Gelternau (Formerly Konigsbrucke) - Swiss 2mm N scale layout 1997 - 2005 (with some present day stock too)

[cornish trains jez]

Evening all,

 

I’ve started scratch building my first portal. It’s going to be in plastic but once finished, I think it will be a very sturdy structure. The contact arms will of course be in brass. Most of the other portals will be completely in brass.

 

This is the type of portal I’m trying to recreate, albeit my version will be spanning four tracks.

 

 

Here are a couple of initial shots of it blue tacked on the layout. There are still lots of parts to add before it’s finished but hopefully I’ve got the height right. Any comments on this most welcome.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by cornish trains jez

[Samedan]

I’ve just caught up with your progress after a bit of a Summer break from RM Web and YouTube. The layout’s looking really good, particularly with the long straight tracks through the viewable area. And there are so many lovely, reasonably up to date, models available in N gauge these days - I might have once gone down that road if I could’ve foreseen the choice available, but then again, I find HOm quite fiddly enough.

 

Scratchbuilding most of the buildings will make your layout very distinctive, but life’s a bit too short for me and my spread of interests. I look forward to watching progress, and I find the sound of the seagulls on your videos strangely relaxing ((unlike when they’re trying to steal my fish and chips!)

 The signal cabin makes for an unusual building. I don’t associate signal boxes with Switzerland but you have a perfect prototype there. Personally, I wouldn’t stress too much about the weathering (what you’ve done looks fine to me in the photos) but I would try to recreate the graffiti. I think that’s a brilliant, arresting visual feature. 
 

Re the catenary, as long as your masts and gantries are capable of holding wires if needed, I think leaving them until the end and then deciding whether they are worth it is the way to go. My layout will be in two distinct scenic areas and I’m thinking of adding full catenary in the simpler, rural one, but not the main station, where the pointwork feels very daunting. We’ll see in due course. 
 

Keep up the posts. 

 

 

[cornish trains jez]

On 28/08/2023 at 14:31, Samedan said:

I’ve just caught up with your progress after a bit of a Summer break from RM Web and YouTube. The layout’s looking really good, particularly with the long straight tracks through the viewable area. And there are so many lovely, reasonably up to date, models available in N gauge these days - I might have once gone down that road if I could’ve foreseen the choice available, but then again, I find HOm quite fiddly enough.

 

Scratchbuilding most of the buildings will make your layout very distinctive, but life’s a bit too short for me and my spread of interests. I look forward to watching progress, and I find the sound of the seagulls on your videos strangely relaxing ((unlike when they’re trying to steal my fish and chips!)

 The signal cabin makes for an unusual building. I don’t associate signal boxes with Switzerland but you have a perfect prototype there. Personally, I wouldn’t stress too much about the weathering (what you’ve done looks fine to me in the photos) but I would try to recreate the graffiti. I think that’s a brilliant, arresting visual feature. 
 

Re the catenary, as long as your masts and gantries are capable of holding wires if needed, I think leaving them until the end and then deciding whether they are worth it is the way to go. My layout will be in two distinct scenic areas and I’m thinking of adding full catenary in the simpler, rural one, but not the main station, where the pointwork feels very daunting. We’ll see in due course. 
 

Keep up the posts. 

 

 

Hi!

 

Many thanks for your comments. It’s all coming along at snails pace but hopefully will get there one day!

 

The seagulls can be relaxing except when they are making a noise in the early hours of the morning and/or have crapped all over our cars!

 

Look forward to seeing your layout progress.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Afternoon all,

 

Making very slow progress on the first catenary gantry but here is the latest photo of it. I now need to add all those fiddly detailing parts……now where is that swear box?!

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Good evening all,

 

I decided to spend a bit of time on the gantry today and have made some more progress. The little lamp that sits on the tallest upright has been added. This was made using a small piece of channel plastic strip and then the ends made using two small bits of flat plastic strip and sanded flush.

