Philip D

Whilst training in Normandy for a London to Brighton charity bike ride, I discovered the paths along old railway lines. While searching for pictures of the trains, I discovered by chance that in addition to the standard gauge line, a narrow gauge railway ran quite close to my little country cottage. One thing led to another: I found an excellent book in the Brecey library (Quand les petit trains faisaiant la Manche), spotted a Jouef Decauville set on Ebay, chatted to Andy at A2B who identified a Baldwin in one of the old pictures (Bachmann model duly ordered), and hopefully what will follow is a small model representing some of the line that I can take to local Vides Greniers as a bit of fun to entertain and maybe inform the locals. They know about the 'big' railway but mostly have no idea about the long-lost narrow gauge line.

The line closed in 1935 and thanks to the American and German tank drivers, much of the infrastructure is lost, but I started research today to find where the stations and stops were. Gare de Sourdeval (end of the line) is a private house but the outline of the platforms can still be seen. Today we only got as far as Cherence le Roussel before the call of the cafe as it's tricky to be sure where the smaller stops might have been and we drove up and down the road a few times. But thanks to an example timetable in the book, and google maps, we're pretty sure we found where most of the halts were. We can't be sure that Gare de Cherence was where the salle de fetes is now, though that's the only bit of flat land in the village, and I am told that the Mairie might have an old photo of the station - the Mairie opens for 2 hours most Thursdays so at some point I'll pop in to see what they have.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice on resources to help with research, or what OO9 or HOe models to look out for that might suit a small layout, that would be great, and meanwhile, a couple of pics of locations already identified, as they are today: the platforms at Sourdeval, Pont de la Forge (forge long gone!) and where Gare de Cherence surely must have been - nowhere in this area is anywhere that flat in its natural state

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll have another go at the wheel contacts first and see if that helps

Lights on mine flickered from new out of the box. Returned to Bachmann, and it came back a bit better but still not great. Since then I've cleaned all the contacts and the power car is OK but the trailer still flickers. I suspect the roof contact - press gently on the centre of the roof and the lights are steady. Maybe a touch of copper grease next, to try and improve the contact?

Hi!  I'm Phil, based in Derby but sometimes in Normandie. Re-discovered model railways late last year thanks to Andy at A2B, joined the Mickleover club, and am now the proud owner of 'Northworthy', re-imagined as a Southern Region station in the mid 60's, and available for exhibitions. Also working on a project to build a model of a 1920's French steam tramway in OO9 (I love a challenge), so will be looking for some hints and tips on where to find suitable models beyond my Jouef Decauville set.

Cheers

Phil