German TT - Kirchheim

[MichaelE]

I wonder why it never gained any popularity?

 

Currently HO scale is the most popular scale in the US.

[Hobby]

N came along I expect, same as in Western Europe. Where N wasn't as prevalent such as behind the Iron Curtain TT kept going, in fact it's still the second most popular scale in many countries in Eastern Europe after H0. I have always thought that it's better than N as you can get lots of railway/scenery in a small space like you can in N but it's a lot easier to model as the buildings and trains are just that much bigger to make it easier. Had Triang done proper TT instead of TT3 it might have lasted a bit longer over here, but that's pure speculation, though I do think it was a missed opportunity.

[rekoboy]

European 1:120 TT was kept alive largely by Zeuke, later Berliner TT Bahnen in E Germany, which developed a good range of locos and rolling stock. As E Germany exported BTTB models in large quantities across the Eastern Bloc, interest in TT grew in such countries as Poland and former Czechoslovakia. Thanks to BTTB's exports in the past and the interest that they created the Czech Republic is home to a wide range of small-scale producers of TT models, often as resin or brass kits - see, for example, https://www.mala-zeleznice.cz/vyrobek/tt-zvedak-patkovy-4x25t_865.html

which has a multi-lingual website, or the Czech equivalent of Hattons (!) which has most Czech producers on board....https://1185589887.eshop-rychle.cz/es-pecky

The big breakthroughs came in Europe for TT after the fall of the Iron Curtain when BTTB was privatised firstly as Zeuke and then under the name of Tillig, and when Roco took a look at its neighbours in Germany and the Czech Rep, who might just be a lucrative new market and introduced their own TT range. Subsequently, the privatised and very successful Piko in the former E Germany decided to give TT a shot, too, with a huge degree of success. Piko's locos are reasonably priced and top runners. Even good old Hornby, through its German subsidiary Arnold, has entered the TT market, rather half-heartedly, though, and produes a very nice BR 95 Bergkönigin, which I have in my loco stud, if you look back in my posts. In a way, TT has seen a miraculous survival and an impressive rebirth in Germany and neighbouring countries. Present day steam locos by Piko, Roco, Tillig, Gützold or Arnold or Kuehn are easily as good and as detailed as their H0 sisters. Germany has also a number of small producers in addition to the big firms - this BR 64 (one of my favourite locos) is by Schirmer.

Edited May 23, 2020 by rekoboy

[Hobby]

Back in the early years ROKAL also produced a lot of TT and you can still get some of their stuff even though they finsihed in the 70s, I have one of their 2-10-2Ts somewhere!

 

I used to go to ES Pecky all the time when I first went to the Czech Republic, my first visit was in 1999. They had a really good selection of detailing bits back then, both in HO and TT. They aren't as good as they were these days though, I've given up doing the hour trip out from Prague as last time i went I hardly got anything. Perhaps becoming too commercial (the Hattons trap!)...

[Ian Morgan]

On 23/05/2020 at 08:24, Hobby said:

Auhagen ...  also do several narrow gauge stations in HO, Oberitsgruin is a fair representation of a 750mm gauge NG station of the same name in Saxony and Goyatz is from the metre gauge Spreewaldbahn just south of Berlin.

 

Oberrittersgrün is on the Pöhlwassertalbahn, not the Spreewaldbahn. It is a pity, because I have a couple of Tillig Spreewaldbahn locos waiting for me to build a layout for them.

[Hobby]

Please read my post again as that's what I said! I've been modelling German 750mm and 1000mm gauge for the best part of 30 years now so do know where the stations are located as I said in my post.

 

I've also used both buildings, Oberrittersgrun on a Saxon based H0e layout and Goyatz on  Spreewald based H0m layout. By sheer coincidence I visited both locations last year as well! 

 

Thanks for the spelling correction, though, I wasn't near my book on Saxon railways so missed some letters out!

[Hobby]

Just to add to the above, KIBRI do a model of Burg Spreewald station as an alternative to Goyatz for H0m. Also Auhagen do Radeburg station, also in H0 scale, as an alternative Saxon NG station for HOe. One of the smaller Pola stations can be used, with modification, for German NG as well.

