SimonBoulton

On 13/04/2024 at 15:04, hank said:

Greetings from Czechia. Let me make a few comments to the topic.

 

Re OPW: OPW was a common pool of East European freight wagons. It was established in 1964 and in 1989 it managed approx. 240 000 vehicles. Naturally, outside the former USSR territory you could meet numerous mixtures of the OPW wagons of the other member railway administrations using standard gauge of 1435 mm in any member country, i.e. DR (GDR), PKP (Poland), ČSD (Czechoslovakia), MÁV (Hungary), CFR (Romania), BDŽ (Bulgaria). Important: All the member administrations were allowed to handle the OPW waggons as their own. That means: They were obliged to return the unloaded wagons by the shortest route back to their home administration territories but along the way home they could be loaded and unloaded ad libitum inside transit countries. Thus you could see every day e.g. long block trains laden with Hungarian bauxit en route from Hungary via Czechoslovakia to an East Germany aluminium plant composed from wagons of all the three administrations.

 

Re the Bernard Lamb's image: It apparently shows the old Soviet OPW vans taken probably somewhere in East Germany or Poland. It is a rare view: The van type is very old (probably coming from WW II years or even earlier) and I cannot remember seeing it in Czechoslovakia even in the 1960s, let alone later. (Anyway, I may be wrong, of course. Old man's memory is a rather tricky bitch...) BTW: Some TT models of the Soviet stock were made by the Russian Peresvet but here in Czechia it is now almost impossible to get them due to the trade restrictions.

 

Re Prussian G 02 and/or G 10 in the blue ČSD livery: Blue and green ČSD livery since 1950s indicates engineers' freight stock. Green livery = track construction and maintenace, blue = signalling and automation. However, the PIKO green ČSD brewery van of a Prussian origin is a "freelance" one and does not match any actual vehicle.

 

Re Děčín/Bad Schandau ČSD/DR border crossing: It was (and is nowadays as well) definitely the busiest railway border crossing between Czechoslovakia/Czechia and GDR/Germany.

 

Re iron curtain: Even in the worst cold war years the neighbouring administrations helped each other out in cases of freight wagons and vans emergency shortages. This co-operation worked even over the iron curtain. (But I am not sure referring to the DB/DR border - maybe a better expert on German-German relations could specify.)

 

Facit:  As we say in Czech, it is "nothing against nothing" if you run trainsets mixed of various OPW administrations' wagons on a GDR-showing layout from the period of 1964 to 1991. Before the OPW period, it depends. The GDR borders (except West Berlin before 1961 - another interesting topic) were more or less closed and DR were exploited hard by the transportation of the USSR spoils of war let's say until 1955-56; then the situation loosened up a bit.   

 

If you have more questions do not hesitate to ask me. 

Would the green wagons with SPV on the side, be engineering freight wagons too?

This is a very welcome development. For those who know the area, I believe you can also get a bus from Long Eaton Station, its the airport service from Nottingham to Leicester that serves both Long Eaton and Loughborough too. 

https://artitec.nl/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Artitec_Neuheiten_Civiel_2024.pdf
 

Artitec, for me, they announced one of the most interesting new items with the DR versions of the C12c passenger coach

On 22/01/2024 at 17:27, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Nice to see the layout on here in more detail. I do like Austrian railways, and am currently at the top of that slippery slope having got hold of some OBB stock last year. 

 

I did not visit Ally Pally last year, but some club colleagues did and were of the view that this was the stand-out layout of the show. Would definitely like to see this 'in the flesh' one day.

An advantage with Austrian stock is that you can run it on a layout set in a neighbouring country too, even East Germany and Czechoslovakia saw Austrian stock 

I do like Cologne. Thanks for posting the pics, brings back fond memories of catching the last of the BR215’s on passenger services

Spot on Stefan. The other advantage with CSD/CD stock is that it can also be used on layouts based in the neighbouring countries 

On 19/01/2024 at 17:02, Neils WRX said:

There does seem to be quite a market for CSD stuff.

 

Guess it’s what the local modellers want.

Maybe it’s a bit like when older British modellers modelled the late steam era, the mix of remembering their younger years and nostalgia. PKP in the same eras seems pretty popular right now too. 

The PKP Ty2 is the most interesting item for me, Roco are finally doing it with the correct Polish lights. 
 

Also good to see the return of the plain red Bardotka

On 06/04/2023 at 21:36, MikeB said:

Good Luck!

As the value of the items are below the threshold, you should get the whole £42 back, if they came from a major shop of through e-Bay, who should have dealt with the UK VAT requirements.  If it's a small shop or private seller and UK VAT has not been paid, there may be issues, but it's not your fault and you should at least get back any excess charges made.  When you say that the shipping label had gone, that sounds strange.  Who removed it - HMRC?  Was there a copy inside the package? .

 

 

In my experience, I don’t know any German retailer who follows the system correctly for orders under £135, they either charge the German VAT or deduct it and send the order VAT free

On 09/11/2023 at 12:24, ModRXsouth said:

Thank you very much 31A/Steve.

I have quickly skimmed through that VBN link to the English wording including FAQs but will re-read more fully tonight. However, it seems that the ticket is based on buying by the 10th of a month (A) for use from the 1st of the next month (B), then cancelling before the 10th of that month (B) to stop it automatically renewing for a second month (C) - or am I missing something?

If you cancel it once the payment has been taken, the app will still have the ticket you’ve purchased but won’t renew. I found it worked really well on the Hamburg app 

On 06/04/2023 at 16:11, Neils WRX said:

Anyone had any success claiming for excess postage from HMRC using an online form.

 

Just had to pay £42 to get a few bits and pieces that were less than £100.

 

Interesting the shipping label had gone (plastic envelope sliced) and a £30 VAT charge applied plus £12 handling applied. No idea how they calculated that amount.

