Lineas Cubanas

Yes, I believe the photo above is Byblos on the NBT Line from Beirut to Tripoli Piko do provide a number of models in HO scale of SP45s and SU45s. Currently, I am looking for the Era IV one with the corrugated sides that was produced in 2018 which is proving difficult to locate....... I may have to consider more recent versions that are more readily available such as this version which is Era V As a serious question, does anyone know what the actual difference between the Era IV and V models would be? are they negligible? purely cosmetic? apart from the yellow front which I can obviously paint?

Thank you for your kind words and compliments. It's nice to hear for someone in the area who is more familiar with the scenery, buildings and atmosphere that I am hoping to model. I hope you are staying safe. Please feel free to post feedback on the overall look of the layout if you feel something is not quite right etc Yes, I was in contact Dr Walter Rothschild who was extremely helpful......Here, is some information on state of the CEL in 1983 at the height of the Civil War from the Harakevet Magazine: Is the blueprint the NBT Yard at Furn El Chebbak? Photo: Borre Ludvigsen I would be interested in seeing a track plan of this area especially if it shows local industries? As initially I considered modelling this area but lacked any definitive knowledge so focused on Dora in East Beirut for my layout. I did contact someone in Lebanon who was part of the Train/Train Lebanon Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Trainsoflebanon who was hoping to get his hands on some track plans of Furn El Chebbak but said they were scarce and difficult to come by as the records of the railway had been largely destroyed during the Civil War....

Thanks for your input I agree.....I have a come to a similar conclusion: I need to match the buildings to the darker backscene, not use the colours from a painting that has a pale and light background! I am going to see how things progress and end up, then make a final decision on whether the backscene works or not. This is where I am currently.....before weathering of the coloured buildings

I have decided to give the "Ashrafieh scene" a break for a while.......and as I seem to be having more success with the yellow ochre buildings, have concentrated on the 60s/70s architecture element of Beirut. Please ignore the Cuban Billboard!

Yes, I agree......I have invested in a number of "pinks" to try and create a uniform colour across all the buildings: tinted lighter or darker as you say However, I have come to the following realisations: 1) The buildings are not really "pink" but more a faded terracotta so I have been trying to establish a base line colour I am happy with..... 2) I don't actually have that many buildings and/or much space on the layout to establish a realistic portrayal of Ashrafieh so I will be reverting to my first rule of modelling (probably adopted from something Lance Mindheim has said already...) "Everything looks right in real life or on the prototype but what's more important is what looks right on your layout"

Thanks both for the feedback, I appreciate it I will be toning the colours down...just haven't got to the weathering stage yet as still trying to settle on the main colours It's a good point about the backscene.........I don't want it to detract from the modelling/railway........ Lance Mindheim always promotes a very plain non descript background and am not sure why I am going against him as I agree 100% with pretty much everything else he says about railway design and modelling! He also states to keep away from the more brilliant colours especially blues on your layout too! I had more of a "cloudscape" on my previous layout too

Yes....thank you, but to be honest those buildings are not really the problem. I started by using the painting above as a guide and the blues and reds just don't seem to work on my layout.... Feel like am going round in circles currently trying to get the colours correct!

The small group of houses/flats/apartments that I am modelling on my layout are based on the Ashrafieh neighbourhood in East Beirut. Here's how the area actually looks: This painting has been particularly inspirational..... However, I am not sure the colours of the buildings in the painting is going to work on my layout......especially as the back scene is particularly dark so I am in the process of changing my mind a lot with the building colours and overpainting previous coats with different colours.....also re arranging the positioning and altering heights to get the overall effect/look of the neighbourhood......

Thank you Regarding Films (and Beirut......) For me they represent a time stamp for the start of the war as beyond 1975, I never seen any photos of a billboard advertising a more recent film ......(which makes sense for obvious reasons) Airport 1975 ....on general release 1975 Women in Love ......released in 1970 but am guessing it didn't reach Lebanon until 1974 or so....

