Op der Bunn

[TT-Pete]

Well, what a strange old year it has been.

 

From having been made redundant a year ago, to watching the job market flat-line in March and having a lot of time on my hands, to deciding on a later-life career change, to being back in full-time work and railway modelling activities again becoming a spare-time stress reliever, to now Xmas being cancelled  :^(

 

And it’s also exactly 2 years that I’ve been building the layout, from Xmas 2018

 

To now.

 

But before permanently entombing everything in card and plaster I thought it worth one last clearance check through the soon-to-be-hidden area using the chunkiest loco I’ve got, the Rivarossi GG1.

 

It’s still a rather large blank canvas so I’m playing around with figures and bits to help get ideas for little scenic vignettes.

 

(Aargh! I have just noticed that the Brekina Autobus de la Ville bendy bus has lost a headlight lens - I wonder if you can get replacements?)

 

Yes, there is a London Taxi hiding there. There was one re-registered in Luxembourg and hired out for advertising/promotion events, so once or twice I got to pull up next to a kosher London black cab waiting at the Avenue de la Liberte traffic lights. It is currently off duty and hiding under the bridge in case anyone notices that it is actually made to UK TT 1:100 scale and belongs up on the next level of the layout (eventually). Motive power for the test train this week is courtesy of my Rivarossi BR 39 2-8-2 (ex-Prussian P10).

 

I am particularly pleased with this loco, I bought it very cheaply in 2014 as a non-runner “spares or repair” with the intention of fixing it, only for it to be put away and not see daylight again until two house moves later. Sorting through stock boxes a couple of weekends back I saw it and realised that the time had come to either Fix it or Flog it.

 

Turns out that all it needed was having the wheels and contacts cleaned and a replacement valve gear screw and washer, and away she goes, a really smooth runner. I am not sure if German BR 39 ever ran in Luxembourg, but they were used on the steeply-graded Eifelbahn running down to Ehrang, just outside Trier and very close to the Luxembourg border until 1968. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Hürth-Kalscheuren–Ehrang

 

So with rule 1 very firmly in mind and tongue very firmly in cheek, I judge it feasible that they were occasionally used on relief services into Luxembourg when motive power was scarce. (Not quite so sure as how to use this to explain the GG1 though…)

 

This end of the layout is a bit of a mess and nothing works in real-world 3D anything like the visions I had in my head to start with, the only way I can think of trying to disguise the side of the tunnel is by making a ruined fortress section to slope down and join with the Heulent Zenn which I can now see is also considerably oversize. I thought this end would be a road running along the back with the Hollow Tooth standing next to it, but quickly showed it would have ridiculous ski-slope gradients when first holding strips of cardboard in place to model it. However I am quite pleased with the little archway and steps, should look good if lit from inside at night.

 

So a somewhat muted Xmas this year. Let’s hope we’re all back together again with those who matter this time next year. Stay safe everyone, hope you all have the best Xmas that you can given the circumstances. The Noel may not be joyeux, but let’s hope that the nouvelle annee is bonne.

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by TT-Pete

[Northroader]

OGood to hear your personal circumstances appear to be hopeful, it must have been a great upheaval all the same. The layout is shaping well, and is characterised by some very neat workmanship. Looking forward to seeing it progress.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Northroader

[TT-Pete]

Bonne Annee – Happy New Year!

 

(Fingers crossed that it’s better than the one just gone.)

 

So obviously I didn’t get back to Luxembourg last year and in any case all bourse/shows are cancelled just about everywhere for the foreseeable future anyway :^( so I am going to take a virtual trip in silico instead, and even indulge in a little time travel courtesy of some old photographs.

 

Having an idle sift through boxes of old photos and negatives recently I came across two packets of black and white prints that I can remember Dad picking up at shows we attended sometime in the 1980’s. I have been meaning to have a closer look at them in detail since about 1985, just somehow never quite got around to it, so this would seem like an ideal time.   

 

The first pack is a plain white envelope with 11 medium sized prints in it. Nothing is noted so I’ve no idea of what/who/when/where. But they look as if they are taken by the same photographer at around the same time period as there is no sign of the rounded CFL totem and locos and rolling stock have the old post-war style numbering, so probably date late 1950s/early 60’s.

