st of July 1966. The Steiermark government railways, (You'll hear more about them sometime) and run the remaining section from the Austrian federal railways (ÖBB) system at Mixnitz-Bärenschützklamm to the magnesite works in Breitenau. It seems the line has a future: After major flooding in August 2005, it was rebuilt by mid-October, and the stations in the video are recently reinstated, mostly for charter trains.

All of which is good news, but what if the investment could be extended to high-capacity bogie wagons which could move at more than 20kmh, and modern, low floor coaching stock similar to the standard gauge ‘Desiro’ seen at the start of the video?

Is this a dream, or an eco-friendly rural transport solution for the future?

Skippy

2007-09-11T07:10:00.000+02:00

Recently, I was running an errand and I passed a factory that uses a lot of roll-on containers, and very obligingly stores them next to the cycle path. So I took some photos in preparation for the skip-building project. This one shows the variety in these ‘standard’ designs. I know I should start by making a square-cornered version like that on the right, but something tells me I’m going to have a go at chamfered corners at some point… By the way, the fabric covering seems to be unique to this company. Any ideas why it is used and how would be gratefully received…

Getting Ambitious.

2007-09-09T22:09:00.000+02:00

The Maschienenfabrik Ostfildern have been working on the third wood wagon. This is going to be slightly different from the first batch with deeper side frames and wider uprights to give the impression of an altogether heavier unit. This one will also be less flexible with an open frame designed to take wood or pipes but not the containers. I figure the KÖB will have a fairly heavy wood traffic so some more specialised wagons could be justified.

This marks a new first, because I’m basing the model on a standard gauge wagon, rather than a narrow gauge, and I’m modelling a prototype I’ve been able to photograph myself rather than one off the internet. Here’s a (battered) example of the original, awaiting departure from Breisach in behind a MaK B-B unit owned by the Südwest Eisenbahngesellschaft (SWEG) on a damp day in January this year.

I cut most of the pieces for the wagon on Saturday afternoon. I debated making the frame from sections, but eventually I went for making the whole lot from one piece, on the basis it would hopefully be a bit stronger, as it is fairly thin: 0.5mm plasticard. Because of this, I made the bracing pieces deliberately heavy-duty to compensate.

By the time we had to get ready to go out for the evening -there was a festival in the local town and the boys wanted to see fire-eaters and other mesmerising things- the wagon looked like this:

Then today, I took a deep breath and made the usually fatal step of trying to stick it together.
Remarkably, it worked, mostly.

I had a couple of “Did you spot the deliberate mistake?” moments, notably when I realised one of the cross-beams was right where the bogies (trucks) were supposed to go, but a bit of cutting made the beam high enough that it didn’t foul the wheels and all was well…

If things go on like this I may reach 8 wagons within the year…

I really have to build the layout now.

[Update: Tues 11th. I have now corrected most of the typos and put the correct code in for the pictures, so now whan you click on them you get a bigger version instead of the Photobucket front page. Sorry about that.]

Wood (and other things) wagon

2007-09-04T18:09:00.001+02:00

The Maschienenfabrik Ostfildern has managed to gear up production and is now finishing two wagons for wood and other items. They now promise that they will be working on the van soon, and the third wood wagon will be started as soon as the bits are delivered. The couplings are still a minor difficulty, but I’m looking for some softer wire to make loops with.

The wagons started out as a rough copy of these, but I quickly realised that my skill is at a level where I will have to content myself with a more generic design. I’m not too worried though: it’s likely the KÖB would have a variety of designs in its stock list, and the wagons can take a roll-on container like the RHB prototype, (although it's under scale length so it can only take one at a time). Besides, after the long saga of the first van, it came as rather a shock to find myself finishing so soon after I started. Now I’m already beginning to get dangerously ambitious: getting stuff together for the third wood wagon and sketching out the design for the second van. I’m also thinking of a set of roll-on containers for the and even having thoughts of an eventual well wagon for swap-bodies, or maybe a coach…

[Update: Finally got the link in... Sorry about that...]

Killisberg Parkeisenbahn: now with Steam...

2007-09-01T12:57:00.000+02:00

I did promise/threaten to return to the Killisberg Parkeisenbahn on a steam day and inflict more pictures on you. I've even got some videos as well, Just scroll down a bit for those...

Top: 'Classic' view: Train passing the fountains by the main entrance.

Above Springerle, one of two locomotives built by Kraus-Maffei of Munich and delivered on 30th of May 1950, in the sunshine at the station.

Low shot. The brolley is to keep the sun off the crew, but it makes a mess of photography.

Close up of the smokebox

Makers plate: Apparently three locomotives were built, one was sent as a gift to Delhi in India, and the other two are still in Stuttgart.

"Weight: 6,5t" "Weight in service: 8,6t" "Coal: 0,3t" "Water: 1,0m3" "Tested: 4.03" "Brakes: 4.03"

Out and about: on the downhill section approaching the station again

Motion close up, in B+W in an attempt to look artsy.

And a couple of videos of 'Springerle' powering up the hill at the top of the park. Notice the wheelslip in the second shot as she negotiates a sharp curve at the top of the hill...
Full speed ahead: On the crossing:

DG in disguise.

2007-08-29T15:24:00.000+02:00

Once again a long pause since the last entry, partly because I was having a break with the family and whilst it was great there wasn’t much time for me to sit at my workbench: I was far too busy telling stories, helping the biggest learn to ride a bike (He's a bit wobbly still), driving model cars, makinf forts in the woods, and playing hide and seek around the flat when it rained.

I did, however, manage to get one concentrated go at model making, and bodged a centre buffers to go around the DG couplings on one of the wagons, as seen here:

I had a slight panic when I tested the thing, as I found it can be a bit unreliable, but after some online questioning, it was suggested that I just need to make the loops bigger and all will be well. I’ll need softer metal to do that though, so further couplings may be put on hold for a bit.

Never mind: I've got plenty of other things to do.

Board

2007-08-18T20:16:00.000+02:00

I’m still here.

The lack of entries in the last week is ironically despite reasonable progress on the model. The three chassis are now mounted on bogies/trucks, and I’m experimenting with a Black Dog Mining wagon. I’ve also found a German supplier for plasticard after kind German speakers on the 'Gnatterbox' took pity on struggling Brit (again) and explained the correct name for it.
All this has made me realise that the layout really needs to be built or my display track will start looking like Barry Scrapyard on a busy day, so I was had a serious recycling session, and went around asking local shopkeepers for their used cardboard. Fortunately one of these shopkeepers stores his stock in our garage and as he usually has to take cardboard away for recycling, he cordially invited me to take the stuff away by the armload.

Trouble is, cardboard is hardly the most exciting subject for photos, and after careful research I can verify that it looks exactly the same in Germany, so I don’t think you’ll be wanting to see a picture of the stuff. Those wanting visuals will have to wait until I actually do something with it...

