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

[Mol_PMB]

Encouraged by my local modelling friends I have had a tidy-up in the garage/Swiss railway room. 
 

Previously I had laid some of the track in the fiddle yard. I’ve gone back to that now, and after a bit of work to remind myself where I’d got to, I remembered two key problems.
One was long delays in the delivery of Kadee electromagnetic uncouplers (but they did turn up and have been in stock for a decade). 

The other was more significant. I have a lot of Om gauge plastic sleeper base designed for use with Peco code 100 rail for 22.2mm gauge. Code 125 bullhead also fits. Back a decade ago I had decided to use code 125 in the fiddle yard because its height better matched the Ferro-suisse points. I had made a dozen metres of track with code 125 and stuck it down before I discovered the problem - the wider railhead means that it’s tight to gauge - more like 21.8mm. And some of my rolling stock struggled with that and derailed. 
The fiddle yard has to be very reliable as accessibility will be limited once the scenic level is installed on top. 

So this week I have lifted the track, bought several packs of code 100 rail, and soldered up some adaptor rails to deal with the change in rail section. I am now starting to re-lay the track to the correct gauge!

Once that’s done, I have the offer of some help from a local friend who is an expert in electronics to get all the wiring sorted. I want to have block detection in the fiddle yard so the control panel can show where the trains are. 
 

So, some work has re-started on the layout. Watch this space, but don’t hold your breath!

[Gordonwis]

It's taken me a while to notice that the terminus is now called Broc Chocolaterie ! (presumably 'fabrique' as a suffix is nowadays deemed to be too old fashioned ...

[Mol_PMB]

9 hours ago, Gordonwis said:

It's taken me a while to notice that the terminus is now called Broc Chocolaterie ! (presumably 'fabrique' as a suffix is nowadays deemed to be too old fashioned ...

The Cailler factory had more visitors than ever before in 2023. I expect they think that 'Chocolaterie' sounds a more appealing destination for tourists than 'Fabrique'.

 

Intriguingly this photo from a TPF press release in September 2023 shows the old name on both the old and new signs:

 

 

According to Fototak on Flickr, it was renamed in December 2023:

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Work is progressing in the fiddle yard and the approach track, with more than half the track now stuck down and the point motors and electromagnetic uncouplers fitted. There's a bit more to fix down, and then the wiring and control panel can be started. 

I'm hoping that if I can get this done with a little help from some friends, then the fiddle yard can be thoroughly tested (in itself it's an Inglenook plus) and then the scenic framework can be reassembled above it, permanently. This will then enable a lot more tracklaying, and creating the basics of the scenic landscape.

The whole project build is tied into a sequence. Once the back end of the layout is complete, then the various stuff that is stored at the front end can be moved down to the back to make space for construction of the framework and boards for Bulle and Broc-Fabrique. One problem is that the more layout I build, the less workbench space I have. Eventually there will be almost none, as the layout will fill the entire garage on multiple levels. I hope to make space for a small workbench for repair jobs, loco programming etc.

I do have some workspace in the house, but bigger carpentry jobs will have to be done outdoors.

 

Meanwhile I am reviewing all my photos of the branch. When I started this project nearly 15 years ago there was no prospect of it being regauged, and now it has changed beyond all recognition! Fortunately I did take a lot of photos back in 2012, and I have found a good number of older 1970s and 1980s photos that will enable me to recreate that period that I'm representing in the model.

 

In the 1960s and 1970s the whole GFM metre-gauge network was under severe threat of closure, and indeed some of the connecting CEV metre gauge lines were closed. Consequently, there was minimal investment and virtually no infrastructure renewal unless absolutely necessary. Ironically the GFM Palezieux-Montbovon metre-gauge 'main line' was saved by a contract to carry gravel for construction of a parallel motorway during the 1970s. By the time that had been built, traffic congestion and air pollution issues were beginning to highlight the advantages of an electric railway.

 

In the late 1970s the decision was finally made to keep the GFM network open and modernise it, but that took some time to organise. This is how the line survived with traditional infrastructure and ancient railcars into the 1980s. For the Broc branch, the major infrastructure upgrades and the change from rollwagen to rollbocken took place in 1986. But in the first half of the 1980s there was a wonderful combination of new and old rolling stock on the classic infrastructure, which is the time I've chosen to represent with the model. This photo dated 1986 shows a nearly-new GDe4/4 with a mixed rake of old MOB and GFM carriages under the old catenary between Epagny and Les Marches, giving a good impression of the contrasting styles at this time:

 

One of the things I'm actually quite looking forward to is the production of batches of the traditional wooden catenary masts. They survived rather longer on some parts of the neighbouring MOB network and I enjoyed photographing trains under them in the early 2010s:

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Sorting through my 2012 photos I found this one which shows the track layout at the heart of Bulle quite well. Although this is 30 years after my modelling period, the basic layout remained the same. It's all gone now!

