rekoboy

I have returned! The arrival of a further granddaughter, my Dad's serious illness and other issues put a brake on my modelling for quite a while - and allowed me a lot less time at the PC. There has been quite a lot of progress on Kirchheim, though, when I look at things. The main developments have been with the upper levels of the layout which now include a reverse loop - the upper terminus id now a through station - but it might just be left as more hidden sidings. We shall see. The tram route is coming on - slowly - and there has been some housing development! The loco stud has increased - the very lovely Piko BR 55 is in service, along with a Hornby-Arnold BR 95 and a further BR 50 from Tillig. There is a lot from behind the scenes to report on in bite-sized chunks - in the meantime here are a number of recent photos of the layout.

I have managed to fit in another couple of half-days on the layout and I am pleased to say that the turnouts and dead sections at the upper terminus are all now wired up and working. My test train for turnouts - especially for curved ones - is an articulated twin-unit with the Roco BR 110. If that train does not derail once during 12 or 13 high-speed propelling and trailing movements then I am satisfied that the turnouts have been correctly laid. This test phase is the result of a good deal of thought after previous disappointments and annoyance! The other test train consists of a mixed goods set which is propelled at speed by a loco. I have also added the final backing piece of ply which hides the upper storage sidings and which will form the support for the next lot of scenery which has been started, too. Much of the hillside areas will be afforested in due course - there are bags of trees waiting to be planted! The bridge for the tram and the road is now taking shape - the styrene components are marked out for cutting and the supports are complete. They have been made by halving and lowering Auhagen components.

Nearer to the final track layout at Annaberg! And the Mehano unit is in place!

I am very pleased to be able to report that there has, at last, been some considerable action at Kirchheim in the fields of electrics and scenery! Firstly, the scenery. I decided a while ago to have the road with the tram-line to cross the branchline by means of a skew bridge. That is now on the way to completion, as is the track layout (more or less!) for the upper terminus, Annaberg. You can see from the attached photos that the risers for the road (foam-board) are more or less in place, and one bridge abutment is complete, too, but not yet stuck down. I have added the first load of 'gloop' to the polystyrene base for the hill alongside the road and used a mixture of real stone and home-made castings to indicate the rock faces. In an old copy of the 'Railroad Model Craftsman' I read an article about producing small scenery modules away from the layout, in order to make detailing easier. I was inspired to make styrene bases for the two levels above the tram terminus - at present these two modules are obviously not fixed down and I shall build the structures and add the details at the comfort of my desk or the dining table. As you can see from the photo with the example of 'Pension Ilse' I make the buildings a friction fit on a fixed base so that LEDs or lamps can be changed. By the way - I buy my styrene sheet in bulk from a plastics firm in Leeds - sheets of 1m x 50cm - which is a lot cheaper than going to a model shop!! Secondly, to the electrics. While tidying the garage I found half a reel of 4-core telephone cable, bought when we moved our home office. Mmm, might be useful, I thought. When I was trying out track plans for the upper terminus I realised that the shape of the layout would make shunting a nightmare as one cannot reach from the controllers, or indeed see exactly what is going on. The inspiration came when I was out for a walk with my grandson - use the 4-core cable to establish a slave control-point by the branch terminus! Then I remembered the Mehano controller that I had bought in Germany - just in case! And in a box of electrical bits and pieces I found an unused Triang-Hornby yellow switch - two positions, either permanently on, designed for colour-light signals. There was the answer. The switch does not need to be one input, two possible outputs, I thought. I can reverse that to make a two input, one output selector switch for the branch - power either from the Piko unit as before, or from the Mehano controller. In the bits box were also two handsome but very elderly bakelite turnout switch units ( probably early 1960s E Germany) - so a control centre for the branch terminus was not only realisable but quick to install. The 4-core cable carries an output to the track at the terminus from the Triang switch ,an output to the Triang selector switch from the Mehano controller, a 16 V AC feed for the turnouts and an additional return lead, just in case! And it works! So now I can dispatch a train to the branch terminus, switch over to the Mehano unit, shuffle round to the terminus, shunt to my heart's content, and then return to control departure from the Piko power unit. Happiness!

