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Die Ercallbahn - Fulfilling a childhood dream.


ian
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Hoping for a further update soon if only to get a good nights sleep as there are so many questions that remain unanswered! Has the coffee and game of cards ended in the goods office? Will the witness that Michael is interviewing bare all? Has Thomas managed to have a, as we now refer to it ' comfort break'? Will Blitz get to the beach or just the pound? Will the evidence disappear in a frenzied drinking spree in the absence of coffee? Will the crew waiting for their early finish revolt? 

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Jens, in the green jacket, has returned with reinforcements who are now busily engaged in checking the items on the loading dock and the two trucks against the consignment details for the Kühlwagen.

 

Thomas has persuaded Kristian to look after Blitz for a few minutes. Kristian is not very good with dogs however since he is even worse with numbers his colleagues were in full agreement with Thomas's choice.

 

The two Manfreds don't tell any of their suspects/witnesses anything about why they are there or what is going on. They fondly believe that the malefactor will reveal themselves by letting slip some detail that would only be known to the criminal - just like on the TV. Sadly this has never happened yet - the complete lack of context or guidance tends to mean that even those who might have some useful information don't realise it could be of interest. As a result the loading crew, along with the two lorry drivers, are still in the goods office and, having tired of cards, are now discussing the performance of various football clubs.


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A call to Bahncontrol from Schwarzfelsen is never welcome - however today the Dienstleiter has come up with a plan so cunning that you could stick a tail on it and call it a fox.


Being Friday the problem is that come close of play it will be Monday before the incoming van can be unloaded - so getting it emptied is a priority. There is no point in sending it to Schönblick - they would make a point of taking as long as possible to not do it just to spite the neighbouring village. Neustadt, however, has spare capacity and the train crew can drop it off later in the afternoon. By comandeering a lorry from the Güterbahnhof at Maifeld the load can be delivered direct to the customer before everyone goes home for the weekend. Finally a DB Kühlwagen can be scheduled to arrive at Staufen Brau's brewery on Monday to stand in for the impounded example at Schwarzfelsen.

 

Florian is relaying a message to return the wagon. Being Florian he sees no point in including "to Neustadt" as that is obvious - providing you know the game plan.

 

In the meantime the Dienstleiter has requested the lorry from Maifeld Gbf and rung the goods shed at Neustadt to tell them that there is a special load being dropped off this afternoon for unloading and forwarding by lorry to Schwarzfelsen.

 

All this has taken the heroic man to the end of his shift so he scribbles a note to the incoming Dienstleiter and makes a swift exit - he has a train to catch as he is spending the weekend away at a friend's wedding.

 


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Michael has found another potential witness who can give him chapter and verse on the morning's train movements, down to the locomotive numbers, and as a result is coming rapidly to the conclusion that it was time that he moved on.

Edited by ian
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My head is whizzing after this latest episode! Plots, sub plots, plots within plots! More sleepless nights! I am beginning to think that this all may be a spin off of the German crime show SOKO Leipzig and Ian is actually creating a complete crime film set in his railway room/garage! All we need now is a ho scale film crew on site.

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Whilst the stocktake is underway let us turn our minds back to matters architectural. We last saw Neustadt's station building, back in August.


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Well I finally got around to speckling the bricks and got this far before the next problem reared its head: lighting.

 
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The standard walls all have a light blocking mask and the two wings have a convenient hole for a 16V bulb but the concourse and restaurant areas have no lighting of their own. The restaurant is lit from a slot in an internal wall and the concourse must suffice with the glow from an unmasked section of wall behind the ticket office.


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Given the prominent eye-level location of the building that just won't do. Masking those walls to stop an eerie glow isn't feasible so some sort of cleverly masked LED arrangement is going to be needed to light the interiors but not spill through the walls.

I am wondering about a sort of fibre-optic based modern style chandelier for the concourse and a self-adhesive LED strip converted into a set of 'strip lights' for the restaurant.

Edited by ian
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Thanks.

 

I have a picture for both  in my mind but I'm not sure if they will work, shed sufficient light in the right place or actually look right.

