Les1952

Tramway overhead at last.... Taking advantege of the warm weather I've mede a start on the tramway overhead- and "finished" the paving at the tram stop - not that it will ever be finished- there will always be a bit to blend into the next one or to regrime when the trak cleaner removes the weathering.... View along the tram stop showing the central standards with lights. I've used the lamp standards to give sone "traditional" light where the illuminated stabndards aren't and put a lamp on the footbridge and a globe light on the bank. Also made is the Mark 4 tensioner - marks 2 and 3 were worse than mark 1 so got binned. It needs a heavy wire running to the platform and to under the loading dock, and if possible a pair of operating wires made from taut thread. This is the only tensioner. The point immediately in front of the signal cubicle doesn't need one, and the other two were put into a room under the top of the ramp when the station was built- with an outward-opening netal door, see below. This also shows the three Marsh seats and some more Preiser/Faller/Noch people (seated) and Chinese ones (standing).

Cleaners and Tensioners- Tuesday progress. I ordered a Dapol Shirebrook van for cleaning the tram track. Having cut away part of the underframe to get the Noch pad installed I found I needed lead adding to keep it on the track. Fitting the pad also meant I needed to take the coupler and housing from one end. I'll look to see if I've other wheels on a thinner axle that will work. Silly picture No.1 - the Glaskastern will pull it, but not up the bank on the layout front. It will manage the shallower gradient of the fiddle yard however.... Silly picture No.2 - solution found, push it round the layout using a tram! Meanwhile my first attempt at a point tensioner has been created out of angle and thin strip (Evergreen) and the sort of wire aero modellers use (sdcrap point wire from an earler layiout. Not quite correct. However, I'm wondering whether I can get away with only one..... .

Videos as promised. Three videos of the trams- the cream one is suffereing from dirt and resisting cleaning attempts at the moment. 1. Green tram arrives from Freiburg. 2. The green tram sets off up the hill. 3. Lastly in this sequence the cream tram then departs for Freiburg Busy day- trying my first attempt at point tensioners- a nightmare as I've only found one clear photo.

Tuesday- profitable day Not form a money point of view, that was the weekend on eBay which left me solvent enough to get the lights ordered for the proscenium. Music today by Meatloaf- managed a signed copy of the new album. . Got the deep cleaning done on the tram track and it all works perfectly. Attempted to get some video but got good sequences between the posed runs without actually getting the bits I was filming.... Brain out of gear again....... Got more of the tramstop weathered and made a trial fitting of one of the Tomix tram standards. After shortening by about 7mm this is the result. I'll need to get some sort of pearly effect for the lamps on the top. Also got the benches on the railway platform and more paint onto more figures. While Mr Simon has been working on Gresby I've been looking out for tram ads. I'm still working on this one rotating and scaling as a side advert. Six weeks to the first show date. Must get some details detailed....

Monday again After a quiet weekend - just Lincoln toyfair- I decided to have a quiet Monday sorting out the fencing between us and next door's Alsatians. Fence gap now dog-proof. Managed to knock the chuck key for the drill into the long grass (or so I thought) and spent ages looking for it only to find it in a puddle..... Part of the haul from Lincoln toyfair. The blue Merc is to go in the top clearly visible. The black beast in view but facing away so you can't tell it isn't a Merc, while the camper thingy and the police car can go in the valley between the two rows of houses and the ex-ambulance next to the Rathaus covering a grotty bit of paving. Also arrived over the weekend five more lamps (from Germany for less than the cost of the pair from Rural railways). This is the first one, on the stairway. Innards removed as there is no chance of a clear run to underneath the board to wire it up. Note I'm now on the last length of fencing- only five panels left for tomorrow or Wednesday. Also note the grot going down bit by bit at the tram station, a two inch square takes about half-an-hour. Three of those and I lose the will to live..... The rest of the weekend toyfair haul involved Marsh figures and benches, now undergoing painting............

