swisspeat

Good morning, the tree Reed is a piece of seamoss with autumn leaves attached. the ploughed field is by Busch. i will send more pictures of both soon. putting up the wires as I write this. regards, peter

Two bits of work done today. 1. Added some autumn, almost leafless, shrubs and tree. 2. Erected the Viessmann catenary masts. Not accurate Swiss ones but I find the Viessmann system works well and can easily be removed and reused in the event of making another new project in the future. The backscene will be changed once I can get to CH to take some photos. I will apply a thin black wash to the pumpkins to tone them down a little. Peter

Thanks very much Gordon. I visited Wildegg in Oct 18 and 19 to be greeeted with loads of sugar beet traffic. lots of fun watching SBB Cargo Tm 232 moving the wagons beneath the loaders. This field is next to the line. As you say Long Live the Eaos! Here is one I loaded up last month. Peter

Thanks Ben. I hope Heljan are going to produce some of those modern sugar beet carrying wagons with 3 small containers. On this project I will still have to use my fleet of Eaos wagons. UPDATE The pumpkins have been harvested, lots of weeds have grown today, a couple of trees have been planted and some more pics will arrive in the next day or so. Pete

Hello everyone, Last week I ventured out into a cold garage to "find" a baseboard that I built an N scale model of part of the Wisbech and Upwell on some years ago. That layout has been gathering dust propped up against the wall so it was time to cut the baseboard into two to see what I could build on those. A few months ago a model shop gave me a Kibri modern warehouse kit that had been returned to them partially built with this line "see if you can do anything with that or feel free to assign it to the bin". On opening the box I realised that the windows had been fixed in place incorrectly etc etc. Anyway 5 days later the newly reworked warehouse has a new home on one of these baseboards. The scene will be Swiss Autumn complete with pumpkins in the fields, sugar beet being loaded etc. Here is a couple of taster pictures representing a weeks work. Lots of detailing work still to be done plus catenary etc. I was hoping to revisit CH again this Spring but I have decided that building Swiss layouts has more certainty attached to it. I hope that you are all well. Kind regards to all, Peter

Hello Peter. the laser cut chalet kit is by Noch. It went together very well indeed but it did cost around £100. the garden was made from bits and bobs by JTT, Busch, Noch and odds and ends collected over 5he last decade. thanks for your interest. regards Peter

Lovely....if I did not already have HO stuff I might have gone down the N scale road....or rails to be more accurate. You have captured well the advantages of N in a small space. :-) Peter

You ask a good question to which I do not have an answer apart from to say that many of the kit manufacturers change the name of the station kits over a period of time. For example the Blausee Mitholz structure has appeared in various plastic mouldings over the years carrying different names I understand. I think that was Kibri too. companies try to get the best value from their equipment even if they deviate from using the correct station names from time to time. the basic tooling for some of these kits is decades old. Peter

Bemo are announcing their 2021 new releases etc around 22 January so we might have more information then.

Seriously interesting for one like me who takes a harbour boat trip wherever he can! Should you change your name from Stationmaster to Harbourmaster based on your wealth of knowledge! :-)

I am starting to think watching big boats is nearly as much fun as watching trains! You now have me hooked on this chain. peter P.S. I just hope they have not dropped the container off in error at the port just left........

I must say I have found these last few posts to be a lot of fun. Is this the first time modellers have been chasing a container ship across the oceans! A bit like train spotting from the shore rather than the lineside. I am hoping those posters in the know (boat wise) will plot the containers course to the UK where should we expect it to be delayed in customs for weeks on end? I hope not. Safe container watching! Pete

This is what fixed the system. A piece of 5 x 9 cm clear acetate screwed to the top of the motor housing. Just three screws in position at he time the photo was taken. It now works very well indeed. For the price of 4 screws and a small piece of plastic one wonders why this was not included in the kit. The Apres Ski hut was a quickie Noch laser cut kit that came with the skiing course. Thanks for listening and participating in this rather long and, in the end, simply fixed addition of moving skiers. Kind regards, Peter

With Zoom and the like anything is possible as long as it is not visible on camera!! a very good use of time I would have said. :-)

The addition of figures makes a huge visual difference. Well worth the time and effort. peter

I have some good news to report. Three skiers move around and around the cross country trail! the remedy was to position a piece of clear acetate above the drive mechanism held in position with screws into the four plastic posts visible in the pictures in the post of Wednesday at 17.11. The acetate prevents the chain from being raised out of the U channel track. Your posts above and the company suggested this but why oh why did this recommendation not appear in the supplied instructions? And why did it not come with the 4 extra screws and a small piece of clear acetate? thank you for watching this topic and for your helpful comments. i am still running on battery power awaiting the mains adaptor to arrive from the manufacturer. When I acknowledge these I will suggest that their instructions need expanding to cover this essential feature. kind regards, Peter