Developing 'Spitzenwald'

2007-08-10T11:58:00.000+02:00

Carl Arendt emailed to suggest the plan I came up with for “Spitzenwald” would be impractical because the siding at the front blocked the fiddle yard. (I’m not claiming he reads the blog, I emailed a copy to him.) I could see his point, so if this siding is built it will now disappear into a low-relief building instead, giving access to the fiddle yard from the front and at the same time increasing the possible traffic this shed can take- I can now run open wagons into there and load them up with wood by hand for example, and then if I feel the desire, it can become something completely different with a change of sign. With that change I can just use the building as a scenic break which in turn dispenses with the overbridge and allows me to have a couple more buildings if I feel up to it… Thoughts and feedback welcome.

If you’re wondering, there is a lot more going on than drawing track plans on the Gimp: there are three wagon chassis on bogies and frames cut for a fourth, and as soon as the rain stops I’ll make a picture of them…

A Grand Day Out

2007-08-08T09:55:00.000+02:00

My wife has this funny idea that we should go out in the fresh air occasionally, so yesterday I was dragged away from building wood wagons and we went off to the Killisberg Park, which is a bit like an arboretum in the UK, or a city park. The difference being that German cities are much more serious about keeping their parks in good condition.

In the 1930's the city government found it had a derelict quarry on a hill with superb views over the valley and inside the city limits, and sensibly made a garden out of it in time for the national garden show for 1939. Better still they included a railway, built to 15 inch gauge, or 381mm which seems unusually illogical for Germany but it would make modelling it easy enough in 09. Mind you, it’s a bit clean for some narrow gauge enthusiasts, not a speck of rust to be seen, and the track is really smooth, but if you can live with that, it’s a good 2.4km run.

“Schwoabapfeil” (Diema, 1992) All 6.5 tonnes of her, emerges from the woods

“Schwoabapfeil” and train seen from the Killisberg tower. (Shadow of tower bottom left) Much of Stuttgart in the distance.

The 48hp “Schwoabapfeil” hauling a full train around the former quarry rim, now known as the "Rosental" (Rose Valley)

Workshops and sheds , home to “Tazzelwurm” und “Springerle”, the two 4-6-2 Liliput locomotives built by Kraus Maffei in 1950

Friendly driver with Tobi and Mummy after journey's end. Hold the cursor over an image for more pictures.

If you like engines with clanky bits then they run a steam service on Saturdays in summer, weather permitting. It’s easy to get there so I’ll try and nip over on a weekend and take some pictures. May be a while though as it’s pelting it down at the moment…

Postscript: The gloomy wet weather also means I can't post the repainted coach, the wagons under construction, or some nice 09 kits I got from Black Dog mining yesterday, but rest assured as soon as there is enough light all will be revealed...

Production line...

2007-08-04T13:35:00.000+02:00

The Ostfildern Wagon works have finally completed their first wagon contract. -sort of. (They claim they managed it some time ago but the official photographer was't around.)

It still needs railings, transfers and weathering, but that can wait a bit until there are enough transferrequirements to make a whole sheet, and I’ve finally found a possible brake handle in the form of some plastic press-studs so I’ll experiment with these later. There are reports of several chassis under construction construction: hopefully they will eventually become a pair of wood wagons and another van, which should turn out like a later version of the sliding-door van on the Rhaetian Bahn.

The wood wagons are still being designed, but as the KÖB are going for maximum flexibility from their freight stock, so they will probably be designed to carry roll-on containers as well as wood.

There are also rumours of some heave-duty frame being fabricated, possibly for another wood wagon, and one of the RJR Branchline's carriages was seen entering the paint shops for some "Livery Testing". Photos promised "in a few days". or maybe next week...

Nothing happens for ages…

2007-07-27T15:44:00.000+02:00

…Then two entries turn up together. Just like busses.

Now you know what it would look like if Mercedes made trains.

It’s probably good that I don’t live in this town judging by the drivers face when I took this. He seemed to think that photographing a bus in the rain was somehow odd.

One of the fantastic things about Germany is that the public transport systems in different cities are usually very different from each other. Come to think of it, there are sometimes multiple systems in one city. Essen has a dual gauge light-rail system: metre gauge trams which run on dual gauge track with the standard gauge U-bahn.

Incidentally, if the U-bahn units have a slightly familiar look about them, theres a good reason… A sister unit in original colours gives the game away.

Ex London-docklands stock is the mainstay of the line, rebuilt for driver operation and overhead current collection, which would seem to be a rather expensive way to get second hand stock.

Our nearest rail connection in Essen was with the high-floor metre gauge trams which are a pig to get a baby push chair into. There’s no way a wheelchair user could get in unless they are fortunate enough to live by a stop with a platform. This used to be an acceptable state of affairs all over Germany but I was surprised to see a city as big and wealthy as Essen dragging their feet on accessibility.

On the other hand passengers can get off the tram, and a low-floor bus comes along a few minutes later to take them onward on one ticket. It’s that simple. It’s the norm in Stuttgart as well, so much so that I never bothered to even blog about it -so why is it that when we travel in the UK we have to get off the train, drag luggage and three tired boys 100 metres, and up a flight of steps, across a busy road and wait at a shelter less bus stop for half an hour, and then to pay for another ticket (with exact change) when it arrives?

A hint of politics coming in, so I’ll change subject with this shot of the miniature railway in the Gruga Park in Essen. I’ll tell you all about it later (i.e when I’ve found out more…)

Interlok

2007-07-27T15:31:00.000+02:00

Last week (While we were in Essen) The Works received a package of 7mm stock very kindly sent by John Teal as they are now surplus to his requirements since changing to “00” gauge. The workbenc… my desk… I meant my desk, looks like a very small outpost of the Interlok workshops.

I'm still looking through them, but so far I've found this this nice flat wagon with Land Rover Defender- the wagon is a tiny bit narrower than my usual loading gauge, but can take the swapbody comfortably. Just as well as the Landy is likely to gain a new identity as a KÖB maintenance vehicle. The tanker behind unfortunately lost an end in transit (as did its 2 identical siblings) and will probably be used for parts.

There were loads of other bits, including several vans of different descriptions and a rake of coaches which I think I can adapt (I'll post pictures when the sun comes out again) and a few other bits that I reckon will probably live in the spares box and until I start working in Gn15. One suprise find was two shunters, built on old Hornby class 08 chassis. I have wondered about using them together and making a diesel Krokodil like this one which lives in the hills near here, possibly even strengthening the rods and taking out that missle wheel, but unfortunately I think the motors may be too unreliable for a tiny layout. Maybe when I have my outdoor model…

Back Streets

2007-07-18T11:36:00.001+02:00

In our local shopping centre of Esslingen I took a short cut behind the local "SektKellerei" or Champagne factory, Sekt being German Champagne. I doubt I'd ever try something so huge, but it gives exactly the feel I'm after, of being old and there for a long time before these new-fangled cars came along...

