D1023

A bit of an update on my layout; Progress slowed to nothing over the summer months apart from the odd bit of tinkering with rolling stock. I've not done any scenic work at all but have completed the 810 railcar and trailer coach. This was a plastic kit, motorised with a Bramos chassis and fitted with lights and JBR sound. It required a bit of hacking to get it to fit together, the trailer coach went together really easy by comparison. The transfers were made by Martin Model. Last year a forum member very kindly sold me a batch of Slovak rolling stock at a very reasonable price for which I am very grateful. Some of which is seen behind a 754 above. The coaches were mostly in the early ZSR livery which I have set about updating to what would be seen late 2000's onwards... Above is a B coach in green livery - I removed the stripes using thinners and a cotton bud then 'washed out' the paintwork using thinned down matt white and then light weathering to give the slightly run down look of rolling stock of this era. I have also repainted and weathered some of my collection of Eas wagons and also made removable log loads for them. The wagon on the left is a full repaint from DSB orange and the decals are by Martin Model. On the right is out of the box and weathered using thinned down enamels and drybrushing. The log loads are off cuts of buddleia from the garden, dried out and cut then glued to florists foam. This makes them very light. The ratchet strapping is by Scale Model Scenery - this should actually extend down the side of the wagon but then I wouldn't be able to run empty wagons which I didn't want.

Thanks Peter - Its the Noch Limestone Rock Wall. It comes in 32cm x 18cm foam sections. I used a small saw to cut them into undulating formations. Also the rocks in the lower section (what will be a river) were cut out individually (off cuts from the top section) and glued together, the gaps then filled with putty and painted.

An update on my layout on progress the last few months. The pics below show the rough planning and then construction progress so far of the scenic approach to Stakčín. This area is entirely fictitious but is inspired by the railway north of Banska Bystrica in central Slovakia. Some photos of progress on the approach to the station I have also made and painted facias that make the baseboards much tidier and finally as a distraction from the scenic work I have started building my 810 'wheeliebin' railcar kit

I was on that tour - we spent a very long time at 'New City on Lack' with only free beer and German Sausage hot dogs to survive on! Looks a good project - will be watching..

Thanks Neil, I sent him Zimo 645's. Not sure if he does any others. Petr communicates in english, so pm me if you want his email. I will certainly use his services again. I have Artol sounds in my two grumpies and it does have a silenced version included. If you select function 5 and start the engine then everything is the same except there isn't much noise when under load! I've not heard of dirks sounds - I shall google... One thing I don't like on the Nohab sound (and on the Artol 751's) is the power/exhaust sound as you reduce speed; the chip simply steps back down through the acceleration sequence - I've also noticed this at model shows. In my mind this is not prototypical; in reality the driver will shut off power and either coast and re-apply power or coast and then brake. I have overcome this by changing CV398 (on my Zimos) to '2', which means if I reduce speed the engine note runs back to idle and will power up again if I increase speed. I am relatively new to DCC sound so this might be old news! They are JM detail. I got them from here

An overdue update on my layout. Progress has been a bit stop,start due to the fine weather but I have finally got the station and yard buildings just about finished. A few photos below of the station building and offices which is based on the original but also a bit freelance. The interior is lit and detailed. A picture of the real thing is in a previous post. Also done is the semi-abandoned goods shed And the abandoned weighbridge building Another near ever on-going project has also been finished; I picked up an old Sachsenmodelle DB liveried 'B' coach cheap on e-bay and figured it should be easy to repaint into the original ZSR/ZSSK all over red livery. I got the numbering decals from a Czech ebay type website. It was also a suitable guineapig project to be vandalised ( as is a fair proportion of ZSSK coaching stock ) Finding the correct decals for anything ZSR/ZSSK has been a nightmare but luckily I made contact with someone in Slovakia who makes and prints decals and very kindly made up the decals I needed. I now have enough decals to update my 721 Hektor loco, decorate my 810 'wheeliebin' railcar kit (when I build it) and convert a good proportion of my freight stock to correct ZSSKC numbering. All at a very reasonable price - Thanks Martin! I can also recommend a Czech website for DCC Sound Projects JBR Sounds and I have now fitted sound to my Nohab, as well as changing the chip in one of my class 750's. The Nohab sound is excellent as is the 750. Far superior, in my opinion, to the standard Roco sounds or indeed the Artol class 750/ 754 sounds which are used on my other locos. It does mean you have to post your expensive decoders overseas along with cash, but despite obvious worries of never seeing anything again (!) they were returned by registered post in 10 days. Great service. And finally a pic of a stabled 'Grumpy' hiding behind the goods shed. There is still a lot of work to do on the fine details in this area of the layout but before that I will be turning my attention to the so far un-landscaped scenic section that is the approach to the station.....

Great project, what are your plans for rolling stock? I would have liked to model somewhere in the old JZ in HO but lack of RTR stock put me off.

A couple of phone photos of progress on the station buildings And the real thing.

DB open looks great. How did you get the uneven / bowed sides ?

Another Update.. Above: A view of the woodyard with the scratchbuilt industrial buldings now painted and also lit using MicroLeds Above: A scratchbuilt half-relief workshop, based on the real thing Above: In the real Stakčín there is a large house near the woodyard. This does not represent the real building but instead I used a kit by Czech manufacturer 'WEPE' which arrived as an unprinted, grey card kit with very basic instructions and I was a bit disappointed to be honest, but it has gone together really well. I have also detailed the interior and added led lights to some rooms. Eventually it will be surrounded by a fenced garden. Above: a view of the bottom end of the layout with all the required buildings now made. On my last visit to Stakčín the trackwork here resembled an unkept field! I intend to replicate this somehow.. Above: A view of the station. The plasticard to the right is the base for the next scratch-building project - the station building and offices. Beyond that is the hardstanding for the station yard loading area.