Thursday track fettling. Got out very early today and spent about four hours cleaning the railway and getting rid of a lot of irritating small particles, trying it wioth more and more difficult locos until finally the Glaskastern ran smoothly with a heavy (for it) passenger train. First up is the East German Class 103 diesel (V36) pulling the track cleaning wagon. Pads by Noch, fluid by Slaters. Finally the Glaskastern arrives at the station, pauses briefly and moves off again. Apologies for the camera shake as I reached over to the back and turned the distant signal back to amber behind it- miles too soon but I wanted to prove it worked......

Another show confirmed Furtwangen Ost will be appearing at the Wirksworth Model Railway Exhibition on 27th and 28th October, 2012.

Wednesday- working signals Most of the day spent with the layout either on its back or twisted forwards to get at the backs of two new switches. I've mounted these on the back board next to the railway control panel- switches are SPDT centre-off wired up for red(amber) and down for green. Signal on the platform is a distant- the home is out of sight round the corner- allows it to be passed when shunting..... Signal at the tunnel mouth is a home- so no passing it at red. Sequence- train approaching gives BOTH signals at red/amber. Cleared at departure end when train ready to depart. After departure signals may go blank if another train not expected- in reality there wouldn't be that many trains- and trams maybe only every 15 minutes.

The nuns at last I'd tried again to get pics of the nuns, then remembered this one of the publicity shots. No work done today (Tuesday) as I was at Trevor's doing Dapol coupler magnets. Painting railings again tomorrow, unless the tag strip arrives for me to finish the signals.

Dates confirmed Furtwangen Ost will definitely be at the British Horological Institute Summer Show "Railways and Time" at Upton Hall, Notts NG23 5TE on the 8th, 9th and 10th June. Due to exam commitments I might not be with the layout all three days, but it will be in good hands and operating.

A couple more of the publicity shots. Vintage passenger train passes blue diesel delivering coal to the locoshed. This was before the new signal was installed. Blue diesel shunts the loading dock as a tram passes. I hadn't spotted I'd turned the diesel round between shots....

Monday again- another falling apart day. I think I'm allergic to Mondays. Firstly a shot of what I broke...... I'm not sure how I managed to catch the crossing sign it took me an hour to make, but two parts of it are now on the workbench waiting reuniting, and the third has disappeared altogether. A job for Wednesday....... What I was doing when I broke the crossing sign was addding more ramblers to make the one on the top level feel a lot less lonely....... Also shows one of the two signals on the layout. The sunbathers are now in place on top of the bonk building, some on towels that look remarkably like Kibri curtains. The other signal. I've wired this one back to the tag strip but need a third tag strip under the layout for the other signal and the yard lamps. The signals will be working, hopefully before Cotgrave. I need to find a pair of DPDT switches and somewhere sensible to mount them near the railway control panel. The grasstrack crossover, seen from above. Another of this week's jobs is to finish weathering the paving so I'm ready for catenery.

Very many thanks for the compliment- always nice to receive one....... Main advice I would give is when you decide on your area look at pics of the buildings in that area. I've seen loads of beautiful German building kits that just weren't right for the western side of the Black Forest. The other advice is watch eBay, particularly German eBay. With kits being anything from £25 to £50 each you can often find exactly the building you want secondhand at a fraction of the new price. Now the layout is fully populated with structures I defy anyone who hasn't read this thread to look at it and say what building came from what source.

Exhibition date Subject to final confirmation, Furtwangen Ost will appear at the British Horological Institue, Upton Hall near Newark, at their Summer show, entitled "Railway Time" on Friday to Sunday, June 8th to 10th, 2012. Connection with time- Furtwangen is the home of the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, the German equivalent of the museum section of Upton Hall.

