mp55aec

About thirty years ago I had a 'Saturday" job in specialist model railway retailer in Birmingham namely called Just Continental as simply they only sold at that time 'Just Continental", in fact to this day i still keep in contact with the owner who has moved on to other aspects of model retailing. At the time I was gradually building up a nice collection of French HO items and began to construct a small terminal station layout, unfortunately due to discovering 'females" the layout never got completed and i sold the finished four boards to Totally Trains in Ross on Wye. At the time besides odd trips to France, Continental Modeller and the old Euro Model Rail magazine you were limited to a phone call to a fellow modeller to get advice on infrastructure and other railway methods used in continental Europe. 'God save the World Wide Web". On construction of my SNCF layout I had it stuck in my head that as they drove on the right in France they must surely drive on the right on the railways too so duly placed working colour light signals on the layout accordingly, it was a later conversation with a member of the SNCF society that I discovered my mistake,,,. I didn't fancy up routing all the signals and filling in the baseboard holes where wires were meant to be cabled and asked, what he would do?. Well in the Alsace region they do run on the right as when the region became part of France after WW1 there were already railways operating to German right hand running so it was adopted for the region for the same reason as my HO blunder, infrastructure demanded it. So with the construction of my Norwegian layout, I have the best information highway anybody could ever want, the internet, youtube is simply a god send for information, train formation, infrastructure, station and building architecture, everything, you can actually travel for five hours in the cab from Bergen to Oslo and this gives all information that I need, no expensive flight, books etc etc Part one is here for your pleasure-- (P.S. my blog picture above is 'Dag H" the poster used on 3/9/67 when Sweden changed the rule of the road from left to right) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7rWhCqsh2I&feature=plcp

Thats a little bit more than the old Fama/UTZ/Kiss/Roco models that were made in Om!!, but then again they seem to cost more used on an auction site than new!

Wow lovely photo's when I lived in Sutton until 2002 this show was always in Oxford, took the trip there a couple of times, never been since it moved to Sutton.

I remember when i was a kid in early 80's and growing up in Lichfield i would sit on Burton station while the grown ups went about doing boring stuff like looking around the shops, You could see lots in Burton then, lots of 45's on passenger, HST's and DMU sets, freight well lots of MGR and plenty to and from Bescot as the Walsall line was still open too, then there was a model shop just over the road to spend some money in hope your project goes well.,

My first three Norwegian locos arrived courtesy of DHL this morning. I chose to model Norway as there's not that many different locomotive types in use there be it diesel or electric and the two types of classes in my purchase are very similar looking in design. I will go into great detail with better photographs in a later blog but for reference we have from left to right - NMJ - Class EL17 (2221) in standard NSB red and black. Roco - Class EL16 (2211) in CargoNet early livery if black and grey. Roco - Class EL16 (2206) in standard NSB red and black. Of note since my last Roco purchase about 6 years ago in note that the box says 'made in EU" , 6 years ago they stated 'made in China".

If you want a drivers eye view take a look at -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUszQsagEMY&feature=relmfu Move to 35mins as its a long video and this is finse, you can if you have time travel from Bergen to Oslo in the can on youtube via 6 films lol.

There used to be a shop in Paris called Clarel dont know if its still there,,there prices were welll,,,,,pity theres nor a Hattons in Europe lol

Wow for N the unit looks dam good, I did have a model in HO of a class X92200 in Normadie green and white, just because I had been on the real train and saw a model in a shop in Rouen about 20 years ago,,then was offered silly money for it two years ago, better interest than buying gold reserves lol, wish had kept it now!

Its not just here where we have delays,,,I viewed one train only too see it was 40 mins late,,,and at 3c bit cold to be waiting there!, Here are a couple more Scandinavian live stream cams to watch and work out the times with the DB depature web page Lindesberg in Sweden-- http://www.lindenytt...ebcam/index.asp Tynset Norway-- http://www.lindenytt...ebcam/index.asp Aare in Sweden-- http://www.webbkamer..._are_2_live.php Enjoy

If you see a train approaching the tunnel isnt that long about 30meters at most, might be snow or maybe to lull noise of pulling away of heavy braking as the building on the left is a hotel? Of interest Finse has no road access at all , everything for the hotel is unloaded off one of the passing container trains,,must try an see one day, it also houses a railway museum dedicated to the navvies who built the Bergen line.

