Mike at C&M

Picture back again. Between us all, we really must waste a lot of hours watching this! But it really is very entertaining and fascinating to watch so much railway action at what is not really a major railway station of the German network

I am definitely going with snow on the lens.

Probably more likely to snow on the lens. Even with thick fog, there are usually some details very close to the camera that you can make out.

Motorcycle, The InterCity trains themselves are usually a push-pull rake of some 12 coaches with a Class 101 electric at the north end (the further end from the Webcam). The empty stock workings seem to be whatever is available. I have seen Class 101s and Class 120s on these. As for the freight, I just take whatever comes through. A couple of weeks ago, there were 7 eastbound freights (towards the camera) between 7am and 8am, although the norm is usually 3 per hour. Passenger trains are best seen around the 'top of the hour'. The lines from Munchen, Nurnberg, Passau and Deggendorf all produce one arrival just before the hour, and a departure immediately after the hour. Sometime, there is also an express on the Nurnberg - Passau route in both directions in at this time as well, often formed of ICE sets. Six passenger trains in the station at the same time, all inter-connecting. Now that seems an 'alien' concept on the British railways of today!

The 2-coach InterCity is most likely to be an empty stock working and will be heading for Munich or Nuremburg, there is often a corresponding working on a weekend morning at about 8.45 (German time) heading towards Passau. The 2 extra coaches may simply be used as strengthening for a rake that usually stays at Passau between workings. As regards the 'beam', I too had similar problems as I couldn't work out what the 'black box' that is the new staircase, had in relation to the footbridge. This was finally resolved when Mark Abbott (see post #17, on page 1) actually phoned me from Plattling and described the exact set-up to me - all very easy when you know what is there!

I assume that you mean the footbridge, if you look carefully you can see people crossing. The bridge now finishes in the modern building adjacent to the station building which is a newly built structure containing lifts and staircases.

The reflection off the snow is so bright tonight, that the camera has reverted to colour (Daytime) mode.

SNOW !!

Motorcycle, Picture one is a test train of some description, although I can't recognise the loco. The grill arrangement on the roof suggests a Class 120 electric, but the shape doesn't quite look right. Picture two is a departmental unit of some description, but again I cannot say excatly what it is due to insufficient knowledge.

E-mail just arrived from our rep. to say they are now at Bachmann and being sent out. Should be in the shops early next week.

Thanks Busnut for the picture of the 86, it is greatly appreciated. The problem we now have is what else can eclipse what we have been seeing on the Webcam in recent times, or is this tempting fate for something even more special to be seen.

Having Googled "Plattling TGV", a number of German railway forums have some further information. The unit is No. 4701 and is loaded with technical equipment, rather than being all seating. The reason for the test is as part of the compatability testing of the '2N2' TGV units which are to go into service between France, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. They will also see use over the new Rhine-Rhone TGV line within France. It would appear that the unit has been in Germany for a few days in the Nurnberg area, before heading to do the tests yesterday between Plattling and Straubing.

slag within the

Jon, The yellow unit is a maintenance unit. It can be taken as read that anything wearing this relatively plain yellow livery is a departmental item of rolling stock belonging to the DB. For a while this morning, this unit was standing in one of the through platform roads. It has been obvious over the past few days that there is plenty of work going on at the station with lots of workers in hi-vis vests and 'Bobcat' like vehicles running around, often over the tracks.

And it is still in the station an hour and a half after John's post, although on a different platform. [Edit: Left at 17.18 local time heading towards Nuernberg] What next! BR Class 86s and 87s? Anyone know the route taken and dates of moving to Hungary and Bulgaria?

Kris, The LS150 units do indeed drive solenoid units. The RocoLine system is brilliant with its various innovations, and I find it a crime that circumstances have removed this system from the market. The picture below shows 2 points from the underside, one is fitted with a point motor (the white item). The Roco system had three different variants of the point motor. - Black was a standard point motor, and it is these that are driven with the LS150s. - White is a digital point motor, where the decoder is within the motor. It picks its current up through the black wires which are attached to fishplates, the green wire is used for programming the decoder address. - Red. If memory serves me correctly, this had some relevance to Roco Digital at that time. Since my previous post, I have tested the various motors/decoders. There are still some white (non-LS150 powered) motors on the layout and I have 2 duds. The first major setback since I re-started work. There is also an issue with the wiring on 2 of the LS150 decoders, but this is probably the wiring to the decoders, rather than the decoders themselves, this should be easy to resolve.

