rekoboy

We have just got back from a visit to Frau Rekoboy's cousin Michaela who is a medic in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg, the most westerly Austrian federal state. On our previous visits we never seemed to have time to visit the object of my desire - the preserved 5km section of the Bregenzerwaldbahn - but this time we managed it. The Bregenzerwaldbahn, 760mm gauge, ran from Bregenz on Lake Constance, the capital of Vorarlberg, up into the mountains to the small town of Bezau. The line was never one of the most profitable of ÖBB and was not so well-known by tourists as the Zillertalbahn. It was dieselized at a fairly early stage with the class 2091 centre-cab machines that were produced during the German occupation 1938-45. Latterly, before closure, the motive power was provided by the ÖBB 2095 class. In its last couple of years the line hosted a series of steam spectaculars organized by Eurovapor which brought a variety of steam locos and a lot of money into the tills. Sadly, the line was closed between 1980 and 1983 as a result of catastrophic landslides which destroyed part of the formation, but the last 5km between Schwarzenberg and Bezau, the terminus, have been preserved. That was our destination. On our visit both of the steam locos were undergoing repair so we had the line's class 2095 rod-coupled Bo-Bo diesel for the return trip. The rolling stock is a mixture of historic 4-wheel restored carriages and more modern bogie rebuilds from the ÖBB workshops in St Pölten. The 2095 is a 760mm gauge loco with the heart of a standard gauge machine - a 12 cylinder diesel which develops 600bhp. Most of the preserved bit of the Bregenzerwaldbahn is fairly level but on the gradients with a loaded train when the driver opens up the throttle of the 2095 , boy, oh boy, diesel ecstasy! The terminus at Bezau possesses a sector table (if that is the correct translation for Segmentdrehscheibe) - the first time that I have seen a modern one in action. Enjoy the photos!

We visit relatives in Germany 2-3 times a year or more and after Brexit we were concerned about customs limits, but if you check the relevant gov.uk website you will see that the regulations are fairly generous especially with alcohol (!) - but general purchases are £390 per person (which you can convert to Euros - official rate £1=€1.17 on HMG's website, so approx. €455!). That limit, especially if travelling with a partner, gives some scope for shopping.

As far as I know Del Prado is a trading name of a Spanish media company, de Agostini is an Italian publisher

I am reading the further comments on this topic and have come to the conclusion that my contribution on the BR94 0-10-0 must be invisible to many readers. From the photo it should be possible to see very clearly that very acceptable steam locos with almost fine-scale valve gear and wheels are perfectly possible in 1:120 - or do I inhabit a parallel universe? Oh, sorry, the loco is German. That doesn't count.

Every time I return to this website section and see further comments on the problems of wide flanges, overscale bogie sideframes and so forth my heart sinks. At least since German reunification several European manufacturers have been producing high-quality model locos and rolling stock with, for my eyes, fine-scale appearance at relatively modest cost. Do you really think a 1:120 scale loco built to run over Tillig track looks and runs like a Triang TT product of the early 60s? Does my Kuehn BR94 have steamroller wheels and overscale toy valve gear? I do not think so. Just let yourselves be surprised and marvel at what mainstream production can do.

In the mid-1970s I was teaching in a high school in Kierspe in Westfalen - the town had expanded with the arrival of the railway, in this case the line from Köln to Hagen via Gummersbach, Meinerzhagen and Brügge, and there were two distinct sections to the town - the old part, Kierspe-Stadt, and the newer part Kierspe-Bahnhof. The line lost its passenger services between Gummersbach/Marienheide and Brügge, junction for Lüdenscheid, for over 20 years, but is now back on the network, although a collapsing bridge is causing problems at present. I shall endeavour to scan a couple of photos as Kierspe was - now it is a single modern platform with no building. This website might be interesting for you.... https://www.eisenbahn-im-volmetal.de/

All of my freight and passenger rolling stock is equipped with Modmuller wheels and axles. Top quality and of fine appearance. https://www.muellerradsatz.de/epages/es124766.mobile/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es124766

I am imagining this, or have I read somewhere that firms such as Lincoln Locos produce British (3mm) TT bodyshells for Piko mechanisms?

It is indeed Tillig track. When I started my layout there were just a couple of possibilities for TT track - either Pilz (later to become Tillig) or the pressed steel hollow rails and horrendous turnouts of BTTB or a now vanished Hungarian manufacturer. The choice was simple! If I were starting again I would certainly consider Kuehn or Peco for reasons of realism - but Tillig track is robust, with a huge range of flexible and set track and turnouts. But as you can see from the attached photos, my layout has reached a stage where large-scale track renewals would be unbearable!

