Donnersbachkogel

[Vecchio]

Yes but Brusio has an overhead line.... when the landscape is formed it will be less Brusio like. May be I am inspired - did the train ride there in 2008  

[PaulRhB]

I'm sure it will be different but the foam reminded me of the viaduct

Not that overhead is bad as there's those nice Mariazeller electrics and . . .

[Vecchio]

So - long time quiet - anything new?

Yes. After some time of head scratching I decided to throw out the Lenz and use the Z21 for this layout. Even I recently upgraded the Lenz handsets and LZV100 it is still a different generation. By changing the system I also saved more than 1 kg of weight on one of the middle boards as the Lenz had a real transformer while the Roco Z21 has one of the newer electronic power supplies.

Other than that I corrected a few bugs - wrong board address on controller 4 - was running together with controller 1   - This is written in 5 seconds - but I had to disconnect and to tilt the module, put a temporary power supply on and set the address right... Further I put additional drop wires (or rather lets say make drop wires there where I forgot to make them in the first place) to the rails. So from a technical point of view the H0 part is running perfect, all points and signals are controlled. Also the H0e part is running - up to the part where the ramp starts. As I had not enough ramp parts I had to order a second 3% set, which should have arrived today (last week the snow excuse was in place - and to be honest it was quite difficult to drive - especially in the housing areas). I also cut holes into the end module - so that god's hand can take out the train should there be an accident in the part under the mountain. These holes are not the nicest, as I forgot that the cross braces are not going exactly into the corners of the module. Anyway - I didn't cut through the cross braces but in 2 points I went very close. As the reader may know I like my normal woodworking standards - so I better do not take any photo of these cuttings... They will be covered by the mountain anyway.  

 

I also found a B-grade mini milling machine on ebay, which helps me enormously with the production of more overhead line poles. Mini milling machine is relative - the beast has 50kg... The only fault it had was a cover on the top of the cast iron column which came off - I could glue that back on within 10 minutes. This saved me 350£ from the price of a new one... The machine is a Sieg SX2 but came in the colours of a Devon based tool shop and has 1 year guarantee (an A grade machine would have 3 years). I milled the conical part of the remaining tower poles and they came out with a quality I never could machine them before. A few photos will follow.

 

20180301_201555

Edited March 6, 2018 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

At the end of the weekend it is time for some progress photos. The land starts to form - very slow. 

 

DSC_0731 

 

The H0e track has been glued to the ramp, there will be some ballasting on the visible areas later. I tried the ramp with all rolling stock I could find - 3% are no problem at all. 

On this photo you can also see the top station and the very small circle - which will be the mine. Only the diesel loco will go into the mine, for this loco the radius is not a problem. 

 

 

DSC_0743 

 

I tried to see if there is enough clearance between the station board and the ramp - no problem at all. The challenge will be to put the servos into a position where I can maintain them... 

And of course - the 4mm lightply "baseboard" will get some stiffening where necessary. 

 

DSC_0749 

 

The most important tool of the day - and also a tool I can really recommend. Simple but adjustable, and the bow can also be used without the table if needed. 

Comes with a transformer and 7 spare wires. I am still on the first one. You find it on e-bay if you look for 

Hot Wire Cutter Two Cutters in One Polystyrene Depron Blue and Pink Foam & Epp

and it is worth every penny.

 

DSC_0748 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Vecchio

[PaulRhB]

Looks the same as my one although I rarely use the table part just the big U Hotwire, simple but brilliant bit of kit.

 

The landforms look natural too.

 

Just a thought on how I'm guessing the tunnel will develop, put a card wall around the inside of the trackbed that's about 5mm above rail level, it might stop any derailed stock in the tunnel falling to the floor but still give access through the baseboard holes?

Edited March 19, 2018 by PaulRhB

[Vecchio]

A bit of progress, even the week was not an easy one with meetings in London, Brussels and finally Doncaster...

Anyway. No moaning, we want money, we have to work...

 

I put some ballast on the track where it is visible. First the H0 part

20180322_201034 

 

And now the H0e part. 

20180322_201008 

 

Worked a bit on the H0e tunnel. I make about 12 cm with proper tunnel wall, the rest stays open to allow "rescue" actions.

20180322_193852 

 

Looks ok. 

20180322_200921 

 

And now with flash...

20180322_200943 

 

Next thing will be to get the "mini layout" on top into shape. Will see what time the weekend will offer.

