rekoboy

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!

The answer to your question, Keith, is 'Yes'. The Gattungsbezirke of the KPEV do not exactly overlap with those of the DRG.

The Prussian State Railways used city names as a 'Gattungszeichen', a type or category label. 'Der Gattungsbezirk' employed the name of the regional headquarters of a Prussian railway division to indicate the type and intended use of a category of freight wagon - from Altona through Breslau, Cöln etc.

I have ordered directly from Peter Horn (peho) a couple of times and found the service very good and the charges OK. http://peho-kkk.de/mshop/index.php/

The additional trailer for the Motordraisine is more or less finished - the paint-job needs finishing, one coupling is still missing - but it can be tested. Are the p-way team happy?What do they think?

And for readers of German, here is the Nürnberg city-guide info on Fleischmann.. https://nuernberginfos.de/traditionsfirmen-aus-nuernberg/fleischmann-modelleisenbahn.htm#fahrt

I think that Fleischmann's location as a company might have had some influence on their choice of wagons. They were based, of course, in Nürnberg in Bavaria until the 2008 take-over by Roco. The former Fleischmann works in inner-city Nürnberg have been demolished and/or converted into apartments. Here is a German-language article... https://gesichterderstadt.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/fleischmann/

The Kühn Rekowagen are very fine models, but then, so are the original BTTB Rekos which were first introduced in the late 1970s. Especially if they are fitted with some form of close-coupling, in my case home-made ones based on N scale Rapido couplings, the BTTB Rekos can still hold their own against present-day products. Here is a comparison shot....

When I got back from my holiday my track-maintenance team (Herr Preiser, Herr Noch and Herr Merten) were complaining that they needed an additional flat-bed trailer for their Motordraisine. So a quick visit to Monk Bar Models got me a further Peco N scale brakevan chassis which was then carefully sawn lengthways down the middle, the coupler pockets and buffers were cut off. The chassis was then widened with poly strip by 3.5mm and glued back together. The flatbed is made up of plank-pattern poly sheet and strips, and I have fitted, as before, 7mm diameter metal wheels and axles by Modmüller. I need to fit couplings still, though - N scale buckeyes. Now a paint job and a load are needed. The wagon runs beautifully!

A difficult question! To my knowledge there are no mainstream manufacturers in Germany which produce N scale goods wagon kits. On the German N scale fans' site 1zu160 there is a somewhat out of date list of small specialist manufacturers... https://www.1zu160.net/scripte/forum/forum_show.php?id=433963

Want a nasty, oily wet mess on the track at the water crane? Then go to your cheapest cosmetic shop and buy some black nail varnish! And clear, too, for puddles!

No progress on layout development of late - we have been away. However, I am pulling in a few operating sessions at the moment!

My good friend Günther who has a very extensive H0 layout uses a mixture of Piko A Gleis, Code 100, and Peco's Code 100 turnouts. Although the fineness maybe missing from the track he is assured that all of his collection - Piko from the 1960s to the 2000s, Fleischmann, Roco, Hornby and Athearn - run without any problems.

I think not. German TT fans are keen to see if Roco will get Kühn's planned developments into actual production.