 

First up is 856, a Brissonneau & Lodz diesel-electric Bo-Bo. It is likely to only be a couple of years old in this shot as they were delivered from 1956 onwards. And yes it is the same loco type as the SNCF BB 63000 series. About 1,250 were built and delivered as far and wide as Chile, Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Mauritania of all places.

 

Next a shot of a Westwaggon diesel railcar. I would guess to the station being somewhere in the south/west steel-making region as the line is already electrified.

 

These were the only vehicles to have been produced specifically for CFL after a design brief was published in Summer 1954 with a total of 19 manufacturers offering bids. The cheapest, the German manufacturer Westwaggon at Köln Deutz, was awarded the contract. This however went against the votes of the French CFL board members who preferred the offer from the French maker De Dietrich. There were to be 8 identical units coupled back-to-back to make four 2 car sets. Economic reality won the day as Westwaggon would charge 5,446,735.- and De Dietrich 7,155,537.- Flux per unit.

 

Unfortunately there just isn’t the resolution in this print to be able to identify the unit number of this one crossing the Pfaffenthal viaduct. The large unit numbers placed on the ends weren't introduced until the later CFL totem livery.

 

And now for a real beastie :^)

 

CFL made use of both the original 1942 design DRG BR 52 2-10-0 locos, designated Reihe 56, as well as the uprated 1943 re-design DRG BR 42 2-10-0, designated Reihe 55. They are very similar designs, but there are enough differences to tell them apart even if the print resolution is too indistinct to be able to read the cabside number, as in this case. But judging from what look like pre-heaters above the smoke deflectors and the “gubbins” on the footplate, I’d say this is a Reihe 56 (BR 52).

 

Following the May 1940 German invasion and defeat Belgium was an occupied country with the economy and population subject to German diktat. Production of the BR 52 Kriegslok had started by Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1942 and now with literally thousands being erected the Reichsbahn wanted to outsource additional construction as far as possible.

 

Therefore four Belgian constructors had orders placed with them for 50 locos each, Cockerill, Haine St. Pierre, Tubize and Franco-Belge. As an act of passive resistance all four companies intentionly delayed and dragged-out production to the point that when the Germans finally retreated from Belgian territory in late 1944 – not a single locomotive of the 200 had been completed. (But there were piles of finished parts sufficient for about 100 locos.)

 

These then were assembled and supplied to the SNCB as Serie 26 from August 1945 to July 1947. 10 of these locos were provided to CFL in 1946, with a further 10 locos coming a little bit later from France where a similar situation of piles of brand-new Reichsbahn-ordered but undelivered BR 52 parts also existed.

 

And again another Reihe 56, it could be banking in this shot as it is at the back of a train on the up gradient towards Luxembourg Ville.

 

An SNCF BB 12000 electric loco at the head of what look like DB coaches (there is a prototype for everything on Luxembourg railways). CFL subsequently placed an order for 20 of these Schneider/Creusot electric locomotives for the Luxembourg-Wasserbillig (German border) electrification project and being designated Serie 3600 in 1956.

 

And just for comparison one of my previous pictures just to show how the location of the last few shots had changed by the 1980’s;

 

And back to the beasties;

 

This is Great Britain’s contribution to CFL motive power, a Reihe 47 2-8-0 - Vulcan Foundry Liberation number 4704.

 

The snappily-named TACIT (Technical Advisory Committee on Inland Transportation) had recommended to the Ministry of Supply that Vulcan Foundries should build 2-8-0 locomotives using the 8F as a starting point and utilising current British/American technology and practices adapted to the European loading gauge, for use in eastern Europe after the war.

 

110 locomotives were delivered in 1946 to Yugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia, with an additional 10 going to Luxembourg as the Luxembourg government-in-exile had got wind of the project in wartime London and wanted in on the deal.

 

However, no further locos were subsequently ordered or built as France and Belgium bought their locos from US and Canadian constructors to their own designs, and eastern European countries ended up buying countless US Army Transportation Corps surplus locomotive types that were already at hand.

 

The Luxembourgish Reihe 47's  were subsequently rebuilt and so look different from as originally delivered;

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

 

And another Kriegslok identifiable this time as 5513 a Reihe 55, being the uprated BR 42 design. The class was withdrawn en-masse on 15th June 1964.

 

Back to a Reihe 56 (BR 52) in a location that looks like the Luxembourg city MPD turntable and roundhouse.

