Lineas Cubanas

Quick update: Pretty much nearly done......

My "Homer Simpson" calamity approach to the Moyse locotracteur continues..... When removing the cab and hood for painting, it was proving quite stiff and required a bit more force ..... before I knew it I had accidentally disconnected some wires to the power pack which was actually hidden in the back hood.......who knew!? After several attempts to re solder the wires in the correct order and eventually just melting the connection, followed by smoke....... I now have a technical question: Do I need the power pack to run the loco? The DCC/Sound motherboard etc are working fine According to REE models: "The power pack does not directly power your machine, it manages the power supply weaknesses of the tracks" Do I need to replace the power pack with the exact one from REE Models or would the DCC loco work without it? Thanks

I do listen ...... Your feedback : added the low wall around the tank and some pipe detail (there is not really room for anymore) My feedback : added bushes in far background and repainted the tank to a more "anonymous" colour i.e. no longer standing out.

As I said in a previous post, I was unhappy with the "exit" to the staging yard and how it looked. As a reminder, here is how it use to look: After considering ways to minimize the transition, this is how it looks now: I will probably add some grass around the bottom of the oil tank where it meets the concrete slabs as it looks unnatural in the photo........ And maybe some more bushes at the end of the building in the background Thanks to everyone who contributed with ideas. PS: Having looked at the photos for a while now, I am starting to think the tall oil tank needs to be less conspicuous i.e. a dull and bland grey.....think it might be standing out too much right now........

OK ........THIS IS EMBARRASSING.....THERE IS ANOTHER COUPLER IN THE BOX FOR THE FRONT OF THE LOCO! DOH! A quick photo of the layout to distract from the idiot I am .........

Moving onto motive power for painting and weathering, the first to go into the shop will be: I have a quick question: I noticed the Moyse Locotracteur only has coupling on the rear (and no front coupling). Obviously, this makes sense .....as if there was one on the front, I guess they couldn't see around/beyond any rolling stock it was pushing. For trailing spurs thats all fine....what happens with a facing spur? In real life, did they just use a different loco for facing spurs or am I missing something really obvious here?

I was probably being "tongue in cheek" when I posted the photo suggesting it was caused by petrol exploding..... The actual photo description suggests they have been "destroyed by artillery" These tank cars were photographed in the yard at Tripoli Station in Northern Lebanon, which is not too far from the Syrian Border. The Syrian occupation of Lebanon began in 1976 , during the Syrian intervention in the Lebanese Civil War, and ended on April 30, 2005, after the Cedar Revolution. The tank cars came from Poland : 18 in 1975 and 30 in 1983. So putting the above together with your thoughts might provide a possible explanation of what happened........

er ......yes

Thanks for the feedback They are petrol tankers so yes, I think they could benefit from some stains/dribbles etc, maybe they are a bit too clean around the ladders as well.....

I will try and put together some kind of tutorial post .......will probably be on a loco as most of the rolling stock is done. Have never weathered or painted a loco in my life so far so could have disaster written all over it......

Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. To be honest, I am not as confident with painting/weathering rolling stock (and motive power) as with scenery and buildings…….I just tend to “make it up as I go along” Fortunately, with regards to the rolling stock it seems to have gone ok so far. I have pretty much finished the roster of 20 or so wagons. I need to go back and refine/add a few details to some but they are pretty much done. There was only one wagon I was massively unhappy with so I stripped off all the weathering and will hopefully give it another go this week…. The only other wagons I have some nagging doubt with are these 2 x tank cars below, not sure why…….? On the layout, I have pretty much decided on trees now ....... And hope to start painting/weathering the motive power next …….yikes!

Rolling stock progress...... Before: After: (The posters on the side of the car are to represent support for one of the Lebanese militia during the Civil War)

Yes, agreed with the time and location, just think sometimes they can be a bit "twee". I think the Almaza (beer) one is a bit too modern so sometimes less is more....

Thanks for the compliments and thanks for taking the time to tell me!

Bit of an update on a few things I have been doing: Test fitting some fruit trees and trying to wok out where they look best.......? Adding some roadside billboards.......maybe a bit "cliche" ? Getting some rolling stock painted and weathered....

I think this loco is similar especially with regards to the cab but yes the hood looks little bit too high....... I did also consider using a bit of "modellers licence" as the loco below resembles a BB 63000 produced in HO scale by Roco and Piko. It's a Chemin de Fer Syriens (CFS) Class LDE 650 Bo Bo DE Built by CEM around 1968, photographed in Aleppo. One could assume it was on loan to C.E.L , arrived in Beirut via the Coastal Line which ran to Homs in Syria and was "marooned" as result of the Civil War. Other motive power options are Steam but am pretty sure they only ran until around 1974 ......

