Gordonwis

Geneve - La Plaine train west of Satigny, New Year's Day 1982

I'm in Geneva this coming weekend. Info: 1) Sybic (SNCF class 26000) are ( or were ) rare in Geneve. That's the first I've ever seen in 60 years (akthogh of course the 2600 class is only around 30 years old) 2) La Plaine has changed a lot in recent years (including change of system from 1500v DC to 25kV ac): Here are just two of my many pictures firstly a BB8100 with a local rush hour extra Geneve - Bellegarde around 1980 2) around 2009, the Swiss hired some SNCF BB25500 bi-current locos and Rhone Alpes 'RIO' inox commuter sets for the Geneve - La Plaine / Bellegarde locals One day in the mid 1980s I was hanging around at Vernier-Meyrin station and the SNCF drivers of the trip freight from Vernier Meyrin to La Plaine offered me a cab ride there and back. Here is the train after shunting at La Plaine ready to head back towards Vernier Meyrin

I think the Re4/4I might be 10046 and the box Be4/4 might be BT (Bodensee Toggenburg) 15

Here's a throwback to 1980 for comparison

It was part of railway operating practice across the Eastern Bloc

Yes I second the use of simple PVA. 'pound shop' grade watered down PVA would be adequate as the 'foliage' is small and very light so need little holding in place.

Coimbra tram seen by me on our visit in 1971 (photo by my late father as I was only 11 and not taking great photos on a plastic Agfa camera)

I'm not sure it took ADAC (a roads-centric organisation in theory) a huge amount of research to come up with their options, many of which have been well know to tourists interested in Germany for many years. The Modelbahn, Rheinstrecke and Schwarzwaldbahn are so obvious. There must be other 'hidden' lines that are worthy of being publicised.

Pity - I can't quite tell if it is Venturer or Voyager - I travelled on all the super Vikings from Felixstowe or the south coast

Indeed. We are back full circle to my comment in January that said the same thing and precipitated (I think) the change Geographically, in terms of railways and trees, the majority of main line railways in mountain areas are of course in valleys, which is where the trees are usually deciduous. This is why trees near tracks on model railways in Alpine settings ought to be predominantly deciduous for maximum realism. Mountain backscenes and the transition to the latter is the place for conifers In addition to my example on the Lotschberg back in January, another example is near Amsteg-Silenen on on the Gotthard. This angle from the village web site is instructive - deciduous trees alongside and around the railway - conifers on the hilsides : https://www.silenen.ch/images/slider/slide-a.jpg

Just for completeness, and your interest, between 1985 and 2006 I visited Klodzko in 1991 on the same trip as the Zagorz area mentioned earlier. We left Sanok and went via Krakow to Klodzko having heard that it might be one of the areas with remaining steam activity. There was a Pt47 and a TkT48 in steam on shed for all of the two days we were there but all the line work was in the hands of newly delivered SM32. I assume the steam was by then in reserve. I am given to understand that we had missed steam being used over the Easter weekend, ending the day before we arrived...Nevertheless we did the two branches (Kudowa and Polanica) with diesel for the scenic ride. We attempted to get information from the shedmaster but found communication difficult. AS far as we could workout the next day when we planned to leave the area a steam loco was booked on the morning train towards Walbrzych, but we got up early to din this was also SM32, so gave up and travelled north towards Jarocin, when we finally found working Tkt48 and enjoyed a run to Czempin as a way of reaching Wolstztyn

The irony is that on our trip to Zagorz and the far south East, we had to stay in Sanok, home of the Autosan bus works

As Joe hasn't been to Germany for years, the most useful option for him might be the interactive route map. It's in the same area as the above but see the list to the left which includes the option to click on 'interaktive streckenkarte' http://kursbuch.bahn.de/hafas/kbview.exe/dn?rt=1&mainframe=IK_kachel&tocinfo=IK_strecken&datei=sk-s&x0=0&y0=1712&imgX=3&imgY=6 It's great for visualising the traditional DB Kursbuch map but being able to jump straight to the relevant route timetable