When Hornby-Arnold announced their plans for TT-120 quite a number of TT modellers in Germany shook their heads and commented that there were already too many competitors (Tillig, Roco, Piko, Kuehn..) and that Hornby would pull out again quickly. Hornby has been very careful to check for gaps in the market and to ascertain what the TT fans want. Thus far they have only 5 locos in the range - a shunting tractor (Köf), originally introduced as the only TT loco in the original Arnold programme, which has turned out to be astonishingly popular as every larger German wayside station and every depot possessed at least one - and in spite of its small size it runs well. Then came the battery shunter, at which German fans shook their heads - but every E German loco depot (and now some all-German ones) had at least one of these vehicles to move dead locos around the depot - and many industrial sites had one, too. It sold well. The two biggest hits, which had many TT enthusiasts, including me, salivating in anticipation for months were firstly the 2-10-2 tank loco of class 95, the so-called Mountain Queen, which was in service in E Germany up to the early 1980s on the steeply graded lines in Thuringia, and then the lovely class 58 2-10-0 steam loco, the Prussian Kriegslok of the first world war, some of which lasted almost to the end of steam on the E German Reichsbahn. The BR 95 is excellent, it looks the part and runs beautifully, In real life one of those machines in preservation has to be seen in action, as does the BR 58 which is short and stumpy and powerful with three cylinders and the most wonderful exhaust beat. Of course, the steam locos sold out in no time - and now Hornby teases the fans with the question whether there will be a second series -although Tillig spoiled things with their version of the BR 95. The fourth loco is interesting as it is a CoCo electric of the only 25Kv class in E Germany, built for the electric island that is the steeply graded Rübelandbahn in the Harz Mountains. There was a gamble, I think, on the loco being seen as a 'neverwazza' and being employed as a pretend standard 15Kv loco on electrified layouts alongside the various electrics made by Tillig. The plan came off, I think, and the loco has sold well. Might Hornby go further in TT? Maybe, but remember the tooling costs and assembly costs for a steamer are much higher than those of a diesel. Oh, yes, one other thing - the quality of Hornby-Arnold's TT locos is absolutely top - I cannot fault the BR 95 and the BR 58, both in running and appearance, although the rivet counters criticize the lack of weight and the unrealistic crew members.

Peco appears to be on to a winner in Germany already. The TT-Board forum is running a section on Peco's 1:120 and the verdict on the turnouts is very positive - one member has run all of his locos and a section of stock from 1980s BTTB through to present day Roco and Piko over a test track and is thoroughly impressed. No stalling, no derailments. A number of comments imply that the turnouts, while very well engineered, are a bit heavy on the appearance side - one member commented that he would be over the moon if you could combine Kuehn-Modell's track's delicate appearance with Peco's reliability!

Yesterday one of DB's BR232 'Ludmilla' was written off after it caught fire near Wiedemar on the Halle/Saale - Delitzsch line. Photo courtesy of LVZ.

I noted a comment that the purchaser of a Roco diesel loco (BR132, a so-called 'Ludmilla' because of her Russian origin) was amazed by the model quality and detail - he seemed to expect a loco of the same detail as a BTTB loco of the 1980s, I suspect. I have produced a couple of photos to demonstrate how things have developed with a comparison between a 1980s BTTB BR 130 (a freight version of Ludmilla with no train heating plant) and today's BR 130 by Piko. The Piko Ludmilla is scale-length for a start, the BTTB version is a good deal shorter - it was telescoped so that an existing chassis could be employed. The difference in the bogie detail is very noticeable - there you can see a massive advance in plastic moulding technology. Just to emphasize the quality of today's European/German TT locos I am attaching a photo of one of my favourite locos - the Kuehn-Modell Prussian BR 94 which is exquisitely detailed - no different to an H0 or, indeed, an O gauge loco.