One of the biggest tasks so far has been the clearing up of the "I'll just put that in the attic for the time being" that cluttered up the fiddle yard section. This is all now moved elsewhere, enabling the point motors to be tested ahead of starting to run trains. The fiddle yard is in two separate sections in the smaller area of the attic. Each side has 7 roads and they are capable of holding a 7-coach train with a double-header up front (with the exception of a couple of roads which are marginally shorter). By staggering the yards, the width used is one board wide only. All the track used is Rocoline Settrack and is simply lying on the boards, nothing is pinned down. Note how the fan of the points of the two yards compliment each other at the rear of the layout. This view, taking looking the opposite way to the very first photo posted in this topic, shows the way the fiddle yards work at the outer ends as a single track, on the left, goes around the back of the yard on the right. The three light coloured boxes to the right hand side are the LS150 point decoders. By coincidence, one track splitting into seven requires six points, the same number as an LS150 will operate. These three boxes power the points seen in the two previous photos.

The layout is operated by a Lenz Set 100 Digital system. Having been bought in 1995, the set comes with the LZ100 and LV100 boxes separate and then wired together, these days they are combined as an LZV100, but the functionality is exactly the same. The system is powered by a Maerklin transformer rated at 75VA, essentially similar to the Lenz TR150. The reason for the Maerklin transformer is simply that the TR150 was unavailable at the time I bought the system. Using the Lenz LA152 Adaptor plate, an extra LH100 handset has been added. Rather than being for a second operator, this allows one handset to be used for one direction, and the second one for the other direction. The red box is a Roco Route Controller, their reference 10772, but now discontinued. This is used for changing points and semaphore signals (eventually) via a series of Lenz LS150 accessory decoders. The great feature about this is the route setting ability. At present, it is only set up for the fiddle yard, but once the routes have been set up (time consuming, rather than technically difficult), an initial keystroke selects the route-setting option, so for example, route 1 will change all the required points to use one of the fiddle yard roads. The accessories decoders are triggered in the order programmed in the 10772 at 1/2 second intervals, so you can hear the point motors fire in sequence over a few seconds. The 10772 allows 32 routes to be programmed, so most route options for Bayerndorf can be set up.

All action at Plattling this morning. All 3 trains in the foreground are moving towards the camera The 'Coradia' unit, on the left, is accelerating away on its run to Passau. The BR185 hauled freight is coming to halt to allow the 'Coradia' in front of it and will depart in about 4 minutes time. Whilst the huge rake of wagons is being propelled and will be re-positioned in another siding nearer the station.

Mac, Thanks for your comments and observations. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the area modelled saw German and Austrian locos interworking on international routes. Swiss locos never got this far in normal service, although watch this thread in the weeks ahead when I start to cover what rolling stock I have! There are a few, legtimate surprises. Coaching stock covers German and Austrian express and local stock, plus some Italian express stock. But again, there are a few interlopers. The trackplan owes much of its reasoning to that at Jenbach, where there were 5 platform faces before it was modernised, but freight traffic was often held in the loops with platform faces. The width of the boards dictates that extra loops cannot be fitted in. The crossover that would allow all trains into the top loops is omitted due to room constraints between the fiddle yard and station throat at the left hand end of the track diagram. I will agree that the trackplan could be enhanced to allow all possible movements, but then surely there are trackplans in real life that impose constraints on what workings can take place. Mike

Wiener Lokalbahnen Cargo. Originally a company who ran short haul local services in the Vienna area, using tram like vehicles. Then when freight services were given 'open access', they hired a few locos and suddenly started appearing all over Europe!

Jon, It is great to know that the Plattling webcam has created so much interest, especially amongst those who express no interest of their own in foreign railways. On the other thread that highlighted this camera, http://www.rmweb.co....609#entry140609 , it was commented on July 22nd that there was a vigorous electrical storm in progress. Well..... I have found an archive page which contains pictures taken at 15 minutes intervals from this camera, and at 22.15 on that evening we have the following picture. The archive link is: http://www.webcam.deg.net/ and then click on the "Archiv" link next to the Plattling webcam picture. There you are folks! Hours more wasted! Mike

Many thanks for this, Doug. Apparently, the BB37000s have also been sighted in the Munich area, so this would be backed up by your information. However, we believe that the loco will have been removed at Passau, as they are not passed for working into Austria.

A sight I never thought I would see happened this morning, to the extent that I nearly forgot to save the picture! Just leaving the shot to the left hand side is an SNCF BB37000 !! I know that these locos work up into the Ruhr, but this far south and east!!

One of the items requiring reworking is the track diagram. The original was done on Corel Draw (probably the Cave painting version - it is that long ago!), but the file was lost umpteen computers back and a number of changes were required anyway, such as the numbers to indicate the point motor addresses. So below is an initial draft of the new track diagram. The photos start on the right hand side, and finish on the left prior to entry into the fiddle yard.