 

I'm looking north from the platform usually used for Broc trains. On my left are the platforms for the Montbovon-Palezieux (and vice versa) trains. In the centre of the photo is the scissors crossover with 3 double slips, a fearsome piece of trackwork!

On the right is the standard gauge trans-shipment siding which at this time was for rollbocken but 30 years earlier in my modelling period had been for rollwagen. Working across to the right from that, we have:

• a carriage/wagon siding with a 15x railcar in red/white tpf livery, and further back some vans and a tanker.
• another siding with a few wagons
• the through line to Chatel-st-Denis and Palezieux
• a carriage siding with a silver/orange Bt 22x
• another carriage siding with a red/white 14x railcar
• the six sidings entering the old shed/works (which by this time had been replaced by a new workshop about 2km further along at Planchy), but was still connected and used for storage of mostly vintage stock.

My interpretation of this is necessarily simplified to fit in the available space, seen bottom left in the trackplan below. I might even take out one more siding before building this. I have no through line to Chatel and Palezieux, though in the other direction the fiddle yard represents Montbovon:

[Mol_PMB]

Several days work tracklaying and wiring has now reached the stage where I can operate a train in the fiddle yard.

 

The less glamourous side of it all, which probably isn't as it neat as it ought to be but it all seems to work:

 

On the topside of the board, a train is involved in testing the track power and the electromagnetic uncouplers, which work well. LED lights are also used to illuminate the areas with uncouplers or pointwork, though the one at the end is rather highlighting the absence of the final point which is on its way from Germany.

 

RhB 222 hauls a freight out of the fiddle yard and up the gradient towards the visible part of the layout:

 

The next stage is to build the control panel for the point motors and uncouplers, which will also show the track occupancy with LEDs controlled by block detectors. I've had to order a few more switches for this, and I must confess that electronics isn't my favourite subject, but hopefully I can make it work. In theory it's just a more complex version of the Les Marches siding control panel. If only I could remember how I did that over a decade ago!

 

[Mol_PMB]

My parcel from Germany arrived yesterday so I have been able to lay the last bits of track in the fiddle yard today, and mount the last Tortoise point motor.

I am also making progress with the control panel for the fiddle yard.

 

Also in the parcel, some rolling stock included two O gauge vans, and two more Om rollwagens. They need some modifications and repainting to represent my desired prototypes, so I've also prepared some artwork for custom decals, and John Peck at Precision Decals will be printing them for me. This sheet will deal with an Italian van, and four rollwagens. In preparing the artwork I realised that one of the GFM's rollwagens Ua 952 ran for at least a decade with the wrong dimensions painted on it! Needless to say I will be replicating the error.

 

The Italian van is this one (despite it masquerading as a German...):

 

Which will end up looking like this:

 

Except it will be riding on a rollwagen like this one at Bulle in 1982:

[Mol_PMB]

Some progress on the control panel for the fiddle yard throat. I started making this at least a decade ago, but it's only now approaching completion.

 

 

The square push-buttons power the Kadee electromagnetic uncouplers.

The small toggle switches control the Tortoise point motors, with the green LEDs (triangular or rectangular) showing the direction the point is set.

Detection is provided in various sections, and the rectangular red and yellow LEDs will illuminate accordingly.

 

The big toggle switch is for the fiddle yard lights.

The separate small switch to the left of that, and the various round LEDs (not all fitted yet) are to do with the crude 'signalling' for the single line connection from the fiddle yard up to Bulle. Because most of this is hidden in normal use, I want to have something to discourage more than one train in section at once.

 

There's no wiring on the back at present, that's the next job, and then to connect that to the layout wiring and see what doesn't work, or worse, emits expensive electrical smoke.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Of course, the beauty of DCC is that you only need two wires 🤬

 

It feels like I've spent all day creating this rat's nest, and it's still not finished 🤬

To be fair, the first half of the day was taken up with displacement activities and procrastination because I really don't enjoy building electronics.

And then I had to go out and buy a new battery for my multimeter and order some more components online.

But I have put several hours into building this mess, and some bits of it even light up when I put volts on them, without making smoke.

 

I've got to the stage where I need to wire up the point indicator LEDs which needs some clear thinking about polarity that is beyond my flux-fume-frazzled brain at this stage of the evening. I know it can be made to work as per the very elegant Tortoise instructions, as I did it once before for the Les Marches siding point. I will focus on that in the morning. Well maybe more like the afternoon.