Guten Abend! Sorry about the very long break in communication, but work, the grandchildren, my very elderly Dad and a certain campaign have all kept me away from the layout. There has been a little progress which I shall report on soon, but the main change has been the arrival of a new locomotive at Kirchheim - the price of which caused my wife to catch her breath somewhat! It is an ex-Prussian State Railways G7, DR class 57 manufactured in very small numbers by Modellbau Jago, founded by the owner of Jatt TT after he sold up to Tillig in the 1990s. The loco is more or less entirely made of white-metal castings with some plastic detail - and she runs like a dream. As you can see, some of the staff at Kirchheim made a dash to admire her when she arrived! I need to do something about the very ugly bunch of cables linking the tender and the loco - but there is no need to rush! The prototype, which was built around the time of the First World War in huge numbers was a very interesting hybrid - it was built around the chassis of the BR 94 0-10-0 tank loco and included the boiler designed for the BR 38 tender loco and had the same tender used for the BR 56 and BR 58. Efficiency! The class was very robust and powerful - they lasted until the 1960s.

Good evening folks! Sorry about the complete lack of any signs of life of late - but grandfatherly duties and work have taken up my time! There was also a visit over the Easter holidays by my good friend Günther and his grandson Anton who asked me a question that I should have asked myself! The question was - where are the tram and the main road actually going when they have crossed the bridge? My very unsatisfactory answer was - I am not sure! But since then there have been scribbles on lots of bits of paper and a good deal of measuring and now I know!! The main road with tram line will continue to rise and cross the upper branch line by means of a skew bridge - for viewing purposes the branch upper line will be slightly under eye-level and the road with tram somewhat higher. Perfect for viewing - I hope! As you can see the foundations of the road are being built up with foam-board. A good deal more scenery has been completed since then as you can see and the rock faces, cast with Polyfilla, using a Woodland Scenics mould or simply sculpted are looking good. The first and second coats of green on the scenery are school powder-paint with a splash of white glue and a drop of washing-up liquid! Both my BR 24 by Gützold and my Tillig BR 52 have cost me a lot of money of late - the BR 24's motor failed (apparently common, they tell me!) and a derailment caused a piece of plastic valve gear to break on the BR 52. So good old Herr Ludwig worked wonders for me and both locos are now back in service. As you can see, the 52 is already out on duty on a line that goes nowhere!

There has been more steady action at the tram terminus at Konradsweiler - but the works are time-consuming and fiddly! The base for the tram terminus has been removed so that it can be worked on at the dining table or wherever and the pavements and raised areas for the tram passengers are taking shape in balsawood. The track will be ballasted with budgie-cage sand or will have a paved infill. The final piece of the cutting approaching Konradsweiler is taking shape as is the area above the tunnel mouth - for all of my scenery I use a form of 'gloop' made of one third sawdust plus two thirds Polyfilla plus white glue and powder paint. That gives a robust structure that shows no white flecks if a chunk breaks off. In the case of the cutting there are slices of genuine rock mixed in. In order to accommodate the terminus board there needs to be a suitable gap under retaining walls - I have made a template or gauge out of a piece of MDF to locate new sections of wall correctly. Next stage - final gluing and pinning of the tram tracks plus power feeds and CATENARY! [

More action at Konradsweiler! The ramp down to the platform is complete - it and the platform surface are made of layers of white glue and budgie sand which when solid were soaked in diluted oil paint. As you can see two local teenagers are already doing speed trials down the ramp! The main focus over the last day or so has been the tram terminus - of which the track is now complete, lightly pinned and, temporarily at least, wired up for testing to ensure that my idea of using elderly Fleischmann Piccolo turnouts as spring points actually works. It does. The test loco is a very elderly Minitrix diesel which was bought as a non-runner for € 8. The repair was a five minute job - loose connection - and she runs beautifully and opens the blades of the spring points with no problem. The chassis will eventually be used for a freight motor or works car on the tram network. The box of catenary is open and ready - but I need time!

At last! I have finally stopped doodling on endless bits of paper and day-dreaming for hours - Konradsweiler is finally taking shape. I have made and fitted the removable base for the main street with its tram terminus, and have, at long last, worked out the exact positions of most of the buildings and produced the rising access road to the buildings at the rear of the scene. I am finally happy - more or less - with the different ground levels. All of the structures except for the kit-bashed bar, Zum alten Konrad and Pension Ilse at the back will be Auhagen kits - the block of flats, 2 modern-ish smaller houses, a snack-bar and a waiting shelter. With a bit of luck you may see them all in position soon! Phew! The track layout for the tram terminus is now clear - and I am using Fleischmann Piccolo turnouts which are ideal as spring points. More of the trams shortly!