 

Sorry to the OP for being slightly off topic but many of us who model in H0m (or used to!!) use the TT locos for their chassis so there is some relevance!

[rekoboy]

This week I got around at last to a project that has been waiting literally on the shelf for my attention. You may have heard of the Japanese manufacturer, Tomix, which produces a wide range of material in 'N', including an overscale track vacuum cleaning and polishing vehicle. There is plenty of material around on YouTube and on German model rail sites (TT-Board) on how one can re-gauge the Tomix cleaner for TT, with lots of very good reviews as to its cleaning power. The unit possesses a motor for the polishing discs and the vacuum, but needs to be towed behind a loco - that makes the rebuild relatively easy. I wanted to make as few changes as possible to the structure of the Tomix with no major surgery except for a change of bogies. I had a pair of Roco TT bogies in the parts drawer, but they needed quite a bit of modification - see photo. I glued on a platform of 1.5mm poly sheet, with a hole drilled of 5mm diameter to take the Tomix fixing screw, and then glued over the hole a 2mm long piece of poly tube of 5mm internal diameter to act as a bearing ring. Apart from Roco's plastic being difficult to glue, that stage went better than I imagined. At first I intended to fit the Roco bogies with bronze power pickup strips - but then I read a contribution on TT-Board where the writer dispensed with power pick-ups for the Tomix and hooked it up semi-permanently to a diesel loco with connecting leads. Very conveniently (and slightly oddly) the Tomix has a pair of holes (and sockets) in the roof at one end for adding a power-connection for cleaning very dirty or non metallic rail! I made use of those holes and soldered leads to the power buses that run between along the insides of the car, originally to link the power pick-ups on the two bogies. It all worked! The next step was the addition of a PEHO coupler pocket (so far just on the loco end, to test things) and a buffer beam from the scrap box. Finally I dug out a BTTB V180 which was destined to be a source of spare parts and breathed new life into it. I cut a small gap in one of its front skirts to accommodate the two thin leads to power the Tomix. All was hooked up - and then came the first track test. Boy, oh boy, I have scarcely ever been so happy at the outcome of a modelling project! The Tomix has fantastic vacuuming power (the sound of the vacuum motor and the old BTTB V180 motor on full power are impressive!!) and is brilliant for tunnel sections or hard to reach bits of the layout. After the first run the container was half-full of fluff, muck and ballast chippings. Brilliant. So tomorrow I shall add the second PEHO and the other buffer beam - and the job's a good 'un, as they say!

[rekoboy]

Here are a few photos which illustrate the current situation at Kirchheim. Not too many changes, I fear!

[rekoboy]

There has been activity of late, all connected with the construction of a further building for Konradsweiler, a bakery as a kind of small memorial to my late sister-in-law Gertraud, who trained as a baker and confectioner. The basis of the Bäckerei und Konditorei Gertraud Walter is formed by 4 walls from an ancient Pola kit, sold as for H0, but clearly far too small, and thus suited well to TT. I have been collecting very elderly unmade kits by Pola - allegedly at 1:87 scale, they are actually 1:120 or even 1:140 scale. See comparison of kit parts with an Auhagen TT building. So far I have only employed 4 walls from the rather strange half-timbered cottage kit for the bakery - the half-timbering would need  to be glued on separately! Now awaiting construction are the half-built house and the office block which would look laughably tiny on an H0 layout. Most of my bakery is built from poly sheet with a selection of Auhagen parts, including the tiled roof panels, gutters, doors and windows. The roof of the extension is fine sandpaper, the shop sign was produced with the font 'Fraktur' on the PC and printed on photo paper, The shelves full of bread are made of photos of a real bakery glued on to pieces of balsa.

[rekoboy]

There is another project - I was tempted again by my bag of truck parts from MK/Klose/Schirmer and SES, was diverted from more important tasks, I am afraid, and I produced an MAN artic tractor unit and flatbed trailer as might have been seen in the 1980s. I have tried to paint it to look as if it has done some hard service - mostly I employ Tamiya acrylics and very fine brushes for such small jobs. The starting point was the chassis-cab in the photo from Schirmer - the rest is made up of SES chassis parts and wheels as in the photo, poly sheet, Evergreen profiles etc. I am pleased with the result!

