The Broc Branch in Om scale - an ambitious project that stalled for a decade but is now reawakening

[Mol_PMB]

Anyway, back onto models already finished rather than trying to find an excuse to spend more money on transporter wagons (which to be honest is almost inevitable come payday...)

 

The GFM had a fleet of about 50 goods vans, mostly 4-wheeled but there were four bogie vans too. The last batch of 10 4-wheel vans had a high arc roof broadly similar to the RhB 4-wheel vans. The GFM vans survived until recent years, latterly stored out of use in Bulle and later at Montbovon:

 

Back before Bemo entered the Om scale market, the RhB vans were made by a firm called Kiss, and they were moderately-priced plastic models. Although they were out of production by the time I started my Om modelling, I managed to pick up a few for conversion to GFM examples. I completed one and the others are still awaiting their turn (I'm hopeless at finishing things) .

 

These vans were delivered with vertically planked doors, which were later replaced with sheet metal, or plywood, some with a horizontal or vertical reinforcing strip. For my first (and so far only) conversion, I modelled the original planked door, and represented a rather tatty van. My plan was that subsequent models would have different doors and be presented in less bedraggled condition.

 

Here's a view of the completed GFM van, compared to an unmodified Kiss RhB vehicle:

 

I'll come clean at this point and say that the dimensions aren't a perfect match. The overall length isn't far off (RhB a foot longer) but the RhB vans had a longer wheelbase than the GFM vans and I haven't attempted to change this. My feeling is that by modifying and improving the details I've created a reasonably convincing model of the GFM van, and it's certainly distinctly different from the original. Here are a couple of close-up comparisons:

 

If I was revisiting this, I would do something about the brake block alignment and see what could be done to reduce the wheelbase. I've got several more Kiss vans to play with, so there are options. If I rebuilt them all I'd consider doing one of the Cailler-branded examples, although it's really too early for my model period. Also I'd have a freshly-painted one:

 

[ruggedpeak]

Just seen this on the Swiss Railways FB group, historic train running last Saturday.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/894282347331350/permalink/7377291042363749/

 

[Mol_PMB]

3 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

Just seen this on the Swiss Railways FB group, historic train running last Saturday.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/894282347331350/permalink/7377291042363749/

 

Very nice!

I went on the fondue train some years ago, on a Bulle to Chateau d’Oex (MOB) trip. Highly recommended. 
The one that’s escaped me so far is the restored 131, I’d love a run on that some time. Here’s a couple of other people’s photos on Flickr:

Though of course it’s too late now to ride it on the Broc branch. 

[PaulRhB]

Thanks for the point info, I printed it out to full size and compared it to a Bemo point. 
 

the sleeper spacing at the ends is close. 
 

if you eliminate all the extra lead it’s still quite a lot smaller. Ideal for industrial track but maybe not so much for mainline RhB?

[Mol_PMB]

43 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Thanks for the point info, I printed it out to full size and compared it to a Bemo point. 
 

the sleeper spacing at the ends is close. 
 

if you eliminate all the extra lead it’s still quite a lot smaller. Ideal for industrial track but maybe not so much for mainline RhB?

Don’t tell anyone but I’ve ordered one to try it out. And two rollwagons. 
 

The point geometry is probably good for this sort of thing:

[PaulRhB]

I was thinking of getting some as I can use them in the fiddleyard if no use for the scenic section. I can build points but grinding away all that metal for the blades and crossing is not my idea of fun! 

[Neils WRX]

I remember a visit to the chocolate factory and the unlimited amount of chocolate you could eat…

 

 

 

 

Will follow this thread with interest.

 

Thanks,

 

Neil

[PaulRhB]

18 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Don’t tell anyone but I’ve ordered one to try it out

I had a play and if you re-sleeper the centre section by chopping out some to add more they can look a lot better. 

 

 

Edited February 14 by PaulRhB

[PaulRhB]

Cut out the faded out four and add eight new

 

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks, that's a good thought. 

 

Do you happen to know if the Bemo points are basically the same as the ferro-suisse ones? They certainly look extremely similar:

https://ferrosuisse.ch/ferro-flex-gleissystem/

 

[PaulRhB]

32 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Thanks, that's a good thought. 

 

Do you happen to know if the Bemo points are basically the same as the ferro-suisse ones? They certainly look extremely similar:

https://ferrosuisse.ch/ferro-flex-gleissystem/

 

Yes they are they have the makers quality control slip in the box. Sadly the owner passed on and while Bemo have announced plain track they haven’t found a point manufacturer yet it seems. I was hoping they might commission Peco but no sign of that. 

