unklian

Just as a little add on to Geraints post about the Wells show. As a bit of fun the " last train of the day " is a test of how many wagons and coaches we have and wether the mallet ( as our biggest engine ) will pull them. Well the answer, excluding railcars and the trailers that go with them, is 23 and yes it moves them all no problem ! Just need a longer layout next time !

Just a note/bump to say that Obbekaer will be at Rail Wells this weekend. Looking forward to seeing fellow P87ers, especially the Baron and Co. Cheers Ian

Very nice 030TU Brian, is it going to stay as a French one or are you going to ZOBify it ?

Will be following this for sure . I might have to pinch a few ideas for a minimum space Danish layout of my own ! Keep up the good work ! Ian

Just to add a few bits to Geraints post about our visit to Denmark with Obbekaer. As he said our Danish friends were very hospitable and generous. My first picture shows the small amount of loot I brought back. Kits and parts are very expensive in Denmark, due in no small part to the restricted market. I did get the little red wagon at a bargain price. The stake wagon is a Swedish type, which is often seen in Denmark. I searched in vain for one in the exhibition, but in the end Anders sold me a spare he had. Both wagons are Hobbytrade products. The transformer tower is a lazer cut kit from Witzel Hobby, a very welcome gift, looks like I might have to build a layout to put it on one day ! The rest are etched details from Epoke Model, and a set of transfers from KMtext . I also thought I would put in a word about P87 wheels, as there has been some discussion about them and their availability in this thread. As many of you know the range of P87 wheels produced by Alan Gibson proved short lived, although some of us managed to stock up with a few sets. Geraint and I have however modified quite a few P4 profile wheels for P87 now. I have used the Blackbeetle wheels sold by Branchlines turned down in my lathe a little. And I have also turned wheels by Maygib, Sharman, Exactoscale and Trix (!). One thing we have also discovered is that P4 wheels merely regauged will work on well laid P87 track. The red coach in the second of the pictures in Geraint's post is running successfully on Exactoscale 3' splitspoke wheels fitted to modified Exactoscale parallel axles. The pictures below show Blackbeetle 10.5mm disc wheels turned and mounted on shorter axles for a Hobbytrade coach. The pony wheels are an example of cross fertilised parts, being turned down Gibson 12mm 9 spoke centres with Gibson 10.5mm P87 tyres, mounted on an 00 axle. The 2-6-0T chassis has turned down Romford mazak driving wheel centres, with tufnol rim insulation and Alan Gibson P4 tender wheel tyres, turned and pressed on. The pony wheels are 3mm Society finescale wagon wheels. So I think you can see that with a lathe ( not such fearsome or necessarily expensive machines, ask Brian Harrap for a demonstration !) and a bit of ingenuity the wheel problem can be solved. I would not from personal experience recommend form tools. Spoked P87 wheels especially are very delicate and the turning forces generated by a form tool will destroy the centres. However if you were making new disc wheels or tyres from blank material a form tool could be useful. I would argue that to use a form tool you need a lathe, once you have a lathe you can turn wheels using much less brutal techniques ! Once again many thanks to Geraint for his encouragement and letting me play on his layout with my eccentric collection of rolling stock. Also many thanks to Anders, Jens and the Danish railway modelling crowd for their encouragement and help ( especially the research ). There will be more of this to come I am sure ! Regards Ian

I love that station building, but 123 Euros for a cardboard kit !!

Jolly good, looks like there will be a bit of a P87 party then !!

In case no one has noticed Obbekaer will be at Scalefourum this coming weekend !!

Dennis Allenden's Sainte Collin des Champs, O gauge vintage french 'pre grouping'. This layout opened my eyes to the glory of old continental railways. The layout wasn't very much really but the rolling stock, all scratchbuilt by Dennis, and his descriptions of the prototype were very inspirational.

Just out of curiosity, what variety/make of track will you be using ?

I saw your layout at St Albans and very nice it looked too. Is it going to be part of something bigger ? As to your loco problems, it is a shame that you have started off with perhaps some of the worst french locos available. I am still a bit surprised you are having problems with the 040TA though, is it one of the belt drive ones ? The club layout I am involved in building uses code 75 track and so far we have not had any trouble running Jouef stock on it. What you might find worthwhile checking is the back to back dimension on the wheels, as this can sometimes be too tight for Peco points. Doing the steam era on the Petite Ceinture will not be too easy to do accurately as there have not been many models of the most typical locos. You could possibly turn a Jouef Boer 030TB into the Ceinture version, but once again it is not a great chassis. Sadly no one makes an affordable 050TE or 050TQ !! If you have a mind for the diesel era a BB63000 or BB66000 would be quite appropriate. The Roco 63000 is fairly available and runs very well, and the more recent Piko 63000 and 66000 are very nice, although much more expensive. The early Jouef BB66000 arent too good but more recent ones have been retooled and compare with any new models. If you look at the shunter thread here you can gauge the pro's and con's of what is available there. Best of luck whatever you do !

I have taken loads of pictures on Portuguese railway property and never had any trouble. I have on a few occasions asked the station master, when available, but the usual answer is something along the lines of " of course but do be careful" along with a look of why are you bothering to ask. The locals used to wander all over railway property, but I think that is being discouraged more these days with faster and quieter trains making the railway dangerous for itinerant wanderers !! I cannot comment on Spain from personal experience, but I do believe they are not so indulgent of the railfan. It is possible to get a permit for photography I believe which gets over most problems with the officials. Best advice is go to Portugal and enjoy !

Shouldnt this thread be in the Overseas Prototype section, apart from the first post there isnt much in the way of models going on. More pictures of models please !!!

Hi Brian, Good to see the developments on Quai 87 and that the garden line is still going strong. Next time we meet up I will have to give another engine of mine a trial run on the Quai's curves !! Cheers Ian

Hi Geraint and all, I have at last signed up to this here site. Great to see Obbekaer here on RMweb, and I am very pleased to be a small part of it too. I think a bit more info on my engine number 3 might be of interest. Whilst it did start out as a Fleischmann 'Black Anna', there is now relatively little of it left. The shortened boiler, dome, front footplate and the cab are all that is left of the body. The motor is all that is left of the original chassis. I have contributed a new etched nickel chassis and valvegear, Gibson hornblocks, Sharman wheels (reprofiled), gearbox with ultrascale gears, resin cylinders, chimney and various details and castings on the body. There are still some bits of valve gear to add and a bit of weathering wouldnt go amiss ! All the best Ian