readingtype

Thanks for these comments and suggestions. To agree with @Michael Hodgson and @John Tomlinson as succinctly as I can: yes, the colours are a bit strange but, indeed, they're not intended to represent a livery. I'll keep thinking -- but I do want to get into production soon. With luck perhaps in time for Globalrail in Didcot, on 18 June (disclosure, I'm a German Railway Society committee member). Cheers Ben

I've been working on the artwork to make it suitable for a real-world mug. Firstly, although they look dark on screen, I'm using the 'official' Ukrainian flag colours according to Wikipedia: RAL 5019 Capri Blue and RAL 1023 Traffic Yellow. BR blue is down as RAL 5020, incidentally, though it had its own designation in the hallowed BR Corporate Identity manual. Secondly, I am hoping I can use some halftone screen tricks to keep the number of colours reasonable. Everything should come from yellow, blue or black -- and not forgetting the absence of all ink, in which case the white of the china mug will show through. I'm trying a couple of variants to see which bring out the contours of the loco better (I'm thinking the one where the side is darker and the front is lighter is the better one). Thirdly, there's the option of switching the lettering to white so there is less chance of a green fringe around the letters. Make things easy for your (mug) printer and they will be able to give you a good result: that's the thinking. Here's a screenshot from Scribus showing work in progress (the original idea at the top). Ben

I've been talking to the mug printer. Naturally as a graphic designer I have come up with pretty much the most technically challenging design possible. It's going to be fun figuring this out. A couple of highlights: the background is a flag. We want this to be printed the boldest, brightest, thickest possible. But I have placed lettering over the flag, both yellow on blue and blue on yellow. If either colour is slightly overlapping or mis-registered we could end up with green fringes as yellow is generally almost transparent to anything under it. although the illustration is basically a line drawing, the loco's shape is given by colouring the various panels in shades of the blue and yellow, showing highlight and shadow. This potentially requireds extra screen printing layers to reproduce. So, watch this space. Some headaches likely, but we'll get there. There's still plenty of time to show your support by the way -- read the first post to find out more (TLDR -- click 'agree' and be prepared to pay for a mug when they're ready). Ben

Thanks to everyone for the interest shown over the last four weeks. I think the time has come to move things closer to production. I will get started as soon as I can. Please do let others know. If they're not on RMWeb they can contact me by email: ben-132mug (at) readingtype.org.uk

Aha! Download PDF here. And there's another report that's public on the FREMO-Süd web site, though they've taken the design in a slightly different direction. That's FREMO 🙂

It's buried I'm afraid. I am not sure how private it is but I doubt there would be issues sharing the basics! Of course, the dimensions all relate to the height of the rails above the floor (130 cm) and the width of FREMO H0 modules (50 cm). There's a design decision to be made about the width of the 'footprint', given that the wider it is the more stable but the more of a trip hazard. In this case that distance is 45 cm measured across the outsides of the legs, with the centres of the legs bolted 38.1 cm apart at the top. The design uses for 5 x 3 cm timber which, being metric, isn't really a thing in the UK, so mine are 5.2 x 2.7 cm. The big disc feet are not part of the original design but are a very good addition by David. The legs are 129.1 cm long.

This short traverser fiddleyard was designed to incorporate modules from Grainge and Hodder's laser-cut baseboard range into something I could use with my FREMO modules. I had two different use cases in mind: firstly to allow the station module to become a conventional layout suitable for home or exhibition, and secondly at a FREMO meeting to add a branch-line fiddleyard representing 'the rest of the branch'. The station can only take shortish trains in the loop and platforms. The loops are about 100 cm long which is pretty reasonable for a home layout (eight two-axle European wagons in H0) but small by FREMO's more generous standards. The station platform is shorter than that. The fiddleyard module from Grainge and Hodder is 90 cm long, which is pretty much perfect. It's 40 cm wide. I've set it into a frame of my own design, all made from laser cut sheet and slotted together. that can be very quickly knocked down. This is important for any layout intended to be moved frequently. There are two more G and H modules, one at each end. They kindly modified these to be 50 cm wide and added a standard F96 FREMO end profile to one end. By offsetting the fiddleyard module from the centreline I got five equally spaced H0 tracks onto it and allowed all these to align with the run-in track which is in the centre (dictated by the FREMO profile). The two end modules provide a lot of stiffness, are the connection point for the legs, and will include typical tunnel-mouth scenics to disguise the entrance to the fiddleyard in the usual way. That's why the frame has tall sides at each end; they'll be profiled to match the landscaping once I've added this to the boards themselves. The legs also come from FREMO practice, in this case some Austrian members who shared this dimensioned design on the FREMO forum. It is so simple and obvious when you see it. The benefits compared to single legs or 'H' shaped pairs of legs are stability with minimal parts and the fact that you carry two legs in one go, yet they pack down almost flat. The built-in adjustable feet have a range of about 20mm and the legs were very kindly made for me by a fellow FREMO UK member. Incidentally, FREMO arrangements are much higher than publicly-exhibited layouts: the running surface of the rails is 130cm above floor level. The overall effect reminds me of some patient beast of burden that's queueing for the loo. On the traverser itself I used Legacy steel bullhead 00 track. It is rather nice and was on discount even during lockdown when 16.5 mm track from one key supplier was a little difficult to get. The track is on its own independent thin ply board which can be removed and in theory replaced with one carrying tracks in a different gauge, say 18.2 or even perhaps 45 mm (the latter will allow a small loco and a couple of 2-axle wagons, if I ever proceed). Power feeds run on the top surface and have yet to be fixed down. Flying leads plug into the traverser module to transfer power from the layout bus. The plan is to use magnets to align the run-in track. I have yet to discover whether this will work, but last night was the first time a train has run from the fiddleyard onto the station module and back. Cause for celebration as this lot has been interesting to research and design. I'm very thankful for Grainge and Hodder's willingness to modify their designs and to cut to order, and to David S for making the legs.

