Mixed running: the prototype

Ok, so I may not post much, but that generally means that I'm busy with life or reading magazines, books or watching videos.

Two recent videos really caught my eye.
Both are "prototype" (i.e. real trains) Rhb (Rhatische Bahn) sessions.  What I enjoyed was the mixture of rolling stock and trains.   I think I have said before that I doubt I have the money to "model" the RHB in a pure sense.  But from a Narrow gauge - anything goes - view then these videos are wonderful.

There's almost everything.   I love the last wagon in some of the shots with a single car on it and wonder, where is it going and why ?  

OK, so not so many steam trains but then Iscatalbahn has a reasonable diesel roster as well.    

Have I become a Rivet Counter ?

It is a bridge I suspect that all model railway people face - the chasm of the rivet counter, when historical accuracy or true to life realism says no to a purchase or running trains.  Problem is that some people can become so obsessive that its almost like - OK so my model railway represents October 14th 1962 (which whilst a random date I've just made up had some pretty important things happen on it) because look at the photos on the newspapers in the shop... etc...

I had one of those moments this morning but I think I'm still safely in the land of the non rivet counter.

Last year I got my first (and so far only) double motor locomotive - the Austrian 2095.  This is a nice, red, diesel that will happily push the snowplow around the garden (although yet to try with actual snow, but it had enough oomph to cope with the brick in the cart).  I like it because of its compactness (length is only 460mm) and lack of protruding parts, nooks and crannies were it to face actual snow....

After some research this morning I established that mine has the generic LGB European Diesel sound card.

It has the running number 205.06.  There were 15 of these locos made for Austrian narrow gauge lines.   

LGB have made the locomotive with a number of running numbers.  So today, we have on eBay another 2095, already fitted with a Massoth digital sound card but in the red/cream earlier livery of Austrian railways and the "eagle" motif at the front. 

And with an hour left there are still no bids on it.  The starting price is reasonable and realistic - at £300, then a Massoth chip is £175-£200 ish new, meaning only £100+ for the loco.   Double heading would mean 4 motors vs the evil snow and immense pulling power.  However, it shares the same running number - 2095.06- which means is replicates the same real life loco in an earlier livery.  

Do I need it desperately?  No!  

Would I like it? Yes!

Finally, with a few minutes to go, someone puts a bid in on it.  

Ultimately I decide not to bid because of the running number issue and because I could also use £300 towards the Dollnitz Diesel fund.  Put the two side by side and once aware of it, then my eye, and I think those of a number of my friends would be drawn to spot the similarity.  And I know that there are other running numbers out there and which will presumably crop up at some time in the future.  

Still in the land of the non rivet counters...  

  

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.  

Moving Forward and Looking back no2: Size and Cardboard Locomotives

January also appears to mean that he manufacturers announce what they are intending to release in the coming year, some of which will have been seen "in the plastic" so to speak at the Nuremberg toy fair.  There are also announcements about what will be discontinued.   Because of the cost I've bought very little new from shops (aside from the digital starter as I needed electrics that would work and could be relied upon) - which caused a bit of thinking about did I want to get anything that might be disappearing.

One of the problems I have though is visualising exactly how big some things are going to be and how they will look on my proposed track, which is going to feature Radius 1 and 2 curves, with some radius 3 (which many people regard as the minimum) curves a luxury in some places.  Since I'm running around the lawn as well, then it is what I gather could best be described as a "shelf layout" in HO/OO parlance, and I have a book of shelf layouts coming.

This is where the Cardboard locomotives come in.  Earlier posts have seen the Taurus and Railbus, but on the saving up agenda was a bigger diesel.  Researching sounds for the 0-4-0 shunters I have, had caused me to discover speed limitations on smaller things, so I make mock up of an 0-6-0's and 0-4-4-0.  Once of the pre Christmas Ebay bargains was a Bachmann big haulier coach as well.  