For some time I have been seeking a cheap and cheerful (and reliable) means of lighting my collection of BTTB, Zeuke and Tillig coaches. A while ago I discovered a Chinese online trader which sells electronics bits and pieces of reasonable quality at astonishingly low prices – and with no postal costs! So far everything that I have ordered has arrived in good time including the pictured long strip of LEDs which is set up for a USB connection at 5V and which is already equipped with resistors and has an adhesive strip provided on the rear. The strip can be cut with scissors into short lengths of not less than three LEDs – soldering points are provided for. As the LED strips are set up for 5V I needed, of course, to include a suitable additional resistor when installing them in my coaches. A major problem is that the LED strips will, of course, light up in one direction only – that issue was resolved with the pictured double deck set by installing a total of 4 three-LED strips, two for each direction. My son tells me the result is a little too bright – and I need to solve the problem of flickering caused by slight intermittent rail-wheel contact with a couple of capacitors, I think. Otherwise I am reasonably happy. If you need the web-address of the Chinese supplier let me know. He takes PayPal!

Evening All! I apologize for the lack of any new content of late, but grandson Lucas plus work have filled up my time quite a bit. Things are happening - albeit too slowly - at Kirchheim, and I hope to have some evidence shortly! However, the main news from Kirchheim is the arrival of a new locomotive from the Roco works. It is the DR V 100 which is a lovely model. I have still to attach all of the fiddly extras from the accompanying plastic bag (handrails, pipes etc) and to change the couplings. Roco fits Fleischmann N Profi couplings as a matter of course to its TT stock - TT coupler pockets on all modern stock are the N type, of course, so it is a 30 second job to swap them for Tillig couplings. As you can see, the railfans on my layout are quite enthused by the new V 100!

Happy Christmas to all fans of the TT-Bahn. I may even find some time this holiday to get back to work on the railway.

Hello Hobby! I love your layout - is your rolling stock based on German or Czech kits or ready to run? Are you using standard Z-gauge track? Yes, the Brigadelok looks quite sweet, doesn't it? But it is a very simple plastic kit, as you can see in the next photo, designed as a souvenir for the museum. I do not know whether other items of stock have been produced - I shall mail Matthias this evening and ask him if anything else is available. I do know that he brought back about 20 loco kits(!) for friends and club members!

I have still not had much time for layout activities, but thanks to a friend in Dessau I have had something to keep me busy! Matthias offered to bring back some TTf loco kits from a railway museum in Lithuania where they are sold as simple souvenirs. You might ask - what is TTf? It is used to describe 1:120 scale models of rolling stock built for 600mm gauge, and in the case of these models, so called Brigadeloks built by several loco works for service on the Western Front in WW1. Several have survived and are still in service on the Waldeisenbahn Muskau (http://www.waldeisenbahn.de/de/)and on at least one Pioniereisenbahn. The kits are quite simple but have some fiendishly small parts which are quite demanding for a 60 year old with sausage fingers and short sight! The big plan is to motorize one kit using a Märklin Z gauge mechanism - a pipe dream, I fear - but one loco is now assembled but not completely detailed and is being delivered to the Pioniereisenbahn Kirchheim as I write this - see photos! The slightly overscale chains which do actually secure the loco on its transporter came from a girly shop called 'Claire's Accessories' which you might know! For eight quid you get two long fine necklaces and enough chain to keep me busy for months! So there you have it - diesel and oil stains from cheap black nail varnish and chains from the shop favoured by teenie girls!

As I mentioned in my 'Zittauer Schmalspurbahnen' contribution things have been quiet on the railway front for quite a while thanks to the arrival of grandson Lucas and work-related matters. However, I do have some news from Kirchheim, a new loco has arrived! I have been waiting impatiently for months for the BR 106 shunter from Piko which finally arrived in Herr Ludwig's shop a couple of weeks ago. It has been worth the wait as you can see from the attached photos. The level of detail is fantastic - just look at the hand-rails and grab irons. She runs well but I am not entirely convinced by the transmission concept which seems a bit like Hornby Dublo of the 1960s with the drive on to one axle only and the other three driven by the side rods. We shall see!

