readingtype

Here's a detail of an Ade Steuerwagen for comparison of those eyes. You can also see the way Ade modelled the original seats and the luggage racks.

Modellbahn Union is offering the ESU Silberlinge for sale now. Both refurbished (epoch V and VI) and original (Epoch III) versions are listed by MU. A close-up photo is needed to see how they've handled the 'peacock eyes'. Have a look under 'picture gallery' here: http://www.esu.eu/en/products/pullman/spur-h0/n-car-silberling/ First time I have seen the distinctively shaped wheel discs reproduced on a commercial H0 model. There must be a word to describe the way they are shaped!

An entirely gratuitous photo of the front three quarter view, including quite a lot of plumbing for a British loco. Nice and weighty without traction tyres. I'm impressed by the general finish and the abundance of freestanding parts. Along with other fittings in the cab, the backhead detail has all been moulded and painted neatly and even the stripes on the boiler sight glass are painted in! From outside it's a lovely model of a nice prototype. I'm looking forward to broadening its back-to-backs to 16.5mm :-)

I recommend David's recent articles. A German language site, and another casualty of time, Lokalbahn-Reminiszenzen (branch line reminiscences) has been saved by the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20161124213836/http://www.lokalbahn-reminiszenzen.de/start.htm The site concentrates on a small number of lines but has plenty of detail. Follow the links to 'Gleispläne' (track plans). An example page: https://web.archive.org/web/20161114154045/http://www.lokalbahn-reminiszenzen.de/gleisplaene/modellbahnplaene1.htm 'Lokalbahn' is the word used in Bavaria and Austria for a low-speed branch line with the most basic signalling and permitting only light loadings; 'Nebenbahn' is the general German term. This may help when searching the web (I suggest you use google.de for better results if you don't already). I don't know whether the variance in terminology relates directly to the legal status of the lines, but I believe there was a law in one or other of the German states broadly equivalent to the British Light Railways Act but earlier. Others will correct me :-)

Hi, The UK FREMO group are looking for some telecoms expertise in connection with our upcoming meeting (this will be H0, based on German branchline practice, set in Epoch III/IV). If you are a telecoms engineer or have relevant experience and you would be willing to give some guidance on setting up a small (5-10 extensions) network, we would like to hear from you. Please send me a private message if you are interested. More info on the FREMO standard we work to: https://www.fremo-net.eu/en/modular-systems/h0-scale/h0-europe/ Thanks Ben

Absolutely. The range of models available is really remarkable, just given the obvious cost in creating the tools for each. But it seems they sell all the ones they make, so it's not just the people in the toolmaking department who do a good job (for the shareholders anyway). Oh and then there are those of us who kindly volunteer to buy them :-) Does anyone here know how much this market is worth?

For anyone afraid to ask, the RAL system is a set of standard colours (originated in Germany in 1927 according to Wikipedia, now used internationally in industry). In German model railway shops you can buy paint brands like Vallejo in RAL colours; I don't know how easy that is here (if you are lucky enough to find such a shop). The RAL colours are often referred to by their familiar names (as in the references to 'Karminrot', 'Orientrot' and 'Verkehrsrot' for the reds used on DB/DBAG locos at different epochs). Anyway, if you want to know the RAL colour you need, you could try this handy chart: Railway RAL colours (German Wikipedia) Converting between differing systems of colour classification is an interesting passtime ;-)

Off-topic, sorry: I hadn't considered trying to create Märklin M-Gleis templates in Templot, but the presence of @martin_wynne's post tempts me to consider the possibility. Was Templot a hitherto uncredited R&D tool in the Märklin factory back in the day? I did have a go at the standard German Reichsbahnweiche (moderately detailed official information on the prototype reproduced here) with a 1:9 crossing angle in H0 (to NEM standards, nothing too ambitious) and this truly taxed my limited understanding of Templot. Got the angle in, but then I tripped up on the timbering :-)

