L'heure bleue: a new French layout

[JeffP]

On 02/09/2020 at 11:51, Oldddudders said:

My last boss had had something to do with Seaspeed. He and a colleague had calculated that the bouncing motion of the hovercraft would take quite a lot out of the suspension on a car even on such a short trip. No similar effect on a ferry, of course.

 

By contrast, a friend took his Ferrari across on one, and was terribly impressed by the care with which the staff made him get onto the loading ramp inch by inch to avoid scraping the nose. 

Have had the same taking an Impreza with front splitter off a cross channel ferry.

[Barry Ten]

It's been a while since I posted an update on the layout, mainly because it spent most of 2021 hiding under tables in bits. But with the prospect of a outing at the forthcoming SWAG meeting in Taunton on April 24th, work has resumed.

 

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the major work on the layout since 2019 has been to rework much of the right hand side to eliminate a rising gradient on the single track mainline, loop and associated sidings. This gradient was deliberate, to allow the tracks to clear another rising gradient in the Faller road system, but the more I lived with it, the more I saw it as a mistake. It looked OK with goods trains, but as soon as I tried posing a few coaches on the slope, it looked uncomfortable. I decided to remove the gradient and rework the design of the Faller road.

 

 

Here's where we are now. The two tracks to the rear of the shot, including the crossover pointwork, were completely lifted and relayed and have now been mostly reballasted and weathered. The foreground tracks into the goods area didn't need to be lifted but I took the time to finesse the cross-baseboard joints a bit.

 

Where the road used to run, behind that red-brick wall, there is now scope for low-relief buildings. I've been building the Artitec resin facades which are excellent kits but unfortunately very difficult to obtain now. Various features such as windows and electrical lines have been slightly modified between kits, so they don't all end up looking the same.

 

 

I don't know whether these are based on French structures specifically, but I think they sit pretty well in the scene. Three's enough, though!

 

 

In the foreground (above) is a huddle of grotty, makeshift buildings designed to fill an awkward corner. I made these in a hurry before the Cardiff exhibition in 2019, but they really need a bit more attention, especially the brown brick thing.

 

 

They work a bit better in this view, I think. I've been slowly adding posters, sourced from the internet as being loosely suitable for France in the 50s - 60s - 70s - all very sketchy but hopefully adding a bit of urban life. The van isn't a Faller vehicle, by the way - it's just posed there. I think it's probably a bit too small to have the mechanism in.

 

Onto some night shots:

 

 

 

 

 

And finally a suggestion of future developments:

 

 

Planning work has begun on adding catenary so that some of those enticing French electrics can run through the layout and beyond to the terminus extension. Not knowing much about French electrification, I bought two of the above Jouef locos in ignorance that not all electric locos run on the same supply. Since these ones turned out to be 25Kv locos, that's what I'm locked into. Luckily I can still run what I think of as the classic nez-casse French designs, provided I chose the right sub-classes for the various families. Or, just have fun and not worry about such things.

 

Phase one of the electrification will happen soon but I don't think I'll chance starting it before the SWAG do as placing the masts will require some scenery to be slightly modified here and there.

 

 

 

[Mikkel]

Much waiting for pages to load, but those night time shots made it worthwhile. L'heure bleue indeed, thanks for a bit of much needed escapism Al 

[Barry Ten]

It's just as much escapism for me at the moment!

[Gordonwis]

2 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

It's been a while since I posted an update on the layout, mainly because it spent most of 2021 hiding under tables in bits. But with the prospect of a outing at the forthcoming SWAG meeting in Taunton on April 24th, work has resumed.

 

 

Planning work has begun on adding catenary so that some of those enticing French electrics can run through the layout and beyond to the terminus extension. Not knowing much about French electrification, I bought two of the above Jouef locos in ignorance that not all electric locos run on the same supply. Since these ones turned out to be 25Kv locos, that's what I'm locked into. Luckily I can still run what I think of as the classic nez-casse French designs, provided I chose the right sub-classes for the various families. Or, just have fun and not worry about such things.

 

Phase one of the electrification will happen soon but I don't think I'll chance starting it before the SWAG do as placing the masts will require some scenery to be slightly modified here and there.

 

 

 

 

 

Great stuff Barry Ten.