 

Very nearly sent it back.

 

 

Would the VAT be right if you include the postage? Seems unlikely though, cos you’d need the total to be £150? I know two friends who had to pay VAT on orders where they went over £135 if you include the postage, that was with FedEx. 
Fedex were adamant they were right and apart from sending the order back, there was no option. 
 

maybe they’ve started checking if the retailer has actually charged the VAT or not?

Dresden is a wonderful city, Leipzig is very nice too. 

Check out the Deutschland Ticket, you can sign up using a couple of local transport apps and cancel it after the first month. The first ticket is prorated and as I was there at the end of September, I traveled from Berlin to Leipzig and back, and all round the area for three days, for less than ten euros. 

12 hours ago, TT-Pete said:

 

No problems at this end, but then I hardly go into newsagents these days so no idea if delivery is in sync or not, but agree with @Geep7 that it's probably Royal Mail-related.

It was in the shops Thursday so your subscription copy should have arrived a couple of days ago

10 hours ago, Gordonwis said:

 

 

67300 + RRR to St Malo in the 1990s

Thanks Gordon, what colour would the doors have been in the early 90’s?

Great pictures, I travelled around Brittany and Normandy by rail in the early nineties and wish now I'd paid more attention to the railways, I remember a double headed freight train coming out of Cherbourg Harbour, the old red and cream diesel railcars and a loco hauled service to St Malo with those low silver coloured coaches, thing the locomotive was one of the 67000 family

Has anyone else had issues with the subscription copy of Continental Modeller being late? When I first subscribed, a couple of years ago, it used on arrive on the Saturday before the official publication date on the following Thursday. Now it rarely arrives before it appears in the shops, wondered if anyone else has been having this issue? 

My knowledge of CSD coaches is pretty limited. Igra make some nice model coaches, including a restaurant and a couchette but no first class. I’m guessing because this series of coaches didn’t have one. 

Does anyone happen to know what type of first class coach would have been used with these or what kind of service they were used on. I know that the restaurant cars were used on the Zapadni express at one time. 

https://www.modellbahnunion.com/IGRA-Model-m1361434.htm?shop=modellbahn-union-en&a=marke&Hersteller=1361434

4 hours ago, roundhouse said:

Wow. Never seen that when we have been over there. Normally has a single level BD brake coach attached.

Would that be one of the East German built Y wagen?

That’s a great picture of the 749 with the single double decker 

56 2009-1 was shutdown on 21/12/1970 and stored on the 25th, so yes a very short time scale

Some standard gauge locomotives also received the painted extra digit, Roco have represented it on their DR Era IV model of the BR55 and the recent BR56.20 

https://www.roco.cc/ren/products/locomotives/steam-locomotives/70037-steam-locomotive-56-2009-1-dr.html

On 14/07/2023 at 20:28, Clinton Ross said:

Although official photos may have had all-one-type trains... mixed rakes were the norm for DR Epoch IV; thus, your very fine photos look authentic!

 

P.S.  If that leading axle's flange depth irritates you (as it always did, me), Weinert makes a reasonably-priced RP25 pop-in replacement; its two defects, shiny rail contour and center hubs, can easily be remedied with Blackn-It and some RAL red. 

Depends on the type of train and date really Clinton. The prewar baggage cars lasted the longest but the prewar passenger cars became rarer as the seventies progressed

Great video, I didn’t realise container traffic started so early 

On 16/05/2023 at 10:06, Bernard Lamb said:

My stock is mainly based on the early 1970s period. There are two reasons for this. Firstly it was the time that I first visited the GDR and secondly, with the change to the numbering system being introduced in 1970, it allows me to run stock with both types of numbers. A mainstay of the local passenger service on the branch, as on many other lines, is the VT 2.09 railcar. These stem from an idea in 1955 to produce a lightweight diesel railcar to replace a whole range of very ancient steam locomotives. It took Bautzen until 1959 to produce two prototypes. They were a success and a batch of around six was made for trials. These enterd service in 1962 with more to follow in 1963. Production continued on a regular basis for the best part of ten years. Various changes took place. Flat glass in the front windows instead of curved corners, driving cabs in the trailer cars and facilities for multiple working, which allowed up to six car trains to operate, being some of them. They lasted until the change of ownership in 1992 and many were re-built and even thought worthy of being re-engined, and appeared in a new colour scheme. They lasted unil the early 2000s with the last going in 2004. Even after that some were sold as far afield as Cuba and Romania, as well as a few going into preservation.

The numbering is quite complicated with power cars and trailers changing format at various times. They started as VT 2.09, became 171 and 172 in 1970 and in 1992 became 771 and 772. The later batches were buit at Gorlitz. Seventy three power cars were made but only seveny two trailers. I have no idea as to the reason for this odd number. They could gallop a bit and had a top speed of 90kmph and could be seen on main lines as well as branch lines.

They were popular and aquired several nick names. 

Blutblase. The seats were also blood red as well as the exterior. A less common later variant was Eiterbeule.

Ferkeltaxe. On branchlines farmers' wives would carry piglets in baskets to and from the weekly market.

Sandmannchen. They appered in the childrens' TV programme.

 

 

Several models have appeared at various times. Sachsenmodelle made one quite soon after the end of the GDR and Piko have issued one in the last few years. I have both versions, the Piko one having finer detail but both are good reliable runners. Spot the differences. I suppose a curved windscreen version would be a good subject for a spot of 3d printing.

 

 

The Piko version with original classification.

 

 

 

The Sachsenmodelle version in post 1970 style.

 

 

 

Bernard

 

Piko do the version with the panoramic windscreen as well now. Do you know how long it took to convert all the numbers to the new system?

Neil, where do you get your Kadee’s from? They seem to have got really expensive now