(Starting at the front we have 0-4-0, basic 30mm goods wagon, 0-6-0 Corpet Louvet, Cardboard 0-6-0, Cardboard 0-4-4-0, Cardboard Saxon steam 0-4-4-0, Big coach, and Taurus at 71.5 cm).  

One of the other things on the "shopping list" was a tender locomotive but the basic LGB 0-4-0 + tender, always looks like the modified Stainz that it is in any photos.  Previous posts have mentioned the Nicki Frank S (with video of real train) but with second hand prices of £400 upwards for unchipped versions then it was an unlikely purchase.  Amongst this years LGB releases though is an MTS (sound as well I think) equipped black version of the 0-6-0 plus motorised tender: I think RRP for this is around £800+ so looks even more unlikely.  I am in short, discovering that one pays for LGB build quality.  In January I'd been looking at what I had though, and when I get track down in the garden its going to be reasonably short of space: too much stuff already.  I'd also started to kick around ideas of platform lengths

The Bachmann coach was an Ebay bargain and potentially its future life is to be converted into my grande dining car with table lamps etc as putting people into the Austrian dining car showed up some of its limitations.   I knew a full size (500mm+) was going to be big but its not until you hand them that its size becomes really apparent.   Photos that follow are putting it on radius 1 (600mm r) curves.  

  

Looking forwards and backwards... but I can have everything out at once

OK, so no posts for a while.  Real life and all that a bit and I've diverted into reading magazines and books.  I look forward to the Garden railways magazine from the States which is only bi-monthly, less so to the UK's Garden Rail which often a substantial element of live steam about it which is not of much interest to me.  Christmas time bought even more though with a couple of issues of Narrow Guage world that had lots of eye candy pictures and articles to interest me.  And this is all topped off by the traditional smaller scale model railway magazines  such as Continental Modeller (UK) and Model Railroader (US), all of which have had lots in recent weeks to interest me.

More on these in subsequent blogs as I cover what I'm being inspired to do.  

I've also been doing a bit of a stock take as the purchasing habit was getting out of hand and it was time to consider what was I actually doing.  I'd bought a couple of things via Ebay that were cheap, that whilst fitting in with mythical Iscatalbahn land, may not have been the most sensible.  For example the mountainous rural existence, that produces timber, sheep/cows, cheese, beer and I was thinking I could have a quarry with quality marble as well.  So, when a couple of stock wagons come up I make a realtively low bid and end up with them.  It's not that I don't want them, but are 450mm+ long wagons the best thing in my limited space garden ? Likewise, a Sion Kolsch (Cologne Beer) reefer came up at a very reasonable price second hand from one of the dealers, and I've got a soft spot for Cologne and its beer but again it's another long reefer.  Have I bought too much rolling stock, too many locomotives, because they were cheap ?  I could probably get away with much less, although each item has its own charm and place in my vision and I certainly don't think I've paid over the odds for anything or got any bad bargains, although my understanding of 'bargain' is much better.

Pictures of the locomotive and wagon mountain... (which looks unsightly because unboxed stuff is cheaper on ebay and secondhand, but lacking a shed to store it in on shelves, then I'm scrounging what boxes I can).

Wagons and coaches

Locomotives

But I have also come across some real life videos that would support having my mixed bag of stuff all out together at the same time..

The following I assume is Marklin taking real life examples of what they make to an open day somewhere.  

An idea is born - IMB or IB

One of the things on the railway has always been the modelling aspect alongside the operations of it.  OK, so G scale and the demands of the the garden mean that some aspects of traditional railway modelling just don't take place.  

Aside from Projekt X (the Stainz respray) I already have a couple of other items off Ebay (a Piko Caboose and a Bachmann Coach, as well as an LGB speisewagon) that will ultimately go under the hacksaw and spray can.   A locomotive from a chassis is a long way in the future at the moment, and I would start with one of the kits out there.

Most real life railway stock seems to carry all sort of owners marks and numbers etc - some of which I understand.  Iscatalbahn was struggling from a lack of corporate identity though.  Just putting a letter "I" on the side of things seemed a bit lame.

