Die Ercallbahn - Fulfilling a childhood dream.

[ian]

Looking at those sidings from the other end we can see the space where the admin block was supposed to go.

If they are extended we gain a number of benefits:

• Space for an extra loco (the branch spare) to lurk at the end of the coaling siding.
• The coaches can sit further down the carriage siding leaving a clear sightline to the coaling road and engine shed.
• Extra space between the point and the uncoupler on the carriage siding where a loco can stand out of the way if required.

 

What's not to like?

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

I forgot to show the view from the controls:

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

A bit of screwdriver wielding fixes the first board's track down.

 

Holes drilled for the wires, labels added to show what they are for and then I'm ready to start knitting.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

Knit one, purl one...

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

Regular readers may remember I acquired this beastie for use as a freight loco:

 

Now Marklin have a habit of re-running old stuff for the collecotrs market, and this year to celebrate 50 Years of Primex (their equivalent of Hornby Railroad) they have released this:

 

 

To go with it they have released a set of three tinplate coaches (none of your true scale stuff here, thank you) and so it would seem rude not to oblige them...

 

Now, the quicker thinkers amongst you are probably ahead of me here but given an  unplanned extension of the main line there shouldn't be too much difficulty acommodating an extra passenger train.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, that means that I will need another freight loco,,,,

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

Underboard knitting complete and umbilical cable attached. There are nine wires running to coloured scokets - these are for building lights and a signal that are not in place yet.

 

Time to turn it the right way up and see what happens...

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

Meanwhile, at a secret location, track fixing screws are being stockpiled...

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

As I needed to relocate one of the two contact tracks at Gipfeldorf it once again found itself inverted.

 

Whilst tinkering with the wiring I decided on an upgrade to the labelling system in use.

 

My original intention had been to buy some ready made cable markers - but the price for a set was more than for an electrician's labelling machine.

As it happened ToolStation had the mid-range model on offer for a couple of pounds more than the base model so...

 

It can produce cable-wrapping labels, flags (like my hand-crafted example) plus ordinary ones too.

 

I wish that I had got one years ago!

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

"Let's have an extension", said SWMBO, "it could be a hobbies room. I could have my art things in there, you could do your model-making..."

 

Three months of upheaval later (much of the garage is still impassable due to things stashed there 'out of the way' (her way - not mine ) and the new dining room is complete. Humph!

 

However I have been able to extract Gipfeldorf and a paste table and temporarily comandeer a corner.

This has enabled a wrap-around backscene to be installed. I have also completed the foamboard infill around the tracks and this picture shows excess ballast awaiting a visit from the vacuum cleaner.

 

I have also started to conceal various of the wires, sockets and other rude mechanicals visible above baseboard. The undergrowth to the left of the track conceals a large red plug that connects to the track sensor just in front of the signal.

 

The plug for the track sensor by the station and the manual operating lever for the uncoupler at the front of the picture have also been concealed by putting a piece of brown adhesive tape (the stuff that you lick - remember that? I told you this layout was old-school!) over the hole in the foamboard and then ballasting over it.

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

A length of aluminium 'L' angle and a strip of LEDs has been added at the front to give some extra illumination.

 

 

Once back in place a fascia panel will provide a finish around the scene and more greenery and bits can be added at leisure.

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

On 29/08/2019 at 22:13, ian said:

 

Of course, that means that I will need another freight loco,,,,

 

 

Whilst the Ercallbahn was on hiatus a couple of items did slip in to the strategic stores.

 

As noted back in August a need had arisen for an electric freight loco to replace the E.44 so, welcome a new addition to the family - a baby crocodile.

 

 

If truth be told this was what I really wanted when I got the E.44 - but there hadn't been any at sensible prices for ages and the E.44 was too good a bargain to pass up.

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

Having cleared a path to the train set Gipfeldorf is now back in place.