 

Before you plough on with the electrification, I hope you don't mind if I make observations. The post I can see really doesn't suit SNCF ac catenary which is pretty much all based on simple H girder posts. The type of post is very important in portraying French electrification as it makes a big difference to the realism/accuracy of an SNCF scene. SNCF 1.5kV dc overhead is very characteristic, but as you loco pictured is an ac loco I would stick with the simple H girder 25kV . However, the CC14100 pictured were limited to northern and Eastern France, in particular the 'Nord Est' route Dunkerque - Lorraine - Saar border, and locally within Lorraine especialy the Thionville area 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Gordonwis

[Gordonwis]

https://www.sai-collections.fr/catenaire-ho-catenaire-sncf-sncb-xsl-1146_1147.html?page=2

[Gordonwis]

2 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

Since these ones turned out to be 25Kv locos, that's what I'm locked into. Luckily I can still run what I think of as the classic nez-casse French designs, provided I chose the right sub-classes for the various families. Or, just have fun and not worry about such things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were no 'Nez Cassés' locos on SNCF until 1972, however the first of them was the ac only BB15000, but they only just saw the steam era (and would have 'met' the last 141Rs of Sarreguemines shed on only an occasional basis between 1972 - 74) . The next 'Nez Cassés' class which included ac equipment was the dual voltage BB22200, built from 1976 but they did not run in the north east until quite a long time later 

 

However you would be on safe ground with a Jouef BB16500 ( built 1958 - 64; 176 of that class were allocated to Region Est in 1970), and also BB16000 (built 1958 - 63; 34 allocated to region Est in 1970)

Edited March 9, 2022 by Gordonwis

[TT-Pete]

10 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

... with the prospect of a outing at the forthcoming SWAG meeting in Taunton on April 24th

 

The date has been duly noted, where do I find more information about location, hours, other exhibitors etc...?

[NHY 581]

1 hour ago, TT-Pete said:

 

The date has been duly noted, where do I find more information about location, hours, other exhibitors etc...?

 

Morning Pete, 

 

The meet is at Staplegrove Village Hall, Taunton. It's a members day rather than an exhibition as such. A bit of a social. 

Rough hours are from 10 but there is no door as such so no drama if you're earlier than this. We'll be setting up from 7.30 until 9.30. 

 

The line up is here.....( if the link has copied correctly ) 

 

 

 

 

 

I would start at this post and read through the rest of the topic for an overview of the event. 

 

Rob. 

[Barry Ten]

10 hours ago, Gordonwis said:

 

 

Great stuff Barry Ten.

 

Before you plough on with the electrification, I hope you don't mind if I make observations. The post I can see really doesn't suit SNCF ac catenary which is pretty much all based on simple H girder posts. The type of post is very important in portraying French electrification as it makes a big difference to the realism/accuracy of an SNCF scene.

 

 

Many thanks Gordon. I must admit that my thinking here is just to get some catenary up for now, and worry about accuracy further down the line. I looked into a few of the proprietary catenary systems and decided that the Sommerfeldt, while the most realistic and varied range (as far as I could tell) was a bit more complex and fiddly than I wanted to get into right now. The Viessmann system, while of limited variety, looked a good bet for a first try-out, especially as it didn't involve soldering. I don't mind soldering but I thought I might need to do a fair bit of adjustment and re-hashing. So while it won't be right for either 1500 or 25,000 V systems in France, I thought it would suffice in keeping with the impressionist approach of the layout as a whole. It's also easy to obtain in the UK.

 

The other consideration is that the layout's not likely to have much of an exhibition life beyond Taunton, which I think makes a difference to expectations of accuracy in that it won't be presented to the public as claiming to be something it isn't. It really is just a slice of fantasy, something north-ish in the vague vicinity of Paris but no more specific than that.

[Allegheny1600]

11 hours ago, Gordonwis said:

 

 

There were no 'Nez Cassés' locos on SNCF until 1972, however the first of them was the ac only BB15000, but they only just saw the steam era (and would have 'met' the last 141Rs of Sarreguemines shed on only an occasional basis between 1972 - 74) . The next 'Nez Cassés' class which included ac equipment was the dual voltage BB22200, built from 1976 but they did not run in the north east until quite a long time later 

 

However you would be on safe ground with a Jouef BB16500 ( built 1958 - 64; 176 of that class were allocated to Region Est in 1970), and also BB16000 (built 1958 - 63; 34 allocated to region Est in 1970)

What about these though? Introduced in 1964.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_CC_40100

 

Cracking scenes, you’ve modelled ‘Barry’!

[Barry Ten]

1 hour ago, Allegheny1600 said:

What about these though? Introduced in 1964.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_CC_40100

 

Cracking scenes, you’ve modelled ‘Barry’!

 

I suppose there's that, and then the more familiar shape with the longer bonnet.

[woodenhead]

15 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

And finally a suggestion of future developments:

 

 

 

Look at the conk on that, De Gaul would be impressed.

[TT-Pete]

4 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

Morning Pete, 

 

The meet is at Staplegrove Village Hall, Taunton. It's a members day rather than an exhibition as such. A bit of a social. 