 

And now for something completely different, a Reihe 52 (ex-Prussian state railway (KPeV) G10 0-10-0). CFL received 11 of these locos from the private “Prince Henri” railway company following nationalisation and then received a further 4 locos from Poland and the German soviet zone in the post-war aftermath.

 

And finally, my favourite Luxembourg loco type, 3511 of  Reihe 35 2-6-2T tank engines. I just like the gangly teenager look - that the footplate has had a growth spurt but the boiler hasn’t quite caught up with it yet.

 

This class of 13 locos had an interesting life having started with Baden State railways as type VIc delivered in 1914-18. In 1918 they went to Belgium as part of the WW1 reparations payments from Germany. In 1923 they were sold to the private Luxembourg “Prince Henri” railway company, coming to CFL on nationalisation in 1945 with the last one being withdrawn in 1963.

 

And so back to 2021. I must have a look at that second packet sometime…

 

Gudden Rutsch to all.

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by TT-Pete

[TT-Pete]

I thought I'd run some trains last night, within seconds I had a rapt and fascinated audience...

 

Even if my son has shown no interest whatsover it's nice to have at least someone in the family who has an appreciation of model railways... :^)

[eastwestdivide]

Hmm, cats - there's always an ulterior motive, usually food.

[TT-Pete]

@eastwestdivide  - in most cases I would be in agreement with you, but in Myla's case we have done some repeated empirical research;

 

With the cat curled up on the back of the sofa I go into the railway room leaving both rooms door open whilst Madame remains to observe the cat. She then calls out "start the trains"  and sees how long it takes after whirring and clattering can be heard for ears to twitch, eyes to open and cat to jump down and trot into the railway room where she either jumps up on to the baseboards or sits at my feet looking up at me, waiting to be lifted up.  About 60 seconds is the max so far. Never fails.

 

In fact sometimes I get bored before the cat does! A few times I have put the trains away, turned off the lights and left a folorn little figure sitting there in the dark with a sad and puzzled expression as to why everything has stopped moving. She just loves watching model trains. I surmise that even trainspotters may be subject to reincarnation...

[eastwestdivide]

Excellent. Needs writing up as an academic paper in a learned journal. 

[TT-Pete]

Having chosen a niche and characteristicful foreign location for my layout it was always clear that I'd be having to make stuff up as I went along and that close enough would be good enough. So I've had another stab at the Heulent Zenn.

 

Estimating dimensions (badly) from this photo I'd started off with a guesstimate cardboard cut-out that looked a little on the chunky side in relation to everything else.

 

I aleady had some stone walling sheets that resembled the courses on the original close enough, but it needs laminating onto a plasticard backing to give rigidity. Wall corners could be formed using a box of Wills quoins(*) already in my bits drawer.

 

I was pleasantly surprised as it all assembled nicely with the aid of a floor in the upper storey to square the structure. The window arch was provided by Ratio brick window arches and a bit of plastic rod for the column.

With some intial paint and weathering I'm satisfied with the result and I'm now thinking of more fortress remains with the arch and steps leading up into them to link the tower with the tunnel. (Comparing parts done at different times I can also see that my colour palette has shifted slightly.)

*: "Quoins" - a lovely word (must find a way of using it more in everyday conversation). Homophonic with French "coin" as in "au coin de la rue" - corner - from which it originates.

 

[TT-Pete]

There's not been much going on with the layout for a while, I've been on a full-time training course for the past 4 months with plenty of evening and weekend work to boot. Having now graduated and with the prospect of a new job in the new year, my thoughts have turned back to railway modelling and this past week I have been building a castle in the air

 

 

So I'd been thinking over the idea of having part of the fortress ruins inspired by the Bock,  but with no plan I had a bash at freestyling with some plastic sheet and odds and ends out of the offcuts box

 

 

It just kind of happened as I went along, but looks ok I think, so happy with that. :^) And now looking forward to a bit of quality modelling time over the festive period.

 

So it just remains to wish you all Schéi Chrëschtdeeg and a Schéint Neit Joer (let's hope it's a better one...)

 

(Oh, and someone else is glad that the trains are running again;)

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by TT-Pete

[Northroader]

Had to look up the Alphabet... Respect! and congratulations. Good to see the fortifications taking shape, and good to know cats can still get in. Happy Christmas and New Year, Bob.

[TT-Pete]

The starting date for a new job in Feb has focussed me on modelling for my last down time for a while.