Whilst researching sounds available from manufacturers that might suit the locos I have as I get them chipped then I've been looking at pictures of the real locos to match size and configuration.  One of the possibilities is the Dampflokomotive der Härtsfeldbahn from Dietz  - at the The Härtsfeld-Museumsbahn and particular Dampflokomotive 12 .  

Looking around the site as one is prone to do, I came across a ballast wagon with the initials HMB for H(artsfeld) M(useem) B(ahn) in big black letters on the side.

So, Iscatalbahn can become IMB, or IB....  
Simple and obvious really...

And since a blog, like a good book should have pictures, then here is a short video (not mine) of locomotive number 12  from You tube...

Thomasdorf am Exe

On my birthday I received a station kit from a good friend, on what was also his stag night.   Last weekend I made it up on a temporary basis using double sided tape and sellotape (so fine details like guttering have been left off).

I also made up some temporary name boards with Thomasdorf am Exe.  That name seemed a suitable name to reflect my current location.  There is a real Thomasdorf in Austria (little village south of Vienna), and there was one in Silesia (Germany) until after the first world war when it moved to Poland, and then after the second world war when it moved to Czechoslovakia.  The pictures also reflect a couple more new (second hand) purchases but more on those later.

I love the smell of Brasso in the morning....

Been away because of Birthday and a friend's wedding and have a new (second hand) goodie to show off as my birthday present to me.  Today however it rained on my day off, so we spent some tome with the brasso and some of the second hand track I've bought.     

Switching fun - Comments and online puzzles

I started off looking to create a freightyard for some shunting/switching fun to actually have a purpose to operate (i.e. play) with my trains.  The trackplan still has some work to be done on it and my "industries" will have have a strong brewery presence due to what distinctive wagons I've been able to get at a reasonable price i.e. :
Yellow = Cardinal Beer (2 cars)
Black = Lokeim Beer (2 cars)
Blue = Lowenbrau (beer again)
Green = R Blank (Vegetables and flowers)
Misc: two green open wagons, 1 brown open wagon and 1 grey box car

Ultimately it would be good to have some tank wagons and something based around white/red but we've got enough for now.

Reading the various magazine articles plus some searching on the web has brought up a couple of good sites which feature track plans and puzzles:

Large Scale Central features two puzzles, Riverside and Inglenook Sidings which are computer puzzles where you move the train, uncouple it, move the points etc.   (I take no responsibility for any time wasted trying to solve these puzzles online).

Model Railway Shunting Puzzles features Timesaver and Inglenook puzzles, along with a piece about mathematic equations and solving them.

Trackplan is to be looked at in the light of these puzzles, and of course what space I have.

Why a train set ? Am I a chuffer nutter ?

Some people have been surprised by this 'reward to me' of a train set for the garden and queried my level of interest in trains.

I've always liked trains, although modelling them previously always struck me as hard work because of the electrics and the physical limitations of trying to do anything inside (DCC and the garden take care of both of these to some extent).  I'm good for an hour or so in a railway museum, and would make a detour to take one in if convenient.  On the other hand though I couldn't tell you much about lots of railway things or identify particular types of locomotives from pictures.

To me there is a bit of romance to train travel (and of course it requires no concentration, unlike driving).
When in Delhi we went to the Indian Railway Museum (this is the old site, which has many more pictures than the new site here .  In France on the railpass we had an enjoyable (if shaky) ride down to Nice on the Chemins de Fer de Provence although you need to go this bit of the site for the pictures, and here for some nifty 360 degree photography.  It was this where we saw papers being delivered, mail being collected, etc that set me thinking with a theme for a narrow gauge railway in miniature.  In Italy we were on board the train as it went onto the ferry to get to Sicily.  When in Germany I went on the Cog rail up the Drachenfels

Here locally in Exeter, then I've been known to go down to the local platform (OK so it's only 5 minutes walk) to see the steam train on the steam excursions.

Both of us would make time for trains - particularly steam trains.  So interested but not obsessive.