Where the rails were...

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.

Driving to Altensteig…

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]

Körschtalbahn Route map.

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.