Les1952

Control Panels Having worked out that each panel had to have nine switches and needed to be a maximum of 13cm by 7.5cm I went onto the Internet and found a pair of switch boxes just a little smaller than that for about £2.50 each. The first photo (sorry it is a little blurred) shows the second box unopened and the lid of the first with switches in place- I marked the pilot holes accurately and drilled them exactly to marking but the mains drill didn't quite follow the pilot holes exactly so there is a variation of plus or minus one millimetre- looks more because the panel is so small. The second one shows the base of the second box screwed into place behind the backscene. So far I've not started wiring to it- the holes in the bottom aren't yet drilled. I'll wire them in after Spalding show and visits to the Modelex and All Components stands.

More on buildings. The brown building in the town was going to be repainted cream, but I've found a picture of a KaufHof store in Freiburg that is exactly this colour. Now all I need to do to this is to get an interior sorted out and appropriate KaufHof signs made. It will keep all its aircon bits. The other two- the cream and the blue, will be reduced in height to the same as the brown to get the main street more uniform. I may alter the roof of the cream one, and will have to put different guard rails on the roof of the blue one as there is one missing- this one can keep all its aircon bits but I will need to detail them.

The Track Plans including sections. The above is the final version of the railway- though I've still got to work out exactly how I'm going to disguise the left-hand end as it passes through the backscene- with both the railway and the tramway going off at about the same level it is going to take some thinking about. Electrically all nine sections feed to the panel at the left-hand end of the layout- right-hand for the operator. There will be a hand-held controller and just nine switches numbered 1 to 9. I'm going to use Modelex controllers as I'm used to them. There isn't a lot of space in the corners for the two panels but I've sourced switch boxes that fit into the spaces with enough clearance for the biggest loco I'm likely to use- an ex-East German C-C diesel is spare to the little Brawa Bo-Bo that will be the front-line power. I'm not envisaging trains being longer than about 5 wagons so each fiddle siding is long enough. Sectioning the two ends as different circuits to the front loop will allow me to run a loco round in the fiddle yard with another train standing out front- so the appearance of an intermediate station can be kept up without lifting locos off. Maximum capacity is three locos with a possible fourth in the old shed. This is the final layout of the tramway, including sections. By having nine sections it is possible to have four trams in service with either a fifth one or a works train in the shed out front. Again there are nine sections, so the panel will be a twin of the one in the other corner. Switches will be labelled 1 to five, plus L1, L2 and L4 for the loops and S for the shed. All points are sprung so the tram takes the right-hand line at each loop and springs the point on exit. Trials show this works well with the Tomix points provided the motor is fitted. Leads for the motors have been tucked under the sub-base rather than being cut off so if the layout is scrapped eventually the motors are recyclable. In operation a tram will come from each end in turn to meet at the tramstop then proceed back to the fiddle yard. In the mean time the trams in the fiddleyard are shunted up one. Alternately one or both trams at the back can be reversed while the others are held at the front. The depot is accessed by reversing into it from the front loop line- this is the only point set to left.

Point Operation Points are operated wire in tube as there are only four out the front- the ones at the back are handraulic- no reason to put anything fancy on these as they are right under my nose and there isn't a great deal of space. One thing I have done is to hold the switch in place by screws either side of it. This means that if I need to make any adjustment to it I can slacken the screws off by half a turn and then tighten them up again after the adjustment is made. You can also see the wires from the Tomix point on the loop above tucked out of the way. Brewery The two buildings. The one on the left is the secondhand one from eBay. You can see the splats of paint it has acquired. These two plus a pile of barrels and maybe a portakabin should be enough for the top level- I'll have another think about this when the backscene is in place. Meanwhile the fancy building needs renovation.

A Little More on Buildings. I've now found a few more pictures of Furtwangen and of Triberg a little further up the valley- and found some rather more ornate buildings than the first selection. The kits I've got so far will modify nicely- the main thing seems to be to get the roof colours correct and not to add all of the ornamentation in the kit. I've also got a Faller shed/works building to go over the tramway siding- an old building on a modern tramway isn't entirely unknown, and gives the tramway a longer back-history than the modern trams would suggest. I've picked up a built-up and slightly beaten-up Kibri factory building to go on the top level with the DPM one. Both will need some modification but these will form the nucleus of the brewery. I have some slides somewhere of various parts of the yard of the Elephant Brewery in Copenhagen, so will add details and pipework using these as a basis. I think a proportion of my time at Spalding and Warley shows will be spent finding suitable ornate railings for the brewery fence.