The Champagne factory is the half-timbered building. Local church behind...

Looking into "Zehentgasse" ("Tithe Alley") Complete with illegaly parked BMW

Further along "Tithe Alley"

The Main delivery doors and loading bay

Deliver door detail. Remarkably still used regularly for "Sekt" deliveries.

I could see this being part of a future project (ie when I know how to make stonework) It would makd a very attractive subject for an 09 model. I can just see a small critter pullinf a rake of flats out of the alley and curving into a cellar through the big red doors...

I'm getting tempted again...

By the way, this blog is going to be a bit quiet for a couple of days as we will be visiting a friend in Essen, but I'll be back with pictures and ideas, so watch this space...

White Van Man...

2007-07-13T10:46:00.000+02:00

I promised that the van wouldn't be shown again until it was at least in primer, so here's a quick progress snapshot on my temporarily tidy desk. I had a go at painting it green but the colour shade was far too dark, so it's back to the drawing board...

I'd use the normal background but a white van dissapears in a white photobox.

No more Bannister Hall.

2007-07-10T12:00:00.000+02:00

I’ve just heard that Dave Balcombe, of “Teetering Hall” fame passed away this week due to lung cancer. Although we never met, I enjoyed several Email discussions with him, on the subject of modelmaking and related matters, and appreciated his humour and out-of-the-box way of thinking. I knew he was going for more treatment, but he made it sound like a routine event, so it was a shock to hear of his death.

My thoughts and prayers are with Dave's family.

Das Alternstigerle

2007-07-07T21:29:00.000+02:00

Here’s my favourite story (so far) from the history book about the old railways between Nagold and Altensteig:

It seems that by the village or Rohrdorf there was a small fabric mill, and the apprentice from this mill was sent every day to stand at the gate and give the post to the train as it rumbled over the entrance.
Of course, apprentices sometimes have other things to attend to, and it happened “occasionally” that the train had passed before the duty apprentice had chance to make the gate with postbag. However, all was not lost: speed was not top priority on this line, and anyway, there were some sharp curves here so the train was not rushing. The tardy apprentice would leap upon his bike and pedal after the train.
Once level, the apprentice would throw his bag over to the Post Wagon. The guard was of course ready, and would catch, empty and return the bag in the same manner. Job done, the apprentice was able to return whence he came.

I wonder how often his “mates” would delay him deliberately…

Where the rails were...

2007-07-07T21:15:00.000+02:00

Altensteig railway station
from the track side (See below)
Water is from the fire practice.

My memory of Altensteig railway station was a large wooden shed with the station building at one end. Imagine my surprise then, on finding this building stranded between a Supermarket car park and the Feuerwehr practice area.

The Feuerwehr training: Lights and everything, to the delight of the oldest boys.

No big shed to be seen. I just shoved that into my subconscious and took pictures, assuming that memory was playing up. So I was quite relieved to find a picture dated 1996 clearly showing a very big wooden shed to the profile of the frame on the bakery wall. Another picture, taken from about the same place as the one at the top of this entry, showed that the track came in front of the building here, with the freight road stopping just before where where the black car is parked, and other lines coming out as far as the fireman's elbow visible extreme right. I have a possible prototype if I feel foolhardy enough to make a 7mm scale version...

No promises.

Spitzenwald

2007-06-27T18:23:00.000+02:00

Let’s face it: you can have too many pictures of a white plasticard van, so I figure it’s time to introduce my ideas for “Spitzenwald”, the layout which will hopefully soon grace the Ikea shelves in our living room. The original plan was for an inglenook-style model, but that was replaced when I tried it out- running 64mm wide stock makes for big overhangs and effectively shortened the sidings. The current plan is partly plagiarised from Bob Hughes’ N-gauge “Altgarten” model –in particular his idea of putting the station and goods shed on the siding at rear. Bob also helped me to tweak a couple of details, which I’m grateful for. You can see the original "Altgarten" here.
During operation, I’d assume the two lines exiting the scene at left would be a loop, from which there would be access to an intermodal terminal. This wouldn’t be a big operation: probably just one siding with a concrete pad and a container crane, maybe a warehouse for more specialised deliveries or palletts:

Container stacker at Nagold railway station, a few kilometres away from the Fictitious KÖB.
The "terminal" at Spitzenwald would be similar.

Of course in reality it will end in a couple of sidings or a traverser, depending on how brave I’m feeling at the time.
At the moment I’m leaning towards a wood yard as a scenic barrier in front of the fiddle yard, as wood is most likely to be the staple traffic of the line, (more on that at a later date). The road bridge may be reborn as an old city wall: this would be narrower and possibly more convenient as a scenic break, and could turn with the backscene a bit as well. It’s not unknown for railways to enter older towns this way in Germany.
The KÖB will also have a maintenance shed for railcars: This is common on the smaller independent railways here because the early commuter and school services need to start at this end of the branch. At the moment it’s one road but I may have a low relief door at the end of the middle road as well.

Small railcar fuel and maintenance point in Endingen, near Freiburg, used by road and rail vehicles. I like the pump to the right of the door...

Behind this is the general freight shed, probably used by the local farmers cooperative. It would also be a place to unload post wagons. I expect the station will have been rented or sold, so people will have to get their tickets from a machine on the platform.
That’s the plan anyway. I now hesitantly offer it up for criticism, ideas, thoughts, and suggestions before I start gluing things to other things…

You can’t win ‘em all…

2007-06-24T22:51:00.000+02:00

The roof is on, glued and has stayed in place. For a while it resisted the glue and one side stuck up like a geeky haircut, but I finally subdued it, only to find that I was 1mm short of the full width. Mercifully this doesn’t show so well on the pictures. I considered running the van with the messy side of the roof to the back of the layout, but decided against it: I'm thinking of having a couple of different numbers and this scheme would be totally useless if I can only have the van one way, and besides it would be too easy. Some salvage and bodging is in order before I can start painting…

The side that worked, roof flush against frame and guttering in the approved fashion

The side that didn’t: The gap will have to be filled with a piece of Plasticard or similar.

I was working today so I have tomorrow off in lieu. Hopefully I’ll manage some modelling time…

[Update: 27/06/2007 Finally fixed the guttering, now only door retails, steps, and railings to complete]

Soapbox

2007-06-19T11:57:00.001+02:00

Progress has stalled slightly because of work increasing a bit: lots of late evenings when you work with young people. I’m also stuck for a way to make the roof of my van: I can’t find a former to bend it: the only thing long enough is an aerosol can, and the mind boggles as to what that would do if put in boiling water with plasticard strapped to it… and there is a lack of support on the van itself. Next time I’ll make it differently. How many times have I said that?