[Philtown-Branch]

Hello, I´ve posted some pics of my recently refurbished British 00 outlined Branchline & Shunting-layout "Plankwell Yard" at RM-web yesterday - during my session at the forum I had also a closer look at your topic about Donnersbachkogel. It´s a superb layout design and I´m very impressed about your construction of the overhead live wires and mast-equipment. Well, I´m working on an Austrian layout too, but it will be a bit smaller than yours - it´s an N-Gauge design of "Höllgraben-Viadukt" at the Semmeringbahn (North-ramp). At the moment I´m working with the baseboard of the scenic section and I´m planning to open an extra thread about this topic if working is progressing.

 

 

With kind regards from Vienna,

 

Phil

[Vecchio]

Thanks for your kind comments, in principle Donnersbachkogel is a Roundy with a H0e branch-line. And as the branch line leads to a station in the mountains people have something to look at and hopefully forget that it is a roundy (with tight radius curves - they exclude some of my best locos - like the 1040 - a long time Semmering helper - normally forming a double header with a 1042 - from the time the 1042 started to run up to the mid 90th...

 

This is an impressive piece of viaduct you are building here - I suppose you will also model the entrance into the Pettenbach Tunnel and the typical Semmeringbahn Waechter Haus (There were typical stone houses built for the guards and people looking after the maintenance intensive railway line. They are still there, but now available for people having worked for the railway company).

 

 

 

 

I grew up (minimum in the summer as my parents had a small house there) a few viaducts further up the line - The Wagner Viaduct, a two story viaduct and actually the second largest 2 story viaduct on the Semmering line. It was always my dream to model a part of this line, but A) I model in the wrong scale (H0) and B) I live in the UK so my space is limited by the length of my garage.... So what I have done is only the house of my parents, in exactly 1:87, which stands on a shelf in my mums flat in Vienna.

 

I am looking forward to your thread!

 

And for those looking into Donnersbachkogel: Yes, there is some progress, I have wired all points on the mini layout, now a semaphore and a d-coupling unit are being installed, after that I have to proceed with the overhead lines of the mainline below. Photos will come during the Easter weekend.

[Philtown-Branch]

Hello and many thanks for the reply - if I come up with the Hoellgraben-Project, I will start a new topic here. Certainly I will model the Waechterhaus and the entrance of Pettenbachtunnel. In the meantime I`ve ordered the photo-backscene for the scenic section, which will be delivered in about 2 weeks. Thank you for your personell background-information too, I know the Semmering Railway very well because I grew up near Muerzzuschlag and finished my studies in Graz. After 10 years working as a tour-guide & operator in different countries (especially in the UK and IRL during the summer months as well), I´m in charge as a geographer/historian in Vienna for 18 years. I´m involved in the MEC N-Spur Austria/Vienna for many years, so if you are planning a short-term stay in Vienna, I would looking forward to show you our large Semmeringbahn-Layout in N-Gauge, which is homebased in our clubrooms in Wien-Meidling. Since 2016 I´m also involved in the Austrian Railway Group/UK and worked for the society at different events here in Austria and also in the UK (2 times at the Ally Pally Show).

 

With kind regards,

 

Phil

[Vecchio]

Thanks for the offer, I am in Vienna 2 or 3 times per year, both for private and business reasons. Next one could be in week 18, but I will let you know as soon as it is fixed.

Best regards  Gerhard aka Vecchio

[Vecchio]

As mentioned - some photos from the build. I fixed the track to the "mini layout", put on all servos (and tried to fix them in a way that they can easily be replaced should this be necessary)

 

You can see the servo is held in place by a piece of PCB which is elastic as a spring. If I move the PCB away I can get the servo out without any tool. 

DSC04655

 

The whole thing ready, I left the semaphore out as I have to build it before putting it in its place, also I suppose I will make it in a way that it can be maintained and comes out together with its servo. The wires for the semaphore are already there. (semaphore is from a Viesmann kit, I think I described how to build it earlier)

DSC04653 

 

After that I connected everything, did the set-up for the points and the de-coupler and made some test run. 

 

First the mining train, to have a look how it works with the tight curves. 

This is a video, click on the arrow in the middle. 

 

00029 

 

And finally a test of the steam train who needs to get the loco to the other side of the train - and without gods hands of course... 

 

00028 

 

What do I use for the de-coupling? A thin piece of plastic sheet, an aluminium pin, driven by a servo below. This pin is guided by a brass tube. The plastic is cut to a size which doesn't disturb the wheels, and is fixed to the track by 2 steel sewing pins. There are oval holes in the plastic which allow it to form a wave shape when the pin comes up. Of course the heads of the pins have been painted black. This was the first one of several I have to make. Cost: 1£80 - which is the cost for the servo - all other stuff is from bits in my workshop. And of course - some patience is necessary...  