A little more progress Thursday evening- the trackwork is now all laid, though I still need to go along and infill sleepers on the bottom level. The point rodding is installed, and I am well on with painting the rail sides on the tramway. All nine sections of the tramway are wired from the track back to a tag strip under the board, and the first four of nine sets of droppers from the railway are also wired to another tag strip at the far side. I've sent for two packs of a dozen sub-miniature DPDT switches and bought the trasnsformer. Trackplan This is a view from above the layout showing the entire trackplan, taken when the thing was standing on its front for some hole drilling. Unpainted baseboard will be behind the backscene. As you can see I've got three roads in the fiddle yard for the railway and two for the tramway. The railway passes under the tramway at the right hand (upper) end and follows it round the bend at the lower end. The siding on the right is the brewery loading dock and the one on the left will have a small shed building on it (probably). Big Blunder In my enthusiasm to keep on doing things every day I fastened the top sub-boards down BEFORE getting the point control for the front of the railway laid- not a good idea as it has given me a lot of aggro threading them through the sub-base. I've laid the tube above the surface of the railway board due to the incredible thickness of the baseboard- too thick to open out ovals easily. Of the four sets of tubing two are covered by the platform and one will be very close to the wall. One crosses under the brewery siding (masked in white) and will need to be disguised as something industrial going underr the siding- I've tripped over plenty of gubbinses in industrial railway yards in my youth.

Heights I had another look at the height of the town at the bottom end and have raised it by half an inch above datum. The difference now gives an excuse for walling between the railway and the tramway, and also will help with arches and exits at the botttom end. Buildings I've been looking at Google images of the "real" Furtwangen largely to get the style of the older buildings right. Industrial buildings seem to be fairly generic, but the others are quite plain, or at least those I've found. So much for all these ornate Faller and Vollmer kits. I've ordered a small building kit for the main street- it is half-timbered in prototype but hopefully the timbering is an overlay- at least the windows and roof are the right shape. It will also need painting- the self-coloured plastic seems to be a shade not found in the area. The three office buildings will need a little more work than I first thought- not least of all a floor needs to come off the two taller ones. The brown one will also need a repaint into a more local colour, but that I had anticipated.

Yes- I've been trying these out, I bought a set of the inserts some time ago and have just got round to seeing what was available. They'll need filing at the edges, and some filler, and painting but I'm going to use them on the roadway sections- the line up the ramp will be grassed (another trial...) This is a little out of focus but shows a centre insert and two side pieces placed on the track in the middle of the loop. I've painted a section of the track underneath matt black to see how much difference it made- and the answer is enough to make painting a must. Before I do it though I will need to have a look at some tram track (Nottingham) or at the level crossing in Newark - I think a dirty brown will be best but it needs checking. Laying the railway and getting the wiring started will be the next phase.

Progress this week I've painted the ground level- grey under the townscape and brewery and brown under the railway. That way if bits get chipped off the scenery the board shouldn't show through so brightly- or at least that's the general idea. I've also pinned down the railway exit at the right hand under the top of the tramway so that the whole of the upper level can be fastened into place. Modellbahn Union have delivered the extra pieces of tram track I'd ordered so the course of this is now finalised- the shed line fits nicely below the retaining wall for the brewery level. Now the tramway alignment is finalised I'm not happy with the way the street containing the tramway fits against the railway turn. I'm going to raise the bottom of the tramway back to plus half-an-inch to see if the vertical separation works. This will also allow me some flexibility with the buildings, which are proving difficult to source, even as parts to customise. Still, there's plenty of time.

Not a lot done these last two days, waiting for track from Wendy (Peco) and Modellbahn Union (Tomix). The scenic boards in the middle have been fastened down, and the way the brewery will work finalised. Back story is that the brewery has been above the town for many years, and the way to the loading dock was originally via the sub-basement. The tramway has been routed through the middle of the brewery complex requiring demolition of some buildings and the alignment is now on new arches with the sub-basement access restored. All this saves me making an industrial bridge over the tramway. At the lower end I'm thinking of having the tramway exit via an arch, with a larger arch for the railway, but I'm still thinking on it. The white and brown modern buildings in the town will be separated by a more traditional building making the blue glass one the end of the row. Traditional brewery buildings will be to the left of the DPM factory, which will become a more modern extension to the brewery..