The other night I had an idea for a fundraiser mug that might appeal to other railway enthusiasts. I've put a proposal here, have a read if you're interested: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/171159-proposed-ukraine-fundraiser-br-132-not-just-another-blue-and-yellow-diesel/#comment-4781248

Thanks for Agrees so far and thanks @Allegheny1600 for your kind words. I've edited the title because I realised the teaser wasn't cutting it. Ben

I like mugs with trains on them, and so do lots of railway enthusiasts. I want to support the Ukrainians suffering from Russia's unprovoked invasion in February, and perhaps other railway enthusiasts do, too. The other day these thoughts came together and I thought I'd follow them up. Hence the mocked-up mug above (the one in front of the teapot) and a proposal: if there's sufficient interest here, then I will produce it for sale. All the money that remains once the costs of producing, shipping, delivery and admin have been met will go to the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal (https://www.gofundme.com/f/helpukraine). To keep the production costs down so that as much money as possible goes to the appeal, I need to put in a substantial order -- at least 100 mugs. This will be a big outlay and I can only really proceed if it looks like I am not going to end up with a lot of mugs gathering dust in my house. If I know I have more takers, I can get a larger order and that will mean for each one sold even more money will go to the appeal. This is where you come in. If you like the mockup shown, you support the appeal, and you are willing to pay at least £10, then please click on the 'Agree' icon below this post (it's a tick). If you want to express enthusiasm etc but you're not sure you want one then use a different button. Once I have enough confidence to proceed, I'll post instructions on how to make your payment. On the other hand, if nobody is interested I'll go back to sleep and there will be no mugs. Inother words: I'm not making any promises at all just yet. To stay up to date, follow this topic by clicking the 'Follow' button in the headline at the top. Update 9 August: for anyone reading now, there are still a small number of mugs available: here's the mug sales web site. A bit of background The Baureihe (='series') 132/232 is an iconic locomotive design beloved by European railfans, especially in Germany, where it was long ago given the nickname 'Ludmilla' by workers in the Leipzig maintenance depot in reference to its origin in the USSR. But where exactly did it come from? At the end of the nineteenth century, the German engineer Gustav Hartmann set up a locomotive factory in Luhansk. Gustav was the son of the successful locomotive builder Richard Hartmann of Chemnitz, Saxony. This new factory was well positioned to compete with other locomotive suppliers in the Russian Empire. In 1918 the factory was renamed the October Revolution Locomotive Works and it subsequently turned out more than 12,000 steam locos for the Soviet Union. After the second world war it supplied diesel locos to the Eastern Bloc. In the 1970s a good customer of the works was the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), the state railway of the German Democratic Republic. Under the centrally planned and cooperative economy of the socialist countries, East Germany was encouraged not to develop high powered diesel traction on its own initiative but to collaborate on a project covering the whole Eastern Bloc and centred on the October Revolution factory, and then to buy the resulting products. These included the DR's 120, 130, 131 and 132 series. There was an irony here given the factory was founded by a German who came from the city which subsequently became Karl-Marx-Stadt. In technical respects, it meant a move from hydraulic to electrical transmission, putting more distance between the loco specifications of the two German railway administrations. Nonetheless it was a positive step as the products have generally proven robust and long-lived. The factory suffered from looting after parts of the Luhansk region declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 and it has apparently shut down production. The Baureihe 132 pictured on the mug was delivered to the DR in July 1978. It was initially numbered 132 560-4. After the reunification of Germany it was renumbered into the 2xx series, undoing the historical numbering clash between diesels and electrics on the two railways, as 232 560-3. It was then in service with DB AG until February 2004 when it was sold for scrap. @CloggyDog photographed the loco, freshly repainted, some time around ten years earlier and I've taken one of his photos as the basis of my illustration. These locos are big and still powerful by modern European standards and they have been workhorses of the European rail network for over four decades. They now operate not only in Germany but in Poland, Hungary and Romania. This mug celebrates the loco and pays tribute to the country where it was designed and built: Ukraine. So: click 'Agree' to show your intentions, then buy a mug and support the Ukrainians in their time of need! What does the funny writing say? Well, I have had it checked by a native speaker so hopefully it's not that funny. It just says: Ukrainian product. But it's truthful, and I think cyrillic script always has an interest for those of us who can't actually read it. Sources Finally, thank you to the following sources of information: * Wikipedia, for info on the Luhansk works: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokomotivfabrik_Luhansk (English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhanskteplovoz) * Die Ludmilla in aller Welt, for info on the life of 132 560-4: http://v300-online.com/0821.html * Wolfgang Glatte, Diesellokomotiven deutscher Eisenbahnen. Berlin: Transpress VEB, 1981 Cheers, Ben