[PaulRhB]

https://ferrosuisse.ch/ferro-flex-gleissystem/

 

Ah it appears they’ve been bought and are now doing set track too. 

https://ferrosuisse.ch/ferro-flex-gleissystem-jetzt-auf-wunsch-als-fertiggleis/

 

“We have developed a high-quality track system especially for our trains. The Ferro-Flex track system is unique, but so far the system has been obtained in individual parts that you had to assemble yourself. Some enthusiastic users have asked for a simpler variant. In comparison with our customers, we came to develop two circles with different diameters, which can now be ordered as pre-assembled components. With the help of these components, a circle can be created in a few minutes.

These variants will appear first:

Circle 1: Radius 120cm

Circle 2: Radius 260cm

Straight piece: 100cm

Straight piece: 150cm

Please contact us if you are interested. A personal clarification is recommended here. We do not have any pictures yet and will be published later, as the product is still under development.”

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

1 minute ago, PaulRhB said:

https://ferrosuisse.ch/ferro-flex-gleissystem/

 

Ah it appears they’ve been bought and are now doing set track too. 

https://ferrosuisse.ch/ferro-flex-gleissystem-jetzt-auf-wunsch-als-fertiggleis/

 

“We have developed a high-quality track system especially for our trains. The Ferro-Flex track system is unique, but so far the system has been obtained in individual parts that you had to assemble yourself. Some enthusiastic users have asked for a simpler variant. In comparison with our customers, we came to develop two circles with different diameters, which can now be ordered as pre-assembled components. With the help of these components, a circle can be created in a few minutes.

These variants will appear first:

Circle 1: Radius 120cm

Circle 2: Radius 260cm

Straight piece: 100cm

Straight piece: 150cm

Please contact us if you are interested. A personal clarification is recommended here. We do not have any pictures yet and will be published later, as the product is still under development.”

 

 

Ah, that's better news! Many thanks.

[PaulRhB]

Can’t find any dealer listings though so who knows when the current range is going to be available. 

[PaulRhB]

Also found this using code 100 rail via OOK’s blog

 

https://herzynia-weichen.jimdofree.com

 

I’ve sent a request to see if he ships to the UK. 

[ruggedpeak]

20 hours ago, Neils WRX said:

I remember a visit to the chocolate factory and the unlimited amount of chocolate you could eat…

 

 

The unlimited chocolate continues at Maison Cailler, the Chocolate Express is a multiple unit now.

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

2 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Also found this using code 100 rail via OOK’s blog

 

https://herzynia-weichen.jimdofree.com

 

I’ve sent a request to see if he ships to the UK. 

Ah, that looks like an interesting range too. Adding to the complexity is the different rail sections used by the various suppliers, but that can probably be overcome and aligning different sections is something the prototype has to deal with too. 

[PaulRhB]

8 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Adding to the complexity is the different rail sections used by the various suppliers, but that can probably be overcome

Yes, not sure what the other turnouts above use but code 100 is 2.5mm vs FS’s code 118 - 3mm profile so a 1/2mm shim. 

[Mol_PMB]

I have a vast quantity of plastic moulded sleeper bases which take Peco code 125 bullhead for 22.2mm gauge, just to add another profile to the mix! 
I also need to check the dimensions of the rail I’ve spiked to the wooden sleepers on the bit of the layout that actually has track. That may be code 118 or something close to it. 

[MikeB]

6 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Yes they are they have the makers quality control slip in the box. Sadly the owner passed on and while Bemo have announced plain track they haven’t found a point manufacturer yet it seems. I was hoping they might commission Peco but no sign of that. 

I'd imagine that 22.2 mm gauge Om is sufficiently niche that Peco would want to prioritise their own ranges, where there have been supply shortages.  Does Peco even have the capacity to make track for other companies?  Bemo must have a problem as lack of basic pointwork must be harming their sales of items in their Om range.

[PaulRhB]

1 hour ago, MikeB said:

I'd imagine that 22.2 mm gauge Om is sufficiently niche that Peco would want to prioritise their own ranges, where there have been supply shortages.  Does Peco even have the capacity to make track for other companies? 

Yes, they make O gauge track for one of the German manufacturers, Lenz. Whether they have the time at present is another matter on top of Bemo probably now waiting for FerroSuisse stock to restart.

So it’s basically yes if you’re prepared to pay for it and as the Om points mentioned above are £150-180 and the majority of the Om market has been very very expensive stock in the £1000-£5000 range until Bemo jumped in they will pay it. There’s a Krok on Ellis Clark’s site for £4750 at present!
I keep my Om within budget by using the Fama, Utz and Alpinline coaches collected for around £20 each and turning down the wheels to finescale and have quite a few Bemo items much cheaper secondhand 😉

 

1 hour ago, MikeB said:

Bemo must have a problem as lack of basic pointwork must be harming their sales of items in their Om range.

