Gordonwis

I wouldn't worry about the catenary. There will always be bits on the real thing that are compromises to fit a specific location or restriction. What worries me more ( :-) ) is that all the three SNCF electrics I have seen are mutually exclusive time - wise. The blue livery on CC14100 was long gone when the BB16500 were painted into beton livery, and the Savoie livery BB25175 didn't really meet up with the BB16500s

Hi Keith, These are the Zurich S Bahn double deckers. They originally ran in fixed rakes of three (driving trailer - centre coach - centre coach - bespoke single cab loco (Re450) usually in pairs to form a train of 6 coaches with 2 locos (locos not adjacent). The Lion project saw them deployed in sets of six centre cars with a rebuilt Re420.200 LION loco top and tail. Both types of rake currently operate, but still exclusively on Zurich S-Bahn (and extensions of same such as RE Zurich - Aarau) The original yellow doors are now red So a lot depends on the era you want to portray Here's one of my shots - Othmarsingen, October 2015

I think a shunt release would not show up on the main signal, just the small white aspect. The main signal would remain red as the vehicle is not being permitted to depart out onto the main line

It is LR Hors Serie number 15. It could hardly be any better as a resource for modellers. It gives all the rules applied to French railway infrastructure - correct height for ballast, ratios for overhead, correct positioning of everything in all types of railway environment. Has chapters on stations, yards depots etc

Some years ago Loco Revue produced an excellent guide for modellers to all the technical aspects of French railway practice. In particular the special issue gave very useful diagrams for lots of French railway infrastructure. Here is a photo I have taken of one of the pages covering stations on double track lines. French stations were all built to standard patterns so the plans help modellers of all regions to get things looking correct. Please let me know if your station has platforms similar this arrangement. If not there were plans of other stations published right.

The 2-6-2 number 5 is a metre gauge Baldwin on the Ponferrada - Villablino line in northern Spain. It was famously Spain's last steam worked line (until 1988). I visited this line several times between 1971 and 1988 if you need further info The second shot is at Warszawa railway museum adjacent to the old main station. I once stayed in the PKP railway apartments here! The bottom shot is a TCDD (Prussian T18, aka DRG 78) '3705' class 4-6-4 tank. They were used on the Istanbul Asian side suburban network (Haydarpasa - Adapazari) until circa 1976. I have seen 3705 static but missed the Haydarpasa suburban steam. .

This is CP (Portuguese State Railways) metre gauge E169. This train is on the Porto suburban lines from Porto Trindade station. I saw this line with steam in 1971 .

No 94.2 in N scale but otherwise it is all doable in N as well, since Arnold brought out the short DR Umbau stock. Traction would have to be the Fleischmann T16 or Br86

No, none of the monocabines aka fers a repasser were fitted for MU

Three track station with farmland behind. Co-op again and other early Shapeways 3D stuff (container wagons and containers, EWI coaches, Ge4/4II)

A couple of pics of the first iteration on the layout , which was built in early 2014. Most of the 'early era' photos are from 2016, after I had decided it would be pure RhB and not 'anything Swiss N can run' This is my early Co-Op Ge4/4III repaint with converted Roco N scale tanker and Roco SBB Hbis van on small profile American bogies

Nice atmosphere!. The 14000/14100 were most often seen on slow heavy freight hauls for which they were specifically designed. However they did often travel light engine to and from yards, so the loco on its own is possibly more realistic than one with a few wagons! Apologies for the low res version of a b/w I took many years ago at Woippy yard, but here there are two 14100 and about 14 wagons, so not a huge freight . Plus a shot inside Thionville roundhouse, September 1987

Probably not - just different manufacturing process Roco versus Hornby.

To avoid further confusion, I will attempt to sum up the models of EWI and EWII. There have been in total at least eight (!) iterations: 1) Arnold Rapido 1960s tooling 2) Lima 1960s tooling 3) Lima '2nd generation' tooling (ie sometime around 1982 someone at LIma has a Eureka moment and realised their models need to be retooled to be closer to scale and better all round) 4) as (3) but rebranded Minitrain 5) as (3) but rebranded Minibahn 6) as (3) but rebranded as Arnold following the (pre Hornby takeover) merger of Lima with Rivarissoi/Jouef/Arnold and partially retooled (bogies and couplings) 7) Brawa 8) Piko Most current 'serious' modellers of Swiss outline would eschew variants 1 and 2 due to their dated crudeness type 1 can be seen here: https://www.spur-n-schweiz.ch/sns/jpg/arnold/3720.jpg type 2 can be seen here: https://116a8a99fe.cbaul-cdnwnd.com/ce6c9316a2a4be859b605834f641b522/200000220-0e00d0ff2e-public/IMG_6369.JPG type 3 - 6 can be seen here: https://www.spur-n-schweiz.ch/sns/jpg/lima-minitrain/320812.jpg

Some older 25kV... Somain, 1995

I'm working on an extension to the layout which is scheduled to appear at the SRS AGM show in April. By then I should also have fully in service around 20 home-prepared wagons (ie not the KATO CooP containers and container well flats (although I have a good few of those too)! I will be attempting to re-post some photos of the layout as all the old photos disappeared in the RM Web 'crash'

I can just guess it says something like - "stick a pole in your baseboard , attach some catenary wire to it..."🤣 sorry! Joking apart, it looks really good - certainly looks the part. Here's some recent shots of mine of SNCF 25kV:

http://schmalspurbedarf.de/115-rollwagen https://www.shapeways.com/product/9AXDDYDQ3/neubau-rollwagen-rf4-mit-saugluftbremse-in-h0m .

I was chatting to the lads on Santa Maria (Swiss HOm) at the Longfield (Kent) show at the weekend - telling them about this conversation. They have used exactly the method I suggested. They hadn't seen this thread as they are only working in Swiss outline. However feel free to look at Santa Maria thread over on the Swiss Railways sub forum. You will be able to pm them with specific questions.

You need to make the contact wire gradually rise up until the pantographs of locos are no longer making contact. Ideally use a road overbridge or tunnel to mask the change point (and give a 'roof' to clip the raised contact wire to which is above panto height. If necessary, have the last mast fixed much taller than the scenic area ones

Indeed they are. They are electrically controlled 'from the signal box' and swing 'down' to the side when a vehicle is due to enter the section of track in question

Great to have a good long chew of the RhB fat at Longfield today. Thanks guys

Brawa do what is considered to be a 'correct' shape for this type of fridge van https://www.brawa.de/produkte/n/wagen/gueterwagen/67119-kuehlwagen-uic-standard-1-interfrigo-db/

Yes, that's right, the dreaded early Lima (that of the misshapen BR 2-6-4T et al) all sorts of European wagons painted up as British, although Minitrix did it as well

And here's another shot from May 2004 on the Etaples - St Pol line 67593 at Hesdin