However, I’ve found a video that is very interesting, and even better, largely on topic for this blog. It shows an Australian sugar train running fully loaded on a two foot right of way. Okay, so it ain’t exactly the TGV but it does show that really small gauges can carry big heavy bulk trains. Another good excuse for modern image NG…

Kehrwoche

2007-06-14T21:48:00.000+02:00

In this region of Germany everyone is obliged to keep the pavement clean outside of his or her house, so every Saturday we all go out in the afternoon and sweep. My eldest son’s kindergarten asked me to keep their section of pavement clean and look after the garden, and shift the snow in winter. they even offered a small retainer, and as the snow shovelling is a lot of heavy work and has to be done by seven in the morning I’d get extra for that. I agreed to do it –I’m self employed and don't have many appointments at 0600- then a couple of months ago I noticed that the hinges on the shed door had given up hope and looked likely to drop on one of the children. This is not good, so I offered to repair them and the agreed and agreed to pay me extra for that as well. Now the job is developing into general gardening/care taking. I could think of worse ways to earn pocket money.
This is a roundabout way of saying that I just got paid for the first four months of the year, plus snow, plus repairs, and they realised they hadn’t paid me for several months for last year as well, so I’ve had a bit of a windfall and things can get moving a bit faster on the model, get a new baseboard together and hopefully even get a Bullant chassis.
It all makes the early morning snow shovelling worthwhile…

Driving to Altensteig…

2007-06-12T15:51:00.000+02:00

Former Terminus at Altensteig, now a bakery

Long ago the people of the Nagold valley (about 20km south of the fictional Körsch valley) transported their logs in rafts on the river, in similar style to American loggers. Here, river pilots would build a wooden dam with gates, wait until there was enough water, then open the gates and ride the wave for a few kilometres until the next dam. It must have been a pretty exciting existence: the mind boggles as to what happened when several tonnes of sodden pine came shoshing around the corner and met something unyielding. Nonetheless, until about 150 years ago this was the way of shifting wood from the Nagold to the Neckar river, and on to the Rhine and Holland. And to think now people pay to do this sort of thing.
All in all I expect most people were relieved to let the railway take over. The metre gauge line from Nagold to Altensteig opened in 1891, but only lasted until 1967 before the prevailing wisdom turned to roads. This seems a great shame as the town now has all manner of industry, not to mention tourists coming to the old city, so it seems sad they didn’t keep going with rail. All that is left of the railway is a few buildings, a wagon planted alongside the road, and a cycleway.

Station detail showing the intricate shingles... Perhaps I'll just have a plain wall...

All of which doesn’t leave a lot to go on. I was hoping to have a good look at the line and the area to get some thoughts on how the Körschtalbahn (KÖB) could have been constructed, how it could look, and what it could carry. Judging by the Altensteig line, the KÖB would have followed a road most of the way with occasional short detours through villages or round hills. By the looks of it, frequently lurching across the road would be in order as well. The stations are typical European pattern: Goods shed with station alongside, the sort of thing that should fit onto the back of the layout. The low-key way the railway squeezed between buildings is very attractive although I haven’t any ideas yet how to make it happen- perhaps have all the buildings a few degrees different to the track, to give an impression of “The buildings were here first” and possibly “added-on” loading bays to take advantage of the loading possibilities. I have some pictures of local building to give me an idea: I'll post those, along with some thoughts on traffic types soon.

Now. How do I make shingles?

[Update, 13th of June 2007: Our pastor (who grew up in Altensteig) loaned me book on the line so I can actually see what it looked like and where it ran. I'll read it through -which may take time as it's in German, and inflict my thoughts on you later]

We are Listing to Port

2007-06-07T16:19:00.000+02:00

The van has doors- on one side at any rate. Hopefully I’ll soon have time to make the central pillar (whose absence was cunningly hidden in the picture above) and I’ll be able to start the other side: at the moment the doors are so heavy that despite a large lump of lead under the floor, it leans to one side and tips off the track, which embarrasses the company. There are a couple of bodges in the door and the central beam across the end as the pieces are not exactly square. My excuse is that having learned it on this van, I can now make an improved version next time… Unless I decide I need a break. Come to think of it, I have a couple of figures in need of painting...

Van in the sun

2007-05-30T16:03:00.000+02:00

Finally the sun put in an appearance, allowing me to post pictures of van 1. The original can be found here for comparison... Overhead view showing lead weighting and Meik trying to look nonchalant.

Number 1 end after Meik was shooed off... This has the beginnings of a brake platform which I may have a roof over, although this is based on an earlier, short roofed batch delivered to the RHB in the 70's

Number two end, slightly better lit and showing the apparently successful DG coupling.If you're thinking the buffer is a bit small you are probably right. I'll try and rectify that somehow

Underside showing the new and improved bogie fitting method. I'm not going to show you the old one as it was far too embarrassing. Another title for this may be 'Lost in space' because those bogies are. I'm really wondering about casting my own. In the meantime I'll use Cambrian's FTB6 units.

Next job is the two main doors with bracing and figuring how to fit those on and have them connected with the roof. There are other developments aside from this. I'll post details soon.

Transports of delight.

2007-05-28T14:59:00.000+02:00

The van is coming together: the bogies are now properly fixed, the “bodge” referred to last week having been replaced by self-tapping screws (thank you Chris Krupa and Steve Bennet for pointing out the obvious solution), the ends are approximately vertical and properly attached, and the sides will be built over the next week. Remarkably the DG couplings are not only glued on, but also seem to work.

The only problem in this happy tale is that the sun abruptly went AWOL this morning, and it is now overcast and dull. This means I can’t make any photos of the model, so you'll just have to trust me until such a time as the sun returns and I can get some real pictures. (Note to self: get a daylight bulb...) I’m not really upset about this as it meant the sun shone for my eldest son's 5th birthday yesterday and he was able to ride his new bike for hours.

Besides, a friend sent me a link to this video last week, showing some narrow gauge in Poland using transporter wagons. After watching this 5 minute video I'd gone from being clueless on how transporters were used, to knowing enough information to model my own. There would have to be a couple of differences (Standard gauge wagons would need to be moved by locomotive, for example) but at least the mechanics are clear, and never mind that the loco has clanky bits. I believe this operation lasted until quite recently, when the lack of investment caught up with the line and the traffic went to the roads.

In search of diseasels I came across another Polish narrow gauge line. Now I don’t know a great deal about Polish lines, but they certainly manage to have a fair bit of variety. Here they manage to include another steam loco, one of the ubiquitous LxD2’s from Romania which were the standard large diseasel in Eastern Europe on a heavy freight, and a not to bad looking rail car.