Hi Nick, yeah, Im planning to join the Scandinavian club and maybe a Norwegian club too, It amazes me as a fellow modeller tells me he knows of only 5 model railway shops in the whole of Norway!, the obvious one being nmj whos rolling stock will be the backbone of the layout together with some Roco and Hobbytrade Lewis

Dam wish had seen it,,,not sure if the Cargonet class66's are used on this line or the Norland beyond the arctic circle,

Good live stream video on the Oslo--Bergen line at Finse station, snow in August! http://www.bt.no/kamera/videokamera/Finse-stasjon-2479956.html Train information can be obtained from (out of interest for any station in Europe!) http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/bhftafel.exe/en?ld=9641&country=GBR&rt=1& Just remember that Finse is one hour infront of UK time

Hello and welcome to my blog, I'm a collector rather than modeller of modern image British outline in OO. Ive got a good selection of rolling stock , D/EMU units and locomotives but I haven't had an operating layout for several years, all my stock remains in their boxes in various place's around the house.So I sat down and decided I'm going to spend my winter time constructing a small HO exhibition layout, the scale change is because I'm getting bored of all the constant franchise changes in the UK, you once could centre a layout on perhaps a geographical area or a 20 year period so unless you model Chiltern Railways who have and will be operating for several years, your 166's in FGW will soon maybe in ARRIVA colours , or your Virgin pendolinos First West Coast thus it's hard to pin point a correct date for a layout unless you use modellers licence and then you may as well run LMS too! I've always had a little interest in other European railways, pick up any recent copy of continental modeller and nearly every edition will have a North American, Rhb or German layout so I looked to stand out from the crowd. I also prefer modern image that I can relate to in my mind with photo's from visits to the country to be modelled, I eventually did a short list of possibilities for food for thought. 1)Spain 2)Hungary 3)Czech republic 4)Greece 5)Norway And the winner is-------Norway,,,,chosen as beautiful scenery, loco hauled trains (some only 3 coaches long), not that many different locos (thus not lots of money lol),different (I dont know of any modern NSB layouts on the UK exhibition circuit). I will start my baseboards in the next few weeks and will keep the blog updated with progress of construction and rolling stock purchases.

Yeah the cam has moved last week you couldnt see the footbridge and had a reasonable view of the up and down line, looked today and you can only see the down line and the roof of anything on the up line

Any idea of the TRAXX loco project for the UK loading gauge?

Ive taken the chance and pre-ordered myself 6 polybulks from a famous shop in Merseyside, be interesting to see how long I have to wait until they are in production, hopefully not as long as my Desiro!! MP

Thanks for the pic links, they a very European looking, ive seen their larger sisters abroad and they look huge with Transcereales in France and Italy, lots of livery choice for Bachmann then

Yes ive seen several colours on these like the old Traffic Services green,,,does anyone know the UIC code for these wagons?

Ive found this photo via the web- http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastarial/2344731615/ Two variations of polybulk on here

Mmmm hope grain for my loaf wasnt carried in these after Lime and Silica , perhaps thats why im at the dentist so often

Be warned any item that seem to be in OO seems to be in the Farish range very soon after!

Hi, Thanks for that, guess I will wait for some Bachmann polybulks then,

Hi, Ive got a lonesome Loadhaul class 56 thats in need of a train to pull, I'm tempted to get some of the nice Dapol/Kernow JIA Imerys China Clay hoppers, im not a purist but were Loadhaul ever been in charge of this train?,I have seen photos of class 60 with silver bullets but none of these hoppers with a loadhaul loco be it a 56 or anything else, failing that I will wait for the Polybulks as this I have seen with a loadhaul 56 Thanks MP