Glorious NSE

Thought it was time to kick off a bit of a modelling thread on my RhB stuff...I've not got much so far, but I'm enjoying it even though I'm still adjusting my head to the size! First through the works are some Haik bogie vans by MDS, I've bought two pairs of these so far. These first pair have just been weathered and lowered slightly, and I'm calling them done apart from couplings. (Paul, what MT couplings work best with these?) The real Valser vans have a reasonably fade by now so I've tried to replicate that. The RhB one I've tried to replicate the 'brake dust patina' the real vans develop. The second Valser is getting a slightly heavier fade including faded out lettering. Ran into an issue with that one today but I'll hopefully get it finished tomorrow. Not sure what to do with the other RhB van yet. I don't really want a second 'orange stripe' one as my impression is that's not a common variation in the fleet anymore, so I'm not sure which way to go with that yet. There are some plain silver as below, which would be easy to do the basic livery on, but decals would be an issue given the large numbers and logo. There are also the first 20 Haik vans built, these have a shorter roof, a shallower fishbelly chassis, and ribbed doors amongst other differences, so it'd be involved but not an impossible kitbash, and it'd make for a good variation in a rake. These also have a big red logo, but with the heavy weathering it's less noticeable! Much mulling and modelling still to do!

RHB Modellbahn have added some new 1/150 things to their site since I last looked - https://www.rhbmodellbahn.com High side opens A Ge2/2 steeple cab Resin refridgerated swapbodies, decorated for Co-Op, Calanda and Spar (Aldi and RHB already sold out) I'd been looking for a reasonably sensible way to do the Swapbodies in 1/150 - you can get nice ones in 1/160, but I'd only seen rather rough looking 3d print ones in 1/150 - have ordered several (plus a pair of aussichtswagon kits, an Sb-v and a couple of details bits...) so will report back...

Baby Krok do doo do doo doo doo... At least the MDS site is just showing an "under maintenance" page and not the dreaded 404... I've just picked up some of their vans, and they are really nicely done.

I think these may be out, one has shown up in my eBay search. £100 for a wagon is a bit rich for me, but they look fairly good. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.it%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F174040474658

Well having had #623 for haulage the other week I kinda had to order that one!

Swiss-related image galleries from my holiday over the last couple of weeks can be found here. There's a little more SBB to code up and upload, but all the MGB and RHB is on there - there's lots of rolling stock images and a decent collection of images of the upgraded Ilanz station in the RhB gallery. Those collections are all sorted by filename (and so by vehicle ID where applicable/known) - if you want to view in date order there is a master collection here (though this won't all be Swiss in time...) If anyone else needs to upload images or links for their own, feel free to continue using this thread. Here's some samples:

Think it'll be one of these: http://www.haribu.ch/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=953

Don't forget that almost all the RhB system as at 2014 is viewable via Google Streetview! Oooh fab! I hadn't found that one yet!

Yes you've probably seen the shot at the end of the second vid by now as they finish unloading.....ewwww!

Thanks, most previous videos on the feed are model related, though there's some nice heritage fleet stuff if you go back far enough. Did he never release part 3 of the freight vids? One is referenced in the credits to part 2.

Thanks Paul, good to know there's more. Just those two freight ones there so far, but as they have only gone on recently I'll keep an eye for any more going up.

I've not watched Part 2 yet, but from the description it may feel a little more dated than the first (though might be more useful than the first to historical fans!) - covers the cement traffic to Sedrun, plus livestock traffic, both of which have since ceased.

There's a couple of nice video's appeared on YouTube over the last few days, they seem to be a nice coverage of some of the big RhB freight flows circa 2003, includes footage from inside the terminals. Part 1 covers Valser Water traffic, then the Coop and PTT containers, and finishes up with a little bit on gravel.

They've been escaping from tunnel works though to do other stuff though, which is nice - I think they are booked power for this (shame we're not there over a weekend!) - https://trainspo.com/photo/102192/

Another from the same location - second coach this time: Ilanz by Alessio Lucini, on Flickr

Short ones do seem to turn up randomly in other places based on the pics and video i've seen. For instance - third coach here in a Disentis bound train: RhB Ge 4/4 II 620 presso Ilanz ( CH ) by Daniele Valtorta, on Flickr I guess you can use a short coach to cover a long coach diagram, just not the other way round!

Noticed a couple of the 4/4i have shown up over the past couple of weeks on the Filisur webcam, so at least in the short term the fleet must still be pretty busy! The first Capricorn unit has recently arrived for testing...

Thanks Jon, I hadn't found that seller. Those container wells were on my list, I need to decide whether to go that route or attempt to scratchbuild! I did find this chap who does a pretty nice looking (and not too scarily priced!) rendition of the bogie hoppers (plus some useful loco bodies). https://www.shapeways.com/shops/tt-trams?section=--+RhB&s=0

Here's where i'd got to with a spreadsheet, it includes a conversion for 1/150 for length over buffers, overall width, deck height (of flats) and wheelbase or bogie centres, i've done that aimed at looking for suitable mainstream N kitbashing fodder. I haven't included length over body as most drawings don't cover that, they concentrate (logically enough I guess for the purpose!) on loadbed lengths. If there's bits that folk think i've interpreted wrongly (my German is really not great) then please let me know and i'll update. If there's bits that folk think should be included, also let me know and i'll see what I can do. Again, if there's older cars that anyone has similar info for, please share and i'll add. Dimensions.xlsx

Just having a dabble in NM9, partly as a project with Sophie. Don't worry, I'm not going full cuckoo clock. Thanks Jon, thought you'd like that. Spent a bit of time banging some numbers into a spreadsheet last night, just to see if I can find any N wagons which lend themselves to conversion. Will post a copy tonight. If anyone knows real dimensions of previous designs (some of them I'm sure still in departmental use) I'd love to see and add them?

Just been searching on this subject and found this thread - current RhB freight stock features PDF data sheets available to download from their site. You'll need to have the site set to German to find them. https://www.rhb.ch/de/buendner-gueterbahn/dokumente

I can only see the storeroom not the station in N though?

Back to suitable structures - this references a laser cut kit for Rueun in 1/150, though I can't see it on the linked website?: https://modellbahn-schweiz.net/bahnhof-rueun-der-rhaetischen-bahn-von-die-modellbahnwerkstatt/

Good points there. I think I'd prefer bolts for 'hanging' short modules though. But being able to use either in the overall setup is an interesting thought.

Agreed we'd probably want a "distance of nearest mast to board end" in the spec. I'm ultimately ambivalent on whether the spec finally ends up with clamps or bolts, but as you say the experience is that it is really quick and easy to join the HO ones using them. These boards might be a little more complex with shaped ends and defined slots for clamps, but that shouldn't slow it down too much, and we've no double track ends to deal with here which are the harder ones to physically align in HO.