michl080

German loco had red inlays at the coupling rods, biut the main part of them was natural steel colour. You can easily reach that by removing the coupling rods and treating them with fine wet and dry paper. It should look like this: cheers, Michael

It may have been sitting on the shelf for years.... This is something I would order at a large online shop, because you can expect a larger throughput. Michael

I have been trying different brands and found the Vallejo type 70.523 best. I doesn't have this ugly ammonia smell. I noted that these products seems to age quickly, you may have had an old bottle. Michael

can't answer the question directly but I know that steam engines were painted RAL3002 Karminrot starting from 1950, so all of EPIII was using it. RAL 3000 Feuerrot was used in In EPII until 1950. I hope you can find a comparison table between Humbrol and RAL Michael

correct, this is a machine vice, more precisely a grinding vice. The jaws are smooth and have no ledge, so you can grab and hold very small parts. Michael

all the proposals so far are fixed at the edge of the workbench. I don't like that because I have to move around the vice to come to the right position. In my limited space I prefer having a vice that sits loosely on the table by its own weight so that I can move it in every direction needed. After all, most parts I need to fix are quite small. Like this one: Michael

I have used quite a lot of Tillig turnouts in the past. The problem is not so much where you attach the wire, it is more the fact how the wire is moved. A tortoise motor is turning the wire in a circular shape around an axle somewhere in the drive. This causes the tiebar to be bent and this causes the rails to bend as well so that they don't fit nicely to their counterpars. Consequently, derailments can happen. I have had good success with a strictly linear movement of the tiebar parallel to the tiebar. Additionally, a small loop acting as a spring can limit the force applied to the delicate components. Michael

In fact, the Cologne Hohenzollernbridge has removeable panels to avoid the padlocks becoming too heavy. Obviously not for the bridge itself, but for the pedestrian part of it. Michael

check http://www.hp-pfeiffer.de/digi_umbau1/dcc/roco_br44/br44_roco.html Michael

Fully agree that matt is the way to go. I'd go one step further. I am using Ultra Matte Varnish which delivers an absolute matte surface without any visible reflection. Michael

Absolutely true, there are a lot of tank engines preserved, not only Einheitslokomotiven from the 1920s onwards, but also a lot of older Länderbahnlokomotiven, like this beauty: Badische VIc Until 1920, Germanys states had their own railways. These were called Länderbahn, hence their locos were Länderbahnlokomotiven, From 1920 onwards, the Deutsche Reichsbahn existed, their first move was to develop standardised engines, the Einheitslokomotiven. Michael

Hi I found this link long ago. You can find many descriptions how to digitize pre-DCC locos . Even if your model is not there, it gives you a good idea how to do it. Many pictures and some German language descriptions. Definitely worth reading. Michael

That's the place. A village of some 4000 folks with a development centre where about 7000 engineers develop the latest in sport car design. The centre is there since the early 1970s. As long as Porsche was independent, it was Germanys richest village :-) Now, as it is part of the Volkswagen group, we still have the traffic jams, but no money... Have you ever been in a traffic jam made entirely of Porsche sport cars? The downside is that there is obviously not much interest in a railway line. coming back to the orginal thread. The Korntal-Weissach line has been built by a private company. The proposed line was of such minor importance, that the Württembergischer Landtag, the local government at that time refused to finance the project. This line, as some other lines in the very poor state of Württemberg was built and operated by the WNB, the Württembergische Nebenbahn Gesellschaft. It was built from 1902 to 1906. In 1935, the first railcars were bought and the operation of steam engines came to an early end. The number of passengers subsided after WW2, but the line could still be successfully operated because of the extensive transport of sugar beet! The line was modernized some years ago and the number of passengers rises again. This is also due to the fact that the Stuttgart area it notorious for traffic jams even on minor roads. The DB banned the operation of steam engines on their lines shortly after end of steam in Germany, so heritage railways had to evade to private lines. There are heritage events since the early 1970 and the line is well known for its picturesque course. Michael