I posted this article on the TT 2.5mm section of the RM Web - now I think I have probably missed most of my potential audience - so here we go again! I thought I might present you with a little Roco history. Some of you may think that Roco started out from the beginnings of the company as a manufacturer of high quality H0 trains - that development came much later. Roco started life around 1960 under Karlheinz Rössler as a manufacturer of cheap plastic toys, often as free gifts for food and drink producers! The very first locos produced by Roco were approximate TT-120 scale unmotorized 'push 'n go' overhead line electric locos, sold with either 4-wheel passenger carriages or 4-wheel goods wagons in blister packs or given as free gifts with Austrian Korona coffee or with sweets and bubble-gum made by Schatzmann. A while ago I bought two of the ÖBB electric locos from a German acquaintance with the intention of motorizing one of them using a BTTB/Zeuke chassis and adding proper pantos, glazing etc. There are copious hints and reports on the German TT-Board website on projects involving early Roco toys. I have still not started on the electric loco - my attic and study are littered with unfinished work, I am sorry to say! What is interesting about these toy trains is the quality of the mouldings - there are a lot of the early Roco goods wagons and carriages in service still across Germany, usually just the very good bodyshells mounted on BTTB, Zeuke or Tillig chassis. Following the production of these toy trains and the successful introduction of the popular and cheap H0 scale Minitanks series Roco entered the real model railway market, first as a sub-contractor for the American company AHM, and in partnership at first with Mehanotechnika of the former Yugoslavia. This website in German might be of interest....http://www.bahnmuseum.at/herst.roco01.html

I thought I might present you with a little Roco history. I was not sure whether to add it to the German Railways section or this one - but here we go! Some of you may think that Roco started out as a manufacturer of high quality H0 trains - that development came much later. Roco started life around 1960 under Karlheinz Rössler as a manufacturer of cheap plastic toys, often as free gifts for food and drink producers! The very first locos produced by Roco were approximate TT-120 scale unmotorized 'push 'n go' overhead line electric locos, sold with either 4-wheel passenger carriages or 4-wheel goods wagons in blister packs or given as free gifts with Korona coffee or with sweets and bubble-gum made by Schatzmann. A while ago I bought two of the ÖBB electric locos from a German acquaintance with the intention of motorizing one of them using a BTTB/Zeuke chassis and adding proper pantos, glazing etc. There are copious hints and reports on the German TT-Board website on projects involving early Roco toys. I have still not started on the electric loco - my attic and study are littered with unfinished work, I am sorry to say! What is interesting about these Roco toy trains is the quality of the mouldings - there are a lot of the toy goods wagons and carriages in service still across Germany, usually just the very good bodyshells mounted on BTTB, Zeuke or Tillig chassis. Following the production of these toy trains Roco entered the real model railway market, first as a sub-contractor for the American company AHM, and in partnership at first with Mehanotechnika of the former Yugoslavia. This website in German might be of interest....http://www.bahnmuseum.at/herst.roco01.html

Epoche 3 is the post WW2 period from 1945 to 1970 - in other words, an era when there was still a good deal of steam traction to be seen in West and East Germany. In terms of diesels, both the Bundesbahn (West) and Reichsbahn (East) referred to locos under the old classification with a V prefixing the class number (for Verbrennungsmotor -internal combustion engine). Following the the introduction of computerized numbering schemes the V was replaced by the Bundesbahn with a 2 and by the Reichsbahn with a 1 (confusingly). So, the V100 centre-cab diesels of similar design in the West became 211, and in the East 110.

Here you go - some not quite sharp photographic evidence. You can see the old style BTTB/Tillig so-called 'Schlitzkupplung' which fits into a spring loaded slot in the buffer-beam of the vehicle. A later version of this - which I shall photograph tomorrow - used an N scale coupler box with a small coil spring. That was then replaced by Tillig with the NEM pocket in use today. In order to achieve closer coupling, especially of passenger coaches, (East) German modellers developed the hybrid Rapido coupling which can be made from a BTTB/Tillig shaft for the spring slot (preferably employing one of the older metal couplings) Araldited to the head of a standard N Rapido coupling. They work very well! Until the advent of Tillig's new close coupling I used my home-made hybrids for my coaching stock. Why? Firstly it is unobtrusive and looks like a real knuckle coupling, secondly the distance between vehicles is reduced and thirdly, because it has no vertical play, it stays firmly coupled -- even on gradients!

Not everyone removed the N scale Rapido couplings! Arnold produced a converter to insert Rapido couplings into the original Berliner Bahnen or early Tillig spring pockets. Quite a few German TT modellers experimented with those standard N scale couplings as a possible means of close-coupling long before Tillig introduced NEM pockets and new couplers. I used Rapido couplings Araldited on to Berliner Bahnen or Tillig coupler shafts as a means of close coupling rakes of coaches. Photos to follow!

