Les1952

The other beer van, bringing up the rear of the train of four wheelers going the other way. The front end of the passenger that has the yellow van at the tail. I've chopped the shed road and the longest siding back so they don't go as far as the scenery. A closer look at the grey warehouse under construction. At the Donaueschingen end of the line the tunnel mouth now goes into something approaching blackness. The risers are my usual mix of accurate, workable and downright rubbish..... All for tonight. Les

Hello again. I've laid in a stock of Balsa for the high level "flat" (ie flattish) bits and almost cleaned Access Models out of the thin stuff. I felt that building the town on a balsa sub-base would help keep the layout manageably light. I may be wrong... First view of the Donaueschingen end with an area of thin stuff also allocated to a hardstanding between the tracks in the factory area, not yet built in this pic. The part-finished building on the front is a Busch warehouse-type building. I've got to do some tweaking of the widths at this end to get a slope down at the end and a plausible wall in front of the warehouse etc. The ramp down to the bottom is nearer the middle of the layout. The warehouse might end up here if I can get the widths to work. The grey one MIGHT go next to it with a chimney hiding the backscene discontinuity as a change from a tree... A pair of vintage vans has now arrived for the rear of the two vintage passenger trains. The other is a beer van but this one is a definite rule one creature. The start of the inset track for the industrial area. More pics to follow. Les

No problem coupling, uncoupling needs something broad and preferably non-metal to lift the droppers. However, Dapol Easi-Shunt couplings fit in the NEM pockets quite happily and seem to work better than they do in the N-gauge stuff they were designed for. Les

As promised a few days ago, the video of the 08 and the class 670 railbus is now published on Youtube. Only after publishing it did I notice the finger in the 08 section of the vid.... New locomotive is the BR94 by Kuehn. Nice loco that runs well. A little disappointing is the nylon valve gear. Probably the last steamer for the time being, unless something really exciting comes up on eBay. Talking of eBay I've managed to secure a class 212 diesel by Modist, and an ex-set class 280 diesel by Tillig which are winging their weary way to me, no doubt via a customs shed that will relieve me of more of my hard-earned readys in import duties. I've also pre-ordered the latest Arnold Kof, this time from Hornby (more loyalty points...) The intention is the BR94 on one vintage passenger set with the BR86 going the other way, the three or four B-B diesels (110, 212, 280 and 290) on through freight with the 4W diesel , the 08 or a V36 on pick-up duties, and railbuses on regular passenger. The bigger steamers (Class 38, class 58 and A4) will appear on Plandampf days only. One more railbus to buy with more freight stock. All for tonight Les

I bought one of these, but have yet to start it- the chassis mods are quite frankly beyond me. I have, however, discovered that a 57xx chassis fits in quite well, and the mod to put a radial wheel on the back would be rather less than the mods to the 56xx. That one above looks lovely. Les

More ballasting done Round the first Dapol uncoupler, which still works after the experience. More stock to convert.. Showing the extra joins in the backscene which will need disguising with random trees.. The town will be here at a height of between one and two inches, covering about 2/3 of the space behind the shed road. Closer view showing the exit at this end. The re will be an overbridge at this end with a track into the woods, and I'll only decide whether to use the tunnel mouth once it is in place. the road will go offstage behind the flats disgusied with another building. the position of the flats is still not yet totally decided on. Not got the video processed. Friday perhaps as I'm out most of tomorrow. Les

My favourite version is Status Quo's cover on their "Riffs" album. Les

Test fitting the backscene gives a huge gap where there will be nothing but sky. I'm going to move it along from the original idea of using one sheet on each half of the board. It will create another two joins but judicious trees should disguise these. The Donaueschingen end papered. The tunnel mouth will be well forward to allow the road to pass over the top. There will also be a higher level so the dip in the hills will be behind this, and a suitably large tree will disguise the discontinuity in the sky. A close-up of the almost finished warehouse- just a little tweaking of the roof and some judicious dirt to do. Pics of the other end of the layout to follow, with a vid. Such excitement promised..... Oh, and the Class 94 has arrived. Les

Latest into stock is the class 670 double-deck railbus. Only seven built, in 1996. The first was a demonstrator (which is my excuse for having one) and the other six went to DB. They didn't last long. One no longer survives, the demonstrator is preserved, four were sold on to private operators, with two still in service a couple of years ago and the others were in store last I heard. Model by Kres, this one came factory DCC fitted. At some stage in the future I'll work out how to get into it and add a driver and a passenger or two- not many as the line is supposed to be quiet except for the steam specials. Also into stock is a secondhand Hornby Class 08 at a reasonable price. It had lost its centring spring from the coupling at the nose end, but a little work with superglue while I had the body off has fixed the coupling rigid. It copes with the longest wheelbase wagons through reverse curves, though it runs better through Peco points than Hornby. Now fitted with a decoder which was the narrowest non-Lais one I have and still wouldn't sit correctly in the channel. It has gone in diagonally and the body has gone back on cleanly. There were plenty of banger blue 08s sold out of service by the period the layout is set, so it might stay banger blue. OTOH if it is also to be used on the UK layout it will need a repaint into an earlier livery. Not yet, though. Comparison of size between the 08 and the German equivalent. Lastly a pic showing the difference between the UK loading gauge and a modern German wagon. All for today. Les

Next stage has been getting the ends with the arches through added to both ends of the backscene. Assuming we are viewing the scene from the South (as in Furtwangen Ost and in Bregenbach im Schwarzwald), this is looking towards Donaueschingen. Roco class 290, possibly one of the first sold out of service, heads east on a van train. Looking West towards Furtwangen. In this version of the Bregtalbahn it never got any further than the real one did, ie to Furtwangen. Using some available pieces of Balsa to try out heights for the buildings at the town end of the layout. The exit at this end may be a tunnel as used on Bregenbach im Schwarzwald and one end of Furtwangen Ost or just disguised by trees and a road bridge, as used in Croft Spa and one end of Hawthorn Dene. I'll make my mind up after I get the backscene paper fixed on. Lastly, progress with the barrel roofed warehouse. The basic rendered overlays are on the walls, and the doors now all have their handles. The three sections are firmly glued together. Just the roof, gutters and cladding overlays left to do. All for now Les

A view showing how the hidden sidings and point levers hide behind the backscene. Plenty of room here also to put sheets with the addresses of the locos- I won't be able to use the system from Croft Spa and Bregenbach, so I'll use a development of the permanent sheets on the back of NO PLACE, though this will need a photograph of each loco/unit. I'll also default to the original Bregenbach system of forwards is to the left leaving the yard. That will make it easier to operate, though I'm not going to make any attempt at getting everything to run at the same speed- this layout will not need consists. The Joswood barrel roofed warehouse is proceeding nicely. Putting the hinges on the doors was interesting- each is about 6mm long. Next step is the door handles. Deep joy... Similarly the flat block is progressing. I'm doing the version with balconies and cellar entrances, which will mean it needs sinking into the ground a little. I'm not happy with the DR logo on the sides of the 4-wheel coaches, though the livery is otherwise just what I want for them. Fortunately my trusty Faber-Castell Perfection erasing pencil has seen off the DR lettering. A trawl through my box of left-over transfers found a number of Highland Railway crests, which with the garter part cut off and rotated 90 degrees look good enough to be the Bregtalbahn's crest. There were 12 left on the sheet, and those nice Fox people from Leicestershire do the crest in 4mm so I should have enough for any locos and stock I wish to do. Coach with crest applied to side. Train of three. All this now needs is a van of some kind. The Rebenbummler on the Kaiserstuhlbahn used a vintage beer van, so something like that might well be appropriate as a tail vehicle. All for now. More ballasting to follow, and the next phase of the backscene. Plenty to do. Les

My secondhand one with the missing coupler spring now performs perfectly with the coupler superglued firmly into place. It is quite happily staying coupled to bogie coaches, short Hornby wagons and some very long wheelbase Tillig and Piko wagons including round radius 2 curves. The fact it is the front one with only limited sideplay when correct due to the air tanks restricting play might help. I did need to adjust one pickup that was losing contact when the engine turned right. I've lost count of how many OO locos and (particularly) Farish N-gauge ones where I've had to do the same.... Les

The bendy ply for the backscene has arrived and is in process of being installed. I've made up my mind which backscene from ID Backscenes best suits and that is now on order. I've got a Kres double-deck railbus coming from Modellbahnshop Lippe and an Kuehn Class 94 0-10-0T from Elwira (three more N-gauge loco sales paid for those). I've also made a start on ballasting. The card carcass is the first stage of a barrel roofed warehouse by Joswood- a laser cut kit. First looks leave me impressed. The long siding at this end will need shortening to get the industrial section in now @ve swapped the town and industry ends. Les

I can't see these as "showcase" wagons so I'm a lot more concerned with their overall weight and how free running they are. I'm not looking for private owner wagons, though may re-livery one or two into NCB internal user stock at some time in the future. To me they are far too clean and would need work before being put on a layout, but that is the same with just about everything - keeping folks like TMC in business for years to come.. On a layout at a show the number of punters who will look at a rake of wagons and say "those brakes are wrong" is vanishingly small, though they do exist- I had a woman look at the squirrel on N-gauge Hawthorn Dene at its first show and tell me it was the wrong colour- they didn't have grey squirrels in County Durham in 1960. I've looked at a lot of layouts where the stock is immaculately detailed, and there are some incredibly obvious clangers on other aspects of the layout- as a retired show manager I looked at a lot of exhibition layouts assessing them for our show. Some really beautiful stuff failed the "will it keep our punters happy" test miserably. However the hobby encompasses all sorts. Les

Oddly enough I've just purchased an 08 secondhand (the price was fairly attractive for a loco I would otherwise have ignored). This had the same coupler issue as reported by Michanglais. I did a simple fix with superglue when I took the body off to fit a decoder. What I find more of an issue is the tray the blanking plate fits in- not wide enough for either the Gaugemaster or the Zimo decoders I had in stock. In the end it got the Zimo fitted in at an angle and just a little over the top of the tray- the body has gone back on. The coupler glued straight is the one between the air tanks at the front, which had only very limited lateral movement. It will at some stage get its couplings swapped for Easi-shunts but it is presently in running-in mode- I have no idea how many hours it has already done. Running-in is limited to the hour or so each day between vacuuming up the previous day's ballasting and doing the next session. A couple of pics- one with one of the other recent additions to stock- a class 770 double-deck railbus by Kres, and the other showing how much smaller it is than Continental loading gauge, despite the scale being the same.. Les

The points on the front are worked by wire in tube from my last stock of GEM point levers, intended to be behind the backscene. Well spotted Graham T. Last in before the layout went back up was the first building, a block of flats by Auhagen. The idea is that that should be at the right hand end of the layout. Once the layout was set up again the first snag. It isn't going to fit the space at that end, even if the yard below is seperated from the higher level by a wall rather than a slope. Interior, balconies and cellar steps are the next to go in. Now almost all of the N-gauge wagons have gone I've started repurposing the interiors of the boxes built by the late Trevor Webster for his stock. The originals had rather tight wooden sides and a felt base and held the stock a little tightly. I've taken out every alternate wooden divider and lined the interior with new felt, which is also on the underside of each tray to protect the stock below. Two of the trays are arranged with the stock across the box and the third one the opposite way. Last loco into stock before the layout was erected is this Piko shunter, a model of a Russian-built industrial loco, which will eventually be used on Broken Scar as well. I waited until the layout was erected again before fitting a decoder, and instead of Tillig couplings I've fitted Dapol Easi-shunts. Seen shunting Hornby vans as an experiment. The experiment works, so Broken Scar will use Easi-shunts throughout, subject to the Hornby J94 being suitable. Four more Dapol magnets are on order, enough to put one in the loop, and one on each siding at what was the shed, but will end up as the industrial end. Plywood backscenes next. Les

I'm hoping for one of these in due course... Les

First of five motive power items to arrive while the layout was packed up is this Roco BR80 0-6-0T. I'm not entirely convinced by the red plastic worm clearly visible in the cab, but I think it might need some lubrication here. Next a pair of Berliner TT Bahn V36 diesels, both now DCC fitted. The grey one is a much better runner than the yellow, but both are acceptable. With the BTTB diesels came this Class 110, again from BTTB. Easier to fit a decodedr into, the LaisDCC one inside it ran the motor on test but now won't. I'll replace it with something more substantial later. Last in, for now, is a Ferkeltaxe pair in DB colours by Kres. Interesting to fit a decoder to. the buffers have to be removed to allow the body to be removed, and the Next18 socket is then on top of the circuit board. It didn't like the first decoder I fitted to it, running very slowly indeed. Second attempt sees it with a Dapol Imperium decoder inside it, and all is well. This will be one of probably three railcar sets running the basic passenger service for the line, with the diesels handling the freight and a steamer on vintage coaches. Scenics and buildings to follow. Les