A lot of the above films are available on You Tube and have provided much accompaniment to my modelling especially when I have many buildings to paint:

Before the 1975 war, Lebanon was a much sought after filming location for international productions. Its original blend of Middle Eastern and European settings made it an ideal location for thrillers and espionage movies. This trend reached its peak in the sixties. In 1964 and 1965, four international productions were set in Lebanon: Last plane to Baalbeck (aka FBI: Operation Baalbeck) starring Rossana Podera and Georges Sanders, Where the Spies Are starring David Niven and Françoise Dorléac, Twenty-Four Hours to Kill starring former Tarzan, Lex Barker and Secret Agent Fire Ball starring Richard Harrison. So was Manfred R. Köhler’s German James Bond-like superspy movie: Agent 505 – Todesfalle Beirut A year later, French director George Lautner's chose Lebanon to shoot his romantic comedy thriller La Grande Sauterelle, starring Mireille Darc. In 1969, the American film Rebus - Appointment in Beirut, starring the Ann-Margret, was filmed on location at the Casino du Liban. But as the spiral of unrest started in the country, international productions left Lebanon and went to shoot under more favorable skies. It is said that the producers of James Bond’s The Man with the Golden Gun, which was partially set in Beirut, decided not to film in the Lebanese capital due to the burgeoning political problems. And the rest, very unfortunately, is history… From : My Beirut Chronicles Author : Claude El Khal

Done......

I think its more a sub conscious nod to my A level English study of "Wuthering Heights" and its pathetic fallacy......where the weather and storms are used to describe the tumultuous relationships that exist among the characters........ So I think you are right .......a stormy back scene was really the only choice to convey the atmosphere of war torn Beirut

Thank you In answer to your question....the Civil War essentially reduced the railway to freight only with a very sporadic passenger service. By the end of the Civil War (1990) the complete railway system had been destroyed and from which to this day, it has never recovered. I will be moving onto modelling rolling stock at a later date so hopefully will be able to give you a more comprehensive answer then For anyone interested in the current state of the railways of Lebanon, I can recommend this excellent article by Thomas Kautzor who visited in 2016: https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/lebanon04.htm It includes some good information on rolling stock and operations: Ra’s en-Nabi Younés power plant at Jiyeh: a number of wagons are still stored here (19 Polish tank wagons, one four-wheel tank wagon and two four-wheel covered wagons) Chekka: the railway used to serve the SCL (now HOLCIM) cement factory south of the village center and the SNC cement factory to the north. The station building south of town, next to HOLCIM, is used as private housing. There are about 17 freight wagons still stored here (15 covered and 2 flat cars). Tripoli: stored inside and in front of one of the sheds are six steam locomotives (2 Cail and 4 Prussian G 8) The station yard contains 40 freight wagons, including 15 derelict covered wagons and 25 tank wagons built in Poland in the 1970s.

Thanks for the feedback everybody and the kind words of encouragement. Its good to know I am heading in the right direction.....

Some more progress:

Continuing the theme of Hotels for the time being….. Regarding the name of the layout: I am trying to decide between: “Banlieue Est, Beyrouth” …..Eastern Suburb, Beirut Rather generic, vague but accurate I suppose as the layout is located in Dora, a suburb of East Beirut And “Les Caves Du Roy” …….literal translation “The King’s Cellars” https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=263155369066039 ‘Les Caves du Roy’ was one of Beirut’s most fashionable restaurant-clubs, located at at the Excelsior Hotel and designed by Serge Sassouni. "Les Caves" were, from the 1950’s to the 1970s, the pride of Prosper Gay Para’s entertainment empire who opened a branch in the French Riviera, at the Hotel Byblos, Saint Tropez. After the beginning of the Lebanese war, "Les Caves" reopened only once, for a private party organized by Raymond Daoud. During the war, it was the location of one of the “Battle of the Hotels” with the Kamil Chamou militias occupying the Excelsior The club became popular with celebrities from all over such as Brigitte Bardot, Gunther Sachs, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, European Royals....some scenes from Georges Lautner's 1967 film La Grande Sauterelle with Hardy Krueger and Mireille Darc were shot there: enough to give an idea of the luxury that reigned there. The Hotel has been closed since 1975 (the start of the civil war) and today in Beirut, you can't miss the abandoned structure of the Excelsior Hotel, with its walled windows, crumbling balconies and stray cats, the last inhabitants of a building that was the pride of the city. Photo: Lebanon in a Picture I am warming to the idea of calling the layout “Les Caves Du Roy” as a nod to what Beirut was and could have been but unfortunately, it took another path..... Feedback welcome regarding the name…..does it work or does it just conjure up images of the most famous “Roy’s” in history? Keane, Castle & Cropper?