Tillig does do a three-way point - I have two in use on my layout. I find the Tillig turnouts OK and I have over 20 standard and curved points, plus 2 three-ways and 2 double slips. They have been generally very reliable, although with a couple the bronze spring strip of the Roco turnout drives sawed through the relatively soft plastic of the tie-bar! Some of the turnouts have been in use now for over 7 years and are still fine. I can recommend Tillig track!

Thanks to the facts that work has been hectic and that the garden has been in need of serious attention not a great deal has happened at Kirchheim lately - although the re-motoring of the 'home-made' BR 64 is proceeding - more of that topic soon. However, there are developments in connection with the trams. At the Dampfloktreff in Dresden I was able to buy for very little money 2 Tatra T4 trams which had been given away with crates of Einsiedler Pilsener at some stage in the recent past. German breweries often give away free model trucks with crates of beer but this particular brewery in Chemnitz did a series of trams as souvenirs - they are very roughly TT scale and are mounted on 9mm gauge bogies. A project for later, I thought but I have already sourced from Plaza Japan an N-gauge Tomytec chassis that will fit! The big excitement came, though, on my last day in Germany when Günther and I visited Herr Ludwig in his excellent model shop in Ziesar - Herr Ludwig mentioned that his friend had a Karsei Gotha T57 with trailer cars in TTm for sale. Karsei is a small manufacturer from a village near Eisenach and produces quite limited runs of very appealing TT rolling stock - the tram is no longer available, so I was more than excited when I discovered that Herr Ludwig's mate wanted only € 100 for the motor-car and 2 trailers. They arrived today - so there is really no excuse any longer for not getting cracking on the tram route!

Danke, John!

Here you go folks - a decent photo of the Jatt BR 38.

Sadly, I have had little time for modelling of late, but whatever time was available was mostly taken up with trying to find the optimal position for the tram terminus at Konradsweiler and to make a permanent road bed to go with the tram track on the left-hand side of the bridge. I think I have finally managed the task and have pinned down the Streamline flexitrack and the Roco points so I can make the templates for the plywood base for the tram terminus and for the styrene road surface up to track level to the left of the bridge. As you can see, the contractors have already brought in some metre-gauge wagons to aid construction! The next test is the conversion of the two Roco 'N' turnouts to simple spring operation - I have the the necessary bits, a report will follow! Some train running has also been going on. Quite a while ago I acquired a Jatt BR 38 4-6-0 which is a beautiful, white-metal model and which runs like a dream, but sadly it seems to have spent most of its working life with me in a display case until recently when I realised that it needed to be out on the main line! You can see it in the photos with a rake of Zeuke/Tillig Eilzugwagen. Lovely! These pics are a bit dark - I'll add further ones later.

You will find this astonishing, folks, but following the (almost) completion of the pub Zum alten Konrad I have found quite a bit more time to attempt some more styrene engineering. For weeks I had been seeking a solution to the combined tram and road bridge over the incline to Konradsweiler village - and at some point on the A59 or the M62 I had a moment of clarity and realised that the N-scale Japanese bridge girders that I had been keeping 'just in case' plus square section styrene tube and the usual heavy-gauge styrene sheet would solve the problem. Having established that the bridge supports are vertical and plumb (any indication to the contrary in the photos is an illusion, honest!) I started to fabricate the bridge and began by sawing the Green Max bridge girders lengthwise in half and gluing the halves on either side of an exactly matching square-section styrene tube. After that had all hardened I separated everything into 4 box girders which were glued to the underside of a piece of styrene sheet. From then on it was just a mechanical task of carefully cutting styrene sheet and gluing it together up to the rail level of a section of Streamline N track. The track is a friction fit within the road surface of the bridge which will shortly get kerbs, a pavement, sidewalls and handrails plus a road surface of Auhagen cobbles.