Thanks for this report and the photos. I visited the station at Pacy-sur-Eure with a friend a few years ago and was bemused by the layout so it's good to have a photographic explanation, thanks. It was almost entirely deserted, certainly no trains running, and nobody seemed to mind us wandering about and looking at things, so we did. Being pretty ignorant of French railway history I'm not sure that there is anything especially coherent about the collection of vehicles but I could tell that there were some venerable and probably quite unusual ones there. The Whitcomb diesel for example (the blue Bo-Bo with yellow stripes shown looking respendant in one of @Pacific231G's photos, originally US built for use in WW2), the 'saucisson' carriage (dark green with oval windows and aftermarket graffiti) and that magnificent Renault railcar. There was an open 4-wheel wagon with a body that might I think simply decompose where it stands. I think the secret is to ignore all the road signs. You need a willing navigator though.

Nearby and slightly more conventional is the Santa Teresa Tramway. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Teresa_Tram. I read on Wikipedia that the original ancient toastrack trams have been replaced -- a pity, as these were properly venerable giving out lots of appealing creaks and squeaks. Wikipedia makes it all seem fairly rational but in fact the rather frequent mishaps (I went on it about three months before the serious accident in 2011), the fact that it runs through some colourful neighbourhoods, and the general atmosphere of Rio make it very memorable. Would make a fantastic model (with its 'very unusual' gauge), so long as you can work out how to stop everything rolling down the hill

As well as the illustrious GRS event there was also a celebration of the 175th anniversary of the opening of the line between Didcot and Oxford on Saturday, and this was the scene at Didcot just after 18:00 as I waited for my train back from the show.

I'm not an entirely disinterested party, but even after the harsh pruning I reckon this is still a great group of layouts to bring together. And if we still have use of the tea-making equipment all will be well :-)

I would be interested to see your FiNe 1/160 layout should it ever venture out. Interesting shape for a layout and interesting choice of scale/standard. Never mind the absence of reverse curves!

Today's fun: trying to fit Bill Bedford BR 'modern image' W-irons under a Cambrian SR/BR 25t Toad. Catch is: the gauge is EM and the van has the narrowest frames. Evah. I chose the (sprung) W-irons because for some reason I thought the van wouldn't ride nicely (old moulds, my dodgy construction skills, runes consulted etc). I trimmed them to broadly the right shape with a knife (note the ones on this van, at least following the mouldings in the kit, are unusually wide and lack any weight relieving holes). Trouble is that the width of the whole W-iron unit is 26mm, a good 3mm more than the space available between the frames. So the two W-irons have been chopped in half and (carefully, but not skillfully) soldered back together. The only axle I could find that would go in was an old Märklin one (remember: h0 is like 00, just 0.87 times as much ...) and this axle was 24mm tip to tip. Filing off the tips got it down to 23mm. Off came the old wheels, the ends of the axles were ridged with a file (as in the Gibson instructions for fitting drive gears to proprietary axles) and on went the Gibson wheels. There's not a lot between the front face of the wheel and the rear face of W-iron. I've cut the moulded W-irons on the solebars back to the springs. We shall see how this turns out; the frame's currently held together with hair clips and the solvent is doing whatever it needs to do. And here is one of Paul Bartlett's photos of a prototype 25t van. I'm doing this diagram, D1582, there are a few others covered by the kit

OK, I'm biased, but surely: in for a penny, in for a pound? I think that having returned quite recently to railway modelling I get much more out of the crazy British railway (and railway modelling) world now that (in theory) I'm modelling continental stuff. It just helps put things in context. The way real railways are done in Britain -- and to a lesser extent the places British railway practice went -- is so radically different from elsewhere. And I reckon the same can be said for the modelling. I spent the most pleasant part of my day kitbashing a Cambrian kit, using old Märklin axles with Gibson wheels on them ... just need to think what on earth to do with those awful pizza cutter discs now left over!

