Die Ercallbahn - Fulfilling a childhood dream.

[Woody C]

On 15/12/2023 at 12:06, ian said:

This year's Christmas blockbuster film

Well, I could not wait until Christmas day to watch this! Not disappointed either! Another great video Ian!

A thought did go through my mind (an unusual and at times dangerous occurrence according to Mrs. W!) as I watched which was how long does it take to clean all that track or is the Marklin technology such that it self cleans?

[ian]

4 hours ago, Woody C said:

how long does it take to clean all that track or is the Marklin technology such that it self cleans?

It all got a good clean before it was laid (years ago now, in some places) and I only ever clean it in places where I have been working and making a mess.

 

The pickup shoes keep the studs clean but that's it. I can't even claim to run the trains frequently - it tends to come in bursts and lulls. The weight of the locomotives must help enormously with keeping a good electrical contact - along with all their wheels carrying the juice.

 

If you watch the railbus in the last video you can see the light flicker a few times where it looses power. It is a relatively light model but the momentum carries it through. I suspect it needs a new pickup shoe.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by ian

[ian]

This attempt at a quick win was a total failure. Captain OCD suggested that some road signs wouldn't go amiss.

Apart from the fact that the thick white plastic poles and plates are offensive to the eye, even if they were delicate creations of piano wire and card they would still draw attention to how little space there is.

 

Ah well. At least I didn't drill holes for them.

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, ian said:

This attempt at a quick win was a total failure. Captain OCD suggested that some road signs wouldn't go amiss.

Apart from the fact that the thick white plastic poles and plates are offensive to the eye, even if they were delicate creations of piano wire and card they would still draw attention to how little space there is.

 

Ah well. At least I didn't drill holes for them.

One out of three - the street name perhaps - might work.

[ian]

1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

One out of three - the street name perhaps - might work.

I also looked at putting the street name on the buildings rather than the signpost but again it drew attention to the condensed nature of everything. Sometimes less is more.

[SimonHMT]

On 17/12/2023 at 08:17, ian said:

I also looked at putting the street name on the buildings rather than the signpost but again it drew attention to the condensed nature of everything. Sometimes less is more.

Can you somehow make/obtain smaller, less obtrusive signs (in TT perhaps)? Particularly for the street names, and if mounted on the buildings, it may give a better effect.

Something, say, 2/3 the size of the blue Bahnhofstrasse signs, mounted as you suggest on building walls, should look OK I'd have thought...

As for the disc traffic signs, would they need to be as high as the ones you've put on the layout, which look to scale about 3m tall, given the urban environment? Given the likely traffic speeds, they're not going to need to be seen from several hundred metres away like a sign on a more open road and I wonder whether they would be smaller in diameter, for much the same reason. Do road signs in Germany actually have stark white posts (they're often grey in Britain)? I honestly don't know the answer to the latter, but something other than white might help!

I hope this is helpful...it's intended that way.

I'm really enjoying watching the layout evolve and operate, many thanks,

Simon.

[ian]

4 hours ago, SimonHMT said:

 

I'm really enjoying watching the layout evolve and operate, many thanks,

Thanks Simon. I'm having a whale of a time doing it.

 

Thanks also for giving so much thought to the street sign problem. As far as possible I have been using things 'straight out of the packet' although I have made exceptions. The signs are as the manufacturer intended and looked awful. I think that given that people don't tend to notice the lack of them doing without will be easier than making replacements. That opinion may well change when I get to the town centre area at Maifeld.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Sorry, an unrelated question - I was just wondering how long your mainline / express coaches are?  Are they scale 1:87 (303mm for a standard 26.4m coach), the shortie 1:100 (265mm), or even the intermediate 1:93.5 (282mm)?

 

Watching the shortened trains (3 or 4 coaches instead of 10 to 13) on the videos doesn’t look odd as it’s a retro layout, but I wasn’t sure how long each vehicle in the train is.

 

I dabbled in retro N scale last year, where the shortie coaches were 1:200 instead of 1:160, and that difference was very noticeable (but the prices were great).  Thanks, Keith.

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Keith Addenbrooke

[ian]

2 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

I was just wondering how long your mainline / express coaches are?  Are they scale 1:87 (303mm for a standard 26.4m coach), the shortie 1:100 (265mm), or even the intermediate 1:93.5 (282mm)?

 

9.5" according to the catalogue (yes, they even translated the length into English). 24cm in Napoleonic.

 

I did get one of the later 70s longer ones in a mixed lot which came in at 27cm but that got sent on its way rather quickly - every inch counts!

Edited December 20, 2023 by ian

[ian]

Merry Christmas everyone.

[Woody C]

Thank you Ian and hoping you and your family have a great day!