The green loco is in fact an EMD G6 seen here in the loco shed at Furn El Chebbak: "This GM-6 (650hp/600 hp generator input) is a truly tiny loco (31'0" length, 9'8" width, 12'10" height, can be reduced to 11'9"). This type had a single D47 traction motor and three axles. Drive was through a gearbox arrangement again. Only six built, a prototype that spent its entire career as a works shunter at LaGrange, plus four for Lebanon, and one for a gold mine in South Africa, all in 1959-61." From Borre Ludvigesen Railways of Lebanon Website. I am not actually aware of any models that are produced in HO scale or even similar so have ignored this loco for my purposes. For motive power, I am sticking with the previously mentioned Polish SP45, the Uerdingen Diesel Rail Cars for passenger service and this Locotracteur Gaston Moyse : "These diesel shunters appear both at the Mar Mkhael yards and here at Furn el Shebbak. Hughes lists these among the DHP narrow gauge locomotives, but specifies them as 0-4-OD CEL 201 through 203. They were built at the Gaston Moyse works in Paris in 1936. However, Craig Miller indicates that the one in his picture from Mar Mkhael was standard gauge. Here the shunter is on the same rails as a standard gauge commuter car." From Borre Ludvigesen Railways of Lebanon Website. Both locos together in the 1960s:

Thanks for posting Jounieh is an interesting place as it seems to have had a small yard as well as station stop on the Beirut-Tripoli standard gauge line. I also understand that as late as 1984 freight services resumed between Beirut and Jounieh. As a result, there seems to be another rolling stock graveyard there in recent times..... Here is a photo of the yard in 1969: This photo below is of Jounieh in 1970 and I am using this as a starting point for painting/weathering rolling stock Going to "keep it simple stupid" with the flat car and box car..... Wish me luck......

Thank you..... this is very kind and something I need to look at I have not seen this photo before and its interesting to see the original lettering I have purchased some "close enough models" from LS Models to help represent these as I had seen them in photos of the rolling stock graveyard at Furn el Chebbak in Beirut:

Thank you I should probably have been more clear: I do have loads of prototype photos but these are like your pics below i.e taken today or in the last few years. What I meant to say is that there a very few photos of the railway during the Civil War 1975 - 1990 (for obvious reasons!) so its a bit more difficult to know what everything looked like for the period I am modelling (1980s). Most of the records regarding rolling stock were also lost during the war so any purchases of models I have made, have pretty much been my best guess! I am definitely using the "close enough/good enough" philosophy These grey wagons above were used to transport cement which came daily/weekly from Chekka (km 208.5) south of Tripoli from the two cement factories there to Beirut. These continued to operate from February 1985 until February 16th, 1994, after which the railway bridge at Nahr el-Khelb (km 155) south of Jounieh was dismantled in March 1995 to allow an extension of the coastal motorway. The 2 photos above are of metre gauge rolling stock that ran on a rack line from Beirut to Riyak and then onto Damascus over the mountains. The line was shut down two years into the Civil War. Both photos I believe are at Beirut's Mar Mikhael station which was the western terminus of the Beirut - Riyaq - Damascus (1.05m) metre line. The brown coach is obviously a photo from the 2000s but the other is of the station in the late 60s...probably This photo is of the metre gauge loco emerging from the snow sheds at line at Dahr- el- Baydar. This is the highest point of the metre line around 1500m in altitude and just 38km from Beirut. A rack system was used for around 20km to assist the locos in the climb

Yes, that's another problem I found with NEM couplers with bar couplings, I found them practically impossible to uncouple without help from "the great hand in the sky" I am not familiar with the Roco close coupler but after a quick google search, I realise they are not too dissimilar from the Fleischmann ones that came as an alternative with a flat car I purchased. The Fleischmann couplers seem so far to: - uncouple/couple "comparatively gracefully" - look ok - do not cause an unsightly massive gap between the wagons - can be fit easily in the existing NEM coupler box - can be purchased economically So we'll see how we get on..... Thanks for this. I have subscribed and watched a few videos. He makes everything look fairly straightforward so I think I need to revisit the wagons I have done so far......

Ah the Rolling Stock...my "Kryptonite" The good news is that I have all the rolling stock ready to be painted and weathered. For such a small layout, I only have a roster of 20 or so wagons I have started on a few wagons but to be honest, I am not as confident with rolling stock models as I am with buildings and scenery.....I showed a few finished wagons to my father and he said they looked "good" (he is after all my dad) but I am not happy with them myself and they need revision. I have a number of issues currently: 1) Prototype Photos - I do not have many actual prototype photos to use as a guide.....I am really not 100% sure what was used or what the colour schemes were etc ......although, I could use this to my advantage as therefore no one really knows what anything should look like apart from a few key pieces (usually the motive power) 2) Couplings - with the completed wagons I used the "standard" NEM couplings that came with the actual wagons by Piko, Roco etc. After I had painted and weathered a few cars, I realised that the gap between wagons was to say "unsightly".....I am no "rivet counter" but you could drive a bus between the buffers! My usual "go to" couplings are Kadee #58s so I thought I would revert to those......but it is actually more complicated to fit these than I thought it would be......ideally, you need to purchase the #58s that fit in the NEM coupling boxes but the price of these is just ridiculous......I think it was £11 for 2 pairs! so I need to investigate other possibilities 3) Painting Skills - As I said above painting skills on rolling stock are somewhat in need of drastic improvement but I intend to leave the layout for a while and concentrate of completing the roster so will post the ups and downs as we go.......I am in a cold sweat about painting motive power but lets get the "easier" models done first!

Thanks for the feedback.......I haven't finished "The Green Line" just yet but agree it needs some more "volume"

Thanks for the words of encouragement and good to hear the back scene seems to be working!

Thank you both for your kind comments! I will try not to.....with the weather in Bath currently, there's no option but to work on the railroad! As its the new year, its probably a good time to take stock and make a list of what still needs to be done..... This is where we are at currently: