rekoboy

https://www.davidduggleby.com/auctions/120120242245/SingleOwnerCollectionofModelRailway.aspx

Here is a photo of the BTTB BR35 tender which shows the bogie sideframes as an integral part of the moulding. The sideframes are clearly marked where the stub axles touch slightly. Those marks will be used to drill out holes for bearing cups once the sideframes are sawn off the tender body. Hopefully, I will able to construct two free-running bogies and attach them to a new tender internal floor. More to follow!

Apart from a little more detailing and a couple of transfers the tram is more or less finished. Instead of the vintage Herr pantograph I have fitted a nice red one by Sommerfeldt from my spares box. The tram has been repainted and reglazed, now there are just bits and pieces to add. The chassis (Kato Pocket Line for about a tenner(!) plus postage from Plaza Japan) runs absolutely beautifully - coreless motor and a flywheel.

In between sessions working on the tram I have finally got round to improving the appearance of a BTTB BR35 2-6-2 tender loco - the one in the BTTB range that looked the least satisfactory, mostly because of a over-large gap between loco and tender, a one piece tender that is too high-pitched on a rigid wheelbase with imitated bogies and a very plastic-y appearance. The first move has been to lower the tender body so that the axle stub ends actually line up with the axle boxes. This was done by removing the original clip fittings and glueing a tapped brass block inside the tender body which takes a screw fitted through the plastic chassis. The trailing truck with the tender coupling has been sawn apart, shortened and glued together - this alone has hugely improved the appearance of the loco. Most of the very plastic-looking parts have been painted. The next move will be a new motor and flywheel - that will give space in the cab. I have a spare tender on which I plan to carry out major surgery to give it actual bogies and lower it even further.

Happy New Year - und ein gesundes, glückliches Neues Jahr - from all at Kirchheim!

You will remember that I completed a kit for a Czech bogie flat wagon some time ago and loaded it with one of my Karsei tram trailers, bought in a job-lot. The tram trailers are more or less redundant as I do not intend to run anything more than single cars on my tram route. A day or two ago, though, after seeing the attached photo of a preserved Gotha tram, I decided it was a waste to use the tram trailers simply as wagon loads and time to motorize at least one of them with a spare Kato Pocketline chassis and the last elderly pantograph in my collection. So far the chassis is complete - it needed some trimming and building up and will be be secured to the body shell with a self-tapping screw at each end. The body shell has acquired a little of the roof detail - the banks of resistors on the roof will be fabricated out of poly strip and rod. The panto is not attached yet, such put in place for effect! The body shell also needs a good scrub in warm water to get rid of the grubby marks and the transfers. More to follow!

Apologies for double posting. I placed this on the German Railways section - but some of you may not read there. https://www.piko.de/KAT_PDF/2024/99424.pdf

Piko has just released the 2024 TT 1:120 catalogue. The biggest gem is the BR 62 tank loco! https://www.piko.de/KAT_PDF/2024/99424.pdf

No train cancellations at Kirchheim - but there are plenty of people waiting in the cold for their connections! Frohe Weihnachten!

Mmm, somewhat! I think maybe Auhagen produces components in rather more delicate, realistic colours - which you might expect, given their somewhat eye-watering prices! €32 for the crane.

It is a kit of pre-coloured parts, I'm afraid! It has had a light coat of matt acrylic varnish to take the shine off.

The Weimar crane is finished - more or less, the hook has been found! As you can see from the photo two workers from the forest enterprise are giving the crane a test!

I wish you all a happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New Year with plenty of time and cash for German railway modelling!

There is a very small planked turntable in the port area in Magdeburg on the Elbe river. The shed and turntable, now preserved, were built for small dock shunters. I shall look out for more!

Oh, no, just as that lovely BR94 is arriving on the branch the photographer is about to get a telling off. The railwayman does not look happy!

https://modell-werkstatt.de/drehscheibe-600-mm-holz/ziegeloptik https://www.hapo-bahn.de/?ngt=w7e3201000004ad1bb88404166636227

If you decided on your location as a terminus at a fairly small but popular German spa town (Bad Spänzer for example, for film fans!) you could devise a timetable that includes a through Eilzug with bogie corridor stock to Hannover, Berlin or Köln or wherever, a local Personenzug with compartment stock that just travels to the junction and back, a local goods train that shunts the modest goods facility that has a private siding or two, and light-engine movements to the depot at the junction and back.

The wooden warehouse and the general store look a touch too North American, I think. Position A, the large station, could, indeed, be a large German public building - could be the theatre in Meiningen! The industrial structures can certainly be seen as international - one sees similar in Workington, Weimar, Wroclaw and Wien! The Faller station, I think, could be from anywhere in SW Germany, Austria and Switzerland! Have fun!

During last week's stay with our friends in Brandenburg I paid a visit to my favourite model shop in Ziesar and was tempted into buying a limited-edition Auhagen kit for a small crane, the Weimarer Lader, which was to be seen all over the GDR at industrial sites, cooperative farms, goods yards.....As you can see from the first photo the parts are tiny, and not necessarily suited to a 68 year old with sausage fingers and declining eyesight! The kit was a real challenge - and is still not quite finished as the hook has vanished somewhere on my desk! I was joking with Herr Ludwig in the shop about the message on the box stating that the kit is suited only to experienced modelmakers - but the kit is no joke! So far I have invested about 4 hours. A further photo will follow when the hook is found or replaced!

Yes, 'funkferngesteuert' is remote (radio) controlled and it is possible that the 'driver' of the quarry shunter is the chap hanging on the last wagon, although the control pad is quite large, like the ice-cream sales trays at the cinema or theatre - hence the German railwaymen's nickname for them is 'Bauchladen' - waist or tummy shop!

Frau Rekoboy did a combined higher school certificate with professional qualification (Abitur mit Berufsausbildung) as a chemical analysis technician at BUNA in Schkopau. Some of the classrooms were right next to the carbide plant. Every morning the first task was to sweep the dust off the window ledges and tables.

No, I think the Kübelwagen - at least in those photos - are a very specific beast. Kalkkübel to be precise. The modern large wagons are still very much used in Eastern Germany largely for the transport of limestone from the quarry straight to the chemical works - from the Harz mountains to the BUNA carbide plant in Schkopau near Halle, for example. The Kübel are craned off the wagons and the contents tipped straight on to the conveyor to the carbide furnace. Here's a photo, courtesy of Bahnbilder.de of a limestone train of Kübelwagen at Rübeland.

Not quite the Middle Ages - but it depends rather on the era that you are modelling. Pre WW1? Or a bit later? Then fine! Or if you are my friend Günther then you run whatever you like from whatever period! You are the Controller, after all!

The pre-war Deutsche Reichsbahn introduced in the 1930s the concept of Behälterverkehr (container transport) with small containers for coal, chemicals, liquids and even parcels with a range of wagons designed to carry 3 or 4 containers along with special road trailers - drawbar or articulated - to get them from the goods depot to the customer. This is the so-called 'Haus-zu-Haus' service.Post-war both the DB and the DR continued the development up to the introduction of today's ISO containers. German model railway manufacturers all had such vehicles in their range - but, sadly, few models of the special trailers are around - generally, no crane was needed, the trailer was pulled up at either right-angles to or parallel to the container wagon and the container was slid off on to the trailer. I have examples of a 4-container wagon in TT by BTTB/Tillig.

Try these: https://www.weichen-walter.de/ http://www.juergenhaubrich.de/ Not cheap - but top!