[Taigatrommel]

I've got one of those MAN cabs on a rigid chassis sewage lorry.  They're not bad, if a touch translucent- of course painting such as you have done addresses that.

[rekoboy]

On the topic of TT road vehicles, some time ago I discovered the Russian Zvezda range of kits for wargamers which are sold by one of the model shops here in York. Zvezda makes a small range of vehicle kits in UK TT scale (1:100) which are moderately well-detailed, plus a whole selection of planes and figures in 1:72, 1:100 and 1:144 scales. So far I have bought the Opel Blitz (second world war era), the Ural (still in service in the Russian and Ukrainian and other armies), and the good old British AEC Matador. I employed only the chassis and cab of the Blitz,  the rest is pretty simple and unrealistic. The main problem with Zvezda's trucks is that the cab windows are solid - an acquaintance told me to pick them out with soft black pencil - and from a distance they look fine! I made a platform body for the Blitz out of poly sheet, SES bits and Evergreen profiles - and made a real wood floor out of a sheet of super-thin ply which you find as a divider in very expensive cigar boxes! The plastic employed by Zvezda is not too keen to take paint - the next time I shall wash the components thoroughly with a splash of washing-up liquid before painting. Although the model is a bit over-scale for German TT it looks fine beside other vehicles. It and its sister are destined to be the transport for a small coal merchant's business on the layout, based on the memories and photos of our nephew Thomas in Eisenach!

[rekoboy]

A project, which has taken a good deal longer than planned, is now just about finished. For the town centre at Konradsweiler, the tram terminus, I needed a row of three shops, which had to fit a somewhat curved street. The starting point was a very old butcher's shop kit from Mamos (still made in exactly the same form by Auhagen) which was built more or less as described on the box, but with an interior made from photos of a real butcher's shop and a floor made from a photo of a real tiled floor. I relied on the advice of my family as to the other two businesses - my son is a production manager for a publishing house, so one had to be a bookshop. My daughter thought the other needed to be a bar - she is a teacher! Whereas the butcher's was more or less straight from the kit box, the other two were built out of poly sheet, Evergreen profiles and a lot of parts from Auhagen and Pola. Auhagen makes very nice component sets for kitbashers - various bags or boxes of roof panels, windows, doors, gutters and so forth. The interiors of the bookshop and the bar are based on photos of real-life businesses with Pola wallpaper - the bar has a real wooden floor made out of a cigar box divider. All curtains are from Pola cut-out sheets. The furniture is all by Faller for 'N' - but oversized and so perfect for TT, and the figures are by Preiser or old E German ones from VEB Harzer Schmuck. Lighting is by Viessmann, with the LED units set into the ceilings. The three buildings are still not quite finished - but they are now good enough to show off, I think!

[rekoboy]

The next two buildings for Konradsweiler are now more or less complete. The starting point was, again, an Auhagen kit (Haus Nummer 2) with a scratch-built building adjoining. After some thought, the scratch-built structure has become the post-office, the Auhagen building's use remains for the moment unspecific, although I am tempted to make something political out of it! Following critical comments by a German friend on my last efforts - the buildings were too clean for the brown-coal fuelled GDR - these two structures look greyer. Both buildings are, as usual, part lit - instead of Viessmann lighting kit I have employed sections from cheap LED lighting strips, with the post-office counter area with its tiled floor and the first floor of Haus 2 turned into light boxes to avoid any unwanted light creeping through into other rooms or through cracks. The post-office signs are from my own photo collection.

[rekoboy]

The fact that I have not added to my ramblings of late does not mean that I have not been moderately active with work on the layout. At present I am experimenting with the layout of the buildings in Konradsweiler - I do not intend to build any further houses for this area - maybe a shed or two might appear in time. The whole town centre area will remain removable - at least until everything else is complete. I am attempting to give a picture of reality as viewed from a passing train (or plane!), so there are plenty of rear views of buildings. The tram terminus will be viewed through gaps between buildings and from the end or back of the layout. Part of my thinking is to establish some realism and interesting perspectives for future photography. In terms of the trams, the depot is finally more or less finished and I am making a start on the mass-production of overhead line masts from brass-tube. A big reel of fine-ish copper wire has arrived from Uncle Wu in the PRC - so I might be having trams running before long - as you can see the Gotha-built car from the Thüringerwaldbahn is still standing idle at the depot. The depot building - apart from windows and tiled roof panels by Auhagen - is built entirely of poly sheet, with the outside skin(s) of brick pattern. The structure is laminated from between 3 and 5 layers of polystyrene sheet and is very solid. The lighting is, again, made from a three-LED section from a cheap USB-powered chain of lamps.