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I recently purchased a length of Electroluminescent (EL) wire from eBay to see what could be done with it. Fascinating stuff, comes with a battery control box as it need to generate a high voltage, high frequency, but very low power supply to work. It can be used for your car or even your clothes. Unfortunately, it only comes in fixed lengths, and does not illuminate much around it, unless it is coiled.

 

 

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A quick experiment revealed that the walls give off a glow even with very localised light so I shall have to mask them. :mad:

 

The film crew have been out and about - even if they have missed the breaking news story over at Schwarzfelsen:

 

 

 

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I  really do like that! There is something memorising about being able to in effect 'get into the layout'. The quality of the camera seems good as well. Just out of interest Ian, have you tried doing a monochrome video, sometimes it can create a very different atmosphere to a scene. 

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On 23/02/2021 at 18:59, ian said:

A quick experiment revealed that the walls give off a glow even with very localised light so I shall have to mask them. :mad:

 

The film crew have been out and about - even if they have missed the breaking news story over at Schwarzfelsen:

 

 

 


Hi Ian, I don’t think I’ve contributed to this thread before, but I’ve been following with interest for a while after coming across it several times while browsing.  Really enjoyed the video - maybe it’s lockdown, or watching too many model / prototype videos too close together, but I got quite a surprise when the doors to railbus didn’t open to let ‘us’ get on.

This all looks like great fun - do keep it up.

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On 23/02/2021 at 22:33, Woody C said:

I  really do like that! There is something memorising about being able to in effect 'get into the layout'. The quality of the camera seems good as well. Just out of interest Ian, have you tried doing a monochrome video, sometimes it can create a very different atmosphere to a scene. 

 

I shall have to see if any of the residents has some archive cine film of the area. ^_^

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On 26/02/2021 at 18:12, Keith Addenbrooke said:


Hi Ian, I don’t think I’ve contributed to this thread before, but I’ve been following with interest for a while after coming across it several times while browsing.  Really enjoyed the video - maybe it’s lockdown, or watching too many model / prototype videos too close together, but I got quite a surprise when the doors to railbus didn’t open to let ‘us’ get on.

This all looks like great fun - do keep it up.

 

The special effects budget is very limited you know!

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Progress at last! The two Manfreds were delighted that Jens and his chums had found that about half the load of alcohol that was on the manifest was missing. The stray crate has been carefully stashed in the Taunus so that it can be fingerprinted back at Maifeld. Next up is for the detectives to visit the company that had ordered the goods.

 

Thomas and Blitz have managed to extricate themselves from the proceedings and are enjoying lunch in the village. The two goods loaders along with the two lorry drivers are still incacerated in the goods office with Michael and Stefan keeping an eye on them and are also enjoying a leisurely lunch.


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The branch goods has made it back to Schönblick. The crew will have their belated lunch here as there isn't any work to do. Normally they would have it at Schwarzfelsen but with Her B., Florian and the police flapping about they didn't get the chance.

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Spot the difference. A little bit of enabling work to ready the site for Maifeld. The sockets have been lowered about 6" to make room for the baseboard.

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Progress made and I deduce that this work took no longer than 2hrs and 38 minutes to complete unless of course it was 14hrs and 38 minutes but I can't think that you would start work on this at 3 in the morning or finish at 5am! Or would you?  

Edited by Woody C
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1 hour ago, Woody C said:

Progress made and I deduce that this work took no longer than 2hrs and 38 minutes to complete unless of course it was 14hrs and 38 minutes but I can't think that you would start work on this at 3 in the morning or finish at 5am! Or would you?  

 

There are many other possibilities:

  • the photos may not have been taken on the same day
  • the clock may have stopped
  • the clock may have been adjusted
  • the layout could be in an aircraft or ship that moved into a different time zone
  • there could be an eddy in the space time continum
  • I'm just messing with peoples' minds
Edited by ian
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Can you tell what it is yet?

 

Please write your answer lightly in pencil on the back of a twenty pound note and post it to the usual competition address (see page 94 of the thread for terms and conditions).

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Having paid careful attention to this matter and using the full might of my less than effective powers of deduction and taking account of the fact that the clock appears to have rotated anticlockwise by 90 degrees which is playing on my mind, I would say that its the commencement of a wooden bike to carry on the Halfords cycle carrier clearly shown in the picture as a major clue to the question asked! I rest my case M'lud!  

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