Edited March 30, 2018 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

Not much modelling over Easter, but a lot of eating and drinking. (2kg plus )

And now the garden wants some care as well.... ok, I did something. To get the mini-layout connected and fixed to the main baseboard I have to finish the overhead line of the mainline below.  

And this needs patience and a lot of small drills (broke 2 0.5mm drills yesterday evening...)

Finally I played a bit on my lathe and made 120 of my "insulators", which I described a little earlier. And I am working on 10 standard poles. They are already made and would be operational, but now the "model touch" has to be added, means small L profiles and round profiles which hold the bracket. Hope I get this done by Saturday and then comes the paint shop. 

 

20180405_205457 

[Vecchio]

Out of the paint shop - and yes - you see only 8 as 2 need a bit of re-painting...

 

20180408_162008 

 

And a bit of detail... The L profiles are 1x1mm and 5mm long - just to give an idea of how fiddly it is. 

 

20180408_162037 

 

Now I have to "plant" them on the layout and make some contact wire. 

[shanks522]

Hi Gerhard,

 

​ I really enjoy the updates on Donnersbachkogel.

 

​ Fantastic work on a very inspiring layout! Look forward to more.

 

Graham.

 

[Vecchio]

Just made the experience that the Noch tunnel portals I am using are pretty low. 

While the first picture doesn't look that bad - 

20180408_180147 

 

The second picture shows the truth.

20180408_180213 

 

I looked a bit into the internet - If I look at the south portal of the Semmering tunnel - I suppose it is an 1142 which is coming out here - the position of the pantograph shows that this tunnel is also low. (there are 2 single track tunnels at the top of the Semmering pass, one has been built by Gegha, the second one several years later) 

suedbahn 

 

And also if I look into Italy - here the Frejus tunnel - the contact wire has not much space. 

FerroviaFrejus 

 

So I will have to make some tricks to get the wires into the tunnel....

[PaulRhB]

Not unusual for the carrier wire to be much closer inside the portal and there be lots of brackets carrying the contact wire inside as it is closer so I guess needs more regular supports. I used N gauge rail, head down as contact strip, inside the tunnels on Rhätia soldered to brass hoops over the track. The wire was threaded through a hole drilled in the side of the rail and the rail end bent up slightly for a smooth transition. I wanted the hidden contact to be more robust so it would never need repairs. The transition was hidden about 40mm inside the mouth.

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by PaulRhB

[Vecchio]

Paul, 

inside the tunnel I will use a thin brass tube, which is robust and maintenance free. I did that in the past as well.

 

On the photo you see the version of my last layout, this had also optical sensors at every pole to understand where the train is. (I used this as a hidden station - go in with one train - come out with another...) Also this layout was built using extruded foam board, it was yellow not blue, but the material was practically the same. 

Fotozellen im Schattenbahnhof 

Edited April 8, 2018 by Vecchio

[PaulRhB]

Very nice, mind you where's the fun in sensors, I had three removable panels to go searching for missing trains

[Vecchio]

Te explosion of the garden plants (and weeds...), business trips and a new family member (puppy) are some of the excuses coming into my mind not doing anything for 2 month...

But now there is (a little bit of) progress.

 

The tunnel overhead wire is there in the first tunnel. It is just a 2mm brass tube, bent exactly parallel to the track. The position is checked with my usual test locomotive.

 

20180522_210658 

 

Why is there a bit of ply under one of the portals? Well I had a bad day and made it 5mm too short...

 

Now a view from above. The picture shows some parallax error. The wire is where it should be. 

 

20180522_210715 

 

Next step is the transition from the scale OHL to the tunnel one. 

[Vecchio]

And here we are. It took a while as I had to make the retaining wall before putting up the overhead line (easier that way). Yes, yes - always organised. Really? NO. Forgot the ballast on one side and glued the tunnel mouth on.... 

 

At the station side: 

20180525_181326 

 

and the detail

20180525_181345 

 

And now the other side - without ballast....

 

20180525_181405

 

Also here a look into the transition. 

20180525_181423 

 

The "tunnels" will be longer, I will put another scenic session of about 5cm on, so the visitor cannot easily see that it isn't a tunnel...

That's it for today. 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

Disaster time. 

 

It is a shame I didn't do a lot since end of May, but there were numerous business trips, garden work, DIY, the new dog and a holiday in North Devon. So I decided to go on and finish the tunnel overhead line which means producing 5 more of the little brass profile portals as desribed before. 

Even the temperature in the shed shows values well above 30 I was brave enough to proceed. Have look at that thermometer...

 

20180715_130435 

 

Having put in the new piece of OHL including the ramp to the fiddle yard (OHL ramp - there is no OHL in the fiddle yard) I wanted to test today several electric loco to see if the OHL ramp works without any jam. Yes, I will drive with Pantograph up, it would be a shame not to. 