 

The right-hand Schonblick board needed a adjustment to the cut-out that clears the pillar in the garage wall - an extra few mm to accommodate the revised backscene arrangements and the track needed to shuffle around a little but half-an-hour undoing the track screws and then doing them up again sorted that.

 

All (!) I need to do now is provide some power to Schonblick and I'll be able to run a train from one to the other. Perhaps.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

After snagging a couple of problems I was able to run the first official train.

 

 

The P8 and coaches were only used as it was a special occasion - the railbus will be the normal stock whilst the work of commissioning the station is in progress.

[ian]

Sometimes it takes me quite a while to see the obvious (more often than not I don't see it at all).

 

The brewery siding at Schonblick was bugging me.

 

 

It had started as a continuation of one of the platform roads and the end was actually off the station boards. Not great but it had to be like that to get two wagons on the siding.

 

As I had a surfeit of three way points (something that the childhood me would not imagine was possible) I substituted a 3-way in place of the one at the entry to the siding and had a stub going off to the side to provide somewhere to park the drasine.

 

Putting buildings back showed that this wasn't a great idea either. The brewery had to be along the backscene and the admin building didn't really fit at all.

 

It took quite a while before I realised that swapping the drasine and brewery sidings over made things much better.

 

The brewery siding doesn't now overlap the edge of the board, the admin building can squeeze in and the drasine isn't in the brewery's way.

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[ian]

So, I extracted a building from the strategic stores.

 

Exhibit A - the victim...

 

...and from the back.

 

Some time later...

...after a meeting with Mr. Razor-Saw.

 

When it is finished this building will enclose the brick pillar in the garage wall behind Schonblick.

 

Fortunately a lot of the old glue proved amenable to gentle pressure. One exception was one of the two small dormers seen on the right. It was only when I came to trim and join the two roof sections together I realised that the original builder had put the rear roof on upside down.

 

And here is a first approximation:

 

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by ian

[ian]

The first half of Schonblick's control panel has been wired - that is the controls for the right-hand board. Time to test now.

 

Meanwhile I have decided that the over-complex interlocking scheme for switching train control between Gipfeldorf, Schonblick and Neustadt is serious overkill given that there won't be multiple operators and the panels are but a step away from each other, so all these realys at Gipfeldorf can come out for a start.

 

The lights on the diagram will be going too - replaced by two switches. The 25-way grey cable on the left is also out.

 

 

[ian]

So what has been happening since January? Not a lot.

 

After wiring up and connecting the two boards to the contol panel a mysterious short appeared. It took ages to track down - one of the uncouplers was shorting the light and solenoid supply to ground - but only when it was joined to the rest of the layout and both were connected up. This is why it had passed the initial stand-alone testing. Once that was replaced I started testing and snagging.

 

One of the three-way points, one of the double slips and one of the standard points all had a tendancy to stick, one section did not isolate and one of the signals had one of its two bulbs blown. The three-way was substituted from one in stock, the slip was tweaked, the point was given an overhaul, the missing isolator was installed and the signal had its bulb replaced.

 

Going forward I shall overhaul all the points before I lay them - in some cases they are over 50 years old so a little TLC won't go amiss.

 

So, at last I can start to make a bit of visible progress.

 

 

This is the right-hand Schonblick board. The buildings along the back are not fixed in place, just there to gauge the space for the green lump at the far end. A little bit of ballast has started to go down between the sidings.

 

A better look at the green lump. This is a bit of insulation foam cut to shape with a hot wire cutter then plastered with paint and scatter. It will sprout trees later and some shrubbery will cover the electrical plugs on the contact track. The pets appear to have been stock-piling.

 

 

This is the troublesome point and signal. When it is showing stop only one light is visible...

 

 

... but when showing slow you get two.

Edited March 28, 2020 by ian

[ian]

More ballast has been fixed down and the lump has been forested.

 

 

[ian]

It seems unreal that less than a month ago in quiet moments at the shop I was playing with the design for Maifeld's city centre.