Have a look at https://www.kleinbahnsammler.at/ Yes, it is mostly not in English. But have a look anyway, if you haven't :-) Ben

The recently issued 'compendia' of articles from Model Trains International are worth a look for those who haven't seen them. I've got a copy of Modelling German Railways. http://modeltrainsinternational.co.uk/ Chris Ellis introduces the book as 'a good basic guide to modelling German railways, either for complete beginners to the German scene, and to long-time enthusiasts ...' and I would imagine the same can be said for the other titles. Don't look for product reviews, look for pragmatic projects and well-judged doses of modelling inspiration. And don't be put off by the presentation (in black and white only) which looked a bit basic even when the articles were first published. Ben

Now you mention it, that is an interesting fencepost. I've passed it hundreds of times without realising. There is, or at least I am sure there was, broad gauge rail in the fencing between the railway and Port Meadow and/or on the approaches to Walton Well Road bridge, just north and west of the station. Possibly on those of the next two bridges as well. But not the Barlow design.

Excellent! I've seen this track recreated at Didcot but it's only now that I read that the transoms and cross-ties were eight feet apart that I am amazed it all worked in real life, with spindly-wheeled broad-gauge locos rumbling over it at considerable speed. And dare I ask: have you tried curved track?

@nest Speaking as an enthusiast and not in any ways an expert... My feeling is, as you dig into this topic the variety within Bavaria will emerge. There are masses of books on German railways big and small and you'll probably need to make some false starts to find the right thing in terms of operation, scenery, etc. Second hand is definitely the way to go; searching Abebooks under 'nebenbahn', 'kleinbahn' or (as it's a term used in Bavaria, but not the whole of Germany) 'lokalbahn' is good -- see what comes up. Publishers like Franckh'sche Verlag did good photo albums and Verlag Wolfgang Zeunert published a Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen series from the end of the 1970s which I think ended up with another publisher. booklooker.de is good for comparing prices. Watch out for those crazily high prices you sometimes see (don't believe them) and don't forget to check everyone's favourite auction site. Endbahnhöfe Vorbild und Modell by Gerhard Peter (MIBA) is a great modellers' book for track plans based on branch line prototypes and several of the stations covered are somewhere in Bavaria. It's in print, so really only available new, but since br***t completed you can't order it direct from the publishers from within the UK. Search for the ISBN 978-3-89610-734-3 -- model shops may have it. Finally, Germany had a lot of private railways. On those, as far as I know, pretty much anything goes (as long as the EBO is observed) and you even in the period you are interested in you don't have to paint the steam locos black all over. As long as the wheels and frames are red :-) Corrections to my babble are welcome as always by people who know more! Ben

I think this is down to 'cultural differences'. I don't think the British personify the idea of a railway in quite the same way. In my admittedly limited experience, 'die gute alte Eisenbahn' is pretty common when talking wistfully, and gets applied to lots of different 'Bahnen' depending on the speaker/writer's history. I enjoyed working my way through a book from the seventies, Das Eisenbahn-Jahrhundert: Die große Zeit der Dampflokomotiven [The railway century: the heyday of steam locomotives] by a well-known German railway author of the time, Karl-Ernst Maedel. The title gives an insight into what might be taken as 'die gute alte Eisenbahn' -- steam trains, basically, and everything they (however subjectively) stand for. Ben

Again thanks to the FREMO forum I've just watched Železničáři (Railway workers), a 1963 Czech short film. It is quite superb and in an entirely different artistic league to the DB training films. Somehow it seems appropriate that the Czechs could take a pretty wretched environment, a marshalling yard in winter, and elevate the subject into art. The rolling stock selection is again pretty wonderful. There are some great teaser cuts of proper Austro-hungarian freight locos with their double domes connected by a hefting great pipe. Thick smoke and plenty of sparks. Lovely stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyNtet6g3MY

Pondering a better translation of 'clocked smoking generator'. Synchronised smoke generator, I reckon.