 

 

I'd been meaning to come back to the "forced perspective" idea for a while now. This might work; in the picture above the 1:120 TT Br86 and wagons look some distance away behind the 1:87 HO Serie 800, but actually are only a couple of centimetres further back.

 

With a bit more scenery it’s not looking quite so cardboardy any more -

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving out to the "Ardennes" board I haven't done anything for quite a while now. After experimenting a bit I'm feeling more confident about making rock faces out of random celotex offcuts stuck higgledy-piggledy with PVA, faces savaged with a flat-blade screwdriver and gaps roughly filled with household polyfilla.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So coming back to the "City" board there’s this rather large gap where stuff should be. But what stuff?

 

(Is that some kind of post-apocalyptic zombie related pile-up on the bridge?)

 

 

When I first jokingly randomly plonked the bus on the cardboard like this because everything has to be somewhere and this was just where it was to be, it chimed with me. But by what transport medium would the bus make it to this location, and then depart once passengers were loaded – teleportation?  It may be that where Marty’s going he doesn’t need roads, but to maintain an even tenuous façade it needs a road in and road out.

 

 

Luxembourg city has lots of leafy lanes, gardens and little squares that trace the locations of old ramparts, bastions and city gates, so I am going to fill the gap between the HO circuits and TT at the back with Place des Embauchées/Ugestallteplatz. This is going to be a little square with an old city gate, a bus stop and a road underpass out. In a cross-over nod at my personal situation the name very loosely translates as "Square of those who have been hired" :^)

 

 

A bit of history; The square’s existence goes back to the Treaty of London and the 1867 post-independence dismantling of the city fortress, commemorating the first team of civilian engineers, architects and clerks hired by the newly-independent Luxembourg City govenment. These were the people responsible for the demolition and reconstruction of a military fortress into a civilian city that would become “the Green Heart of Europe” - people like Head of Works, Batty Weber and Chief Engineer, Jos Gillet or the first City Clerk of Works, Josy Barthel (…does all that sound plausible? ;^) )

 

 

The eastern portal into the square is the Porte Jakobus city gate, so named after Prussian Miltitary Engineer Jakobus Von Fiefbergen, who, displaying a level of sentimentality unusual in a Prussian Imperial Army officer, saved and integrated elements of the original mediaeval gate during fortress strengthening work under Prussian occupation.  

 

 

Route 2 comes down the steep and narrow walled city street with a bus-stop on the square before turning off left towards Limpertsberg via the underpass.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by TT-Pete

[TT-Pete]

Glécklech Ouschteren jiddereen.

 

So of late I have mostly been working at Place des Embauchees

 

x

 

Porte Jakobus is cobbled together from Noch stone wall foam offcuts, bits of assorted styrene sheet and Ratio OO brick arches.

 

When I close my eyes I can still sense the look & feel of the old town streets as I remember them from the 1970’s;

 

x

 

So with that in mind it is not a good start to see that my painting technique and colour palette have shifted over time, so nothing actually matches up.

 

I’m going to standardise from now on - start with a wash of dilute Gloy R205 GWR Freight Stock Grey and use Preiser H0 kerbstones for the street layout.

 

Gloy! Remember them? This tinlet has followed me around for decades through numerous house moves, but the residual pigment is now starting to get a bit stringy and it’s the only remaining non-standard size tinlet in my box, so it jams against the slide-out lid. Time to use it up and slopping it around with thinners is as good a way to go as any.

 

Three stone layers are then dry-brushed in turn; earth brown, German overall sand and light stone.

Cobblestones are cut from sheets of grey material that comes on a roll by Noch (thanks for the tip @Neils WRX) and given two washes of watercolour pastel. Pavements are cut from sheets of styrene with small setts pattern and packed with card to bring them up to match the kerbstones. Lighting and the telephone cabin are from Brawa.

 

Having only had to replace one bulb the lamps test out fine.

 

I think the bus looks a bit Marie-Celeste/Flying Dutchman "phantom bus" without any passengers on it.

 

 

So today has been a useful day of gauging, checking clearances and getting stock running again. There’s been just one quite serious issue – failing to take pantographs into account when gauging tunnel mouths, but already have an adaptation in mind.

 

On the 12mm gauge circuit today we have:

 

1:87 HOm RhB Swiss

 

1:120 Continental TT

 

1:100 UK TT old skool

 

1:100 UK TT modern image.