Some progress on "The Green Line" area

Thanks for your compliments and encouragement In answer to your questions: yes, the majority of the buildings are 3D printed and printed in sections As you can imagine, the HO/OO Scale (railway) model manufacturers do not really produce buildings that can be used realistically to represent Beirut in the 1980s. As I stated previously, I identified that there were essentially 3 different types of building/architecture needed: 1) 60s/70s 2) Classic French 3) Middle Eastern (and the Bombed/Destroyed/Damaged versions of the above) For some of the 60/70s buildings: some suitable models are available in the market place especially with the European manufacturers such as Kibri, Vollmer & Faller and their older back catalogue. For the rest, I turned to the War Gaming/Military Modelling market. Using Google/Ebay/Etsy etc, I managed to identify a few suitable models. These varied from WW2 French Buildings including a model of the Bank from "Kellys Heroes" to Soviet concrete apartment blocks from Pripyat, Chernobyl. Apparently, military modelling takes place in the following scales: 15 mm, 20 mm & 28 mm …....neither of which are suitable for HO Scale. However, many of the producers of these models are cottage industries/small independent businesses so were very happy to print the models in 1:87 scale on request. For example, I found the following model of the Olympic Hotel via google. The Olympic Hotel features in the Film “Black Hawk Down” and was part of the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia (1993) Original Olympic Hotel: 3D Printed Model (Front & Back): 3D Printed in sections: I will be changing the name from the Olympic for my layout and modelling one of the many Hotels that were a very prominent feature of 1980s Beirut. There was even a subconflict within the 1975–77 phase of the Civil War which occurred in hotel district of downtown Beirut, known as the Battle of the Hotels. The area contained a number of modern hotels including : the Holiday Inn, St. Georges, Phoenicia, Inter-Continental, Melkart, Palm Beach, Excelsior, Normandy and the Alcazar. Some of them high-rise and not all of which had been completed when the civil war broke out in April 1975 Many famous photos exist showing residents enjoying the sun while the Civil War raged around them……. like this one below with the war damaged St Georges Hotel in the background:

Avenue Charles Helou in place. Road crossings "Green Line" represented by green bushes and destroyed buildings Buildings approaching final placement.....

Thanks Jerry It's in the diary....feeling the pressure to create a "show stopper".....aaargh....

Thanks for the compliment..... Atmosphere! Atmosphere! Atmosphere! For me the most important objective for any model railway! On the flip side, I can only mess it up from here then? Some more "Ambience" that I would like to include: The apartment of the infamous double agent Kim Philby in the Qantari District. "On a stormy night in January 1963, Kim Philby, a charming Englishman with a tendency to stutter, failed to meet his wife at a dinner party in Beirut and instead defected to the Soviet Union. It was the end of a unique career, which at one time had seen this long term double agent rise to become head of the anti-Soviet section of MI6." More here: http:// https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/80058

Thanks for the words of encouragement As far as I can see there a 3 distinct style of architecture in Beirut that I am trying to include in my layout (I suppose there is an unofficial 4th..... if you include bombed out/damaged/destroyed buildings too) 60s/70s Classic French Middle Eastern

Thank you for the kind comment Hopefully not "too dramatic" that it distracts from the modelling...... It is actually a Panorama photo of Beirut that I found via Google/Flckr/Shutterstock etc It is printed on 1mm PVC Board (Foamex) which is flexible enough to be curved for coved corners and sturdy enough to stand vertical in its own right Here it is in all its glory:

Thanks Simon, it will be a privilege to be part of the exhibition. When I saw Jerry I explained I had no rolling stock or engines! I have rolling stock now which is slowly being painted and weathered. Motive Power is proving more difficult as the Piko PKP loco SP45 is just not coming up on Ebay..........but I am sure it will soon.