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.   

 

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.

New arrival, nameplates and changes

One year on and all sorts of things are firming up.

The whole idea of the Lake Constance/Bodensee inspired railway - to enable me to have German / Austrian and Swiss stock int eh same place at the same time.  I've been researching that with a bit of a what if as some of the islands compare favourable with the Rügen Islands and Wangerooge both of which have railway networks. More on that later though.

One of the nice things about Austrian G scale is the Austrian U class.  The Zillertal loco (0-6-2T) was an early purchase and had a nice feel to it and a comfortable size (340 mm long) and ever since then I look longingly at the others as they come to ebay.  Within the others there were two particular favourites, a Green lined yellow or a Grey lined red compared with the black of the Zillertal.  Well, when I collected the things detailed in the Long overdue update Part 1 I saw a Grey U class.  After some thought I thought I'd go for it, and its been chipped with the dedicated Massoth chip.  Its a tiny bit pre-loved (like lots of my stuff) with tiny details like a broken whistle but I've bought my stuff to run, not become shelf queens.  

Unfortunately darkness fell before I could get any really good pictures or video outdoors, so this is a quick indoor shot as I checked out all the functions on the chipping.  

This should double head with the Zillertal too: hopefully at the weekend I should be able to check if that is feasible.  More pictures of the Austrian Stock when I cover the Lake Constance. 

Tonight also saw a bit more more of turning things around.  The Spreewald (see the Boys just wanna run trains post) was given its own dedicated sound card, which meant that the sound box van was now redundant on the same ID number.  

A long while back (just after christmas) I took delivery of some custom nameplates from Narrow planet following them featuring on the Elly, James and Keith light railway where James had been doing some scratchbuilding.  I need to do a photo of what I had done, but they included a set for Ann to "name" her own loco (Projekt X having gone on the back burner a little) and she's chosen one of the Borsigs..

I still need to fix the nameplates on (rather than using white tack) and I know (before the purists say anything) that the running number is completely wrong for a narrow gauge loco (which should start 99) but this number will have some meaning for Ann. There's a makers name badge as well which I haven't fixed on.  

The Borsig is LGB factory chipped (but with no sound), so I altered the box van ID to match the loco Id, so there is sound.   There will be a slight issue as the whistle button ID is 1 which is also the same as the smoke generator but that will just have to be lived with for now.  With no specific chip for the Borsig (the original has been in a warehouse I think since 1982 and not fired up) then it may be one of the last locos to be given sound as an alternative is chosen.