Sunday morning- publicity shots As the sun hadn't got round to the workshop windows and Mr Simon hadn't appeared I took the opportunity to go out and get a set of high resolution pictures for Bingham MRC's show publicity. It had been suggested that a set of pics showing trains or trams would be a good idea, so here goes. Yellow diesel passes through with a freight, tram for Freiburg taking crossover to loop line. Yellow diesel continues its journey passing a coal delivery to the eisenbahnfreunde. Trip yesterday to Wendy's for street lights (which weren't suitable), signals (which were), and figures also yielded another 10-pack of Dapol magnetic couplings. That means the yellow diesel and the rest of the brewery freight stock can be fitted with them. I'll probably need another pack to do the spare loco for Stamford East as well. There are quite a few older wagons with Rapidos but I have three diesels that can work these as through trains. Tomorrow's job is getting the timber for the proscenium and fitting the signals. If I have any suitable switches I'll wire them in as well, but this might have to wait.

PS- I DID get another show out of last night's meeting. Exact details will be posted when confirmed. That makes two definite and two waiting confirmation, and with Trevor's Stamford East going out to Nottingham, Cotgrave NGS show in May, Loughborough and Warley that makes for quite a few busy weekends...... Must press on.

I'm confused on this one, at the back of the socket there is a pin that the coupler appears to butt up to with its D-shaped cutout. Looking at a B1 tender there is a slight V in a rigid plastic part which allows the coupler sideways play- my Fleischmann 0-8-0 diesel with the Dapol couplers on it has this part under a plate but the whole pocket swings from side-to-side rather than just the coupler within it.. Do you mean the actual pocket is a little V-shaped inside giving sideways play to the coupler, or that the whole pocket swings sideways (like the Fleischmann)? I'm intending to fit these mounts to Dapol 21-ton hoppers, presumably by cutting off the existing coupler pocket back to flat plastic. What comes next? Quite interested to know as I'm trying to design a colliery layout around the system........ All the very best Les

Friday bits.... A nice box this morning from Gaugemaster containing street musicians, nuns and Noch track cleaner pads. The nun pic is out of focus and I forgot what it was I couldn't photograph yestedray due to the low sun..... Tramway track cleaner running. The 04 is small enough to take the tram corners where a larger loco won't. I suppose the Minitrix Glaskastern would also do the job, and maybe wouldn't stall at the top of the hill where there is a sharp change of gradient. Tomorrow to Wendy's to look at signals.......

Thursday update Not the busiest two days, partly because tyime needed to be spent on other things- Friday shopping done a day early etc..... Added to that most time has been spent on little things like edging etc, so not a lot changes from picture to picture. The bonk building..... sorry, bank building has it's name and the market has its notice. Nuns and street musicians on order. Painting denim shorts on the pink legs of the Chinese girl figure in the foreground seems to have worked. Also ordered a Noch track cleaner set to see if it will get the tramway track clean enough under all of the overhead obstructions. It will look odd under the only freight stock that will run on the tramway- I'll video it when the track is reasonably clean, but not spoil the surprise. Tram pointwork at the front is now grassed, and the points still work. Sun this afternoon was too strong- I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. Now for Bingham MRC club night, (might get another show out of it).........

Progress Pic Two months to Cotgrave show- this is how it looks. The curtain for the front is now bought ready for making up, and at some stage in the next month or so it will be back to Trevor's for the proscenium arch to be made. I didn't get to Trevor's today, so the Stamford East job is now next week. A trip to B&Q for some more glue has allowed me to bed in a couple more buildings and install another length of railings. Two buildings left to stick down and the layout is useable, if not the final finished article. Fine details still to do. Also done today- The kaufhof building and the blue building have their new signs. the Eiscafe Fabio sign has been replaced since the pic after I realised it wasn't really readable. The blue bank has its sign "Deutsche Bank" over the entrance also. Plenty to do, especially in getting the railway detailed.....

Dyspraxia rules- KO I finished the day yesterday by managing to knock the corner building- by this point one of only four not stuck down. Needless to say it ended up on the floor, and partly reduced itself to kit form. While it was in bits first thing this morning I took the opportunity to add curtains- rather than an interior. Rebuilt building ready to get stuck down onto the layout.

