Hanstedten-West

[Sir Madog]

The Lenz starter set into O gauge railway modelling is very tempting. A little Diesel shunter, 3 freight cars, an oval of track and a Lenz DCC control set at a reasonable price! Very tempting, indeed.

 

Hanstedten-West is a BLT set somewhere in northern Germany in the early 1960s. The line is a short one, just connecting the mainline station of Hanstedten with the little town some miles away. Traffic is low on this line, just a daily local freight train, consisting of 3 cars and pulled by one of those infamous Köf Diesel shunters, serving the local trade and industry. Yes, there is some passenger service as well, about a handful of trains, taking kids to school and workers to their work. These trains are usually made up of a "Schienenbus" (rail car), affectionately dubbed "red buzzer" due to the distinct noise it makes. Occasionally, when the rail car is in for maintenance, the train will be a class 64 2-6-2 T, pulling a two old 4-wheeled coaches nicknamed thunder-boxes, and a freight car. More and more traffic is lost to the roads, and the line is earmarked for closure, following Dr. Seebohm´s ideas of improving transport in rural areas by applying the Beeching axe.

 

The layout is based on John Allen´s timesaver concept, but is meant to be a little more than just a shunting puzzle. Layout size is roughly 4 m by 0.65 m, put on a shelf.

 

Here is the plan:

 

 

Most of the structures will have to be built from scratch, as O gauge supplies of kits are still very limited. I am looking forward to get started on this one!

[cromptonnut]

Looks interesting, despite the popularity of that 'starter set' I don't recall seeing a layout based around one at an exhibition. What trackwork are you thinking of using?

[Sir Madog]

I will most likely be using the Lenz track and points for this layout. They look a wee bit more German as Peco´s O gauge flat bottom track.