 

One thing's for sure, I will need a different approach for Bulle, with its 13 points and 3 double slips. Even Broc-Fabrique with 7 points and 1 double slip is daunting!

At least they don't need train detection which adds a whole other level of complexity as I've discovered with the control panel above.

Perhaps a computer will be the way forward for control of Bulle and Broc-Fabrique.

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Well, I've made progress with the fiddle yard and the control panels, although I must confess I haven't finally completed and integrated the main control panel.

I realised that the control panel on the critical path was actually the very simple one at the far end of the fiddle yard, and I thought that would give me a good bit of practice. So that's now made, fitted, wired up and it controls the Tortoise point motor which both changes the point and switches the frog polarity. And the control panel switch and the LED illumination all match up with the point position. If that sounds trivial, I can assure you I got it wrong in most possible permutations to start with! Anyway, here's a view of the point and mini control panel at the far end of the fiddle yard:

and switched the other way:

 

I did a good amount of testing with 3 different locos and made a few tweaks to get them all running smoothly through the point.

I also added a strip of foam rubber across the end wall of the fiddle yard to slightly soften any over-run collisions.

Once everything was done, I had a good clean up, and then it was time to box in this end of the fiddle yard for ever.

First I used some aluminium foil to seal in both the back and the top of the fiddle yard. This is for several reasons:

• To reduce general dust and dirt ingress
• To prevent glue, paint etc from the scenery work above falling onto the track below
• To reflect the lights from the LED strips installed in the fiddle yard, to maximise visibility.

The only remaining access is from the front (as in the photos above) where there is room to get an arm in but not much more.

 

Once the foil was fitted, I replaced the battens above the far end of the fiddle yard for the final time, and screwed down the trackbed and roadbed onto them.

This is a general view of that end of the layout, with fiddle yard bottom left now permanently covered at the far end:

 

 

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

That was mostly yesterday. Today I have cut up a load of scrap softwood to connect the battens where they meet the wall. This strengthens the whole assembly further and provides a good support for the scenic surface. In particular, there will be a row of trees along the back of the layour here, and they need something robust to be fixed into:

 

 

The scenic surface will be made of chickenwire to span the gaps, then layered newspaper soaked in coloured plaster. More of that later this weekend I hope.

I've also started sticking down the cork layer on the trackbed, which is currently weighted down with the usual random selection of heavy things:

 

The wider roadbed in the foreground is for the road.

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Although the constraints of the room mean that the curvature and gradient of this section can't match reality, the general feel I'm trying to recreate is the roadside section from Les Marches to Epagny. Leaving Les Marches (the bit I have already sceniced) the line comes out of a shallow cutting (right) and then joins the road. There are fields behind sloping gently up to the edge of the forest.

 

The line runs alongside the road and the trees converge on the line, as shown in this Tram Club Basel photo:

 

The section where the trees are right behind the railway will be at the apex of the curve at the end of the room:

 

Then there's a nice section with a triangular field behind the train, still edged with trees, and a simple level crossing for a farm track:

 

Or seen from the other side (which won't be possible on the layout):

 

It's all extremely compressed but hopefully I can capture some of the feel of this roadside section on this part of the layout.

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Today I have been adding some supports for scenic features, which is much easier to do before laying the surface.

I've put strips of wood, pre-drilled for fence-posts, along the boundaries of the forest and the railway line, and I've used some ply for the small forestry track that goes diagonally towards one corner.

Then I started drilling holes for the trees, which are in two rows - a front row mostly of whole trees, and a back row of 'forest' trees without the lower branches.

I may have got a bit carried away with this, as I've used slightly more than half my stock of trees in one corner of the layout:

They are deliberately regular as in reality I think this is a plantation.

None of these are fixed down, and they'll all come out again while I lay the surface.

This is going to be the best rural photo-spot on the layout, so I want it to look good.

Now, using more than half my conifers on this corner is potentially a problem, because I'll run out of trees. And I doubt I can get exactly the same ones again because I bought them from the Czech Republic about a decade ago. Whilst I can use different types elsewhere, the forest plantation needs to be quite uniform.

 

But I've just been having another look at the prototype photos, and while the wall under the window should be pretty uniform conifers (above), the wall on the left is actually a lot more varied (below). There are some conifers, along with some similar-sized deciduous trees.

 

It's even clearer in this autumn photo from the same angle:

So, on the plus side I can rob some conifers from that side to put in the opposite corner of the room.