Rough hours are from 10 but there is no door as such so no drama if you're earlier than this. We'll be setting up from 7.30 until 9.30. 

 

The line up is here.....( if the link has copied correctly ) 

Rob. 

 

Excellent, ta muchly! TA2 6AL has been programmed into the sat nav. :^)

[Anadin Dogwalker]

3 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I suppose there's that, and then the more familiar shape with the longer bonnet.

The  CC6500s date from 1969 and I think the CC72000 diesels were a year or two before that. 

I liked the monocabines- I made an effort to track down the last of the Luxembourg  fleet interrailing twenty years ago. They reliably showed up around the southern steelworks in the early evening; unexpectedly I had haulage behind one on the local up to Troisvierges. It was the school run and all the kids were giggling about Herr Flick of the Gestapo and doing impressions of the rest of the Allo'Allo' cast. Not what you'd expect deep in the Ardennes.

[Barry Ten]

1 hour ago, TT-Pete said:

 

Excellent, ta muchly! TA2 6AL has been programmed into the sat nav. :^)

 

I look forward to saying hello, Pete. I've just been catching up on your excellent Luxembourg thread (sorry it

had escaped me until now). Wonderful stuff and very much up my strasse.

[Barry Ten]

14 minutes ago, Anadin Dogwalker said:

The  CC6500s date from 1969 and I think the CC72000 diesels were a year or two before that. 

I liked the monocabines- I made an effort to track down the last of the Luxembourg  fleet interrailing twenty years ago. They reliably showed up around the southern steelworks in the early evening; unexpectedly I had haulage behind one on the local up to Troisvierges. It was the school run and all the kids were giggling about Herr Flick of the Gestapo and doing impressions of the rest of the Allo'Allo' cast. Not what you'd expect deep in the Ardennes.

 

Allo' Allo' (and Fawlty Towers) were big hits at the pan-European organisation where I used to work as well. The humour definitely translated.

[TT-Pete]

1 hour ago, Anadin Dogwalker said:

I liked the monocabines- I made an effort to track down the last of the Luxembourg  fleet interrailing twenty years ago.

 

*ahem* If I may be permitted to hijack the thread for a minute;

 

3613 at Wecker on the 12:10 Luxembourg-Wasserbillig service on 5/5/1986

 

3614 at Luxembourg Gare with the 18:12 Rodange service on 13/9/1985

 

3614 and 3617 at Luxembourg Gare on 2/5/1987

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by TT-Pete

[Barry Ten]

3 hours ago, TT-Pete said:

 

*ahem* If I may be permitted to hijack the thread for a minute;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please do so, fantastic pictures. 

 

It was good ten years later that I visited Luxembourg for myself, once by train and once by car. Unfortunately I didn't have much chance to look around on either occasion.

[Gordonwis]

On 09/03/2022 at 16:14, Anadin Dogwalker said:

The  CC6500s date from 1969 and I think the CC72000 diesels were a year or two before that. 

 

 

 

The CC40100 (4-system including 25kV) was indeed the first of the broken noses but it was a fundamentally different styling to the later series (ie CC6500 (dc so 'out of the equation for 25kV ac hence my not mentioning it earlier) , CC72000, BB15000, BB7200, BB22200) which all shared common parts . The 40100 were limited to Paris - Brussels (and designed to UK loading  for the abortive 1960s CT scheme

Edited March 10, 2022 by Gordonwis

[St Enodoc]

 

Gare du Nord, 15/12/16.

[Gordonwis]

22257 pushing a Geneve - Lyon train at a foggy Torcieu in the Bugey area of the pre-Alps, 16 October 2021. This is 1500v dc territory with the 1950s/60s style dc overhead

 

 

 

 

[Gordonwis]

The following day I was north of Paris squeezing in a 2 hour trainwatch at Mennesis, in Picardie, before a dash to the Shuttle . The last train I waited for before calling it a day was a 22200 still in the original beton livery, heading a Maubeuge - Paris Nord.  Sunset, 17 October 2021

 

Note the complete contrast in overhead - with the much simpler 25kV ac catenary (of interest to modellers is that the double track to the right of the picture is the separate line to Amiens and is not wired even through the tracks are right alongside the Maubeuge line

 

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Gordonwis

[Alister_G]

Hi Al,

 

It was great to be neighbours at SWAG yesterday, I hope we didn't disrupt things too much whilst we were setting up. I spent quite a while during the day lookin at L'heure Bleue and loved picking out some of the little details. A great layout, and a great day.

 

Al

[Barry Ten]

Thanks Al (from one Alastair to another). I really enjoyed your layout, cracking atmosphere. Hope you had a good ride home. Ours was pretty effortless and for once I only managed to break a few bits of the layout loading/unloading!