 

Starting with the first loco I noticed a derailment below the small H0e loop. And I do not know why - but 2 drops of glue found their way exactly to the rail. there is no other drop anywhere else - just two - and both are spot on. Here is one of the ######. I suppose it is PVA, but now rock hard. 

20180716_205844 

 

As the short test loco had a few contact problems - especially were I put down the new ballast - I changed to a larger loco - 6 axles - should work better. 

Also here a derailment, now in the first tunnel. First I couldn't see anything - but then I found it. Heat damage - expansion of the rail. Of course exactly in the covered area. 

 

20180716_205449 

 

20180716_205457 

 

So this stopped my effort for today. I have to rip out the tunnel, cut off a piece of the track, remove the ballast, put a new piece in and re-ballast. This time I will not solder the rail joiners but leave a nice little gap (not too much as it is hot now...) 

 

Also I have to be careful not to drop anything to the floor of the shed - as Ruby the 4 legged monster will munch it... 

 

20180715_170338 

 

All in all not a successful evening. Better half offered to move layout into the garage, which is better insulated than the shed. What I have learned and would like to share with the community: Never under estimate the British summer.... 

Edited July 17, 2018 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

Started some kind of repair, tunnel cut away without damaging it too much. Another advantage of working with foam. As long as the plaster is not on top you can easily cut it. I found two cut marks on the rails - just were they are off the chairs. So probably it wasn't the heat alone but also the author who helped it with wrong use of a cutter blade...

In any case, rolled to Leighton Buzzard in the lunch break and got code 75 flex and also some rail-joiners, as I used everything up before (very economic but not what you need in case of a repair...)

 

So tonight I will be brave and cut out 20cm of ballasted track. I will leave the OHL on, will see if I can do it without damaging it. The ballast will be removed as well, I am looking forward to the mess. And I will use extra drop wires for the repair piece but no soldering of the joiners....

[Vecchio]

And here are some pictures. 

 

First the damaged track removed

20180718_210545

 

and then the ballast removed

20180718_211347 

 

and the new piece cut to length and tested

20180718_213340 

 

and finally glued down again. 

20180718_213855 

 

 

Was not so bad in the end but I could have done something else instead...

Ballast another day.

[Vecchio]

The repair is done and even the weather is hot I have some drive to continue. I completed all the work on the tunnel OHL. I checked the OHL ramp with several locomotives - the best was the Kleinbahn 1020 (Austrian mountain locomotive) as Kleinbahn is using large flanges this loco shows me every error I did with the ballasting. 

 

Also I saw some special offer in Austria - a 1046 from Rivarossi for 127€. Couldn't resist. Had a 1046 09 before, but it fell apart (Klein Modellbahn, mazak rott) Well - Rivarossi is Hornby today. The loco is very nice but it falls apart when you touch it... Have re-glued some insulators on the roof and I have struggled with the couplings. Chipping the loco is painful as it is so fragile that you may ruin details as you open it... And of course there were some tank cars for a reduced price - so just to save for the packaging and delivery cost...

 

20180723_222947 

 

OK, chip is in. Have no idea what it is, for sure not Zimo as I checked it. Had this chip in my bits box and it works. 

 

On the layout I went on with the top circle, had to put a semaphore signal in, made it removable for maintenance reasons. 

 

20180723_222441 

 

20180723_222514 

Edited July 24, 2018 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

So I had my day off - but my computer decided to give up. It is a one year old all in one desktop, and the graphic card or the screen playing up. I end up with a completely black screen, no cursor, nothing. If I try to shut down it comes with the message that another one is on the computer - but how on earth shall I confirm to shut down anyway??? I had to kill the system a few times, and in the end the system hang up as well.... This killed 4 hours of my precious day of holiday.

 

Anyway - there are 2 other computers in the house so I will not suffer too much until it is repaired.

 

So first I finished the semaphore signal, I just took power for the light from the supply wires of the servo.

20180725_102834

 

Now the little circle on top of the tunnel is glued on and fully connected.

20180726_194049

 

I fitted the inside of the ramp with some guard rails from extruded polystyrene to prevent the narrow gauge train from falling into the holes in the middle in case of a derailment. This was Pauls idea...

 

20180725_122607

 

Also the mountain gets a bit higher and I start closing everything. The tunnel mouth on the right is not fixed yet, need to be happy with the landscape first.

20180726_194114

 

So - this is what happened in one day, doesn't look too much. And today I was at customers - came home late after 3 hours on M25 and M1 - so no drive to do anything in the evening...

Edited July 26, 2018 by Vecchio