Hoorn Steam Tram Museum Part II - the video

So, onto the video which is a medley of footage shot to and from Medemblik from Hoorn.  

And to finish the Hoorn posting, their exhibition of various narrow gauge rails, the signal box and a goods van (which again matched LGB box vans).  

All in all an excellent day trip.  

Chris

Real Trains (a pseudo Stainz ?): Hoorn Steam Tram museum 6 November 2011

OK, I have finally (despite mum's dementia, my bad back, my sciatica, the rats from the new school build at the end of the end of the garden, and the rain) sorted out my photos and composed a video medley of my trip last year out to Hoorn.

Hoorn steam tram museum is about 30-40 mins north of Amsterdam central by train, so when I was over last year for the wargames convention that is Crisis at Antwerp I took advantage and went up to Hoorn on Sunday.  The main (only?) hotel in town was a tad expensive (albiet of good quality) but within sight of the station so chosen.

I had a really good day on the Sunday.  No namby pamby Health and Safety laws in the loco sheds, and once I was offered the chance to get into a cab, then I'm off.  Ever since I went to Amsterdam for the first time and the De Hems pub in Soho then I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Dutch.  On this Sunday they were on excellent form - singles and couples to the front two coaches, and the all important coach near the locomotive from my viewpoint - larger groups to the bigger coaches at the back and nearer the buffet cars which may have sold alcohol....

I should have taken the SLR but travelling light all I took was the compact, which in turn decided to play up during the visit and went away to be repaired on my return.

First up is views in the loco shed....
Bit of a tight squeeze and one for an aerial wide angle lens I suspect...

And then we get to the one that I climbed inside.... 

And then we start to get ready for "the off"

The service was hauled by number 16 - "Medemblik"

With valve gear that looks very similar to the LGB Stainz.

The coaches were very similar to LGB models...

I think I'm pushing the limits now of blogger for a single page/post so onto page 2, featuring the video. 

Chris

Excuse me Madam, an Ebay Bargain and some scenery

Excuse me Madam, but that's a pretty good teletubby impersonation...

One of the relatively more expensive aspects of G scale railways seems to be figures.   I suspect its a limited market , and the stuff has to be tough enough to survive outside.  Following a post on G scale Central then I was alerted to the the Star Wars keyring figures.  OK, so a few Start Wars figures (the original post has an R2D2 unit rather than Padme, and they are hiding at a building alley corner) on a layout aren't going to be to everyone's cup of tea, but at around £3 each off ebay then 'm happy with them for a bit of fun.  OK, so the holes from the key rings will need to be filled in and there's the "official" product on the back of the coat, but a bit of paint will solve that.  

The keyring bits just screw out.  Here's some shots with another Ebay bargain and a Preiser Train Driver and LGB station staff for comparison.  

The Caboose was one of those Ebay bargains that once I'd won it, I began to wonder what had I missed in the pictures ?  Prices for LGB (as opposed to other G scale stuff) has crept upwards over the 12-18 months I've been following stuff providing its unmodified and complete.  I could see that this was missing the chimney but all the handrails appeared to be there.   The original plan was to re-spray it for use as a logging caboose but when it arrived it was in such good condition that I shall leave it for now.  

Trawling the fancy goods shops came up with some more scenery for the layout.  AT £3 each then I consider them to be a bargain.  The VW bus is a German classic icon and much sought after today - I overhead a couple of work colleagues talking about split windscreen (older and more desirable I think) vs single windscreen types.  I ended up with a couple and look set to ultimately respray one for a post service vehicle.  A look for German postal musuem brought up a picture of one (the original is in the Museum for Communication in Frankfurt).

Chris

Advancing in the Dark Arts

Last week saw a major move forward in the dark arts.  Fellow G scaler down here was having problems with DCC and asked for my help: which shows how desperate things were.   Got the gear but  now getting nothing - no sound, no light, no motor - could I pop round....

So, the Monday before  set to and had a bit of a play with the Dimax on decoder programming - scary stuff...   Changed some loco D's and (sound of trumpets please...) some CV's.  In my case it was to get the extra sounds (on Function buttons 10-16) that live on the Massoth chip.

Success on my part and the following night - scary stuff - but a factory re-set by rewriting a CV (which got us sound and light) but no motors and then after a bit of testing and thinking a motor re-set which got the motors working.  End result one happy G scale, one happy G scaler's wife (as G scaler is now not so grumpy as his new toy works) and a success.  Thanks must go to G scale central forum which provided lots of useful help and advice before the big evening.

Since then I've enabled the remaining sounds on the remaining locos.

This is one of the Stainz showing that the yellow functions are now working, and in particular the bell at item 15.  

One of my favourites now has to be the "gong" sound on the U class.