More details I felt the bonking boss was probably too close to the front of the layout - certainly for my comfort. Where could a blue scene like this go? Behind blue glass- look for the desk end (bad pun) in what is now the "bonk building". There is a doorway onto that flat roof- sunbather territory? Closer to the front I felt I needed someone leaning on a shovel in the coal stack, a Graham Farish fireman. Marktplatz with all stalls in place. Needs more figures, but these will be added slowly as I find appropriate ones- first the rest of the stallholders, then a group of very distinctive figures (nuns or monks probably). Taken before the bank building got its new inhabitants. I'm still looking out for suitable vans to park in odd corners round the front buildings (mainly behind). Time for research.......

Another Monday... and glue sticks anything to anything other than what is wanted, yet again... Shed interior done- leaving space at the front for a car. A bit basic and a bit over-gluey but that won't be too visible. Notices on the right say West Yorkshire Metro, but I defy anyone to get a magnifier anywhere near them..... Looking into the shed, not a lot can be seen, but it looks much better with something there. The bits on the bench at the back make up to a Life-Like US truck, cut into three and the odd two pairs of wheels are on the shelving stack at the back. Trestles are leftover Faller from the barrels pack on Evergreen strip laid on end, people from the Chinese bulk pack. Shine a lot of light and you can see right in. Still some railings to add to obscure this view. Hikers Rural Railways at Sileby show last weekend had some Preiser hikers and some Veissmann lamps, one ready-made and one kit. I've used the lamps on the top level, but left the works out of the kit- there is no way I can thread the wires to it and I don't intend to have lamps working. One hiker by the lamp at top right, sunflowers planted in green patch in corner. The three hikers who were in walking poses are coming out of the woods. Perhaps I should have removed the shop sign from the flats block before sticking it down..... Two ready-painted cycles placed prominently at the front (of the twelve bikes so far I've painted eight but these are better done! - eight more waiting painting......) and the remaining pair from the hiker pack have obviously hired bikes and parked up at the Rathaus to visit the market. More details added, pics to follow. Oh, and I've been fitting Dapol couplings to one of my B1s and some stock for Stamford East but didn't film it. Maybe tomorrow actually ON Stamford East when Trevor and I sort out his magnets ready for Nottingham show..

Friday. Details, details... Today (and a good deal of yesterday) spent on detail around the Marktplatz area, and today getting the two apartment blocks stuck down. The cruel close-up of one of the blocks shows the need to bed in the edge- though I'm not sure how much will be seen when the front row are in place. Appropriate music today- Munchener Freiheit. At the back of the market is the stall selling "loose" wine- bring your own bottle and it will be filled. Obvuoiusly if the wine isn't good enough to bottle it must be the real rough stuff. At the front of the market is the flower stall. These are some roses bought from Derby Trees & Scenics, but they started to fall out of their base when I tried to plant them- hence the flower stall- one of the DM Lasercut stalls finished. Hiding the base of the tree pot to a certain extent are benches for the population of Furtwangen to sit on. Superglue helps disguise the fact that one of the benches (Plus Daughters' finest cheapo ones) has only three legs. Also today- ten more railings panels and posts painted one side and some sundry figures stuck in place.... Eight weeks to the show. Basic scenery should be complete by next weekend, then on to troubleshooting.......

Two days in t' workshop and lots of little bits done.. The houses at the back have now been finished and bedded in. Plenty of foliage to hide glue marks and make them less "out of the box". Of course when the Rathaus is in place you don't get as clear a view. Rathaus and tree also now in place and bedded in. Camera shows that the line between Faller and Noch cobbles is very pronounced- needs some judicious disguising. Also done- railings along the top over the tunnel mouth all market stalls are complete and waiting installation- this includes stallholders from the pack of Chinese people about 30 Chinese people painted more Germanic colours all remaining houses at the top are now bedded in- only six buildings are now "loose" second portakabin installed behind shed sunflower patch started at the far right end. My daughter visited last weekend and demanded to know where the pair of Tardis she had bought for me and Mr Simon were on the two layouts....... I felt it would most likely land on the brewery roof as nobody ever finds the Tardis outside of the UK. Finding a Chinese figure that would paint up to look like Dr Who wasn't easy...... More detailing tomorrow......