I will leave you to enjoy this, while I go and look for a daylight bulb on Ebay…

Scale isn’t what it used to be...

2007-05-24T12:28:00.000+02:00

I started making a bogie van: an easy project, I thought. It’s just sides, roof, and two ends right? A big box. No problem. I should have it done in a couple of days…

You know what happened: a week later I've just finished the under frame and bodged on the bogies. When it’s presentable I’ll post pictures, but until then here’s what it’s meant to look like, eventually. Sort of.

The original is about 14 metres long, so naturally I measured it out on paper to see what this looked like. It looked ridiculous. Huge. Like a Gn15 model, which would be fine except I’m not building a Gn15 model. Of course that’s partly because the RHB is a Metre gauge line, and mine is about 750mm, and they are 1:72 scale bogies masquerading under a 1:43.5 scale wagon, but even so, it’d really dwarf the layout. So I’ve compromised. Instead of an accurate 337mm over buffers, the base (I would hesitate to call it a ‘Chassis’) is an inaccurate but somehow better-looking 250mm. I know that will cause some to throw their hands up in horror.

In case anyone is still reading. I’ll add that I’ve been researching baseboards. I’m a contender for the title of “Worst carpenter in the world, ever” so I’ve been looking at alternatives. The layout will have a semi permanent home in our living room, supported in its entirety on an Ikea shelf: the occasional movement being to another shelf for storage. So what’s possible? Some of the nice people at the Gnatterbox have suggested there are a lot of alternatives in the realm of card or paper, or even polystyrene. A promising idea is that I could make a board by sandwiching polystyrene with heavy-duty card. Apparently a baseboard made using this method turned out to be very strong (as in: “you could stand on it”) Sounds like some experimenting is called for.

I’m open to ideas, suggestions, and verbal throwing-up-of-hands-in-horror in the comments below.

Wheels.

2007-05-18T12:29:00.000+02:00

A while ago I ordered some bogies from Cambrian kits, and some wheels from Alan Gibson to run them on. Except that I ordered 14mm wheels and the bogie instructions said 12mm. So I went back and got some 12mm wheels. These arrived while we were away and as yesterday is a public holiday in Württemberg I set to in the afternoon.

Of course what I forgot is that Alan Gibson’s “standard” is “P4” (18.83mm gauge), not “00” (16.5mm gauge). Once I remembered this it explained why my newly built bogies bounced along the sleepers on my test track instead of purring along the rails in the traditional manner. Oh how jolly, I thought... or words to that approximate effect. Fortunately I’d kept the 14mm 00 gauge wheels, and it turns out that they do fit into the bogies quite nicely -and as an added advantage run on the rails- so I can go on with the project (Probably a container flat and a sliding door van)

Now I need to call and ask Alan very, very nicely if he needs twelve 18,83mm gauge wheel sets…

Best laid plans?

2007-05-15T14:04:00.000+02:00

"Spitzenwald" takes shape, sort of... This shows about half of the 1700mm X 400mm baseboard

We are home again, and I think I’m having a reaction to the lack of activity over the last three weeks. The wheels arrived for my wagons, and yesterday I played about with some points on the shelves that will hopefully soon be the home for “Spitzenwald”. I have been doodling on bits of paper while I was in Japan, and I've come up with a general operating plan, so I cut some old cereal packets out to represent different items of rolling stock and test if they’ll fit in the different sidings and headshunts I’d planned.

So far so good: I’ve got a few ideas together and it seems I can accomodate two coach trains (ie: railcar and trailer). I’ll post a track plan as soon as I can…

Success…

2007-05-09T10:07:00.000+02:00

Gotcha... A trio of DD51's showing three livery variations in Yokkaichi.

Yokkaichi is not a pretty place: it’s a port city where oil tankers offload, and seems to be largely composed of refineries. What it does have is a large yard where you are very likely to see DD51’s. I can see that this won’t make the tourists flock to the place, but I appreciate it. I had the time and realised that my Japan Railways pass was still valid, so middle son and I went off for an adventure. The station is surrounded by the yard, which forms the exchange point for the port freight, and an intermodal terminal for Japan Railfreight’s mini containers. It also has a wagon repair depot and a permanent way shed. Funnily enough it reminds me of Bescot Yard in the UK, where I spent many hours as an impressionable youth.

I got pictures of several DD51’s and a couple of DE10 C-B locomotives as well. Thank goodness for Digital cameras… I confess to getting a bit carried away, but I had been looking for these locos for a while and as we fly out tomorrow it was probably my last chance. The people on the platform seemed bewildered by me wandering up and down the platform taking pictures of grubby engines. The one thing I missed was a blue and white industrial shunter, probably from the Ise Railway, which had been hidden behind a train of tanks. I was at the other end of the platform when the train pulled out and just saw it disappearing under a distant bridge.

Never mind. I can always come back next time.

Mindful that most people don't share my affliction, I've only included two images from the mass I took. #1029 stands ready for its next duty.

An added bonus was a decent shot of c-b DE 10 #1512 showing the unusual wheel arrangement.
I wonder why JR don't name their engines?

The Takasaki Light Railway

2007-05-09T10:02:00.000+02:00

In Takasaki we met with Matthew Foster his wife Hiromi-san and Rinka, his little girl. Matthew is the owner of the Takasaki Light Railway, the only 16mm gauge model railway in Japan. Matthew has used a heck of a lot of ingenuity in making the line as there are almost no parts or kits available locally. He built his railcars (like the one in the picture) from card and plywood with a motor from a radio controlled car kit. Unfortunately the railway is being rebuilt so a visit wasn’t possible but the family kindly invited us out for lunch instead.

To the hills…

2007-05-08T14:58:00.000+02:00

Nagano is in the mountains and is known for skiing, a sort of Japanese Zermatt, or what Zermatt would look like if the locals decided to build skyscrapers and a Shinkansen terminal in the middle. Between there and Nagoya is a lot of forest and lumpy bits, cut by rivers in deep gorges with spindly bridges, and a railway.

This is a bit of the mountain section. The line which peels off into a tunnel on the right as we leave the station is actually a long loop, one of several in the mountains which I expect speeds things up as the line seems to be running near to capacity: about every second station we passed a passenger or freight train.
You can see the tilt capability clearly on the curves. The wobble caused by me holding one of the boys while filming. I really need to get a tripod. In this video the train accelerated to about 80kph, so I filmed the next one when we were on a straighter section and moving faster- about 120kph at the beginning...

It's as wide as a British coach, seats fifty in comfort, and rides like a dream, but honestly, this is a Narrow Gauge train...