Thanks for sharing! As for what that V100 was doing: I would speculate that as it appears to be running light engine, economically speaking, it was doing nothing at all ;-) If it's actually V100 2299 it belongs to the Vulcan-Eifel-Bahn, a local preserved railway operator, goods haulier and hirer of locos, here's their page about V100s: https://www.veb.de/fahrzeuge/fahrzeuge/detail/Diesellok-Baureihe-212-Typ-V-100--4n/

Bizarrely enough the missing chunk reappeared -- it had somehow jumped right into the takeaway box where all the things I'd pulled off the loco live. I've glued it back with ordinary superglue and much to my surprise made a fairly neat job of it. Not very confident it will survive a test run though. Thanks for the tip on the Comet replacement pony truck. For the record this seems the likely candidate: https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/locomotive/ls2/ (pre-WW2 LMS)

I'm a lot happier with the running now than I was. As I mentioned, I'm really looking at how well it pulls away and runs at slow speed, because I want to play with it rather than just watch it run. Once travelling at line speed there has been no problem since the contact issue for the driving axles was solved. This is tempting: ESU's LokSound for the 140.C. Pip pip!

Thanks! Well, it was second hand -- but not dirty or showing any sign of wear. Glad to think that my experience doesn't represent the normal standard.

This is Liliput's 140.C from ten years ago or thereabouts, in 1:87. The real thing was made by North British in Glasgow and shipped to France in 1916 as part of an order for the French artillery (see Wikipedia article). I acquired this one recently. It did not run well; very hesitant, and prone to stopping with the gear in the same position on each revolution of the driving wheels. I dismantled it and found numerous interesting features, any one of which would probably be enough to put it off its stride, including: no pickup from loco wheels due to a connector on the wheel retaining baseplate which never connected motor cradle screws loose swarf in the gear chain gearwheel on rear axle misaligned twist in one connecting rod, leading to binding unfinished surfaces on connecting rods and coupling rods, leading to binding Basically, it's a lovely model and the parts are interestingly designed and made (look at the nuts on the bolts that hold the big end of the connecting rod together), but when it comes to assembly the cosmetic stuff has obviously received attention whereas the parts that make it run well haven't even been completely manufactured before they were not quite correctly assembled. On the plus side, following some work over the weekend it's now running much better at very low speed (anyone can make something run at top speed), so this is progress. As long as I don't break too many more of the cosmetic parts in the process of troubleshooting. It's now got much better looking wheels too thanks to the kindness of my friend John who's taken down the absolutely gigantic flanges to something less unsightly. Plenty more to do. And I have yet to damage the pony truck on this one :-) BTW here's a comparison of a rod as supplied and after a bit of cleaning up (excuse the filaments from my glass fibre brush).

My intended conversion to EM of an old Bachmann Austerity was coming along so well until I put the chassis in the body and then picked the loco up by the body :-( The pony truck is the only casualty. But it's a functional component. So it goes... Here's the rest of the chassis. It rolls along, but lots of work lies ahead to make the crank pins happy and to reconcile the connecting rods and valve gear. And now I also need to work out what to do with the broken pony truck.

I think a few years ago there was a 1:76 scale Faiveley pantograph kit available -- does anyone have any info? I know you could get a Brecknell-Willis one in the early 1990s -- I bought one that never got built, but that's a story from my misspent youth and the chapter is closed ;-)

Aha! Was trying to track one of those down. Thanks a lot.

After several decades' consideration, this has finally been removed from its place on the roof of my blue 86219. More force was required than I had expected. Now comes the task of working out how to replace it.

Thanks! I have just found a photo that shows exactly that, in August 1968. It's on page 39 of Eisenbahn Journal Exklusiv 1-2015, Wendezüge in Deutschland, and shows exactly the same train formation with 78 246 pushing. Could be the same vehicles, though the weather is much sunnier. Perhaps earlier in the day?