 

Bleiert Iech sëcher.

[DIW]

You've certainly caught the look of the place!

 

/Tongue in cheek ON/ perhaps add a thin layer of river-modellers'-varnish to the roads and pavements to give that just-rained-on look /Tongue in cheek OFF/

 

Is that a new bus model? I see that route 2 is now Bonnevoie - Limpertsberg, but it used to be from Gasperich (opposite my flat!) via La Gare (convenient for when my car was broken) to Strassen (convenient for La Belle Etoile, the only shops back then open on a Saturday afternoon).

 

Dave

[Ian Morgan]

I used to get the number 2 bus from Gasperich and then the lift down to the Grund to where I worked 20 odd years ago.

 

Heading home in the evening, from La Gare, the bus went up the street where the 'working ladies' plied their trade.

 

 

[TT-Pete]

@Ian Morgan You should have tried going up/down the Grund before they built the lift! Was that Amazon or one of the local etablissments you were at? I was first a customer and then barman/occasional bouncer at Scotts' (aka Pub in the Grund) and the French cafe opposite in 1986-89.

 

Aaah. Rue du fort Neipperg maybe? Although with a fairly relaxed attitude towards ladies of negotiable affection just about every "cabaret" in town offered more than just a floorshow if you see what I mean... (apparently).

[TT-Pete]

8 hours ago, DIW said:

You've certainly caught the look of the place!

 

/Tongue in cheek ON/ perhaps add a thin layer of river-modellers'-varnish to the roads and pavements to give that just-rained-on look /Tongue in cheek OFF/

 

Is that a new bus model? I see that route 2 is now Bonnevoie - Limpertsberg, but it used to be from Gasperich (opposite my flat!) via La Gare (convenient for when my car was broken) to Strassen (convenient for La Belle Etoile, the only shops back then open on a Saturday afternoon).

 

Dave

 

Thanks.

 

I did think that half-seriously too, for a second. But if I could, I'd be modelling this;

 

I bought the bus model at the Steinsel bourse when I was last back over in 2018

(well worth the trip, hoping they run it again this year)

 

It's a Rietze Automodelle 75003

https://www.modelbus.nl/rietze-75003-man-nl-202-2-tvl-lu

 

No trip to the Belle Etoile was complete without a visit to Quick just across the Arloner Stroos...

 

 

 

 

[DIW]

56 minutes ago, TT-Pete said:

 

No trip to the Belle Etoile was complete without a visit to Quick just across the Arloner Stroos...

 

 

The great thing for me about Belle Etoile was the husband-creches* located throughout the centre.

After doing the weekly shopping I would find various work colleagues on a Saturday afternoon in the one located between Cactus DIY and the model railway shop.

 

*little bars

[Ian Morgan]

2 hours ago, TT-Pete said:

Was that Amazon or one of the local etablissments you were at?

 

I was doing I.T. for a bank. However, every second doorway in Luxembourg has one or more plaques indicating it is an office of one of the banks from around the world ...

 

[TT-Pete]

On 20/04/2022 at 22:52, Ian Morgan said:

 

 an office of one of the banks from around the world ...

 

 

Yes, and I got to see a fair few of them from the inside when doing this:

 

 

[TT-Pete]

I was doing some online research one evening a while back when I came across this complex photo in an online history forum. It is undated and unattributed but shows Luxembourgish collaborators of the German occupation being escorted away by the Luxembourg resistance on Liberation by the U.S Army in September 1944. Given the industrial backdrop it is possibly somewhere in southern Luxembourg, in the region of Esch;

 

 

Why do I say "complex"? Well, I see several different layers in this fascinating snap;

 

 

First off, the detainees. Today sucks for them. When and why did they decide to actively collaborate with the Nazis? The older one looks like a retired schoolmaster. He's old enough to have remembered the first German occupation in 1914. Yet still he did. The younger one looks a bit sus and a bit of a cad to me, but maybe that's just the plus fours and the shin socks. I wonder where these two stood on the German attempt to utterly destroy the Luxembourg identity and language? (Spricht Deutsch! Ihr seid jetzt Deutsch!)

 

Judged to be "volksdeutsche", hundreds of Luxembourg families were deported as "settlers" as part of German racial policy for populating the newly-formed Eastern Reich territories (from which the previous "undesirable" occupants had just been vacated) and who then faced an arduous trek back from behind the iron curtain and across a shattered Germany in 1945/6. Luxembourgish young men were also forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht where they formed a regiment that was sent to the Eastern Front and who then immediately surrendered en-masse to the bewildered Soviets at the very first opportunity without a shot being fired.