More on the DD51 theme…

2007-05-08T14:23:00.000+02:00

Nagoya region has lots of DD51’s. Unfortunately they were still being secretive last week, so all I got was the occasional glimpse: I saw two shoot past on a tank train and a red one was prowling behind wagons in Yokkaichi. Two more had taken cover under a bridge which made it impossible to photograph them, and I missed another on a freight in the hills. To cap it all I missed one in quite spectacular fashion in Nagoya: a kind conductor offered to take our picture: just as he returned the camera...

The Elusive DD51

2007-04-30T08:30:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow we head off to the hills to visit some of my wife’s relatives. We’re going by train, naturally, so expect a few more pictures. In my continued quest for modern narrow gauge I’m hoping to get some shots of the tilting diesel and electric MUs that run into the mountains. I travelled on these last time I was here and they really are fantastic units, comfortable and spacious, and pretty fast. I’m also going to keep an eye out for the DE10 C-B units that I’ve seen briefly on previous visits.
However, I really would like to Photograph an example of a Japan Railfreight (JRF) DD51. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem in theory: they are one of JRF’s main locomotives and they infest the Yokkaichi/Nagoya region which we’ll be travelling through. The DD51 class were built in 1962 or 1972-77 (accounts vary) I originally thought they were B-B-B wheel arrangement but it turns out they are B-2-B, which seems a bit odd but there is some cunning method for changing the overall axle weight from 14-15 Tonnes by by altering the pressure on the springs, according to the Japan Modern Transport Museum. They aren’t exactly beautiful, but they do have a very impressive presence with their long hoods and big centre cab (they are in fact 18m long over buffers). I have some vague idea about making a B-B-B locomotive, based on the general design, for the KÖB’s steep diesel-only section between Dachsburg and Spitzenwald, the rationale being that the container and wood traffic needed a powerful locomotive in the 70's but an early C-C unit had tried to straighten out the curves. I know I could ask for pictures, and there are a few online (The one above is from this Wikimedia Gallery), but very few show the side of the locomotive (Which I think is the most impressive view) and it’s nice to have your own picture anyway.
The probem is that DD51’s seem to be shy. Last week I saw some skulking behind a billboard in Shio-Hama which gave a good view of their wheel arrangement but very little else. As we left the station two more disappeared under a bridge. Naturally after I put the camera away. However, we will be covering a lot of mileage on a Japan Railpass and most of it on the 3’6” system, so hopefully there will be some chance to finally get a good view of a DD51. I’ve got a fresh SD card for the camera, Just in case. I'll report on my success (or lack thereof) on Saturday…

Mystery Engine, and Where have all the pictures gone?

2007-04-30T08:14:00.000+02:00

Firstly, I’d be interested to know the origins of this loco in the Kintetsu station at Shio-Hama (I think). All I’ve ever seen on the Kintetsu line is the endless procession of EMU’s so this got my attention. I suspect it’s an older loco retired into the depot to shunt EMU’s about, but any info is appreciated. I'm sure someone out there knows.
Secondly, I’ve realised the Blogger has started limiting the amount of space I have for pictures, so from now I’ll probably just have a small one like the one on this post, an it will be a link to my Flickr Gallery, unless the prototype is relevant for my own modelling purposes. However, I'm still taking loads of pictures: have a look here for more JR images and a set of shots of the standard Gauge Kintetsu line, with detail pictures of things like pantographs and overhead power supplies.

Halfway Point

2007-04-30T07:34:00.000+02:00

I’m about halfway through this time in Japan, and I’m starting to twitch. I really want to get back to building models.

I’m filling the gap a bit by reading the current issue of “Narrow Lines”, the bi-monthly issue of the 7mm Narrow gauge Association, and “Model Railways on a Budget”, which was written a long time ago by C.J. Freezer. Some of the ideas may seem a bit ‘dated’ like the suggestion to use Post Office relays (Remember those?), but to be fair that’s not a fault of the book –it was published 20 years ago after all. It remains a useful item for those of us who have to really consider every expenditure and besides I’m a bit of a dinosaur with technology and naturally warm to suggestions like using bicycle spokes for point control.

I picked up my copy in a second hand bookshop on the Wensleydale Railway in the UK for an appropriately miserly four pounds. I don’t know if a similar book has been printed since- it would bee an excellent idea, and a good antidote to the style I see frequently in Germany, where everything is available off the shelf and model making is known as the rich man’s hobby. I was able to start again because I had just enough knowledge to keep my costs down, but anyone walking into my local model shop in Stuttgart would get the impression that you need to mortgage the house and have a handy spare barn to make a decent layout -which cannot be good for the future of the pastime. Hopefully there will still be a few of us bodgers who follow the less well travelled paths and are willing to compromise on perfection in order to have our ‘own” railway at an affordable price. Bicycle spokes and all…

Perhaps there is a “Low cost model making conspiracy”. Come to think of it, “Model Railways on a Budget” is a small red book. Is there a subliminal message here?

Virtual Modelmaking

2007-04-30T07:21:00.000+02:00

This week I did a Very Silly Thing: I signed up for the ‘Gnatterbox’ after lurking about for some time. This is a forum full of very good and very friendly model makers, all building minimum gauge models of various descriptions. The main focus is Gn16: G-scale models on 16,5mm track (Used by some misguided souls for 00/HO standard gauge modelling) but last week I found the 09 section (Same scale as the Körschtalbahn but with 9mm gauge track) and I was hooked. Even worse, Colin Peake has updated his “Shifting Sands” gallery, which is built in this scale/gauge, and is beautifully modelled and detailed and pretty small too. Now I keep thinking about the 9mm gauge chassis I’ve got lurking in a drawer at home, and it occurs to me that it wouldn’t cost much to get a few Black Dog Mining wagons, and I could just transfer figures across from my main project when I want to... I’m sure a small shunting layout won’t take up much space…

Sunset on the Crossing…

2007-04-25T09:38:00.000+02:00

I told you there would be more pictures here… This crossing is a favourite location ever since I first wandered across it a few years ago. As an added plus the sun shines along the track as it sets. Here’s some first attempts at linesiding there. Funny how you see some things after the event: I didn't notice the utility pole behind the barrier until afterwards. Ah well...

View towards the station

Toba bound train passes. Notice that this is about the same width as a standard gauge "sprinter" in the UK. So much for "narrow gauge is small" I set this up to quickly and cropped the top of the "X"

Cars crossing the line showing the cramped nature of the site. Just after I took this picture another car turned up from behind the camera.

After the sun went down one of the more modern two-car units turned up. Of course.
(Anyone who has information to add on any of the pictures please feel free to comment)

Reading Matter.

2007-04-23T09:15:00.000+02:00

Now and again I have a good trawl through the Internet in the hope of finding some interesting model railway related websites, and this time I stumbled on a couple of very interesting sites. First on the list is the well known 7mm scale Narrow Gauge “Teetering by the Well” by Dave Balcombe, which is quite well known in 7mm circles and should have been on my links section ages ago, especially as Dave has been very encouraging about my own beginners efforts. The site is well written and entertaining: worth a visit even if it isn’t your “area of interest”.