I did the corridor train with a mate in 1991. It is now complicated to describe as I can say that I visited the USSR but I cannot say that I have ever visited Russia, but that I have visited Ukraine... We stayed in the PKP staff lodgings at Warszawa Glowna and took the direct Warsaw - Zagorz train which took most of the day. I have often recounted the story to acquaintances of the guards boarding the coach and manning the 4 doors. There were loads of steam locos on shed at Chyrow (now Khyriv) when we passed through (including a couple in steam). We stayed the night in Sanok and did the morning Zagorz - Kroscienko only local train but got off at Ustrzyki Dolne in order to get some sort of action shot of the kriegslok Ty2 887. We also (with a struggle) got some sort of picnic lunch - I've just looked on Google maps and there is now a Lidl near the station... same place today: https://goo.gl/maps/hRokVtsgwjb41L6u6

More shots from Zagorz April 1991

I did the corridor train with a mate in 1991. It is now complicated to describe as I can say that I visited the USSR but I cannot say that I have ever visited Russia, but that I have visited Ukraine... We stayed in the PKP staff lodgings at Warszawa Glowna and took the direct Warsaw - Zagorz train which took most of the day. I have often recounted the story to acquaintances of the guards boarding the coach and manning the 4 doors. There were loads of steam locos on shed at Chyrow (now Khyriv) when we passed through (including a couple in steam). We stayed the night in Sanok and next day did the morning Zagorz - Kroscienko only local train but got off at Ustrzyki Dolne in order to get some sort of action shots of the kriegslok Ty2 887. We also (with a struggle) got some sort of picnic lunch - I've just looked on Google maps and there is now a Lidl near the station... same place today: https://goo.gl/maps/hRokVtsgwjb41L6u6

That's why I didn't get a shot of it, because it came along behind a freight - typical! Again - just like the real thing.

Totally disagree! I remarked to all my friends and club mates how spot on it is. Rural Austria and Switzerland do look 'clean and shiny' on a bright summer's day, especially with clear alpine air.

The first two digits of the UIC coach codes is the interoperability code. And of course a coach with international (51) interoperability can be used internally for many months before making an odd foray or two into another country Yes, quite a subtle difference between 51 and 61. 51 was the general 'can cross RIC borders' interoperability code. 61 seems to have come later Code list here: http://www.railfaneurope.net/misc/uicnum.html

Shapeways is a marketplace that produces people's 3D designs, so I suppose they are not really 'Shapeways products' as such. The Panoramique railcar has been produced in N scale in various ways. There were at least two artisans who produced them in resin. I think the one available through Shapeways was the one produced by OL.D Modeles , who later stopped supplying through Shapeways, and has its own web site.

Hungary, July 1980

Various Saalfeld light engine moves plus a 44 arriving on cruise control downhill from the steel works at Unterwellenborn on the Gera line November 1980

Going 'behind the iron curtain' got an underserved reputation in parts of the west. As long as you could cope with the beauraucracy of entry follow the rules for tourism it was not difficult. I remember people reacting to me visiting Saalfeld who had the notion that people in the DDR worked 4am - 10pm 7 days a week, whereas we were in Saalfeld at the weekend and the bridge over the station was crammed with trabbies with skis on the roof going for a weekend's winter sports! If you'd like a few more...: 01 2118-6 storms up the bank out of Saalfeld towards Gera with a Saalfeld - Gera - Leipzig semi-fast followed by 44 0231 with a freight November 1980

That's correct. After about 1977 taking photos of trains was generally OK in the DDR. But it wasn't so much the number of visiting enthusiasts but the fact that in the DDR, railway enthusiasm was accepted as a hobby (and helped also by the fact that photography was also an accepted hobby based on the DDR being home to some famous photographic companies)

Regarding the restaurant car, I believe that a coach without plug doors can not be a 'Eurofima'. Like SBB in Switzerland which had some 'like Eurofima' coaches, I believe the OBB WR to be in the 'like Eurofima' category, ie of type UIC-Z, which is the dimensions and basic design used in the construction of the Eurofima stock. German wikipedia has a comprehensive, and I believe pretty accurate page on Eurofima stock. The section headed OBB Varianten - is the most useful section for this discussion https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurofima-Wagen In the meantime Keith, the orange livery is best used for a scene in the 1980s