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Moin Howard, Carl Bellingrodt was a German railway photographer well known for the quality and wide range of his work. One book focusing on his work along the Rhine is "Eisenbahnromantik am Rhein - Unterwegs mit Carl Bellingrodt". As this is your area of interest. I assume you are already aware of http://www.hunsrueckbahn.info/ resp. http://www.hunsrueckquerbahn.de/. There is also http://www.hunsrueck.nl/dubahn.htm which has this very nice image by Carl Bellingrodt: Come on, come on - don't salivate now ... Best Regards, Christian

Hello Howard, Brückenheim: Okay , I understand - it is just that it is sounding so generic .. one might as well name a layout "Neustadt" ... a location name you will find in most larger cities and in rural areas, too. just my 0.02€ - no trolling intended! Fast forward any significant amount of years: you will have found out that it is easily possible to run such a BLT layout as per your plan in era IIa/b, in era III and maybe even era IVa/b with little or no changes but requiring lots of storage capacity for disparate sets of rolling stock. The 4-track traverser will be at the limit of it's capacity ... so my suggestion: start off on the traverser table as if you mean to go on - by using rolling stock cassette tracks instead fixed tracks on the traverser. Then you could just swap out cassettes and some details on the layout itself (signs, figures, cars, ads) and presto: different era! For era I you would need in addition different signalling depending on your chosen state railway (Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Oldenburg, Sachsen etc.) For eras V and VI just build a separate SLT layout ... if at all: sometimes a static diorama of an Aldi supermarket and the associated parking lot is prototypical! And if you want to know more: I have evidence for just such a case, too. Anyway, my suggestion is to use cassettes on the traverser. Best Regards, Christian

Howard, Good choice - it is one of the most beautiful areas of Germany. Go for it if you like it. But sadly for you I am from Bremen ... not much help as to local knowledge or a quick run over to shoot some piccies for you. The area's topography justifies the tunnel exit to the FY. Aunt Edith says: "Brückenheim" is such a dull name - why not "Hoppard"? Best Regards, Christian

Beyond cool ... really nice.

Hi Howard, Later (in era III) many of the coal traders ("Kohlenhändler") would transit/diversify to supply and deliver heating oil or even specialized lubrication products (beyond what would be supplied at your average '50-/'60-ties gas station). It is entirely conceivable that over the course of time they would convert their coal siding into an combined coal/oil siding or even just an oil siding with coal deliveries being done in the common lloading area ("Ladestrasse"). Do whatever you want here - everything is possible in era III, really. As you are free-lancing it: what is your setting/ approximate prototype region as that would influence your buildings` style. Rule #1 of course applies but just don't build a Bavarian station in an Northern German setting, please. That at a minimum would cause me indigestion. Like putting a Scottish station within sight of the Downs ... Ask and Ye Shall Receive ... my best efforts at sound advice. Best Regards, Christian

Hi, Howard, If a coal dealer rented space near/adjacent the Ladestrasse from the DB it would have been stored there but it would not have been stored for any significant amount of time blocking a general/commonly used loading spot on the Ladestrasse itself. Fuel/Heating oil dealers would often/sometimes have a common tank near the Ladestrasse (sometimes with their own siding). I know of a location (Hallenberg/Hochsauerland in NRW) where there were significant storage areas for freshly harvested trees near the Ladestrasse. Long day for me today with significant travel and a 4-hour-job-interview so no prototype links for this as I am sort of exhausted. This is the best plan yet. Maybe you can use Lenz RTR track (expensive!) for the FY ... I am not sure. Best Regards, Christian

Hallo Howard, OK - Thank you. Now I understand. I see nothing glaringly wrong with that. IMO: Lose the train turn table - it uses up way too much space and will be bumped all the time (maybe not by yourself as you appear to be quite slim from your avatar picture but visitors to the layout come in all sizes and girths). Just keep the previous version's FY whilst canting it a bit more to the left. My 0.02€ Best Regards, Christian

Hi, Howard, where is the Ladestrasse (that is the area where mass goods like coal, oil etc. would be loaded directly from the trains wagons into customer trucks). Customers would be assigned several hours to unload a wagon have to have finished by a certain point in time, so these spots should not be on any runaround track. Best Regards, Christian

Hello, Howard, Here is another site: http://www.sporenplan.nl/html_de/index.html Not only German plans, but also other countries' plans. I like you your plan - could label the station area with some more detail as what is where, please. Best Regards, Christian P.S.: Ask me help with German language is needed.

