apemberton

Just look at the crowds greeting that train! In WW2, it was common German practice to place one or more low value flat wagons (usually 2 axle 20T platform wagons) as minegeshutz protection because of partisan activity. The same practice, though with armour plated side sheets on wagons, armed troops would be present with the rapid firing MG38 or MG42 weapons to protect a train. It isn't clear whether the wagon in the picture was to minimise potential mine threats (likely) or an armed pilot wagon (unlikely). The 2TE10, having two sections, was probably a good insurance policy in case the lead unit got hit or failed (they are elderly). I see that there are armoured sheets protecting the fuel tanks on both units.

As supplying materiel to the occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine relies on this bridge, I'm not surprised that the Russian propaganda machine claims all is well, nothing to see here. But there are pictures taken by satellite that shows long queues of trucks are waiting for ferries across the Kerch straight. A bit like the M20 after Brexit! 😀 During the Great Patriotic War, the German occupiers did build a bridge across the Kerch straight which was destroyed by the Red Army. It was subsequently rebuilt but lost again some time in the 1950's. With the Ukraine being set up as a self-governing province of the Soviet Union in 1956, plus building permanent crossings of the Dnipro river (there are pictures of Germans using train ferries across the Dnipro to Kherson during occupation) I guess there was less of a need for the Kerch straight bridge. With the illegal occupation of the Crimea in 2014, that made it vital for the regime to build a new bridge. With not many rail facilities running through occupied southern Ukraine from Russia to Crimea, that makes the Kerch straight bridge strategically vital. Whatever exploded at the bridge, that has to be a major failing of security and I guess some military/FSB officials are enjoying a sojourn in Siberia. Just my thoughts!

With the power shortages inflicted on UA, I guess Diesel locomotives will be in great demand. Perhaps some could be spared from Baltic states systems but also reguaged Taigatromellen/Sergeii (BR232/ST44) and Ludmillas from DE/PL/HU could be spared too. Underutilised JT42 (66/77) from here and France too might help. Perhaps some stored SD70/AC44's regauged be made available? Recycle not scrap. I see from November's issue of Today's Railways Europe that grain is being shipped direct to Romanian Danube port Galati on rehabilitated 1520 Gauge using hoppers. Judging by the length of US grain trains, quite a high volume could be shipped by rail though European train lengths do not compare - even the long freights on the trans-Siberian (which look like more than a kilometre long). With long stretches of single track on major routes in UA, capacity must be a problem restricting shipment volumes. There is also the issue of damaged infrastructure that must mean significant delays and/or diversions. Odesa and other key cities en-route suffer targetting by the invaders despite the UN agreement for free passage of bulk carriers.

I wondered if the model railway store websites in .ua were still functioning. I found the site https://www.modeli.com.ua/ operating but http://mois-trains.com.ua/ is not. I was looking at the latter site as they sold Soviet era decals. Forums are online but I suspect the people don't have any time for normal activities. Before the invasion, there were contributors posting from .ua on .ru model forums seemingly without prejudice but that is the model rail fraternity worldwide I suppose. There are shocking pictures being transmitted by UATV (on the satellites at 13 degrees East) which I cannot bear to look at. British channels are quite sanitised I'm afraid. There seems to be no humanity by the invaders. As for it being over soon, the Russian backed separatists have been warring since 2014. In my opinion, the opposing forces will (at best) fight to a standstill. As an aside, I found a Youtube Cab Video taken before the war which features a single track, mixed gauge route from Ukraine to Romania. Very rural and green. The 1520 track looked disused and the 1435 plainly did not have a lot of traffic. There is a modern EU sign at the border. This is not a video for exciting train travel!

The broken bridge picture reminds me of the pictures of German sappers jacking up sabotaged rail bridges on the Eastern front and patching up destroyed piers with massive wooden baulks. At least it wasn't as seriously damaged as the bridge at Remagen across the Rhine! Having tried Polish made pierogi from the local supermarket, I found the flavour a bit bland to my taste and it reminded me of DimSum parcels. A acquired taste perhaps? The menu above is Polish? That said, I did enjoy a meal at a Ukrainian restaurant when visiting Moscow on business two decades ago. Tony

I agree. However, the Soviet Union's collective farm enforcement in Ukraine, and the famine that followed, it is estimated that up to 20 million Ukrainians perished. The Germans were at the very first welcomed as liberators. Lifting a rail and moving it 89mm (the USSR changed from 1524 to 1520 in the fifties and Finland remains 1524 today) inwards without modern machinery did take a lot of manpower as can be seen in photographs of the time. Geometry at switches and crossings must have been a nightmare! In steam days, much of Ukraine was not blessed with a lot of water and that lead to a lot of locomotives being equipped with condensing tenders. These were based on Henschel's design and fitted to many E class and a SO class. The Germans also built a number of Kriegslok with condensing tenders because of the long distances without water in Ukraine (and also destruction of water supplies by partisans). There is quite a lot of information on the Great Patriotic War at https://forum.axishistory.com/index.php

Although not a point about the captioned subject, there is a Youtube cab view video from a 'shed' in Poland where one track is 1435mm and the other 1520. There are mysterious branches into woodlands where a 1520mm track disappears and shortly afterwards a track emerges from the woods and crosses the 1520 to join the 1435mm. Soviet era military transhipment areas? There is also a video (not watched) concerning the UZ/MAV crossing at Chop/Zahony.

