Die Ercallbahn - Fulfilling a childhood dream.

[ian]

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Ercalluniversum, shirley?

No, it is an adopted word, like 'offline'.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by ian

[ian]

Just to keep things moving...

 

 

[ian]

The operating session has now reached 09:30 - with time off to sort out an intermittent short and a couple of sticking points at Maifeld Bhf.

 

This carries on from where we left off:

 

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by ian

[Grey]

I read your post with interest, it was a story well told. I too started my Marklin train set from a Christmas present as a child  while living in Germany. A small circle of track an engine and a couple carriages. I looked at it again some years back , then got an N gauge. I have now just unpacked my Marklin from all its protective packaging for another look.

[ian]

20 hours ago, Grey said:

I have now just unpacked my Marklin from all its protective packaging for another look.

That is the start of a slippery slope!

[ian]

 

[Talltim]

The images in the thread that are (I think) hosted on your blog, seem to be be missing at the moment

 

Edit, Please ignore, its my web filter

Edited November 14, 2023 by Talltim

[franciswilliamwebb]

It's like an aircraft landing on a carrier, but the other way up😎

[Oldddudders]

Electric string is tricky stuff - says he having largely worked on a third rail railway. What I do know is that BR had a special OLE inspection test coach called Mentor. This had an observation hatch on the roof, and, while being towed, and with lots of data being created, enabled an engineer to observe the relationship between a pantograph and the OLE, mile after mile of new electric string at something like linespeed.

 

in the model perhaps a test mule, checking clearances etc. might be run at sober speed to enable similar reassurance? Whatever, I am glad the E03 survived!

[ian]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

in the model perhaps a test mule, checking clearances etc. might be run at sober speed to enable similar reassurance? Whatever, I am glad the E03 survived!

E10, E41 and E94 types all sailed through. The cross-span masts have now shuffled a couple of mm closer to the camera and to E03 is much happier.

Edited November 14, 2023 by ian

[ian]

The view along the viaduct leading to Universität has been irking me for a while so 'something had to be done'.

A cobblestone texture was downloaded from the far reaches of the internet and resized to be about right. It was then expanded to cover an 8' x 9" strip and sent to Colour Graphics to make into a long strip of self-adhesive vinyl.

 

Some Foamex (PVC foam) was cut roughly to size to act as a view block for the incline to Neustadt.

 

The engineers took possesion of the main line and lifted the whole section along the viaduct, which was removed, the vinyl cobbles were laid and then the viaduct replaced.

 

Although not sitting squarely on the ground the viaduct looks much better on the cobblestones than the white MDF.

 

Onwards!

[ian]

After an unplanned trip to the nearest trading settlement to acquire a replacement for an expired hot glue gun the area is starting to look a little better.

[ian]

So what was the plan for 2023?
 

Quote

 

To build the missing baseboard link, connect Maifeld to the helix (via yet another station) and add the shunting yard. That will just about complete the track laying so after a little bit of wiring full train-playing mode can commence.

 

 

 

This was what the target area looked like at the end of 2022:

 

This was the vision:

 

And now it looks like this:

Mission accomplished!

 

So what about 2024?

Apart from playing trains I need to do some scenic work to make it all look a little better - but no fixed targets or deadlines this time.

[ian]

A closer view of Universität station. It isn't finished yet - but that is true of a lot of places on the railway.

 

Its full and proper name is Hanseuniversität but everyone who uses it just calls it Universität. The institution from which it takes its name is Hanseuniversität Maifeld which translates as the Hanseatic University of Maifeld. It is a child of the erstwhile Hanseatic League. In its twlight years Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck tried to rekindle the league and one scheme was to create a university that specialised in the sorts of knowledge that a great trading league needed. Lübeck hedged its bets by declining to host the university, just in case it became a financial burden, but Bremen and Hamburg both wanted first dibs on any potential benefits so eventually a compromise was hammered out by placing the university about halfway between them. The league petered out shortly aftwerards but the financial endowment meant that the university managed to carry on and over time has prospered sufficiently to survive the various shocks and upheavals over its three centuries of existence (it was founded in 1669 since you ask).

 

Anyway, the lights aren't connected, the businesses under the arches don't have lights installed yet, there should be more signage, fences along the edges and a few more people. However none of that affects the ability to run trains so it is on the round tuit pile.

Still waiting for a train, here is a view down the line. Again there is a lack of connected lights, interiors, people, etc..

Edited December 8, 2023 by ian

[Woody C]

On 06/12/2023 at 21:23, ian said:

Mission accomplished!

A phrase I am unable to say in relation to most of my projects! I take my virtual hat off to you Ian. I recall the start of the project with the branch line and look somewhat disbelievingly at what you have constructed leading from it in a short time and the wonderful layout you have now. Most modellers construct an extension branch to their layout after having built the main layout but you have done the exact opposite! Time to enjoy the fruits of your labour and run those trains even more! Thanks for another year of entertaining, informative and amusing posts! Woody

[ian]

19 minutes ago, Woody C said:

On 06/12/2023 at 21:23, ian said:

Mission accomplished!

A phrase I am unable to say in relation to most of my projects! I

That is my usual state.

 

The only possible explanation is that last year I set my targets too low!

 

 

 

[ian]

I doubt that there will ever be space for any of the university buildings, but I do have a sign!

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

A modelling blue peter badge 😀

[Woody C]

1 hour ago, ian said:

but I do have a sign!

 

Was it one you made earlier?

[St Enodoc]

24 minutes ago, Jon Gwinnett said:

A modelling blue peter badge 😀

Only a white one though. I've got a silver (somewhere...)!

[ianathompson]

You could always include a Hallenkirche even if you can't manage a University.

I had the pleasure of singing in King.s Lynn's example on Sunday last.

 

Ian T

[ian]

As a quick win I built the rest of the lineside telephone boxes that I had in stock. The first went at the entrance to the post siding at Maifeld Bhf. The signaller can actually see this area but frantic gesturing from the crew on the ground can sometimes be mis-interpreted.

 

The second is on the headshunt that serves Herr Rudyards Küchen at Klinkerhoffen. This will enable the crew to let the signal box at Maifeld Bhf that they have finished shunting the factory. However impassioned their gestures they are well beyond sight of the signaller.

 

The third went where the line to and from Maifeld Gbf leaves the yard. Trains leaving for or returning from the Güterbahnhof need to call in so that the yard signallers know where they are.

 

The final one is also resident in the yard - this time where the line leaves for the Ford wheel plant. Again, the signallers rather like to know when things enter and leave the yard here, with or without accompanying gestures.

[ian]

For another quickie I have sprinkled some signs around the tracks. The semi-circular sign is a limit of shunt marker for Neustadt.

 

A car stop sign at Universitát.

 

The S&T team at Schönblick have accumulated a collection of signs - three relate to a temporary speed restriction and the other two to a closed section of track.

 

And at Billshaven a stop and wait for handsignal sign has been located to protect the ferry slip.

 

And trains have been run. This is the oil train from Willhelmshaven. It has just called at Maifeld Rbf, dropped off the full tankers for Billshaven, collected the empties and is now ready to carry on to Neustadt to swap the wagons there.

[ian]

Oops! I forgot this one - a sound hooter/whistle board approaching the footpath crossing outside Neustadt.

[ian]

This year's Christmas blockbuster film is the fourth outing for the Operating Session 1 franchise taking operations through to just before midday. Despite having covered half the day so far only about 40% of the scheduled events have occurred - so there may well be another six to come!

Edited December 15, 2023 by ian