Absolute so. Even more astonishing as I am not living in the UK :-) The east German class 50 are probably the most numerous class in preserved railways. There were so many available in the DDR, that many were sold to the west. They can be distinguished easily by the roof-style "Mischvorwärmer" on top of the smokebox. West German class 50 have the drum shaped "Oberflächenvorwärmer" on the smoke box. Different countries, different approaches. :-) Sorry for hijacking the thread... Michael

Weissach has no traffic since the whole line was renovated. The last part from Heimerdingen tzo Weissach is still there, but all trains return at Heimerdingen. However, the line is still there and is is used by the GES, a heritage railway group that has its headquarter at the Kornwestheim marshalling yard https://goo.gl/maps/s1F5cuxCzumwvbTV9 . As they have no shed there, they moved their workshop to Weissach. 50 3636 is a east German class 50, that was bought and operated by GES for quite a few years. Its boiler ticker expired some years ago and the boiler is in such a bad condition that the engine was towed to the Horb reailway museum. It is very unlikely that it will run anytime soon again. Here is a picture from the 1970s showing the engine shed. There have already been heritage railways around at that time :-) Michael

You can do, but the exposed copper will actually dilute in the molten solder alloy building up a Sn-Pb-Cu with a higher melting point. No problem, if you wipe and retin the tip frequently and if you don''t care that the solder erodes the exposed copper. Michael

funny, I am living in this village. If you need pictures, I can provide what you need. here is the layout before the station was crippled. Michael

hi there, I published small station layouts some time ago. If you are interested: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140899-german-layout-idea/&do=findComment&comment=3417002 Michael

I thought you might like this one. A 7mm MMP 1.108 kit. great fun to build. The brake lever is actually working :-) Michael

I guess it is not that easy. Small volumes of solvent based paints can be sent by mail in many countries. Royal Mail seems to be an exception with their very strict banning of all paints. I can send paint from Germany to the UK without any problem and it would be delivered by Royal mail, but the same paint in the same box couldn't be returned to Germany. I have checked the DHL restrictions very carefully. There is no restriction for sending paint to the UK. The same applies for many continental European countries and at least for the US and China. Sadly, this means that it is impossible for me in Germany to order any paint in the UK. All suppliers I am aware of don't distinguish between solvent and acrylic paint, so not even acrylic paints can be ordered. Crazy! Michael

I have another question related to the black ends. There is a radius between the end and side wall. Where exactly on that radius is the transition from black to ... Michael

They are quite simple. See the picture below. The M3 thread has a hole in its end that holds a stainless 1.3mm needle. This needle sticks in the hole of the ceramic base plate. The brass arm slides loosely in the thread and is simply pressed down to hold the part you want to solder. The length of the brass tube sliding on the thread is about 12mm, the arm is self-locking on the thread. The angled arm is silver soldered to the brass tube. Not complicated, but a clever design. The grid is 10mm. Michael

I am not sure if this works as expected. An Airbrush atomizes the paint to very fine droplets in the small µm range. This can only work if the pigments in the paint are dispersed accordingy. The preparation of pigments (AKA milling) is what makes the price for the paint. I assume that wall paint has very coarsly dispersed particles. It won't need the fine dispersion, so the manufacturer won't spend the money to grind it to small diameters. Michael

Good morning, I must say I didn't have much luck with magnets. Whenever I tried to place the second one, the first magnet was pulled from its position and the whole assemble was out of alignement. So I found these hooks that can be combined with the above ceramic baseplate and I love them to fix components: I found them at Fohrmann, I am sure there are also UK based suppliers. Michael

Morning all, I am using a ceramic soldering plate wrapped in aluminium foil instead of a metal base plate. Almost no heat sink and no cleaning necessary. Just replace the aluminium foil and your ready for the next session. looks like this one: reg. Michael