Gradients and Buildings This is a first look at whether the four biuldings I've first identified will work more or less where I've thought they might. At the bottom of the hill is the town centre. It has grown up typically of German small towns with a mixture of older buildings (yet to be sourced) and modern department stores and offices. The three are Kato and Tomix, but have yet to be painted and lettered- I'll use a couple of department stores, one each from Freiburg and Emmendingen, that I photographed some years ago to get the colours and fonts right. At the top of the hill stands the brewery, with its loading dock on the railway below. I'm still thinking about how these will be linked and which way round to put the building- a DPM kit from my US modelling days, right scale and sufficiently industrial and nondescript. Other buildings in the complex will be more Germanic. Gradients are OK, trams have no problems with the tramway. However I'm in need of some shorter straight sections, so when these arrive I'll adjust the tramway and finalise its layout. the railway round the outside is finalised behind the backscene (three loops) but still a little fluid at the front, though tending towards having loop with an abandoned platform in the middle and a new platform abutting the tramway, allowing more space for the brewery sidings.

The tramway is Tomix raduis 1 in one or two places, which is 103mm (about 4"). At the top it is radius 2, which is 140mm or 5.5". The railway uses mainly Setrack radius 2 at the ends, with one piece of raduis 1 to give enough room for three roads in the fiddle yard. Pointwork issue Testing the tramway has shown the trams have no problems with the intended gradients, but that the Tomix points need to keep their motors- this is because when you take them off the points become unsprung. Minor problem, but it does mean the wires will need hiding under the sub-base. I'm not wiring the points up as they will be sprung, with the trams automatically taking the right-hand road. I've added a spur to a small depot, again sprung point. A car will reverse in. However the tramway loop will need lengthening and moving to the left as at the moment the shed is in the area planned for the upper level- not insoluble but may be avoidable. Testing the height of the tramway I've decided to use risers of 1 X 0.5 inch wood, which would mean 6 risers under the top end of the tramscape, with two under the lower end. However, having had the sub-boards cut for me out of thin ply (left over from lining the shed) I've got enough clearance with just 2" rise at the top where the railway passes through. I'll now use just a half-inch height difference between the railway and the town at the lower, left-hand end of the layout. Another clearance check I've been to Wendy's for track (and have to go back next week when the Peco order arrives), and saw some Woodland scenics walling. I've just placed this against the front of the upper end to see if it works. Also seen in this picture a tram and a loco being used for clearance testing before anything gets fixed down.

Rationale This is a small layout being built on an old test track baseboard, mainly to keep me busy during the planning stages of my bigger one. The board is 5 feet by 2 feet, which means that is the size of the finished layout as the side and end frames come above the level of the base. Partly as I have much of the stock and trackwork already it is based in the Baden region of Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest. Furtwangen does exist, some Kilometres East of Freiburg-Im-Breisgau, but if it has a station it is nothing like this, and it never has had a tramway. This is the baseboard and trestles, originally made as a test track for the late Gwyn Humphreys. At that time it had a twin oval of track. The commectors on the end are a leftover. As I'd used the board before the top was inverted on the frame to give a good surface. It is standing in my new play-room, which I'd promised myself when I retired. First Play This is the first attempt at getting what I want into the space. The tramway will be raised at a higher level than the railway around it, plus one inch at the nearest end and plus three inches at the far end.., (yes, a Continental layout measured in Imperial). The tram station will be the loop in the foreground. The loop in the background is the tramway fiddleyard, which is on a slope of 1 in 20 (not steep for a tramway). The turn at the far end is tramway radius 1, and mostly radius 2 at the near end. The slope upwards on the front is beyond the station loop. Points on the tramway will be sprung. The railway round the outside (underneath the street at the far end) will have a loop at the station with a spur to a small shed at the near end and two sidings into a factory at the far end. The line is one of the smaller private railways, using a small B-B diesel of East German origin. On Sundays the local Eisenbahnfreunde run a steam train. Fiddle sidings for this are three double-ended short loops at the back. Next stage is to try out the trackplan and play to see if it works.