But, I'll need to make or buy some deciduous trees to replace them. I did make a few for this layout a decade ago, but they were a lot of work!

You can see the bigger ones around the viaduct abutment here, leaning slightly (they're not properly fixed down):

 

To buy, these are very nice, but the price soon racks up at £40 a go, and they're only just big enough (not as big as the ones I made):

https://primomodels.co.uk/product/birch-tree-model-26-28-cm

I did buy a couple of the Primo conifers at the recent MIOG show for comparison with my Czech ones. The Primo are better quality, but I think it's best to have such expensive products as feature trees near the front rather than populating whole forests with them!

 

Suggestions for slightly more economical large trees would be gratefully received. Minimum acceptable height is around 250mm, ideally taller.

 

 

At least it's easier to model trees in springtime than in winter!

That little hut needs to be modelled one day, whatever it is!

 

Edited March 31 by Mol_PMB
Added last photo

[PaulRhB]

31 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Suggestions for slightly more economical large trees would be gratefully received. Minimum acceptable height is around 250mm, ideally taller.

 

I used a single line of trees with the denser forest represented by a photo that I stepped and repeated and had printed on self adhesive vinyl. 
 

this is the image, the scene for 16ft is only 8 inches deep. 

 

 

I’ve also had it printed on foamex board to use as a photo backscene on my mini modules. 
 

 

and with the background 

 

[Mol_PMB]

That looks great, and another nice metre gauge prototype! Thanks for the inspiration and ideas.

 

Back in the railway room, I have made a start with adding the chicken wire to form the contours.

 

The black screws mark the positions of tree trunks and fenceposts, and will stay in place while I add the scenic surfacing.

The larger coachbolts are the equivalent for the catenary masts.

 

I've done a lot of work on this over the last 3 days and I'm feeling a bit thirsty now.

Hopefully I'll make some more progress tomorrow, I'd like to finish off the chicken wire in both back corners, and ideally put down the first layer of newspaper soaked in brown plaster. That'll be when I find out whether my 10-year-old plaster still works, or if I need to buy some more...

 

 

[stivesnick]

On 31/03/2024 at 15:31, Mol_PMB said:

Suggestions for slightly more economical large trees would be gratefully received. Minimum acceptable height is around 250mm, ideally taller.

 

CM3 models had some suitable trees on sale at the York show this weekend. Around £30 for a pack of 5 fir trees, 250mm high. They look similar to those already on your layout. Link to web-site here: https://cm3models.co.uk/trees-70-c.asp

 

Hope this helps

 

Nick 

[Mol_PMB]

6 minutes ago, stivesnick said:

 

CM3 models had some suitable trees on sale at the York show this weekend. Around £30 for a pack of 5 fir trees, 250mm high. They look similar to those already on your layout. Link to web-site here: https://cm3models.co.uk/trees-70-c.asp

 

Hope this helps

 

Nick 

Many thanks Nick, that's great! They look very similar, maybe even from the same origin. That price is more practical for a forest.

[Mol_PMB]

This afternoon I was able to unleash my inner child with some strips of newspaper, a pot of brown gunk and a lot of mess!

The brown gunk is a mixture of artex plaster, brown poster paint, PVA glue and water, mixed to a thick creamy consistency and used to coat the strips of paper.

On the areas I've done, there are at least two layers of paper so far. I'll add more layers in due course - it gets easier for subsequent layers.

 

 

The surface certainly helps to blend all the parts together and finally gives a better impression of the landscaping in this area. Somehow it looks flatter than before, which isn't a bad thing because the real thing is rolling hills rather than mountains.

My plan is to get most of the scenery in the back corners done, before I do the surface on the section in front of the road. That will hopefully minimise the chances of damaging it while leaning over, as it's quite a reach to the back corners even when standing on the little stepladder.

 

I'm quite pleased with progress over the 4-day weekend. I've spent most of my time working on the layout, with brew breaks writing nonsense on here!

Hopefully I can get the brown surface in the back corners finished in the evenings after work this week.

I probably need to place a bulk order for static grass fibres before too long...

[Mol_PMB]

Progress continues with the brown sticky mess, as I build up layers to make a reasonably stiff scenic surface. The cork track underlay is now glued down all round the curve, so I'm not far off being able to lay the track and wire it up.

 

Using the same tempera powder paints that I colour the plaster with, I mixed up a very dark brown (nearly black) and painted a strip of the wall in that colour, where it will be behind the trees. Trial-fitting some trees in front immediately looks better than it did before:

I am also making some plain tree trunks with wooden kebab skewers coated in black/brown plaster gunk. These can be stuck directly on the wall to represent the next row of tree trunks behind the 3-dimensional ones, and will help to make the forest look deeper.