Yes and they responded with plain track already and I assume points would have followed if FS hadn’t been resurrected in October last year. Obviously that’s going to take a little time to come through. 

Edited February 15 by PaulRhB

[Mol_PMB]

10 hours ago, MikeB said:

I'd imagine that 22.2 mm gauge Om is sufficiently niche that Peco would want to prioritise their own ranges, where there have been supply shortages.  Does Peco even have the capacity to make track for other companies?  Bemo must have a problem as lack of basic pointwork must be harming their sales of items in their Om range.

With Om there's also the problem that there are two different track standards - finescale 22.2mm and coarser 22.5mm. Although the difference in gauge is small, the flangeway dimensions are quite different and they don't inter-run reliably. Although 22.2mm finescale is now the standard for new products, all the older cheaper entry-level secondhand stock from Fama/Utz/Alpinline is coarse scale.

 

When I started planning the Broc Branch, I built a test track with my proposed tightest horizontal and vertical curves and a turnout.

I also tried out a few different forms of track construction. That used Peco code 100 flatbottom, including a Peco streamline OO point sliced down the middle and extended. Not pretty, but I didn't need it to be pretty for a test track. From somewhere I acquired a large quantity of plastic sleeper base sections, which will take code 100 flatbottom or code 125 bullhead rail, and you can see some of these in and around the streamline point:

Believe it or not, this rather Heath-Robinson approach actually worked quite well, but it's not suitable for the visible parts of a layout.

 

On the layout I only installed one visible point before the project stalled; that's for the siding at Les Marches as seen here: It's of copperclad construction, and I can't remember much more about it! Actually it's quite hard to see from above so the appearance doesn't matter too much. The point indicator works though, and you can see that from the operating position. The plain track in this area is code 115 flat-bottom, a pre-blackened rail from a long-forgotten European source.

 

In the fiddleyard I wasn't short of space (!) but wanted reliable running as it's not so easily accessible. So I used Ferro-Suisse points like those now offered by Bemo. I think I got some of them secondhand. Here I've used the plastic sleeper bases with Peco code 125 bullhead for the plain track:

 

So it's all a bit of a mix at the moment! If this project ever gets off the ground again I'll need lots of points for Broc-Fabrique and Bulle, including a double slip and a scissors crossover.

[Mol_PMB]

On other matters I seem to have had a little eBay accident. I thought it would be a good idea to get a Bemo wagon for "research purposes". In particular I wanted to check the compatibility of the couplings, and I can confirm that they are the same type, size and height as I fitted to my existing models. That's good. I also wanted to get a feel for the level of detail on the models, and to see if they would form a good basis for modification.

All these boxes were ticked by a secondhand RhB Kk-w open wagon, with a couple of loose bits, offered secondhand by Rails of Sheffield on eBay at £115.

Compared to the Kiss vans I had previously, the detail is much better but more fragile. Importantly it has a shorter wheelbase than the Kiss vans which makes it a better starting point for many GFM prototypes.

The open wagon wasn't so much the accident. The accident was also putting in what I thought was a very cheeky low bid for a 'Mohrenkopfe' cement wagon, which was then accepted.

 

 

I'll have to think about what to do with this, if anything. 'Mohrenkopfe' were not entirely unknown in the area; here are several views of Uce 8051 on the MOB, but it's a different type. Photos from Fototak on Flickr:

Hmmmm... I think a new tank could be made with a couple of Plastruct elliptical ends and a piece of tube. Even then it would need a bit of Rule 1 as I suspect the GFM would have carried cement in a standard gauge wagon on transporters, rather than borrowing the wagon that the MOB had hired from the RhB! So realistically the 'Mohrenkopfe' will probably go in the cupboard of shame with the other daft purchases! I may find an alternative way to use its chassis.

 

 

[PaulRhB]

36 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

The accident was also putting in what I thought was a very cheeky low bid for a 'Mohrenkopfe' cement wagon, which was then accepted.

Yes I’ve picked up several very cheap secondhand. Fortunately a friend donated a stash of the finescale wheels as he uses Fama so those missing accessories were easy to sort out. 

[Mol_PMB]

A cunning plan is being formulated for the Bemo Kk-w wagon...

GFM Gbk 619 was one of a large batch of similar vans, but only 619 was experimentally re-clad in square-corrugated steel in 1963. Most of these vans were sold or scrapped in the 1990s but 619 was converted to emergency response wagon X1012 and survived into the 2010s - it may still exist. Seen here at GFM Planchy in 2012 next to one of the later, larger Gb vans like the one I modelled based on a Kiss van:

The basic dimensions are very close, and a dig through my stock of plasticard has found a big enough piece of ribbed siding with about the right rib spacing. I'm sure it will turn out to be more complicated than it looks, and I really should finish some other projects first!