I've been following various topics on here for several months, including the famed Mr Harrap's treatise on 'Quai 87'. I can't match the quality (or eccentricity) of that, but I thought you might like a peep at what is slowly emerging in the railway room. I call it a diversion, because after 25 years modelling the same subject in P4, I felt that I needed a change. For various reasons, Ribe in western Jutland is now something of a second home to us, and you may recall an article in CM back in 2004 about my project 'Ribe Skibbroen'. What I thought would be a fairly straightforward exercise has proved anything but! I suppose those of us who model in P4 these days take for granted the fact that we have so much available in terms of the basic necessities - track, wheels, rolling stock kits, etc. So to have to go right back to first principles in P87 came as something of a shock, and I have had to learn a number of new skills along the way. So along came Obbekaer, which started out as a test track to hone track building and other skills, but which has now become a stand-alone layout that is due to make its initial exhibition appearances in this country later this year. The real place is a small village just outside Ribe, and the layout shows a small country station (simply a loop and a siding) on what is supposed to be a fictitious 'private' railway connecting the west coast line and the main line to the east - the Ribe-Gram-Vojens Jernbane (RGVJ). So as a taster, here's a photo of a busy scene at the station in the mid-1950s. At the platform stands a DSB Litra MO railcar (no.1828) on a stopping passenger train to Ribe, whilst alongside is the RGVJ's Triangel railcar shunting a covered van alongside the pig pens. The MO is a much altered Heljan model, whereas the Triangel is a scratchbuilt effort, using my own etchings. Hope you like it, and if time and circumstances allow, I will add to this thread over the coming weeks with a few more thoughts from my little bit of Denmark. Geraint Hughes Ely