On the topic of TT-120 couplings I use the older style Tillig, now PIKO standard, hook and loop on all of my locos and on all of the freight stock. I employ the new Tillig or Kuehn coupling only on rakes of coaches which do not need to be split. The end vehicles in a rake have, of course, the older coupling. I find coupling and uncoupling for shunting or loco run-rounds much easier with the older Tillig or PIKO coupling with which the vehicles are slightly further apart. Uncoupling with the new coupling with my eyesight is difficult, to say the least! As you can see from the attached photos Kuehn's E German Reko coaches look absolutely fantastic when close-coupled, with corridor connections touching - and they still negotiate 310 mm radius curves! You can see from the second photo that the loco has an older coupling, and the end carriage of the set, too and so the gap between tender and first vehicle is therefore noticeably wider.

Those of you who have been following my account of my German TT layout 'Kirchheim' in the German section of this website will have seen some of my kit or model-bashing to extend the relatively thin range of TT-120 trucks. The MAN/RABA/Roman Diesel tractor units by Schirmer (formerly before re-unification MK-Modell Leipzig and then Klose) are a great starting point as are the bits and pieces from Schirmer's artic trailers and Herpa's modern artic tractors and trailers. A good source of truck and trailer parts can/could often be found in German model shops in the form of the bit bags produced by SES - those bags are the source of chassis and axle parts for my MAN adventures. See photos! The final photo of the MAN with the green cab shows the combining of a Schirmer cab with SES chassis parts and and bits of Evergreen profile! The Russian company Svezda (whose wares have probably now vanished from model shops!) do a nice range of basic kits in 1:100/1:120 for wargaming fans. In the range are a Russian/Ukrainian Ural 6x6, an AEC Matador(!) and an Opel Blitz which I have not only built but also use as a source of parts. The tracked excavator on my scratch-built low-loader is Japanese 1:150 scale, bought in Aachen - sadly, I have been never able to find another digger from the range, There are some Czech manufacturers who produce nice truck kits in 1:120 scale - see the photo of the grey LIAZ tipper and low loader trailer. The ES Pecky website in Czech shows some current models ...https://1185589887.s1.eshop-rychle.cz/es-pecky/eshop/1-1-Es-Pecky/8-2-Es-TT-stavebnice-aut

Moorbach is based on a station in Thüringen. It was originally a VERO model before re-unification, later taken into Auhagen's range. The general prototype can be seen in various locations across Thüringen, especially on the branch from Rudolstadt to Katzhütte and on the lines around Ilmenau. I am told that the nearest real station to Moorbach is that at Manebach, near Ilmenau

Some of you might know Hagen von Ortloff who was the presenter of the German TV channel SWR3's 'Eisenbahnromantik' which is in itself worth looking for on the internet. Since he retired Hagen has devoted himself to short films on YouTube. His last year's model railway advent calendar was particularly good.

So, the powered goods van (Geisterwagen) is more or less finished. It has been painted, may need a couple more details adding in due course, though. As you can see, it has already been included in the PW team's train!

I am afraid to say that my emphasis is moving more and more to the world of TTm trams and interurban electric railways! You may remember that I mentioned that I am an enthusiastic customer of Plaza Japan - prices are brilliant, and so far the service has been absolutely first-rate, with deliveries within two weeks. My next project for the VEB Straßen- und Überlandbahn Kirchheim-Annaberg (the trams) was another centre-cab electric loco for which I bought a bodyshell from Shapeways. The chassis used on the first loco is no longer available, and so I turned my attention to available chassis at Plaza Japan and bought a Tomytec TM-TR02 (see photo) - the dimensions seemed right, although some chopping would be needed, I thought. In the end, I decided the chassis was not right and put it away in the drawer. Last week I had a Peco 9ft N gauge goods wagon chassis on my desk - and then the penny dropped. I could modify the Tomytec chassis to fit the goods wagon chassis and so build a powered goods van which could be used with a non-motorized loco! There was a good deal of surgery needed on the Tomytec chassis which needed to be shortened, and in order to make the ends symmetrical I had to remove one of the motor mountings which I replaced with a bronze strap. The original weights were replaced with thin strips of lead from a sheet cadged from a roofer! The Peco chassis and the modified Tomytec do not quite possess the same wheelbase - but from a normal viewing distance the discrepancy is not noticeable! The motorized chassis had the goods wagon chassis cemented around it and then an additional frame made of Evergreen profile to carry the very simple van body which is made up of planked poly sheet and profiles. The curved roof was made in usual style with a piece of black poly sheet firmly taped to a mug full of boiling water! The motorized van runs beautifully - and it is powerful, more so than the pocket crocodile which looks the part but lacks oomph! Paint job next!

I thought this was a perfectly accurate description of the situation in GB!