Leberecht, my Prussian modelling adventure.

[Andrew P]

Hi John, It all looked good when I passed by several times, and it was certainly good to see you again and have a bit of a chat.

 

Catch up again soon I hope.

[Guest Jack Benson]

On 18/05/2018 at 17:01, Allegheny1600 said:

Oops! Another too long a break between updates.

 

To be frank, although there has been some progress, it has been of the brain numbing variety, which is why I’ve found it difficult to discuss it much.

 

 

Once I had all the track laid and running moderately successfully, I gave the layout a bit of a shake down and was quite pleased with it. This did show that I needed to get the points motorised in order to be able to get the electrofrogs energised, so that my small steam locos can operate with some reliability.

 

 

Splitting the boards with a view to working on them upside down, I realised that I needed to protect the ends of the track. My usual way of doing this is with ‘C&L’ track end protectors but it had been a long time since I used one. So, being less than careful, I managed to break the first two of my 12 that I had in stock, until I got the hang of bending them again.

 

 

 

 

Some filing.

 

 

 

 

Ready for soldering.

 

 

Then, I made a horrible discovery: I actually needed not 12 but 24 of these little blighters! Not only that but they were out of stock at C&L and everywhere else I could think of that might sell them, including eBay. I placed a “wanted” ad on one of my favourite forums and thankfully, a kind soul helped me out.

 

 

Having received another six packets of these things, I set to work, cutting them out of their frets, cleaning them up, adjusting them so I can bend them to my specification, bending them, soldering and finally cleaning them up, it was then that I realised I now had too many!!!

 

 

Yes, I need 24 in total not an additional 24, stupid man! D’oh! Oh well, they will come in handy for any future plans.

 

 

 

 

Too many!

 

 

Now it came time to fit them to my boards/track and I realised that I could use a 16mm Forstner bit to help set them into my timber. I do have the same size flat wood bit but the Forstner bit makes a much better job and I find, easier to control. 

 

 

 

 

Prepping.

 

 

However, this meant an additional delay while this new tool arrived so I started something else;

 

 

The station building!

 

 

Here is my Kibri 39492 “Bahnhof Reichelsheim” station building with it’s main component parts laid out;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of ‘Googling’ revealed that a similar building was built of yellow brick so I thought that would make a pleasant change from the supplied red brick so I set about a repaint. This also means that I must also repaint the loco shed, of course.

 

 

I also needed to paint the window frames as white window frames is a much more ‘modern’ thing. I chose dark brown ‘Oak Beams’ as a suitable colour as that appears to be similar to the pictured building and I have no way of knowing for sure what the original might be.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

John.

 

 Hi,

 

Just a question, the Kibri kit is a bit of an oddball as it is intended to represent a private railway station in Hesse and rather atypical for preußischer- a link to the original already alluded to might help - DSO Foren Gau -Bischofsheim in Rhinehessen  and yet the stock on display is more typical of the immediate area around Berlin.

 

A more typical preußische Würfel can be sourced from the Auhagen 11389, although labelled as an lokleiter building it is perfect for a small wayside station.  An example of this very common style of station building (e.g. Blankenfelde) can be found here- Heidekrautbahn  

 

 

No criticism intended, just an observation.

 

Cheers

 

Jack

 

 

[Allegheny1600]

Thanks, Jack.

I received this station in a deal with a chap called Tim, who assured me that it was suitable for a Prussian building - this is what sold me on it.

My stock was chosen as being generically "Prussian" and is a mix of eras, some being pre WW1 and some being post WW1, very few people outside of Germany would actually know this, however. If you read through my text, you will note that my location is entirely fictitious, I simply chose the Luneberg area as "suitable" and rather pretty, having done a lot of much more recent train spotting there. Only later did I discover this area's rather morbid WW2 history, having now been informed of such by three different former British Army personnel.

Cheers,

John.

[Guest Jack Benson]

Hi,

 

11389 is a fairly new release, maybe  a candidate for a future upgrade?  Next month, we are outspanning to Berlin and will post some images of the smaller lines that remain intact. 

 

Cheers

 

Jack

[Anotheran]

It was good to see Leberecht on Saturday. My eldest where impressed with the turntable, though Belle did ask if it had gone too far... I suggested that you were just checking it was still working both ways!

 

 

I must say that I have a liking for green locos with big red frames. Probably why I like turn of the century GWR!

Edited June 11, 2019 by Anotheran

[Allegheny1600]

 

 

1

1 hour ago, Anotheran said:

 

I must say that I have a liking for green locos with big red frames. Probably why I like turn of the century GWR!

Hi Neil,

Thanks for your comments and the lovely picture! As to your statement above - ABSOLUTELY!!!

I rather suspect that's why I fell in love with this Prussian stuff myself - it is very reminiscent of the old GWR livery.

Cheers,

John

[Sir Madog]

I don´t want to rain on your parade, but the "Reichelsheim" station  building, although a brick building is not really suitable for a Prussion themed layout. The KPEV had standardized small town station buildings, which gave the stations a rather uniform look. A typical building would be Auhagen # 14467 "Krakow".

[Allegheny1600]

18 hours ago, Sir Madog said:

I don´t want to rain on your parade, but the "Reichelsheim" station  building, although a brick building is not really suitable for a Prussion themed layout. The KPEV had standardized small town station buildings, which gave the stations a rather uniform look. A typical building would be Auhagen # 14467 "Krakow".

Thanks, Ulrich.

