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Chamossaire - BLS in N


Gordonwis
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First off, my layout has appeared in public once, at Gaugemaster in 2018, and is booked for the next Swiss Railways Society AGM (whenever that might be...).

 

BLS stands for 'Bern - Lenk - Sion' in this case...

 

It is a simple layout on nothing more than a B&Q shelf board (supported on basic pop up (choice of three heigh settings) lightweight tables.

 

I am a big enthusiast of freight railways, and wanted to replicate the way freights get looped at the approaches to major tunnel awaiting a path. My original idea was for a Grand St Bernard tunnel but I realised that if the tunnel was internal to Switzerland I could run Swiss internal IC trains. Thus I came up with the idea that a line was built beyond Lenk (Zweisimmen - Lenk having been often considered for relaying to 1435mm gauge) under the Wildhorn massif, coming out between Sierre and Sion. Sion is a regional capital so befits being the terminus of trains from Bern, but it is imagined that the axis continued south west of Sion to the Grand St Bernard, so justifying the use of Italian and German stock on through trains eg Hamburg - Torino - Genova  

 

 

 

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Edited by Gordonwis
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I should have added that it is 100% Kato Unitrack, taking advantage of Kato's double track sections, superelevated double track curves etc (blended in with scenics and additional Kato ballast where necessary). The 'plug and play' simplicity of Unitrack means that the whole layout including fiddle yard of at least (because Unitrack fiddle yards can be easily modified) 4 tracks each way is powered - with all isolation achieved using the points - by just one feed on each loop, connected to the up and down main just inside the tunnel entrance

Edited by Gordonwis
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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

I was never too happy with the tunnel end of Chamossaire and a booking for the East Surrey N Gauge show this past Saturday was the peg for me to revise the layout once again. Having found that the N Train catenary is too susceptible to damage, I have now used cross spans made by RhB Modellbahn  which put up with a lot more accidental hitting etc as they tend to bend rather than break and don't go out of shape.

 

I have changed:

  • the station platforms and rear roads (to add a stabling point to show off locos instead of hide them in the fiddle yard
  • the tunnel end
  • addition of the Faller concrete mixing plant
  • use of Kato rail viaduct sections for the road bridge ( a tip I got from a layout seen at the Letchworth MRS show)
  • made the station forecourt tidy with hotel, fencing and the dummy PECO subways as access to the island platform

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Edited by Gordonwis
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2 hours ago, cornish trains jez said:

Hi Gordon,

 

I’ve always enjoyed seeing photos of your layout. The catenary portals look really effective. I haven’t had experience of the N Train ones and was thinking of adding one or two to my layout. I might look into the Rhb ones.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

 

 

The RhB Modellbahn masts are ludicrously simple but effective IMO . I purchased them to equip my RhB layout Paspels which I also revised and extended last year for show at the SRS AGM in Derby last April , but decided that - as there are so many variations in Swiss overhead masts across all gauges (standard and metres, SBB , BLS etc)  they would be fine for Chamossaire. Portals of various widths (just about!) suited all my locations. In other spots I have used his single masts or 'centre pole' double , with a few Kato single posts as well. The one place where I have retained use of N-Train masts is the two BLS single masts by the tunnel entrance.

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The eagle eyed amongst you may also have spotted the results of another project, to convert a Minitrix Re4/4II from early variant to later (two pantographs) variant, as the former is not accurate for Re10/10 lash ups. This was prompted by my decision that I dislike the 2nd generation Fleischmann Re4/4II due to its excess breadth, making it an odd looking match with Re6/6 (which Fleischmann has now got right!). The modification turned out to be simpler than expected: 

  1. take a Minitrix Re4/4II with a single diamond pantograph
  2. replace the diamond pantograph with a single arm pantograph
  3. cut out the roof pod from the non pantograph end
  4. fill the resulting hole with a bit of plasticard or just filler, and place a single arm pantograph with base 
  5. renumber (I have printed a 420 2xx number in Helvetica at home on the thinnest paper that my printer will accept  

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