I must have been seeing things - cats really are everywhere on the 'net these days ... But then why the gras is so furry on the black hills ... and why are they perambulating? Questions, questions ... more pictures, please. Best Regards, Christian

Hello, you got yorself a very nice layout there. Especially the cat is very nicely detailed having very graceful poses - just it is slightly out-of-scale, I am afraid. Best Regards, Christian

Hello Mike, I have just finished reading the whole thread and worn out my index finger klicking "Like"-buttons ... Outstanding work - very inspring! Best Regards, Christian

@EddieB: there is a road name sign just before the sole visible bridge pillar. On a higher resolution scan it should be readable ... but nice clear shots, really Christian

Claude, Something completely different in tin plate but strangely alike after all is said and done: http://www.stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=92323 No offense intended .. Enough for today, Christian

Hi, Claude, I am sort of bored - so I found an old postcard for you on zeno.org: From site of the S-Bahn Berlin: http://www.s-bahn-berlin.de/events/stadtbahngeschichten/stadtbahngeschichten_7.htm German Federal Archive: http://www.bundesarchiv.de Wikipedia Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Friedrichstra%C3%9Fe_station From Bilderbuch Berlin: Misc. images: How to find stuff: Google Image Search https://www.google.de/search?biw=1920&bih=943&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=s-bahn+friedrichstrasse+berlin&oq=s-bahn+friedrichstrasse+berlin or https://www.google.de/search?biw=1920&bih=943&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=s-bahn+friedrichstrasse+hochbahn+berlin&oq=s-bahn+friedrichstrasse+hochbahn+berlin Some more links: http://lexikon.freenet.de/Bahnhof_Berlin_Friedrichstra%C3%9Fe http://www.dw.de/erinnerungen-an-den-geteilten-bahnhof/a-15307879 DSO-HiFo (for research register there): http://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?17,6745523,page=all Berliner Verkehrsseiten: http://www.berliner-verkehrsseiten.de/ Not related to Friedrichstrasse or S-Bahn but U-Bahn Berlin: http://www.berliner-verkehrsseiten.de/u-bahn/Stellwerke/Stw_Go/body_stw_go.html Architectural model: http://berlinmodelle.com/wp/traenenpalast-modell/ (Angie likes it, too ) Stadtbahn Berlin: http://www.epilog.de/berlin/eisenbahn/Stadtbahn/Stadtbahn_Handke.htm Much more links but time's up I am not a Berliner but ask me nevertheless - I'll help you with research or translation - slowly but steadily. Best Regards, Christian

Hallo, Claude, Thank you very much - it is just that some consider posting another layout's pictures in a layout build thread rude and I wanted to make sure as not to offend. Here we go - catalogue page (Copyright by Primex resp. Märklin): The track plan has been reconstructed in three two different versions with the basic pattern remaining the same by a user "Primexmades" from "Forum Alte Modellbahnen" (http://alte-modellbahnen.xobor.de/) some years ago and it is copyrighted by the author. The originally posted image has since been lost in digital nirvana, unfortunenately: (Edit: I found it but the thread is registered users only at the above mentioned forum) Different trackplans exist and are public accessible via picr.de: As you can see at first, the layout is on two levels with the upper level reserved for long-distance trains and the lower level intended for the S-Bahn. Secondly, it is all passenger traffic - no goods traffic at all. The goods train in the corner does not count, really. Thirdly, switches have been very sparingly used compared to the numbers of switches usually used in a Märklin-/Primex-catalogue layout. I hope it helps somewhat. This is all the information that is available on that layout. I really looking forward to see your club's build progress. Best Regards, Christian

Hallo, Claude, Just as an afterthought: there a lot of old postcards (Postkarte/Postkarten or Ansichtskarte/Ansichtskarten) floating around in the German Bight and one can always preview them ... it is an often overlooked way of research especially for Eras I and II, when railway stations were the business cards of their communities. After WW II that was not really the case anymore. Just fish in the German Bight with the search term "friedrichstrasse" and narrow the category to "Sammeln und Seltenes/Ansichtskarten" in the search results - that is my usual approach as you'll cat a wide net thataway. Just my 0.02€ - your mileage may vary. Good Luck, Christian P.S.: There was an 3-Rail-AC-H0-Berlin-themed layout in the Primex catalogue of 1987 (Primex was then Märklin's department-store brand). Märklin had a new-in-the-market model of an Berliner-S-Bahn (yellow/red) in that year. If there is interest, I'll post the two relevant images of that layout. Let me know, please.

Hi, Claude, I am late to the party but referring to the river barges: (Image is an old postcard by an unknown author posted on the German Wikipedia and it is rather large) I hope it helps. Best Regards, Christian

This is outstanding! My cold got worse just by looking at the latest pictures ... Best Regards, Christian

I like the RMWeb forums: Awesome model railways and I get to improve my English, too.

May the Lord hold his hand over you, Rod.

Nice plan - now start the build - just extend the platform one third of it's present length to the right to bring the platform length in sync with the length of the FY sidings. The platform would be a "Schüttbahnsteig" anyway. Some more pics here (Disclaimer: not my site). Am looking forward to your building thread. Best of Luck, Christian

You will surely get a visit from Monsieur Inspector Cluseau now .....

Well done! Now for a lot of operational videos ... or just rig a webcam

Terrific - absolutely stunning! Christian