[ian]

As usual I made my own arrangements for a Christmas goody. This is a second BR151, this time in turquoise/beige rather than the green of my existing example. It will allow for a bit of variety running point on mail and freights.

 

It needs new traction tyres and adjustments to the reverser but is otherwise good to go.

 

By way of a bonus is this NS post coach. I had seen it on eBay but not bitten as I couldn't see any way to justify it on the Ercallbahn but then fate took a hand.

 

I had purchased soemthing else from the seller to replace an existing tired model with a better specimen and they sent me this by mistake. I posted on the Railways of Germany forum asking if it was possible that these would cross the border into Germany. In no time at all I was assured that they did and that manned post coaches featured in the Holland - Skandinavien Express which just happens to run on the layout. As a result a deal was reached and it has joined the roster.

[Oldddudders]

I once had the wrong item arrive. I had ordered a loco from the US - neither the first nor the last! - and when the parcel arrived it was suspiciously compact. Sure enough it contained a Scalextric F1 car, decorated for Lewis Hamilton. Sigh. I contacted the seller, who was suitably contrite, and he informed me that my model had gone to another buyer - in Oz! He enabled the two of us to correspond and exchange goods, and he refunded all costs. Best part was the Oz buyer was a lady - whose husband worked for the railway, and quite admired my purchase!

[ian]

Sometimes when filming you catch a blooper!

 

Happy new year to all.

[Jon Gwinnett]

Didn’t know DB operated slip coaches 😉

[franciswilliamwebb]

7 minutes ago, Jon Gwinnett said:

Didn’t know DB operated slip coaches 😉

 

Scotrail does:

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Nicely done 🫣 

[ian]

The restaurant car is a newly acquired replacement for an existing one with poorer paintwork. I had omitted to check the couplings before I added it to the train.

[Jon Gwinnett]

49 minutes ago, ian said:

The restaurant car is a newly acquired replacement for an existing one with poorer paintwork. I had omitted to check the couplings before I added it to the train.

What “vintage” of couplings are you using? I recently acquired some modern Marklin Shimmns wagons and they came with something akin to the Roco universal coupler but with a magnetic hoop, which seems like it could be a game changer for using with magnetic uncoupling poles.

[ian]

3 hours ago, Jon Gwinnett said:

What “vintage” of couplings are you using? I recently acquired some modern Marklin Shimmns wagons and they came with something akin to the Roco universal coupler but with a magnetic hoop, which seems like it could be a game changer for using with magnetic uncoupling poles.

These are 1960s/70s metal Relex couplings. They just need to be bent back into shape and alignment with the coupling gauge then all will be well. It looks like the coach has had a few rough shunts during its time.

Edited January 2 by ian

[ian]

At the risk of making more work for myself...

 

 

Would it be helpful or just down-right distracting if I overlaid a schematic diagram showing what is going on on the operations videos?

[Jon Gwinnett]

That is brilliant!

[31A]

1 hour ago, ian said:

At the risk of making more work for myself...

 

 

Would it be helpful or just down-right distracting if I overlaid a schematic diagram showing what is going on on the operations videos?

It certainly puts into context what you're watching on the video!

[SimonHMT]

16 hours ago, Jon Gwinnett said:

What “vintage” of couplings are you using? I recently acquired some modern Marklin Shimmns wagons and they came with something akin to the Roco universal coupler but with a magnetic hoop, which seems like it could be a game changer for using with magnetic uncoupling poles.

I bought a couple of Märklin wagons at the Warley show; one (a long wheelbase 4wh low sided wagon with stakes, picked up very cheaply as most of the latter were broken or missing!) has what seems to be a variation on the standard NEM coupling we all know and love(?) but with a sort of delay latch.

The other, a newer (boxed) van has something similar to what you describe. I haven't really examined either in detail yet as my current plan is to replace everything with Fleischmann Profi-couplings, but the newer Märklin coupling seems to work very well, coupling up to it in particular being more consistent than with standard couplings.

I guess I need to have a look round for a comparison between the various coupling systems somewhere before making a final decision...

Simon.

Edited January 3 by SimonHMT

[Jon Gwinnett]

Apologies to the Ercalverse for going off topic, but I’m generally very satisfied with Roco universal couplers, positive, light action coupling, not too hard to uncouple, delay latch built in, and nicely close coupled. I’ve bought some HOfine hooks to fit to my locos, as an experiment, and the Marklin close couplers offer the facility to shunt with a magnetic pole (I like to be involved in operation, so hand throw points with Caboose Hobbies ground throws and so on).

 

I don’t operate fixed rakes, but if I did, I’d be tempted by Fleischmann profis (or more likely the cheap Chinese knockoffs!) as they seem more robust than Roco close couplers, but not really suitable for shunting as they require a good whack to bring them together (or so I’m told).

Edited January 3 by Jon Gwinnett