Thanks. Yes, none of the ZSR/ZSSK coaching stock is currently in production, what I do have was sourced (expensively) from europe via E-bay and I'm still on the lookout for one or two further vehicles.

A new Lok in the shape of a class 721 'Hektor' shunting/trip engine. My first MTB loco and very impressed. I need to obtain some transfers somehow to update it to present day ZSSK numbering

Looks like the answer is no Neil. According to google, CD Cargo was founded in 2007 and I found on a german wikipedia page that the last 781's were decomissioned in 2002 when the traffic they were retained for finished. [ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8CSD-Baureihe_T_679.1 ]

A few more photos to show progress in the last couple of months Pic above : a view showing the backscenes (yet to be fully stuck in place). These are ID backscenes which are a UK landscape but fit the actual Stakčín resonably well. The other backscenes available I found to be too Alpine/Germanic. Pic above : The wood mill and loading terminal. The concrete apron is printed paper and the buildings are scratchbuilt with plasticard and card. They are based on the real thing but a bit freelance too. The logs are by Herpa. Pic above : A view from what will be the station yard looking at a scratchbuilt low relief wood mill building. The yard lamps are a little drunk as they are not fixed as yet. The logging truck is by Herpa.

A few more photos showing a bit more progress Below: The platforms are built from a laser cut wood/card kit (JM Detail). Then painted and covered with a dark grey scatter I had. They are not fixed in place as yet. Below: The back lighting circuit is done. The yard lamps are JM Detail again Below : The real Stakčín has two signals, one in and one out. These are made by Němeček. The starter signal is R/G and the inbound signal can show R/G and flashing white. Both are controlled by the Lenz 100 via a ND4 signal decoder made by MTB, which was quite a challenge to set up as the instructions were in Czech!

I the last few days I have finished the tracklaying. All the points are motorised using Cobalt IP digital - which I found straightforward to install once I had got my head around how the elctrofrog works. The single line approach to Stakcin A view of the station with the track to the timber terminal still to be laid Planning the fiddle yard - trackwork here is recovered peco streamline A few pics of the nice Tillig Turnouts Completed Fiddle Yard A 754 waits to leave for Humenne

Tracklaying started mid July and these pics taken 22 July show initial progress. I found the Tillig track ok to work with, managing to get all the pointwork into the underlay without damaging any them! Also all stock will be fitted with Kadees, so careful thought was given to where the magnets will go. A shallow 3mm slot was chiselled out for the booster plates.

Yes, I was a little surprised at the orange colour of the DSB Eaos when I picked up my order of two from my local model shop - I'm sure they did not look that colour on the gaugemaster website... Does anyone know a EU transfer manufacturer that would allow me to repaint them? - I cant seem to find anything suitable in the UK. I'm not too fussed at the actual detail of the data panel/UIC number etc so long as it looks right

As I said in previous post, my Tillig track order has arrived - all in working order. Although I have 2 turnouts on backorder - hopefully they wont be too long. As I detest ballasting track I also ordered the styrostone underlay, which seems ok for the flexi track but as the points are so delicate I cant see how you can get them into the underlay without destroying them - is there a knack to this ?

Bit of an update on my project. Most of the Tillig order arrived last week. In the intervening weeks I spent the time weathering some of my stock. I used the same methods I used on my UK outline stuff on my previous layout which was thinned down enamels sponged off as required then drybrushing and fibreglass pen to add effect.

Hi Neil, I'm in the process of vandalising some of my stock! Are those waterslide transfers ? if so where did you get them ?

Hi Neil yes maybe a 3-way point, but I'd like to keep to the prototype trackplan if at all possible, but there are going to have to be compromises on train lengths... Looking at the bottom picture I posted, the station building will be at the far end of the loops on the left (where the track rubber is). One timber siding will be on the far right and the other will be where the photo is taken from. A short scenic/rural area will be the approach to the station from the fiddle yard, which is under the Skiddaw nameplate (replica!) Just wating on the Tillig track delivery so I can get on with it!

A couple of years ago whilst on a eurobash I stayed in a place called Stakčín on the eastern Slovak border with Ukraine. On arrival I found a cargo class 751 shunting the timber terminal and also spent some time watching an open wagon being hand loaded from a lorry in the station yard - a very 1960/70's scene! I can remember thinking this would make a good layout....fast forward a couple of years and a house move meant my British outline layout had to be dismantled and the new house had a converted loft ready for the next project...I had planned to start afresh with 70's BR blue diesels etc but increasingly I wanted to do something different so I have started Stakčín. Stakčín is a typical Czechoslovkian station with four running loops but there are two timber loading sidings, one adjacent to the station and the other is part of the headshunt at the end of the loops. The passenger service is a mix of local hauled and 4-wheel railbuses. The baseboards are done - it will be a permanent fixture - and I have temporarily laid some peco track recovered from my old layout so I can have a play and get a feel for whats possible. I have ordered Tillig track which will replace the peco later this year. I saw Dobříš at the Newbury show back in Feb and got a few good tips of the guys operating it that day. A few pics are below and I will update this thread with progress