Thanks to a post in the FREMO forum I have just watched this Deutsche Bundesbahn training film from the 1950s. Early enough in the 1950s to have quite a few 'DR Brit-US Zone' lettered wagons, late enough to have lots of EUROP pool ones too. It's in two parts, the first with steam locos covers hump-shunting procedures and the second (starting about 20 mins in) with electric and diesel traction shows a goods service dropping off wagons on its route and the process of getting these into appropriate holding sidings. This is a training film, so everything is carried out scrupulously, but especially when watching them couple moving wagons together it is very obvious how skilled and dangerous the shunter's job is. From a modeller's point of view the amount of detail is boundless and the selection of wagons and loads is very broad. This date is just as the UIC standard wagon designs start to be introduced though in fact I can't remember if I saw any in the film. Pre-war Om open wagons caught my eye, along with French K vans and at least one fairly unusual Begleitwagen (= guard's van). The YouTube video doesn't allow embedding. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZd3au8QL_c Ben

@apemberton Thanks.Yes, we did manage to discover a smallish solid-state PBX in the end and this is working well. I have struggled in the past with software PBX. Looks brilliant but I found it was too easy to get utterly bamboozled by the options! Ben

Update from Austria: 931403, which is at Heizhaus Strasshof north east of Vienna, was repainted 2019-2020. See this photo of the loco in the Heizhaus. Thanks to @Michael W on the Kleinbahnsammler forum for this news!

I agree. I'm fortunate to have a white wall in the room where I am (even more fortunately) able to leave the layout up at the moment. Sour grapes: it's a bit bright and dazzles the model in the foreground... Now that is the thing. This thing started as a project which I thought might be my first ever exhibitable layout. But then I came across FREMO and added an adapter so that the layout is also a FREMO station module. In regular layout mode there's a front and a back, and I am pondering the possibilities of having a banner printed -- something I've read about but not seen in use. In that case the operator could stand in front of the banner, or they could stand in front of the layout both to drive and operate the turnouts (almost all the signals are fixed). This idea assumes that a banner the right size is feasible. But in FREMO arrangements (modules bolted together for a multi-day meeting) there are no fronts and backs. Station operators (ie those regulating the services) and shunters generally stand on one side of the station and drivers accompany their trains in and out on the other side. This is for obvious practical reasons. There are no backscenes for that reason -- and because a big part of the fun is the shunting and the backscene gets in the way. Everyone's looking at the operation so the intrusion of the real world is not quite so noticeable. In the FREMO scenario, the banner concept could still work though, and if it didn't get in the way nobody would mind. Or, I could make something more conventional. In which case a labour of love would be to create a foreshortened backscene with hundreds of trees. In fact that reminds me that inspired by your recent post @Mikkel there is some florists' wire I ordered somewhere in the post :-)

This evening I took some smartphone photos of my current layout project, something that I quite often do as it progresses to get a sort of scale eye view of things. I think of the layout, in scenic terms, as a set of cameos shaped by images and recollections. In the case of this layout, although I can contribute to the scenic setting from my own memories and photos, the details of the railway must all come from photos in books and online. Because I have been thinking about backscenes quite a lot recently, I decided to edit in a photographic background that would roughly match my imagination. It's a photo I took from a hotel window as it happens. The result is pretty rough and ready but I think this addition transforms the images. They become a lot more like sketches of the desired result. No apologies for the grainy photos or the fact that everything is far from the finished state I would like to reach. That's the point. And also, the fact that I've sliced out the background very roughly and the lighting angles and colour cast don't match. This is impressionism rather than documentary! Firstly, the station depicted by the layout is cut into slightly higher ground and the back of the layout includes the slope where the area cleared for the railway land meets the natural land level. The slope has been cut back to give space to a large shed that has something to do with the freight transfers that take place on the outermost track. These features are shown below. And again with the photographic background Secondly the station building at the very end of the branch. Here is is with the natural background And with the photographic background. Must straighten that whistle. And get on with the layout!

Thanks! Those who are responsible can take the credit. The canopy shot is aided by the fact that track height is 1300mm above the floor. It's great seeing it all come together, and one of the best ways to appreciate it is to drive a train service through it... several scale kilometers of travel.

It was held in a school hall in Sussex. The majority of the UK FREMO group are local, for historical reasons. I brought my stuff from London, and that's the way these meetings are normally done. In normal times it's common for people to cross borders to attend a meeting -- it's a social event as well, and a chance to swap knowledge and techniques. As with a joint layout project, by coming along individuals get inspiration and encouragement for their modelling. I did much more to my modules and stock in the week leading up to the meeting than I thought possible, for example ;-)