Today's Railways: Sassnitz (Rugen) Ferries and The Matterhorn Railway

Today's impulse purchase was the February edition of Today's Railways (Europe) from WH Smiths.  I normally have a quick look through and if there is enough that I want to keep or read in depth then I buy it. I think this is the second issue I have bought.

One gems of this issue is the Sassnitz (Rugen) Ferries article which is about the 1520mm and 1435mm gauge ferries that left Sassnitz for Sweden and Russia.  The 750mm Narrow gauge gets a brief mention but an interesting article.  What I hadn't realised was how the Rugen lines were used for transporting Uranium Ore in the days of the DDR and cold war. 

The other is about the Matterhorn Railway - (Brig-Vest-Zermatt-Gornergrat).  Zermatt is a car free town (some electric service vehicles) and I knew trains were used to bring goods and people in and out.     This is the BVZ home of the famous Steam Pub (LGB 31550), which was an early acquisition for the Iscatalbahn when one came up.  This is a stock picture as mine has been fitted out with some people.  The internet has relatively few decent pictures of this actual coach - mostly its an oblique shot with the emphasis on the loco at the front - for example the BVZ site has a picture of the 4/4 red baby croc with this in the background.  

The other BVZ item (although sold as Rhb) is the 2/2 Tractor, and mine is currently away for chipping and having sound fitted.  

What the article does have is a picture of a railcar hauling away container cars of rubbish (cardboard and plastic are clearly visible), whilst another picture appears to have a low gondola with furniture piled up in.  There is mention of how goods (containers, pallets or boxes) get into Zermatt, and that some 2 axle tank wagons (alas no pictures in the article) are used for fuel.  The internet might reveal some pictures of these though.   (Part of the alternative Bodensee envisages that some of the islands have banned cards but have some light railways and electric vehicles, as do some parts of the Rugen Islands).  

Bregenzawaldbahn

One of the questions that might be asked of a Garden railway is "is it a model railway"?  To me the answer is "Yes", but a qualified "Yes".  It is probably extremely unlikely that anyone will be able to reproduce in an exterior environment the level of detail that can be possible on an indoor layout.

However, linked locomotives and rolling stock can give a realistic impression, even if the setting as with so many indoor railways is "somewhere in Austria" say.  I've mentioned previously that setting Iscatalbahn in the Lake Bodensee would offer the chance to run the mix of German (DB and DR), Swiss (Rhb Tractor and box vans) and Austrian (lots) rolling stock and locomotives that I have acquired.

This has lead me to research the real railways that ran around the Bodensee/Lake Constance and the Austrian portion of the lake shore line was served by the Bregenzawaldbahn (I'm still working on the orbital trains).  Prior to going to Germany in October 2012 I'd tracked down the website for the Bregenzawaldbahn museumbahn and looked at thier steam locomotive pages, diesel locomotive pages and coach and wagon pages.

Following comments on The Elly, James & Keith Light Railway blog then I was on the look for some Bahn Im bild books and got a German chum to get number 211 for me:

What this offered was lots of pictures of the railway in operation, not as a heritage railway but as part of the Austrain railways network.    This had pictures of various 2095 diesels.   Many times the Steam locomotive is the ZB4 (699.01) (standing for Zillertalbahn no 4) which is an 0-8-0 with a tender:

The Heritage railway however is running a couple of U class locos - U24 and U25.  

Which brings me to what I have:

The snowplow was out and ready for the recent bad weather, although Exeter saw very little snow and I'd need to give the track a good clean and check all the joints after winter movement before trying to run stuff.   The U classes are a black Zillertal no 2, and grey U43.

But I have found on German Ebay a seller who makes brass nameplates for Bezau (U24) and possibly U25.  There is the dreaded Uberweisung (bank transfer for payment) word so I am going to have to talk nicely to a German friend to get them.   I'm not sure about the blue/cream coaches:  it is certainly an Austrian narrow gauge colour scheme but the pictures in the Bahn im bild book are either green, or in the case of black and white photos clearly a single dark colour. 

The red double bogie diesel that I have is running number 2095.06 (which appears in a photo 5/8/69) albiet in the all cream/red older style livery.     