 

So yes, today is not a good day for them, but at least they are likely to escape lynching or physical violence thanks to their armed escort of Luxembourg's finest...

 

 

Tubby chap on the left is obviously in charge of the proceedings and has a very authorative Captain Mainwearing air to him, toting what looks like a liberated Wehrmacht Mauser Kar98 rifle.

 

The middle one I am christening "Arkwright" as he looks like a character from Last Of the Summer Wine. (also anyone else see a bit of a Laurel/Hardy thing going here?)

 

Beret and tie-bearing chap on the right has been caught in an unfortunate "marionette" pose (you could draw the strings on him) but I love how he's 'avin a fag.

 

 

Next, the bystanders, the Letzebierger themselves. They have just experienced the hardships of 4 years' hostile occupation, have been bombed by the RAF and USAAF, under surveillance and harrassed by the Gestapo, and their identity denied and repressed by the diktat of their fuehrer-appointed Gauleiter, Gustav Simon.

 

I don't see any anger or hate in any expression here, just a bit of curiosity, glee and happiness at the way things are turning out. The lady in the hat on the right looks a bit concerned - Kollabos had family and friends too, maybe they ran a business and had no choice but serving the Germans... Of the two girls on the right the taller one looks to be the same age as my Mum would have been at this time, only in very different circumstances in Germany. Love the home-made union jack/stars n' stripes too.

 

And what of Gustav Simon? Well, he came to a slightly controversial sudden demise in December 1945, but given his role in breaking the General Strike that the Luxembourgers instigated as protest at Luxembourg being abolished as a country and being absorbed into the Greater Reich as part of the Moselland Gau in August 1942, probably not undeserved either way...

 

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

 

And yes, there's even some modelling value in here too,

 

 

The steet lanterns are interesting as is the archtitecture of the buildings in the background with typical painted render walls and grey slate roofs. The industrial Halle has a later lean-to extension slapped on the side that you'd think "that doesn't look very realistic" if you saw it on a layout at a show.

 

 

And the final part of the photo has some real raiway detail and was particularly useful for the cobblestone pattern - I was convinced I could remember seeing this particular "roman" pattern  on Luxembourg streets but it was nice to have it confirmed. The tracks look like metre gauge so could be part of the narrow gauge "Charly" network that ran across Luxembourg, but I don't recall a line being in the industrial south, so this may just be an industrial railway crossing the road, or possibly a Tram as I think I can just about make out an overhead wire of some sort.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by TT-Pete
Don't know left from right. :^)

[Northroader]

Everyone looks quite well to do, and looking at the collaborators and the dads army folks, it looks as if they’re just going through the motions? I don’t think it’s going to end with firing squads.

[TT-Pete]

No, agreed, I think Luxembourgers are far too civilised for that.

[TT-Pete]

Enough with the scenery for the moment. I want to actually see trains running for a change.

 

 

The fact that I last worked on the yard well before the start of covid has been really bugging me. It’s only 2/3rds built with 2 circuits running.

 

Although I knew what needed to be done, I've been undermined by a bit of a “but am I bovvered though?” feeling for a bit,

 

 

 

In these two shots the Branch and Main are mostly complete and operational, but the Inner running line and yard are missing.

 

And lo', on some days the most bounteous gods of Track-laying shine their benevolent countenances upon you, and every electrical fault is sorted at the first attempt, track pins bang in nice and straight (and not bend-over to pull carefully-aligned flexitrack all over the shop just at the last stroke), pointwork geometry issues are easily solved by just moving one track pin or filling a mere millimetre off a rail joint, solder “blobs” nicely exactly where you want it to and Xuron track-cutters cut rails in a perpendicular (i.e not-slanted) line.

 

But then again on some days they really aren’t smiling (the b’stads) – however if I can get the odd day right “in the zone”, it makes the experience of the subsequent three snafu days more bearable. :^)

 

 

All the Peco flexitrack got used up so I was finally down to the dregs of Roco and Jouef 1970’s-80’s vintage track and pointwork that would have been up and running back in the days of the attic layout of 6 Rue Paul Noesen.