German Eisenbahncommando converted tracks to 1435mm right into the Crimea for the period 1942 - 44. It doesn't take long if there is the will and supporting traffic to convert. Lviv, then known as Lemberg, as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire had several 1435 lines converging from Poland. Indeed Lwow and the Carpathians became Polish for a period. The Baltic states are already members of NATO which kind of isolates the Kaliningrad Oblast. Lets hope for peace soon.

I bought a number of the Dapol knuckle couplers as they seemed to be similar to Microtrains but with NEM pocket fittings. However I discovered that the NEM standard height is not the same as Microtrains (presumably NMRA) standard height. I wanted to run some wagons with Microtrains Archbar trucks intermixed with European two axle wagons converted with Dapol knuckles. Some Fleischmann/Old Roco wagons not fitted with NEM pockets could fit Microtrains conversion kits to create 'adapter' wagons (Rapido/NEM at one end and Microtrains at the other) but that isn't very flexible for freight train operations! I find Microtrains knuckle kits very fiddly with the tiny springs flying everywhere except where the should go!

I doubt there will be much coverage of UZ border crossings on Youtube for the time being. I used to watch some UZ cab view videos (I forget the publisher's name) but they have disappeared as far as I can tell from youtube. There were a number of videos of western Ukraine where standard (1435mm) gauge reached a considerable distance into Ukraine in parallel, or interlaced with, the 1520mm tracks. Due to only 85mm gauge difference, interlaced tracks are 4 rail. Mixed gauge tracks split near the borders with Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. The last video I watched on PKP metals (around Przemyśl) towards UZ showed the gauge changing facilities virtually disused but there must have been bogie changing facilities for the very limited through coaches. That was before the war though. Freight seems to be transshipped from 1520 to 1435 wagons (and vice-versa) rather than swap bogies. Incidentally there does not seem to be much coverage of UZ on the Ukraine satellite TV channels. Unsurprising really due to security issues. Apart from the propaganda aspect, the coverage shows how truly terrible the people are suffering. Scenes British broadcasters would not show. Slava Ukrainska!

My Tuppence worth:- I do my designs using Openscad which is available for Linux and Windows. Indeed I use either Win7 or Debian as desired, using a common repository on my network. Openscad is not very graphic which perhaps is not for the more artistic among us. I guess it is more of a programming script language. I find I can take prototype general arrangement drawings (preferably with dimensions - I use a digital caliper against a diagram if no dimensions) and scale them to my N-scale using a 1/160 dividing factor. Output for me are .stl files which I then use a normal slicer for PLA or PETG printing. I havn't yet mastered working with resin and I havn't yet acquired a laser cutter or CNC machine. An example of my work is at Thingiverse which the Openscad source code is published. Tony

@Lurch Thanks for your feedback and offer. I will have to think about something else. Perhaps I should have adopted 1/87 scale . Tony

I have found the indicator panel as above and I seem to have got the dimensions woefully wrong. It seems that the prototype is 395 across by 789(?) down. I don't think the latter is correct and I suspect it is 589 down. Some pics from Scale Trains Club (Russian)

Hi @Lurch, I was trying to find the manual for the particular type of prototype display which had the metric dimensions. However, I havn't found it yet amongst the masses of my files. (Also one of my network devices needed attention. ) I think the prototype was something like 600mm by 476mm so that at 1/160th would be 3.75 x 2.975mm but my memory may be failing. The original prototype used filament bulbs in an odd (to us) matrix but at 1/160, anything would do! I will try to get the prototype diagram on here. OLED should be good. Thanks for your thoughts, Tony.

First I must define my projects and my needs:- I am modelling (when I get the time) N scale (1/160) Soviet/Eastern European railways in the Epoch II era. I have been producing some designs for 3D printed rolling stock and signals. These have been published with my name at Thingiverse. (For some odd resason one of my pics appears to be upside down). I have a short video of one of the most complex signals I have modelled at Youtube. I am now trying to model a signal with a single digit speed indicator (dot matrix style) attached to the signal post. So far I have not found anything small enough. I am asking this forum if anyone has any sources for a tiny dot matrix or even 7 segment single digit display.