I also need to get a range of green acrylic paints to represent the upper parts of those trees, filling the gaps between the 3-dimensional treetops.

I can feel this coming together now, though there's a lot more to do yet!

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

More progress on the forest backscene yesterday and today.

 

Painting the distant trees using acrylic paint, chosen to match the tree foliage, and a simple home-made stencil:

That looks better behind the trees, but it's only part of the plan.

Then I painted some darker, larger triangles to represent the third row of trees (behind the two rows of 3-dimensional ones). And once that was dry, I stippled on some more paint (in slightly varying lighter shades). I also added some tree trunks from wooden kebab skewers, coated in brownish gunk. The short ones are in places where the upper part would be hidden by foliage in front, so I just put in short bits.

It looks crude close up, but from normal viewing distances and with the trees installed, it's quite effective.

In the meantime I added a first layer of ground cover material, sprinkled over more brown gunk painted on the ground surface. This is just fine brown ballast which will have other stuff put on top but looks like rough soil or leaf litter if there are any gaps in the subsequent layers.

 

Now, I'd had to trim the kebab skewers to make the tree trunks, so the offcuts have become a traditional native necklace?

Actually this is a fence. I just need to spread out the posts a lot! I know that in reality the wire should be stapled to the side of the posts rather than passing through them, but since I don't have a 1:45 scale staple gun it was easier to just drill holes for the wire. This is in the background anyway, and will largely be under the shade of the trees. so I'm sure it will be fine.

 

I've placed two orders for new stocks of static grass and some other scenic materials, so the landscape might start going from brown to green before too long.

Edited April 6 by Mol_PMB
punctuation

[Mol_PMB]

I'm doing my bit for the environment by planting a few trees...

 

Roughly normal viewing height:

 

Aerial view from the small stepladder:

 

Driver's eye view:

The trees are a good fit in the holes I drilled, and they aren't glued in. I may yet move a few around to get the look right.

 

Here's a photo from polier.ch showing the part of the line I'm trying to represent, at the right date. Most of my photos have 3 decades more tree growth:

 

Here's a distant 2010s view, taken from Gruyere castle battlements. On the model I've had to cruelly compress the field behind the railcar!

 

I've still got the other corner to do, and then the meadows to grass. Then maybe I might lay some track.

 

[7mmin7foot]

Excellent !

The tree line looks amazing...

 

Steve

[ruggedpeak]

On 02/03/2024 at 10:30, Mol_PMB said:

The Cailler factory had more visitors than ever before in 2023. I expect they think that 'Chocolaterie' sounds a more appealing destination for tourists than 'Fabrique'.

 

Intriguingly this photo from a TPF press release in September 2023 shows the old name on both the old and new signs:

 

 

According to Fototak on Flickr, it was renamed in December 2023:

 

 

Revisited my thread and photos, on 27th October 2023 it was still showing as Broc Fabrique, on both the train and platform indicator.

 

 

As per my post the other day (2 April 2024) at Romont it is now definitely Chocolaterie! So December fits, really good news the visitor numbers are up. I think there was only one Domino unit in Cailler Chocolat livery originally, but as per my thread there are clearly now at least two, working in tandem.

 

 

The layout progress is excellent, very impressive and enjoying the posts.

[Mol_PMB]

I've been away for a week, so not much progress on the trainset recently. Today I've done a bit more scenic work with ground cover, static grass, trees etc., and will post more photos of that in due course.

 

In the meantime thoughts have turned to the big viaduct, and I've had discussions with several friends about the best way to do this. As a reminder, here's a photo of the real thing (an early 1980s slide by Peter Nothdurft, that I recently acquired on ebay):

The real thing had three spans but I only have room for one, and even then it's 3'6" long.

Because it spans a walkway, it needs to be strong enough to come off best in a collision with an errant human head.

 

After much consideration, I've decided that the best approach is to have the top, bottom, 2 sides and 13 cross-pieces laser-cut from 1.5mm stainless steel and then TIG weld them together using a tab and slot arrangement to keep everything in line and allow all the welds to be done from the outside. I've attached a pdf of my draft drawing of that basic structure.

Hopefully one of my friends with TIG welding expertise can be persuaded to do the fabrication.

Then I can glue on non-structural cosmetic details afterwards.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for companies that do laser-cutting in thin stainless steel?

 

Cheers,

Mol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

viaduct.pdf

[PaulRhB]

Your solution sounds good but a backup would be to build it around a Perspex box tube inset in 10mm from the sides so it doesn’t reflect light but sits hidden in the shadows.