 

Sitting on the other side of the garage from Gipfeldorf the draft plan looks like this:

 

 

The small rectangles mark where the station tracks disappear under the high-level city centre. The dark grey square is an access hatch and the squares are 6"x6". The station is a 'bitsa' with only the platform ends showing.

 

 

Looking across from the lower left hand corner on the plan you can see the station car park with the Rathaus behind. The block of buildings on the right are on the access hatch. The factory top right is at track level. There is a tall building which goes at the back and the top floor has an entrance at street level.

 

 

The station is sited bottom left on the plan. The building runs along the road with two sections of Peco overall roof behind to give the impression that the tracks carry straight on instead of making a sharp 180 degree turn.

 

 

The station is an as yet unstarted Kibri kit - suitabley impressive and something that I lusted after as a youngster. (There is a theme developing here...)

 

 

This one shows a slightly different selection of buildings with the factory assembled in its proper configuration - albeit at street rather than rail level.

 

[ian]

More thinking aloud, this time at Billshafen.

 

 

The two Kibri boxes mark the Esso Oil distribution depot, the Marklin crane will go by the ship and a container crane where the container wagon is. The Aral oil tanker is for refueling the dock shunter which lives in the dinky little shed.

 

As laid out I think it would have an open windswept dock type feel which would make a nice contrast to the rest of the railway.

 

I suspect that there are many more permutations to try before the optimum scheme reveals itself.

Edited December 3, 2022 by ian

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, ian said:

More thinking aloud, this time at Billshafen.

 

 

The two Kibri boxes mark the Esso Oil distribution depot, the Marklin crane will go by the ship and a container crane where the container wagon is. The Aral oil tanker is for refueling the dock shunter which lives in the dinky little shed.

 

As laid out I think it would have an open windswept dock type feel which would make a nice contrast to the rest of the railway.

 

I suspect that there are many more permutations to try before the optimum scheme reveals itself.

Nice Ian. Is the ship an Artitex kit (I have a feeling I may have asked this before...)?

[ian]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Nice Ian. Is the ship an Artitex kit (I have a feeling I may have asked this before...)?

John, It is one of John Wiffen's Scalescenes kits - https://scalescenes.com/product/t030-cargo-ship/ .

 

I can't claim the credit for the build though, it came to me secondhand.

[ian]

More evolution at Billshafen.

 

 

A train ferry has got to be more fun than a warehouse.

 

 

Replacing the kick-back siding with a loop makes life a lot easier. The loco facilities end up in a more convenient place too.

 

 

And a rummage through the stock for disposal produced a bogie flat that will make an excellent reach wagon for the ferry - locomotives are not allowed on the link span or the ferry.

 

The oil depot siding has been realigned too. This is starting to come together.

 

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, ian said:

More evolution at Billshafen.

 

 

A train ferry has got to be more fun than a warehouse.

 

 

Replacing the kick-back siding with a loop makes life a lot easier. The loco facilities end up in a more convenient place too.

 

 

And a rummage through the stock for disposal produced a bogie flat that will make an excellent reach wagon for the ferry - locomotives are not allowed on the link span or the ferry.

 

The oil depot siding has been realigned too. This is starting to come together.

 

You can use the train ferry as a fiddle yard cassette.

[ian]

Meanwhile back at Schönblick I have been moving mountains (well, adding the backscene).

 

 

Not that you can see any of the surrounding countryside in the shot above - but at least there is some sky.

 

 

I have had to add some extra bits to the backscene so that the town isn't all hills. I downloaded three images from the web - two Faller catalogue images and one from Miniatur Wunderland - which have been resized and cropped.

 

 

The thin plywood sheet will become the street behind the station - making it as a removable section will simplify the task of adding cobbles, buildings, pavements, lights and people considerably.

 

The brewery will be a little higher, sitting on a loading bank for the siding.

 

Looking back down the station. There is a dog-leg on Gleis 2 that will need to be fixed. The overall roof is only balanced in place at the moment.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by ian