I have two Fleischmann sound-fitted electric locos that have had the same problem with coupler boxes. Those were more than twice the price.. Nowadays I use a pair of curved-end tweezers to ease the coupling out, with the coupler gripped in the heel of the curve and the tweezer ends as a lever on the loco body. i also put a fingernail firmly on the front of the pocket to absorb some of the pull. It works on all makes I've tried it on, including Hornby wagons changed over to Easi-shunt. the Tillig couplers are a very tight fit in the sockets, and a little variable in that. Again I'ven noticed this across more than one make- fitting them into Piko NEM pockets is quite challenging at times... Les

A rarely seen view of the train board round the back. As trains always (well, almost always..) return to the same road in the fiddle yard each has a magnetic strip which sits on the whiteboard showing what addresses the two trains in that road have. 22 and 503 are in the brewery but can run back down the line. 111 as spare engine has its strip laid on top of it to swap quickly. Note the green number 1 for "normal" sound locos and the orange number 2 for Minitrix sound with completely different functions. Loco "22" in person, having had a lot of help dragging two coaches up the slope into the station. Les

By the end of Feb the basic oval was complete, and more points were on order to finish the job. The points at each end of the loop were to be worked by wire in tube from Gem Point levers (left over from Hawthorn Dene) behind the backscene. The stock (UK and German) by this time was more than enough to fill the three roads of the original fiddle yard, so the start of the kick-back sidings were laid in. The Rebenbummler-type coaches behind the BR86, taken much more recently (today). Since the pic I've successfully removed the DR lettering from the side of one, meaning I can now recrest the set- I'll find something suitably obscure in my transfers box- maybe a Corporation Crest in the old Mabex transfers.... Next loco into service is a Roco BR38 with Sound, that 3SMR had had in stock unsold for several yonks. The video showing it moving over the Peco to Hornby track join is already posted. Moving ahead, the track arrived and all was laid in and tested ready for the layout to be packed away so Bregenbach im Schwarzwald could be set up to prepare for shows at Leicester and York. This was the point at which I discovered that two leftover ends from Gresby would fit and allow the layout to make a 4 foot by 2 foot 6 by 2 foot (I thought) box for transport, with 17 inches between the boards when packed- enough for backscenes and buildings to be eight inches high. A close-up of the fiddle yard, also showing the entire electrical connection between the two sides of the board- a two way chocky block above the layout but behind the backscene. The next spasm continues the story from being re-erected on Sunday 14th May after Bregenbach im Schwarzwald came back from York show. Les

Doesn't explain 4 of them behind an A1 belting Southwards along the ECML at the head of a fitted express goods/parcels. I've sold the Steam Days mag it was in, sadly or I'd have risked copyright infringement by scanning the relevant part of the photo. Les

Next loco into stock is from Tillig, a BR86. The first German steamer I actually saw was the Class 64 on the Nene Valley- a prototype for a future purchase as funds permit. The 86 is a model of the second one I saw. Not sound fitted- they haven't got that far with them yet, and nothing like as well made as the Arnold locos. It shed part of its valve gear (which is nylon) and although I've got one shed part safely in the box the other is still at loose on the shed floor. A bit of a pest only being able to run it with one side facing the punters.... Why an 86? 86457 plinthed at Trier in December 1978, when we spent Christmas there and attended a friend's wedding on Dec 27th or 28th. I managed to get in to get the photo, despite speaking little German and the gatekeeper speaking little English we negotiated that I needed to sign an indemnity form. All those NCB visits in the sixties and early seventies paid off... More on the Rebenbummler train. The coaches are the same as the Tillig ones I've got, so taking DR off the side (perhaps adding a logo in place) should do. The second coach of the set was standard green, though I can't remember what if any logo there is on the side. Tail vehicle for the train is a vintage Riegeler Bier van. This is why Bregenbach im Schwarzwald has a Riegeler van on its local train together with a Furstenburg van from Donaueschingen. There isn't a Riegeler van in TT that I can find, but I'll get something that looks similar to be going on with. Les

I'm not looking to buy as a B set is too big for my OO layout- it can JUST manage a 4 wheeler plus a six wheeler. I have had a B set in N gauge at one time, and when the club had Farndon Road on the go I was thinking of a second one to put with it behind an A1 to make the train I described earlier. My own UK outline layouts have been set North of York and B sets never got that far even travelling to/from off-region paintshops. Les

So the E140s were only paired. How similar is the E145 where there were singletons? Les