[rekoboy]

Here is the tram depot provisionally in place. Still a long way to go!

[rekoboy]

I needed a decent test loco for the tram route - and what I got for a small sum as a non-runner was an outwardly perfect N scale Köf by Arnold. After a rebuild with new brass gears and a coreless motor and worm from the thoroughly recommendable Tramfabriek (www.tramfabriek.nl) the little diesel runs beautifully - and has proved that my trackwork, including the very elderly Minitrix points is OK. I have now started work in earnest on the terminus and have paved most of the street area.

Edited March 8, 2021 by rekoboy

[rekoboy]

The tram operators have received their first works vehicle - a drop-side truck with a very mixed parentage! In one of my many bits boxes I discovered a long-forgotten Graham Farish N scale 4-wheel carriage chassis. On close inspection I realized that its breadth matched exactly that of the dropside body of the SES W50 truck (see photo) , and since I have a massive bag of SES truck parts in the drawer I thought it was time for some creative kit-bashing. The wagon body is made up from two W50 dropside bodies, the end steps and brake wheel were left-over extras from a Czech ballast hopper kit. I am pleased with the results of my evening's labours! The works truck needs a loco, of course, and the kit for that has arrived from Plaza Japan.  The electric loco in question is to Japanese N scale - 1:150 - but it is slightly overscale and will pass with not much difficulty as a TTm machine. I shall keep you posted.

[rekoboy]

I have finally bitten the bullet and at last begun to build OLE structures for the tram route. The masts are soldered up from 2.4 mm brass tube with 0.8mm brass wire for the catenary/contact wire support. Once I had made up a wooden jig for the soldering and drilling then production became quite fast - so far today I have made 7 masts. The most fiddly bit is drilling the mast twice for the contact wire support arms. They need cleaning up and painting, of course. What do you think?

[Allegheny1600]

They look good to me!

 I have to remember that you’re working at approximately 2.5mm to the foot (?) so these must be pretty small, which makes your soldering very neat.

Great stuff,

John

[TT-Pete]

Nice!

[rekoboy]

The Japanese electric loco kit mentioned above turned out to be a disaster - apart from the two power bogies, of which more later. The plastic employed in the kit resisted all adhesives in my collection - a firm joint remained only firm for a few hours before coming apart! Grrr! Following a moment of inspiration I turned to Shapeways and found a very nice little Swiss TTm electric loco body which found its way to me very quickly - and expensively! The metal chassis from the Japanese kit was a touch too long for the Shapeways body, so I made up a new chassis from brass section and polystyrene sheet. The whole lot is held together by a long M2 screw which attaches the panto to the cab roof and then the brass chassis to the whole body. The only parts from the original kit which I have employed so far are the bogie outside frames which are Araldited on to the metal inners. There is still quite a lot to do - but the loco runs very well. The weightier chassis has done wonders! When I dismantle the loco again to rejig the power pickups and wire in the panto I shall take more photos.

[rekoboy]

There has been some activity at Kirchheim of late - note the new platform roof in one of my following photos. more on that later. The big news is that Kirchheim has just received a new loco - the BR 58 (ex Prussian G 12) from Hornby-Arnold. The long wait has been worth it! The loco is fantastic - one of the smoothest and quietest runners that I have encountered, and the detail and paint scheme are of the highest standard. The only negative for me is the poor quality of the loco crew figures - but they can be changed easily, I think. See what you think!

[boxerbayrailway]

I departed TT many years ago for British O,  but have to say that is one impressive looking model.

I wonder if Hornby plan on producing more TT.     Super layout too,  mine was a small 3x6' but was

great fun.  Can't beat TT for a layout in a small space.