I appreciate your comments but I must confess, I am confused by them as the Auhagen "Krakow" is clearly brick built, surely? Plus, it would be rather large for my small facility. I do like the look of the Auhagen 11389 as suggested by Jack Benson, above as that does look a suitable size.

If Prussian buildings were not brick built, how were they constructed, please?

Surely they would actually use the most easily available local components? This would vary from area to area as Prussia spanned a huge area.

Please don't think I'm attacking you, I'm simply trying to learn.

Best regards,

John.

[Guest Jack Benson]

John,

 

Try this link :- Klingsiel Blogspot

Although I am sure that you are aware, it is appropriate(ish) for your intended location.

 

To answer your question, it is a misnomer to assume that all station buildings were both standard and brick - however (always a however) there was almost standard pattern to smaller station buildings. Let's tackle the materiel issues first, the Prussian railway administration absorbed a fair number of private companies, of which many had constructed vernacular buildings, some were brick, others stone and a few notable exceptions in wood. As usual, the bottom line is to find a location that you like, collect images and either scratch or adapt accordingly.  The previous link to the Heidekrautbahn should lead you to some interesting possibilities using the Auhagen 111389 as a basis. As promised, I will upload some images when we have returned from Berlin, hopefully they will help you.

 

Blankenfelde, a typical small station, easily adapted from 111389

 

 

 

Finally, I may still have a copy of this book, it is a rather good guide to regional building styles and easy to understand.

 

 

Cheers

 

Jack

 

[Sir Madog]

6 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Thanks, Ulrich.

I appreciate your comments but I must confess, I am confused by them as the Auhagen "Krakow" is clearly brick built, surely? Plus, it would be rather large for my small facility. I do like the look of the Auhagen 11389 as suggested by Jack Benson, above as that does look a suitable size.

If Prussian buildings were not brick built, how were they constructed, please?

Surely they would actually use the most easily available local components? This would vary from area to area as Prussia spanned a huge area.

Please don't think I'm attacking you, I'm simply trying to learn.

Best regards,

John.

 

The Prussian Railway had a bespoke set of standard brick buildings, which gave the line a familiar look. One of the notable features was the rather flat roof as seen in the Auhagen building. What makes Reichelsheim the "wrong" kind of building is the roofline and -angle, plus some decoration you will not find on the austere Prussian buildings.

[Allegheny1600]

Hello Ulrich,

Many thanks for the clarification. I confess, upon reading your earlier post, I thought you were saying that a brick building is unsuitable for Prussia, now that I've re-read it several times and your clarification, it all makes sense now and I understand what is "wrong" with it.

Cheers,

John.

[Guardian]

On 22/06/2018 at 20:08, Allegheny1600 said:

 

 

 

 

The loco is powered via its rear axle so that must be left alone but I made marks on the chassis approx 1mm above the bearing area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I carefully filed away material of the chassis (bearings), to the depth of my marks. Note that the centre axle has a recess for a spring. Yes, the Trix T3 does have a sprung centre axle! (I had read that it doesn’t). You can now see why the chassis has to be stripped right down as you really don’t want metal filings getting into the motor or the gears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simply checking that the filing work is done.

 

 

 

 

It’s difficult to tell and there is really not that much movement but here she is riding over a shallow obstacle, a scalpel blade.

 

 

I think she’s ready for service.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

John.

 

 

Hi John,

 

Very nice illustration of the solution to the stiff T 3 chassis! Unfortunately, it reminds of what I still need to do...

 

Cheers

Mark 

 

[Northroader]

I saw your recent quote in the pregroup thread, and then tried the link in your signature, which is something I should have done before now, and I’m quite taken with it all. So, it’s been quiet for a long time, I do hope it’s still progressing?

[Allegheny1600]

Hello Mr Northroader,

Thanks for looking in! Yes, it has gone quiet on this thread for various reasons.

1. After two exhibitions and a few failures, I grew tired of it.

2. I had to devote all my energies to making my house at the time, look it’s best in order to sell it.

3. My wife and I moved to Greece.

4. We had to get ourselves established in our new country, get residency and various other documents to allow us to live here.

5. Complete the sale of the UK house and get all our possessions packed and shipped here.

 

Leberecht was packed up by me as that was one of my priorities as soon as the house was on the market (we were planning on packing everything ourselves but the first Covid lockdown stopped that), here is a picture from that;

https://flic.kr/p/2kLgepC
Leberecht packing up by Virgil Wedge, on Flickr

Sorry! My internet has gone a bit iffy, I’ll have to edit the picture in later.

Once things settled down a bit for us, I realised that my interest was slowly coming back, I’ve started thinking about what I need to do once I can re-erect the layout, there will be quite a bit of work just to get it operational again.

The first two points as you come from the fiddle yard, have to be rebuilt, they were simply too unreliable and the whole functionality of the layout depends on them. I did at least, acquire the material to do this before leaving the UK.

The scenic sections got cut up due to being awkward shapes so they will have to be rebuilt or at least, repaired.

Everything is still currently in its packed up state so hopefully, it will be well. It is at least in a dry and safe storage room.

I’ve even partly written up how I built the buildings and some other bits and pieces! To follow.

Cheers,

John E.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Allegheny1600
Add picture

[Northroader]

Yes, that’s quite an upheaval, no wonder you haven’t been reporting any progress. Hopefully you’ll be able to debug the problem areas and push on. Mind, moving to Greece, and a lot of the “pregroup” railway there used Prussian outline locos and stock from German builders. Good luck with it all.

[Vecchio]

So we will all be patient here and we are looking forward to a future Greek layout!

All the best, I know how you feel, I live now in country number 3. But thats it, I will retire in the UK...