Thanks Joseph. I did watch that and his system is about 100 times longer than mine! And it works well. I have just come across another You Tube video showing bikes going up and down hills so your idea to downhill skiers is a good one. interesting to see that the chain links have changed in design over the years. The current blue ones seem to run better than the original red ones. While the system is apparently a Dutch design the supplier is in France. Odd how no UK model shop sells it. Or have I missed something? Peter

I only started this topic because of some power supply problems but I am really grateful for all of your helpful comments. i just love those videos! i tested my system again today on battery power and it runs beautifully for ages without the road surface on. Immediately I put the skier on top of the road surface when it comes to the motor drive area the magnet on the chain below the skier pulls up the chain so by the time it leaves the motor gears it has come out of the U channel and forward motion stops. So it does look like a sheet of clear acetate or similar needs to be screwed into those four posts to prevent the chain rising up too far to the point of no return as mentioned in the post above. I am perplexed as to why this is not mentioned in the instructions. More when the replacement parts arrive....

Magnorail have just sent a comprehensive reply. Good customer service. Basically many of their comments are similar to Jim's message comments above. It seems that I am not the only person to have problems with the power supply and a replacement unit and connector is on its way. They have asked me to recheck tightness of the chain etc which seems ok. They have recommended installing a plate over the motor housing. I have asked them for the material and screws to do this. I will come back to this topic once the new parts arrived. Your interest and help on this matter has been much appreciated. Kind regards, Peter

Jim - thanks. Does increasingly look to be a common problem sadly. joseph - I share your enthusiasm for downhill skiers on a layout but at the moment I am having enough problems with reliable cross country skiers on the level! I will share comments from Magnorail when they arrive. Here is the Noch display model as seen at Nuremberg 2020 Toy Fair.

Those are interesting comments. Thank you. On trawling through You Tube etc I see that a number of modellers do indeed put a sheet of thin plastic over the mechanism. The instructions supplied with my kit and those on the manufacturers website make no mention of this. And if you look at the pictures above there are indeed 4 holes to take screws. I confirm I have already used all the supplied screws in the set. The gap between the rubber rings is non-alterable. I will wait to see what the manufacturer comes back with comments but your suggestions of shaving ever so tiny amount of the rubber off might be the way forward. Peter

Thanks David. Much appreciated. I have now written to Magnorail asking "what am I doing wrong?". Here are two pictures showing the plastic chain as it disengages itself from the O rings. The white blobs are Tacky Wax used to hold the road surface temporarily. I will pass on Magnorail's comments when received. There seems to be no dealer in the UK. Kind regards, Peter

All comments gratefully received. I did try the two pin plug initially in an adaptor. That did not work either! Maybe the unit I received a faulty from the start. Good spot of the broken leg! :-) I must confess I am have some slight challenges getting the system to run reliably. When I am running it without the "road" surface on it is is fine. It can run round and round without any problems. But once I gently put the road surface on (held with Tacky Wax) and run a couple of skiers on they only do about one loop before the blue chain disengages itself up through the two rubber O rings. I have noticed on some videos that some modellers have screwed a piece of clear acetate over this part of the running track which might have the effect of keeping the chain in place. At the moment every few minutes its like riding a real bicycle and the chain comes off again! Still doing research on this. I thought this might be a quick win skiing course but it ain't worked out that way so far! I have an MP4 short video of the skier moving but I see that I cannot upload an MP4 to this forum. I need to figure out what to convert it too! Any ideas please. Thanks for listening.... Pete

Thanks for comments. :-) I have still to assemble the Apres Ski hut but I will make sure there are pots of glue and ketchup on the counter. I am still running it from a 9V battery so at least I have some movement. I have blended it into a test diorama this morning with some of the supplied trees with the kit. Sample photo attached. I have a short video showing movement but I am still working out how to upload it onto this site because in its present format its just too many MBs! Even looking at the picture makes me shiver....

Quick update. The system works well with a 9V battery. That does not give me speed control but at least the motor still works! I am currently finessing the Magnorail chain by taking out a few links and changing them for different length ones. It is trial and error. Do not intend to fix down the snow surface (supplied thin cardboard) until I am convinced the Magnorail system works perfectly. It is currently held down with Tacky Wax to provide on/off facility as I still work on it. Pete