I noticed the site belonging to David Mallot primarily because of the “.de” at the end of his web address, denoting a German domain, but stayed just because of the quality of his tiny 2mm finescale model, "Chapel Wharf". His aim was to show that “a small layout can be interesting to operate” his model is a bare 95 x 19 cm (38 x 7 1/2 inches) when in use and can fold down to fit in a 50x40x15mm carrying case. Staying with the ‘small’ theme, have a look at Bob Blackcloud’s micro layouts, which are many and various so I’m not going to try and describe them. Just have a look…

Finally a mention of John Teal, of the RJR branchline, (In the links section) who has sadly abandoned 7mm scale/0n30 and now runs something called “00” on his track. Never mind, it remains an interesting small scale garden layout, and the LMS train on his homepage does look pretty good. It will also be interesting to see how the transformation takes place...

(Update: I realised the link to Bob Blackcloud's layouts was broken. Should be fixed now...)

Finally, pictures...

2007-04-21T10:06:00.000+02:00

I’ve not had a lot of time and decent weather, but I was able to get a bit of linesiding in a couple of days ago before severe Jetlag kicked in.

There is a railway there: The black and yellow signs mark a crossing on the lump in the road. I like this location so there will be more pictures here.

Two railcars approach Ise Station from Toba on the 3’6” JR line

Ise is like a full-size model railway, with the sort of features that "Don't happen real life": 2 Track gauges, two big stations a train's length from each other. Railways climbing over each other on steep gradients and sharp corners, curling around a big railcar depot. which is accessed by a headshunt crossed by a busy level crossing. And it has a Junction.

Having dropped off the passengers the railcars pull forward over a crossing to the depot headshunt

Best picture so far- the railcars on the headshunt while the points are changed. The orange blur is a Kintetsu train passing behind. I'll post more Kintetsu images when I have time.

Back across the crossing into the depot. I think I may video this operation sometime as it doesn't really convey the atmosphere in still pictures.

The city is served by the Diesel operated 3'6" Japan Railways (JR) Line to Toba and the Standard Gauge, private Kintetsu line to Kashikojima. What it doesn't have is any kind of freight: Japan is a leader in passenger trains, but the rail freight tonnage is very low as a percentage of the total. We'll be travelling later this month and hopefully that will be a chance to get pictures of some of the impressive DD51 Co-Bo diesels and a few tilting trains into the bargin. I'll keep you posted and keep adding pictures. Anyone with more knowledge on Japanese Railways is more than welcome to throw in comments and corrections, and further info.

In Japan…

2007-04-18T10:35:00.000+02:00

The ferry we used to get from the airport to the railway. A bit off topic, but I needed a picture and it's too wet to go and watch trains.

I’m over 9000km from my modelling bench, which slows down modelling a bit. I can’t even take the boys and do some line siding: monsoon was delayed this year and it’s walloping it down with rain. Even if I was prepared to get my camera wet, I doubt you’d see the results.

After we arrived in Japan we managed to use a ferry, bus, and train to get to Ise. The sea was a bit rough so the catamaran was thrown about somewhat, but once we were on land we were all fine again and walked from the railway station to my inlaws house. It’s very satisfying to finish a 9000km journey on foot, even if it was only 500m.

I was able to see the JR (Japanese Railways) station briefly as we arrived. It still has the same 2-car stainless steel DMU’s, which look like a Sprinter built by Budd, and the geriatric single car units that crawl around the coast. Alongside the JR system is the private standard gauge “Kintetsu” line. It’s a bit like an interurban line with a fairly extensive network running to the coast and into the hills, electrified at 600vDC or 1500V dc depending on which source you read. I hope they know the difference. It also runs 1067mm (3’6”) and 762mm (2’6”) lines. It's interesting that the lines were obviously built using imperial measurements, but pretty academic as I can’t get any pictures. Hopefully the weather should improve tomorrow...

Contain Yourself 2

2007-04-09T17:09:00.000+02:00

I was trying to make a highly original and witty title for this: as you can see I failed.

Finally the 20' ISO container is orange. It’ll have to wait until after Japan for transfers, but at least it’s the right colour. For a while it was a sort of sludgy brown- far too foul for public viewing.

The white box sitting atop the container is the result of some concentrated modelmaking on Saturday. Eventually this will be a swap body. Unfortunately the “Postal” idea flopped this time because I failed to make the side doors properly, so this one is a more traditional single-door unit.
The postal one will be the next project... The most likely possibility is that it will be lettered for a farmers cooperative, but as you know I'm not terribly decisive on these things, so that may change.

The Swapbody is awaiting feet at the moment. The monster inside is some salvaged roofing lead from a friend's building project. Hopefully this will hold the unit on a wagon without having to resort to bluetack like I did as a teenager. For more pictures of model and prototype, click here

I had hoped to be able to report progress on a wagon but it seems that will have to wait until after the Japan trip. This Japan trip isn’t all bad: apart from a chance to see my two adorable little nieces, I can have a good look at the Japanese rail network, which is largely narrow gauge. Even better, my wife’s home town has a station with a sizable railcar depot so I expect I’ll be doing a fair bit of line siding, and posting more than a few pictures here.

I wonder if I can find a model shop…

New Links

2007-04-08T19:48:00.000+02:00

Web 2.0. is great, even for non-technical people like me who live in the prehistoric world of DC control and think “Chips” are something to be ordered with cod. I don't even have to know what I'm doing. Yesterday, for example, I added three new sites to the blogroll, without supressing a desire to shove the keyboard into the screen...

The first addition was the Dutton Bay Tramway, which is quite well known as an exhibition layout and has recently moved to a permanent home. I was sold on this one as soon as I saw the fleet of large diesels gracing the homepage.

Also from Australia is The Shelley Railway Company, a H0n30 model which by the looks of the current project will be hosting some big and very finely detailed trains fairly soon. (The line has its own gallery here, as part of the Australian Narrow Gauge Web Exhibition.)

Back in the Motherland, the Rhyd Ddu Railway blog has regular and entertaining updates from Colin Lea is on his model of the Welsh Highland railway, some good links, and interesting thoughts about model making in general. Thanks to Stephen at Fairlight Works for passing the last two along.

I’ll keep adding links as and when I find them or when kind people pass them to me, so if anyone reading this has a model, let me know the link and I'll have a look... I'm also getting the sidebar more organised so it’s quicker to find what’s where.

After all, it’s so easy to do...

Underground Modelmaking

2007-04-02T18:33:00.000+02:00

I made it to the Exhibition. I think they were a bit bemused by me taking pictures of the wagons and leaving out their superb scenery. I didn’t realise it but the model is big, permanent (as in “part of the building”) and based on the Rhätische Bahn between Bergun and Filisur.