I’ve also completed the top beams filling in the gaps with small bits of plastic strip so it looks something a bit like this…

 

 

So here is the model, still lots to do, not my best bit of scratch building but I hope it will be a good learning curve for the next one. It is starting to feel more solid now too.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Decided to finish off those bits this evening.

 

Next bit to do  will be the contact wire beams.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[DavidMcKenzie]

Taking shape nicely 👍. They really do look the part. I envy your scratch building skills.

All the best,

Dave

[cornish trains jez]

23 hours ago, DavidMcKenzie said:

Taking shape nicely 👍. They really do look the part. I envy your scratch building skills.

All the best,

Dave

Thanks Dave! It’s been a bit fiddly to put together so far. I’ve learnt a fair bit so hopefully I can apply this to the next one. Just need to finish off with the contact wire beams and tensioners and then I can move on to the next one. Will paint and weather both gantries at the same time.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Afternoon all,

 

Latest item/ of rolling stock to arrive at Gelternau is this Kato Re460 in the Swiss post livery which it carried late 90’s/early 2000’s.

 

 

Also, had this one a month or two now, this Fleischmann Zurich S-Bahn set. Runs beautifully and looks great!

 

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[cornish trains jez]

Afternoon all,

 

Been making some more progress on the ABB building this afternoon. A bit of tidying up after the first coat of primer which always reveals the imperfections. I’ve built up the little bits of details to the corners where the roof joins the sides using bits of plastic rod and then filler with some careful sanding to shape to finish off.

 

I’ve also built the back wall which faces the front of the board, this being in card and also some extra card supports inside to support the roof.
 

The roof is also in card and will be the last part to be glued into positon. First it will need its coat of off white paint to finish and then I can fit the large front windows, gutters, downpipes and fire escape. So still plenty to do!

 

A few progress photos….

 

 

 

 

More to follow soon!

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[ColinK]

That’s some building.

[cornish trains jez]

Afternoon all,

 

As a bit of a break from modelling buildings, I’ve decided to embark on my first ever scratchbuilt wagon project of the one below. (Photo from wagons-Europe.net - http://wagons-europe.net/picture?/7113/category/276-04_fourgons_poste )

 

 

I’ve seen these wagons in postal train consists on various YouTube videos but sadly no available rtr N gauge model.

 

After a quick post on this forum some valuable information was shared (thank you once again) and I feel like I can model this now.

 

I’ve spent some time today working out some dimensions and have made a start on the chassis. I’ll be using some donor bogies from a Roco EWiv coach.

 

Any advice on scratch building wagons greatly appreciated!

 

Here is the basic chassis base with plastic tube glued to the underside. Once dry I’ll drill out the holes to accommodate the bogies to a snug fit.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Hi there, I've only scratchbuilt a few wagons (in H0e so not too different to N scale).  One thing I learnt early on was to use a double thickness base layer for the chassis to reduce warping - whatever thickness of styrene you're using.  Of course, any reinforcing helps add weight, so is no bad thing.  Good luck with the build - looks to be a very neat start, Keith.

[cornish trains jez]

A bit of progress on the first side of the wagon this morning. Not quite there yet but just building up all the bits of relief and adding the doors using various thicknesses of plastic card and strip.

 

The door on the end is from a chopped up Minitrix Eurocity Bpm coach that I carved up about 20 years ago to make into a bt driving trailer then half way through the project Fleischmann announced a ready to run version!

 

Here is a quick progress shot.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by cornish trains jez

[cornish trains jez]

A bit more progress this afternoon. Some more detailing to add to this side but nearly there. I’ve loosely blue tacked it to the chassis.
A couple of photos and one posed next to a Fleischmann bogie postal wagon just to check I’ve got the height roughly right.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

23 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Hi there, I've only scratchbuilt a few wagons (in H0e so not too different to N scale).  One thing I learnt early on was to use a double thickness base layer for the chassis to reduce warping - whatever thickness of styrene you're using.  Of course, any reinforcing helps add weight, so is no bad thing.  Good luck with the build - looks to be a very neat start, Keith.