 

 

The control panel has been cobbled together from old Gaugemaster controller bits and individual switched track panels made for each of the Branch, Main, and Inner yards,

 

(Is it just me or is it grinning, wearing shades and a bow-tie? Or the walkabout controllers could be the eyes?)

 

Anyway, time for proving trials.

 

And the act of setting up the first three gauging test trains demonstrates the need for a Rule Book;

 

*********

Rule 1.  Full modellers' licence applies

Rule 2. All circuits permit bi-directional running

Rule 3. Consider illustration 01

 

 

Standing facing the wall-clock as the central axis, anything running anti-clockwise to the Left is DOWN, and anything running clockwise to the Right is UP.

"DOWN" ("DN") and "UP" will be used for route setting.

********

 

However, this only makes any sense in the yard , for if I turn 180 degrees on my chair and look to the running lines:

 

 

 

Given Rule 2. above – Question: from just looking at the above photos, who is to say which (or neither) one of these four locos is running light engine right-line UP, whereas the other would be presumably running light engine DOWN, but "wrong line"  so therefore in reverse? And would this even be relevant to anything?

 

Answer next episode... :^)

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by TT-Pete
Don't know me rules from me elbows. And cos' also errant images (we'ren't they an 80's band?)

[Northroader]

Is it “voie 1” and “voie 2”? Still, WTF, trains are running.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Northroader

[TT-Pete]

On 31/05/2022 at 20:33, Northroader said:

Is it “voie 1” and “voie 2”? Still, WTF, trains are running.

 

Indeed. You are right, I'm with you. Luxembourg borrows from both French and German so whereas Streck comes from German Strecke, Voie from French is fitting for platforms and sidings/bays.

 

Therefore each yard now has Voies numbered 1 to 3/4.

 

 

So it's time to crack open a tinnie. :^)

 

Train number one is a Rivarossi SNCF BB loco, three Rivarossi SNCB opens, a Roco tanker and a pair of long wheelbase Jouef wagons bache - departing Inner DN.

 

A nice little loco, one of a pair from a special edition TGV set made just before Rivarossi ceased trading.

 

One of the last Rivarossi-Como products.
 

Train two is an NMJ CFL 1600 in early livery with a rake of venerable Liliput CFL coaches (ex-Deutsche Reichsbahn). But before it can depart Inner UP - Train 1 is occupying the line so it is switched through the Main yard DN ladder onto Main DN (yes I am making this up as I go along)

 

Bahn Frei!

 

Which brings me to Train 3, an SNCB "Armstice" train;

Belgium received a lot of railway materiel (up to 50% of their locomotive inventory) in 1919 as war reparations from Germany after WWI. It was a bit of a grab-bag that was mostly good but had a few one-offs or oddities. Many were disposed of in 1922 and the remainder adopted under standard Serie classifications.

 

The ex-Bayrische State Railway (KBayStB) S3/6 class 4-6-2 express loco was unfortunately not one of them. SNCB received three (presumably in steamable condition) but these otherwise excellent machines weren't suited to Belgian operational requirements, were complex and high maintenance, and it's not clear whether they were ever actually steamed under SNCB ownership or not. They were disposed of in 1922. Their livery is unrecorded, but why re-paint locos you are not likely to run?

 

So the Rivarossi loco produced from 1987 onwards is an interesting proposition; it's their KBayStB S3/6 model without the KBayStB tender lettering and with a pseudo-Belgian number 3649 in the correct font on the smokebox instead. Technically plausible, but improbable. But a really nice model. Except.

 

This is a late 90's vintage model and was the only Rivarossi product fitted with an "innovative" limited-slip tender drive intended to make smoother operation. Nobody else has used this "innovative" design since. I see why - my gradients are quite steep and with only 5 on and at full throttle the loco just crawls along, revving it's nuts off. Interestingly the more power you give, the more it slips, so it makes for an interesting drive.

 

I'm going to exile her to the Branch as the gradients are gentler there, so she is switched over the Main yard UP ladder onto Branch UP. The ex-Prussian State Railway clerestory coaches survived much longer, I can remember seeing them in the early 1980's very beaten up, painted light grey and standing against buffer stops on disconnected sidings, serving as mess vans or stores.

 

And finally, to sit back to watch trains passing in the landscape.

 

 

Number of derailments not due to operator negligence this session: 0

 

Rule 4. No propelling in yards.

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by TT-Pete
"snokebox" - LOL