Sir Madog

This is Bredon:

Some changes and a hint for scenery! Picture the road slightly rising until it reaches the bridge on the right side, while the crossing at the left side is a level crossing, secured by a gate.

Good to see you find your way to this place! I´ll bet you get more feedback by the folks here than over there...

There are still some bugs in the "flip" feature! I have designed a rather huge layout based on Atlas code 83 track, but couldn´t flip it. All I got was a message that a certain pount does not have a corresponding counterpart. Now I have to completely redraw the layout, which will cost me more than 15 hrs. of work!

The Rheingold train was regularly pulled by DRG classes 18.5 (ex K.B.St.E. S 3/6), 18.3 ( ex K.W.St.E. IVh) and class 01. Neither one had a special Rheingold livery. On rare occasions, even the workhorse DRG class 38 (ex KPEV P 8) was heading this famous name train.

The S 3/6 had a dark green livery during her days in the Royal Bavarian State Railway, which later changed to the standard black and red livery of Deutsche Reichsnahn resp. Deutsche Bundesbahn. The blue livery is just for exhibition purposes.

The bridge´s service life was a fairly short one - only 27 years. It was built between 1916 and 1918 to improve the supply lines to the western front in France. Although there had been plans in the early 1950 to rebuild the bridge, the plan was given up, following the electrification of both mainlines down the Rhine Valley. There was no need for a line which more or less only served military purposes.

Thanks for that info - I will order mine asap to get the low price!

Street price for the Terrier is as low as GBP 154 now - I can hardly wait to get one in BR early crest livery! What amazes me, though, is that the price for the DCC & sound version is more than double. I can get a sound decoder for a little over GBP 50 ...

The Busch HOf Feldbahn is rather a proprietary system, not really designed to match up with any other brand. The Locos are equipped with a magnet to improve adhesion. For that purpose, the Busch track has a thin metal strip integrated into the track, which other brands don´t have. Some folks have either used a wire or metal strips put below Marklin or Peco track to achieve that effect, but it is quite a tedious task. Given the low weight, the magnet seems to be mandatory to achieve some sort of traction. The Busch train is running on 3V (!) and requires a special controller. The Busch power pack does not allow for a speed control, just forward or reverse. Busch offers a DCC decoder, which is wired between your command station and the track, not put in the loco. The locos can be equipped with one of those tiny Z scale decoders, but you need to hardwire them. Performance is brilliant. The points have been "points" for criticism. The point levers are known to be too fragile and can break off easily.

Rails of Sheffield advertises the DC version for 159,95 - that´s not a steal, that´robbery! Compare this price with Bachmann asking 144,95 for their OO9 WD 4-6-0 ...

Thanks for all the replies. I know I am a little late in responding, but my Internet connection was down for the past two days. There is so much confusing information on the web about wiring Peco Electrofrog points for DCC. If I don´t have to do all that, I´d be happy to use codee 55 points as well.

I am in the process of starting a new N scale layout, which will be DCC operated. I am planning to use Peco code 55 track for the better looks of it, but don´t want to indulge in the extra wiring effort to make Electrofrog points operable for DCC. Can I use code 80 Insulfrog points without problems and how do I join them to code 55 track? Thanks for your help!

Roco announced the 009 FR Double Fairlie in 2009, but later on dropped this project for lack of interest(?)!

Does that mean it speaks English with an accent, just like Herr von Flick in "Allo, allo?" Oh, I see, you mean the buildings ... WinTrack has a large library of 3D graphics of kits from Faller, Kibri, Vollmer - hence the somewhat "Teutonic" character.

Not to talk about the distance from "rainy" Hamburg! Eagerly awaiting the video ...

Andy and George, Both the Trebudoc and the Abbot´s Mead thread gave my own modelling a whole new direction - thanks for all the inspiration and motivation you guys gave me! Andy and George, Both the Trebudoc and the Abbot´s Mead thread gave my own modelling a whole new direction - thanks for all the inspiration and motivation you guys gave me!

It took me an hour to close my jaws, as they snapped open when seeing these pictures! Absolutely smashing!

As the year is slowly coming to an end, I´d like to extend my thanks to Andy and George for this inspirational thread. I have learned so much from you folks! Have a Happy New Year!

George, no doubt, you have a good point there! Unfortunately, painting and weathering is not my strength at all and I know, that I will be running into a problem soon. I am right now assembling my KBScale kit of A Deutz OMZ 117, which I want to be just "perfect". Assembly goes well, but the prospect of ruining an otherwise nicely built loco gives me the creeps. If I could only afford a professional paint job ...

George, your work is absolutely inspiring to me! I am still in the process of selecting the "right" kind of materials for my O scale buildings and I think I will give 2 mm ply a try. Just a short question - the windows, are they also made from 2 mm ply, or is it 1 mm?

Andy, I have been following your thread with great interest - especially the current part of it. I have build my first O scale structure using 5 mm foam board, but I am not happy with the result. I never thought of 2 mm or even 5 mm plywood being a material I can employ in building the structures, but now I will give it a try.

This thread is a lot better than any H2 book there is about building a layout!

She´s a beauty - certainly on my wish list!

Rob, this is fantastic! I can literally smell the oil stains on the sleepers!