 

Hi Keith,

 

I've taken your advice and added a slab of 2mm thick plastic card to the topside of the chassis. It feels much better now.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Afternoon all,

 

I’ve made a bit more progress this afternoon. I’ve added the hand rails using 0.31mm wire. I would have normally used 0.2mm but I feel the slightly oversized ones will show up better when running round on the layout.

 

This particular side is now ready and I’ve glued it into position on the chassis. Other parts will be added to finish off once I’ve got the other three sides built up.

 

Latest progress shots below.

 

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by cornish trains jez

[cornish trains jez]

Good morning,

 

Spent a bit of time yesterday getting the two ends right.

 

I think I’ve got the roof curve line right now, the first one I made looked too high so these look much better using the photos as comparison.

 

I’m going to make three more to use within the body as additional roof supports. I’m wondering four supports might be better.

 

Here is a quick progress shot of the two ends. They just need detailing now as each end is different.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Afternoon all,

 

I’ve popped the postal van to one side for the time being and have decided to make some progress on the next building for the layout.

 

Spent a few hours last night and this morning measuring up and cutting out the first side, including all the windows which seem to take forever but I’m happy with the result so far. Just need to cut out the aperture for the glazed windows to the bottom right hand corner.

 

I’m using 1mm thick plastic sheet for this one.

 

Here is the first side and then a screenshot from Google earth of the real building.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Edited January 21 by cornish trains jez

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Cutting consistently neat, small apertures for the narrow window openings in 1mm thick plastic card takes some doing: very impressive (not surprised it took some time), Keith.

[cornish trains jez]

One side finished now and the first part of the back support added. 
 

 

Next, I’ll start on the other side and then move to the front sections which I feel is going to be tricky.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy.

[cornish trains jez]

3 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Cutting consistently neat, small apertures for the narrow window openings in 1mm thick plastic card takes some doing: very impressive (not surprised it took some time), Keith.

Thanks Keith. I’ve rushed apertures in the past and made a mess of them having to then correct uneven openings by filing bits of plastic away to get it square.

 

This time I really took my time and it’s really paid off.

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[cornish trains jez]

Evening folks,

 

In the series “I’ve got 101 unfinished items on my workbench”, I decided to add one more!

 

I have a love/hate relationship with Peco code 55 track, I like it’s practicality but it’s just not quite right in it’s looks. In an effort to try and make it look as good as I possibly can, I decided to have a go at increasing the sleeper spacing. 
i read somewhere on this forum that the sleeper spacing in N gauge is about 3.5mm. So I bought a 3.5mm square strip of metal strip and set to work.

 

Cutting the sleeper webbing to separate each sleeper from the next is a nightmare and took forever but I think I’ve got a technique going now which saves a bit of time.

 

Once the webbing has all been removed the individual sleepers can be slid along the rails quite easily. 
 

Before glueing down, I pre-spaced the sleepers to 3.5mm apart and then once glued down, some minor adjustments needed to be made just to ensure they sit straight and that none have moved in the process.

 

I’ve completed about 1.5 meters of track and I’m quite pleased so far, but would welcome all comments.

 

Once painted, ballasted and weathered, the difference will be quite noticeable.

 

A couple of photos.

 

The first with a length of unaltered track in the foreground with the adjusted track glued down behind.

 

 

A small section of track in the foreground and the altered track behind which I hope shows the adjusted sleeper spacing.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

Edited February 18 by cornish trains jez

[njee20]

You need a Cricut or similar Jeremy, save those scalpel blades (and your sanity)!

[cornish trains jez]

2 hours ago, njee20 said:

You need a Cricut or similar Jeremy, save those scalpel blades (and your sanity)!

Maybe one day Nick. While my eye sight is still decent though I’ll stick with the scalpel and besides, I weirdly find it quite therapeutic cutting out all those windows. 😬😂