Notice the 2 well wagons to the rear of the train. I finally discovered they are carrying containers and swap bodies of all kinds, especially heavy ones (The thinking seems to be that the centre of gravity is as low as possible). They often get tacked on the back of the next passenger train so that consignments can be delivered quickly when there isn’t freight on the way. I’ll be going back to visit soon so I’ll inflict more pictures on you then. Here's a few in the meantime with more on the Flickr gallery.

Krokodil in Filisur

Refrigerated Swapbody on spiral

I said it was big...

And yes, I will get around to posting pictures of the half-finished container soon…

Körschtalbahn Route map.

2007-03-29T18:06:00.000+02:00

Today’s post was to be about the ISO container that’s (Just) visible in the last post, but unfortunately that isn’t happening because (1) The weather is foul and I haven’t got enough light, and (2) I haven’t had time to finish the container so it’s equally foul and I didn’t want to spoil your evening. So instead here’s a plan of the railway as it currently exists in my head. I’ll post the container another time… I’d be grateful to geographers for ignoring some of the more glaring inaccuracies. I’ll clean those up for a later version of the map.

Organised Modelmaking

2007-03-27T17:27:00.000+02:00

Yesterday Stephan (My eldest son) and I spent the afternoon bashing nails into wood and produced “Daddy’s Modelling tools box” My modelmaking tools were languishing in old ice cream boxes and my wife was quite reasonably getting fed up of it cluttering our office/bedroom. It was this or be banished to the outer darkness of the cold utility room whenever I wanted to build anything.

Of course it was fun to build it with Stephan and he was really excited to be "Helping Daddy".

The funny coloured box on top is the ISO container, hopefully in the process of being painted into Hapag-Lloyd Orange, or an approximation thereof.

I organised all my bits last night and this morning Stephan insisted that I go through it with him, and show him the contents of each drawer (of "our box") in turn.

Going Postal

2007-03-21T17:31:00.000+01:00

The "container question" continues. Whilst I'm not planning to make a collection like that on Nick Gurney's intermodal model, I think there may be more than one running on the KÖB, and I'm too cheap to get another kit, so I've been looking at tanktainers, swapbodies and roll-on containers and anything with flat sides until I resolve the "Corrugation issue"

And my goodness but there's a lot of possibilities. I may bore you with those another time, but this week I wasted my precious minutes creating a postal container based on those used by the Rhaetian Bahn. For those who aren't familiar with this company, it is a metre gauge line in Switzerland which doesn't seem to have heard that narrow gauge trains are old and can't carry big things. Amongst other heavy duty wagons including cement carriers, bogie tankers, roll-on container carriers and some very nice side-panel vans, they clearly have a contract with the Swiss postal service, and carry post in a fleet of swapbodies (If that’s the word for a lot of yellow boxes), which are designed to be accessible from road or rail. I first found these on the very comprehensive Schewizer Schmalspurbahn gallery where they are shown on well wagons, although I don’t know if this is for clearance or ease of access. The Railfan Europe site shows these and other similar swapbodies on normal four wheel wagons, which would be useful for my tiny layout.

Anyway, the drawing shows the general idea, please compare with the pictures of the real thing and let me know what you think. What would a UPS version look like?

Takeover? Maybe not...

2007-03-21T17:22:00.000+01:00

The unanimous opinion on G1 in Connex livery was “Bring back red”. Thank goodness for image manipulation.

Connex are changing their name to Veolia now, and Paul Smith of Widnes Road fame tells me they are gradually changing the corporate colours to red and white. Their German website is changing too. It seems they have decided to follow my lead…

Being a Brit I can't resist mentioning that after a mild winter it started snowing yesterday...

Location.

2007-03-17T11:42:00.000+01:00

Or: More learning The Gimp…

Here is the location of the KÖB, just on the northeast corner of the Black Forest. All the railways apart from the KÖB are real, if rather inaccurately drawn. Spitzenwald is fictional, but the other towns all exist although Dachsburg is moved slightly. If you are so inclined, you can even find Wildberg on Google Earth by entering “72218 Wildberg Germany”

The numbered railways are all 1000mm lines that existed in the Black Forest:

1: “Todtnauerli” running from Zell im Wiesental to Todtnau;
2:Müllheim-Badenweiler, electrified, but I don't know what voltage- nand I can't find anyone who does, and:
3:“Alternsteigerle“, from Nagold to Altensteig

There were plans for another electrified 1000mm line from Todtnau to Freiburg and a steam operated one from Todtnau to meet the standard gauge near Titisee, but this was never built. Strangely, no-one really knows why.

This map was made for a magazine and had to be black and white. When I get time I’ll post a rather better colour map of the KÖB showing how Spitzenwald fits into the overall scheme of things. I have been planning Spitzenwald itself as well. More on that soon.

Takeover

2007-03-14T16:22:00.000+01:00

I'm learning how to use "The Gimp" at the moment, and it occured to me that as Connex/Veolia Group run a lot of the local railways, with a bit of a different history they may well have taken over the KÖB, so I tried some image manipulation into their livery. What do you think? I think I prefer red.

This is not quite the sum total of my progress but it's not far off. I'm hoping that the current work deluge will calm down soon and I can get back to ma true vocation. Real progress may be a while though as we're off to visit family in Japan in April/May. On the other hand that's a chance to travel on/photograph/experience some real main line Narrow gauge so the blog will likely be active.

I've also found a model railway association around here which I may even join as they are very big on familiy activities involving model railways. We shall see...

Contain Yourself...

2007-03-04T11:58:00.000+01:00

I’m the proud owner of a grey resin box, just recognisable as a model iso container. No numbers, details, or even locking mechanisms as yet, but it’s a start. Besides, I’ve got all the help I need on details because there are websites out there belonging to container enthusiasts, people who travel around the place photographing containers. (Like this one for example). And why not? bearing in mind I’m keeping a blog of how I glue and paint bits of plastic, and was recently photographing seats in a local train (See last entry) I’m not about to take a superior attitude. Besides it’s a mine of information and I’ve learned enough to know how to make my own containers in future, so it’s even saved me some money…

I reckon a modern narrow gauge line would be into intermodal in a big way. Look at it this way- a transporter wagon or rollboks are complex bits of equipment, non-standard and very specialised. This will put the cost up. A container flat on the other hand, can be rebuilt easily from a standard gauge wagon, has to carry less weight and the transfer process uses standard cranes and systems. It’s much more flexible as well: a truck can take the load at the end of the line and carry it further into the hills.

That’s not to say I won’t have a few transporters on my line, they are too good to be left out completely. But they’re going to have some competition...

The containers are coming...