Good Evening folks, once again apologies for the relative silence of late, but my daughter's house-move, a pile of 6,000-word assignments to mark and the garden(!) have all conspired against railway modelling. I have, however, managed to finish a project, and, oh boy, has it taken a long time! You will notice from previous posts that a Czech station building was cut into two - I separated the ground floor from the rest and promised to use it as the basis of a Gaststätte. Years ago I used to be a keen scratch-builder of structures - this pub is the first, hopefully, of a series. Apart from the ground floor of the Czech kit most components are from Auhagen's excellent bags and boxes of bits - but the extension is made of heavy-gauge polystyrene sheet, the felt roof of the extension is fine-grade sandpaper, the flashing around the embossed plastic brick sheet chimney is made of sugar-paper, and the signs were made on the PC employing a downloaded Konsum sign (the old GDR co-operative society which ran shops, bars, cafes etc etc) a font called 'Magneto' and printed on photo paper. The name of the bar 'Zum alten Konrad' (Old Konrad's bar) is a sly dig at my son who is concerned about his advancing years! There is still quite a bit to do - ridge tiles, gutters, TV aerial - but I am happy with the product of my hours of labour - especially with the little glass cabinet for the menu which started life as a small Auhagen window frame. You may have noticed a couple of wires leading from the pub - a further time-consuming feature of my plan was to equip the building with light-boxes made of sugar paper and poly sheet which mean that the lighting can be confined to individual rooms and can be switched from one to another - or to all.

Sorry about the silence, folks - but our daughter has been moving house and Pa's assistance is essential in such matters. Work on the design and creation of Konradsweiler has continued, though, if slowly, and I have decided on the final location of at least one building and worked out the position of the tram terminus' tracks. The scenery surface of coloured Polyfilla is largely complete, and I have added yet more retaining wall! The first tram AND the tram route's catenary are here on my work table, too, but they need a good deal of assembling! The corrugated iron shed in the photo will disappear soon - but it will be used somewhere! As I threatened in a previous post the Czech station building has been cut down, as you can see, and the lower half will get a toilet block added and a pitched roof and will become the HO Gaststätte at the tram terminus. More buildings, a bus stop and a kiosk will be added eventually. The blue line around the tram tracks is a cutting guide - the tram terminus and its catenary will be on a slot-in and removable piece of MDF so that I can build the overhead wiring and supports at the dining room table in a civilized and healthy seated position! More will follow!

A bulletin from Kirchheim at last. Progress has been slow of late - not especially because of a lack of time, but because of several knotty problems that needed (and still need) to be solved. The first was the bridge over the branch line which will carry a road and a tram-line - with the single-line tram operating in the return direction on the wrong side of the road! This is a small memorial to the much-missed route from Brandenburg to Kirchmöser which caused unsuspecting motorists plenty of Angst when they encountered it on the 'wrong' side of the street in Plaue! The bridge caused me a lot of thoughtful moments - and helped pass the time on my many journeys to schools around Yorkshire! In the end I made the bridge supports from 2 Zeuke bridge piers from the junk box. One was firmly glued to the top of the other and later the new taller pier was carefully sawn vertically in the ratio 2:3 to make two bridge supports. The cutting then acquired retaining walls and a rock face cast as usual from a rubber mould and the track could be finally ballasted. The retaining wall and the rock faces are attached with white glue to a backing piece of thick card to aid positioning. Now it all needs painting!! The landscape around Konradsweiler is taking shape very slowly - as you can see the basis of the scenery is insulation board or foam-board - some polystyrene blocks are awaiting use, too. The foam-board mock up of the Auhagen block gets moved about nearly every day - it will be eventually set into the landscape with retaining walls at the side and back with a block of garages at the side - based on my late sister-in-law's place. The cardboard curve is one of the various templates that I make up to plan the layout of roads and gradients. But before anything is finally fixed I need Frau Rekoboy's artist's eye to get the locations exactly right. The building next to the mock-up - the Czech station - is about to undergo radical surgery to remove a storey and make it more private house-like. Down near the tram terminus where the corrugated iron shed is standing temporarily I shall be adding Auhagen's pub and dance hall to keep the users of the tram and station happy! Other buildings MAY appear - but more thought is required! The tram terminus is based on that of the Lockwitztalbahn (sadly no more) or of the Kirnitzschtalbahn where the motor coach runs round its trailer at the terminus.

Wow! Thank you, Taigatrommel. I have just taken a look at the Piko website http://www.piko-shop.de/index.php?vw_type=warengruppe&vw_view=detail&vw_id=43&page=4 ....and there is the V 60. Brilliant news. I think my Klose V 60 will soon be banished to the display cabinet! As to my inspiration for Konradsweiler - it is more from Thüringen where my late sister-in-law lived (Wutha-Ruhla, Suhl-Schleusingen etc), but I can clearly see what you mean about the Windbergbahn!