What was good about the Bahn im bild book though was the sheer variety of coaches in use, and that some of them were clearly four window stock that matches the LGB short coaches. 

The Manner box wagon is I think only the fifth brand new item of rolling stock i have purchased.  I have seen no evidence yet for such a real box car, but Manner is an Austrian confectioner and thus very appropriate.   Saving up for a Dollnitz Diesel - what was in reality an underpowered early diesel - some of which were used on the Bregenzawaldbahn.   Given their cost and chipping etc, then the target is below 16 stone and I can place the order...  

I envisage that each contingent (Swiss, German, Austrian) will also have some small steam shunting locos (in this case a a couple of Stainz)  and a small diesel, which I haven't photographed as part of the ensemble.  The Stainz is Austrian although not native to the Bregenzawaldbahn.  

Finally, the Hillhead and Dales Light Railway blog has a very strong Bregenzawaldbahn theme.   

 

Weekend of Watching videos

As I'm fairly new to Railway modelling and delving into the real world history then every so often I take the time to watch various videos that people send me links to, and a wet weekend turned into one of those days.

First up was something on the BBC so the link may disappear over time.

Joy of Train sets

Lots of Archive footage of things like Basset-Lowke (and probably the first garden railways if you were rich) and Frank Hornby Dublo.  Interesting social commentary about the marketing of train sets as well.

Hmm, the second one was about industrial steam railways - lots of little, narrow gauge engines.  However, since I watched it only a few days ago the you tube account has gone due to copyright reasons....

If I find it then I'll link to it.

Lastly, Germany in 1952 - black and white footage and somewhat grainy in places.

Bernstadt am Eiger-Heernhut - Saxony in 1952

LGB Compendium

Another of my (pre) Christmas presents to me was the LGB Kompendium from Gartenbahn Magazne.

1,456 pages of LGG goodness.   OK, so it's all in German and my German isn't up to some of the technical jargon used, but there's always google translate.   Layout and indexing can be a bit idiosyncratic and whilst it is fairly easy to find something from the reference number, if I want to find say all the German U class models made by LGB then there isn't an easy way to do that.   RRP and a guide to secondhand prices are given where possible.  

The following is a fairly typical page - pictures on the left and text on the right.  The missing picture is a 1999 special Christmas truck for the American Market edition - code 21680.   Indeed lots of the missing pictures are of special items, and American items and I'm surprised that there wasn't an American enthusiast invited on board who was able to fill in many of the gaps.   

The internet is your friend and here is an LGB 21680

LGB 21680

It would be a labour of love to get an English edition published, although much of the hard work has already been done with the cataloguing and organisation and with modern (computer) publishing methods then it would much easier to insert English text than it would have been previously.  After that, a searchable DVD ?   

It is available in the UK form various shops but here's the link to the original German page, which has more detailed review pictures:

Gartenbahn website - Kompendium page

I keep finding myself dipping into it - the pictures help to browse, and my smattering of German goes a long way.   

Brewery Railways

   

Blogging should really be a fairly regular thing to maintain interest.  The above picture does have a railway connection.  It's from the facebook page for Cardinal beer Cardinal Beer - facebook which is featuring quite heavily so far in plans for the Iscatalbahn.    The actual brewery Cardinal Brewery is a Swiss one and I will readily admit that I have yet to try their beer.  LGB have made 3 LGB wagons for the brewery:

   No 40284 (current)

 No 42285 (fairly recent)

 No 4034 (older period) 

Back in the days when I was looking for particular colours (at a reasonable price) for the shunting puzzles, then the Cardinal wagons came up as yellow.  I currently have a couple of 42285's and one 4034.  Getting a 40284 is on the "to do list".  

A post Christmas purchase was the following book which arrived yesterday:

A quick look suggests I will have lots of pleasure from it.  Black and white photographs for obvious reasons, and some of the site maps are a bit small but lots of ideas and inspiration.  Sixteen breweries are featured; six at Burton on Trent, The Guinness plants in London and Dublin,  and the rest from around the country, including Oakhill Brewery, Somerset, which will be the nearest to me.  

Lots of inspirational photos as well.  A lovely little 0-4-0 Bagnall loco ("Mendip") that was used on the Oakhill brewery:

And a picture of Vicotorian visitors being taken round the Guinness factory, so another use for the LGB Excursion coaches:

£4 plus £2.50 P&P off ebay.  Highly recommended at that price if this is your sort of thing.  Plans are in hand for kitbashed expansions to the Cardinal Brewery fleet as well.  

2013 - New rolling stock

In some ways this is latest in, first post as the Tram loco only arrived a day or so ago (secondhand form a dealer and whilst chipped there is no sound or smoke).  The coaches were acquired in the autumn.  It was as if somebody had disposed of rolling stock used in circumstances similar to mine.

The more I plan and build, then the more the mantra "small is beautiful" comes into play.  R3 curves are a luxury in my (small) garden, R2 more likely and some R1 will appear.  Thus, shrinkage of rolling stock from 300mm to 200/250mm gets important.  I've also begun to appreciate the German/Austrian psyche a little for open top, sightseeing cars (tourist suicide in the UK).

The base concept (Lake Constance) has also moved forward - I got a couple of books from my German chum when in Essen.  So, we have the concept of the tourist, sightseeing train...   The pictures show the Tram engine, whereas  had originally hoped to have a video of the recently upgraded (to sound) Borsig Spremburger which has a nice "throaty chuff" to compliment its squat size.

Still on the look out for a second "baggage" wagon or the small feldbahn coach to serve as such.

2013 - the brief update

Long time no blog...

The usual reasons, some good, some not so good.  The not so good include various domestic issues and crisis, some of which are still ongoing coupled with a November/December that saw me get one cold after another - with around a gap of a week between each - ending up in my sinuses getting infected and me generally being extremely run down.  The good include various trips away, all of which ended up in a railway link although the prime purpose was not the railway visit.

October was the Essen (Germany) boardgames fair.  I did take a day out to go to the Bochum Dalhausen Railway museum - which has a variety of locos (in a big roundhouse), coaches, wagons etc.  This will be a seperate post but a couple of quick entries (photos are web links - if they vanish then I'll replace them with mine once I've finished editing them):
I saw an E94 - which is as impressive and intimidating as it looks and just reeks power.  (This set me thinking about one for the railway but the model scales out at 730 mm long and although the loco is articlated it's still BIG.  LGB model some of the baby crocs that the RHB has which are a bit smaller).

Another prime view was the 0-10-0 rack loco 97 502.  The rack mechanism - the top set of valve gear was used to maintain speed on 3 km long incline as the loco was used on passenger services.  

Lots of other goodies as well - draisines, Saxon coaches and mail vans, Grey BR80 locos....

November was back to The Dutch Steam tram museum at Hoorn except this time we (as Ann was with me) only did the steam train one way and then caught the boat.  Good news was the the loco shed was fairly empty and we were hauled by a different loco from what I had in 2011.   I have more video footage from riding on the carriage end behind the loco (and it was very cold this time) to edit and post. have to say that I am getting a very soft spot for this museum...

The other bonus was that a chance conversation in the engine shed led to one of the "other" storage sheds being unlocked for us and my chance to see my first "Tram" loco up close.  (On my previous visit in 2011 - a year before this visit - this had been stripped down to its chassis in the workshops).  

We got a walk through and sight of some other carriages and wagons as well:

3rd Class = wooden seats

2nd Class = leather/vinyl padded seats

1st Class = Velvet cushions...

December was Christmas but Boxing Day saw a visit out to the coast and baby seals and on the way back a detour to the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway where I did a quick run up/down the platform.    Given that it is say 20 miles from Ann's sister's house, then something to go to in the summer when it is open.  

The continuing weather (i.e. rain) has meant little progress in the garden because of  the mud - a short cold spell in December had me hoping that the frozen ground would let me make some progress.  So, we have tended to concentrate on infrastructure, both buying stuff and understanding/upgrading what we have.  Mid December I ordered the second part (i.e. ball bearing wheels) of a rolling road only to find it went out of stock the day after I ordered it.  Rolling road should enable better close up (sound as speed increases) videos of new acquisitons.  Christmas present was a SPROG 3 programming module which should work with the Mac.  

Chris