Harz Railways Bookzines, Books and others of interest

dunnyrail

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The last batch arrived today. Now I need to find some space for the best part of a foot of new books on my bookshelves when I have read them all. This pic does show the difference in sizes.
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dunnyrail

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Hi Jon,

I have now received my copy. What a great issue. Has lots of useful information. Thanks for recommending it to me.

Regards

MTheStrong
Glad you liked it.
 

dunnyrail

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DEPARTMENTAL MULTIPLE UNITS £4.60

This is probably not of much interest from the Garden Railway inspiration point of view, though perhaps maybee? But wow what an interesting read. To see the many and different kinds of kit that BR created for all sorts of uses, depot tractors, training, rail cleaning even tree lopping and many more. I pondered over this when I saw it and had a free quick look. So glad I finally bought it though, great read. Cover seen with my great find 2018 West Somerset Timetable bookmark!image.jpeg
 

dunnyrail

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I took a trip to Stamford last Saturday, just wanted to add another Weatherspoons to my list and visit Robert Humm in his new bookshop. The Station is a superb Survivor and the following pic shows the view from the footbridge just after retraining from my service that I caught at Peterborough.
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I managed to find an unexpected book on Slot Machines by David Voice, no not the things you find on a Seaside Pier but UK Cable Cars. Rather an interesting find. David has done a few interesting and different Tram Books.
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Whilst I was in the Humm Bookshop I noticed a small German book on the Selktalbahn by ‘alba’, now at what I thought was a price of £20 I convinced myself that I already had it. But when I got home it was not the Book that I had got by the same publisher. That is shown on the left of the following Pic. So off I trotted to Stamford again for the Selktalbahn one in the right. Got a nice surprise as due to the poor writing the price was £12, enough change out of a twenty for a couple of beers on the way home - result. Now I have the two books that they have produced of the Harz NG.
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The Selktal Book was well worth my getting, though many of the pictures are the usual suspects there are enough previously unseen by me ones in it to justify the cost.
 

PhilP

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Jon,
How many pages does the David Voice book run to?

Are / were there many cable-hauled tramways in the UK. - Excluding inclines and funiculars. :think::think:
 

dunnyrail

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Jon,
How many pages does the David Voice book run to?

Are / were there many cable-hauled tramways in the UK. - Excluding inclines and funiculars. :think::think:
133 Pages. Lists systems at:-
Highgate London
Edinburgh
Birmingham
Brixton Hill London
Matlock
Upper Douglas Isle of Man
Swansea
Llandudno
Not that many but all were pretty interesting, Birmingham particularly so as it used a Steam Tram to shunt the cars round the Depot at Hockley Bridge. At £25 for a Non Hardback Book it is possibly a little on the pricy side, but the content is relatively obscure so one imagines that the print run would be quite modest.
 

PhilP

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Thanks for the info Jon.. :)
 

dunnyrail

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At the Show in Arlesley yesterday I managed to pick up this interesting German Language Book.
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The Waldenburgerbahn is an interesting Swiss Railway as it is currently the (to my best belief) only 750mm Gauge non rack Railway in Switzerland. Currently Electrified and possibly a plan to be converted to Metre Gauge sometime it is well worth a trip if you are in that neck of the woods. A short hop from Basel it runs from Liestal to Waldenburg through a pretty Valley. There may still be some Steam action with one of the original GE 3/3 0-6-0t Steam Locomotives dating from around 1903, though you would need to check before travel as to this availability. Earlier Locomotives included some System Brown 0-4-0’s and an 1883 0-6-0 with Stainz Type Valve Gear and skirts to hide the motion, most odd. Another 0-6-0 with outside frames and angled Pistons certainly enlivened the variety in the earlier years. In 1936 an 0-8-2 appeared which appeared to be still working in the 50’s later with 298.14 an Austrian 0-6-2 appearing in the 70’s to delight the locals.

What interested me a great deal was the Stock list for this predominantly Passenger Railway. This in 1966 included 10 Bogie Coaches, 4 Permanent Way Wagons and 20 Goods Wagons comprising 8 Ko Vans, 10 Mo Opens and 2 OMo Bogie Opens. This strikes me as a good balance to aim for with a resonance sized Garden Railway. Of course for a line with a greater preponderance of Freight things would be somewhat different.

There is a lovely Picture of a Mixed Train stopping at Hölstein with 2 Vans next to the Engine, 2 Coaches and an indeterminate amount of Wagons on the rear. This pic shows Staff checking out Large Parcels either from or to the the Train and a Trolley being perambulated away from the Train by a Local with what looks like Fruit of Chicken boxes. Meanwhile the Driver of the 0-6-0 ”Waldenburg” looks anxiously back awaiting the Right Away. Marvelous value for just £5.00
 

idlemarvel

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Excellent find and handy summary, thanks.
 

dunnyrail

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I managed to track down some Pictures of the line when I visited it in 2007.

I forgot to mention that when the line was built it was Mixed Gauge after leaving the Platforms at Liestal with 4 Rails I.E. the NG completely in the middle till it turned Sharp Right after a short distance to head up the Valley alone. The first pic shows in the rear right distance the Embankment built around 1923 to separate the 2 lines.CF6A50A1-9B7B-4143-B16C-48513971764C.jpeg
Electrification came to the line in 1953 with other than the loss of Steam everything carrying on as before, Trains also having Carriages and Mixed Wagon / Passenger Trains to move Freight as well. The units in these pictures are the replacement ones for the originals. This occurred in 1985 with some of the older ones migrating to Austria for a sadly never occurring reopening of the closed part of the Mariezell Line to Gusswerk. When I visited early this century the Track was certainly still in place leaving Mariazell. These Cars have apparently migrated to the Museum at Prora in East Germany. Certainly well traveled cars. The small 4 wheeled Vans originally on the line are a very close match for LGB Toy Train ones.
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A few Wagons still survive, presumably predominantly for Engineers duties and this little lot were present at Leistall. G212 was not listed in the 1966 survey of Freight Vehicles so may just have been a conversion from a couple of the 4 wheel Vans, though my assumptions of stock may be a little out looking closer at Weights there appears to have been just 1 Bogie Open and perhaps 1 Bogie Van so these 2 may be them though the numbers are different. However the Stock Totals are correct by Type.
A218D950-A94C-4649-91D1-1A8D97561201.jpeg387C4AB6-FF53-48C5-A6D0-2CF5353297C5.jpeg
 

PaulRhB

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Saw this in the November CM and found it for £20 incl post from Germany on eBay
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Nice selection on the existing three lines in DR and modern periods.
There’s also a good 1hr ish German language dvd, (just enjoy the shots if you don’t speak German), from the end of the DR period with Steam SG still interchanging at Gernrode plus freight trains :)
Well worth £20 for this and they delivered in 4 days too!
 

PaulRhB

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PhilP

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Oh-er!
Woz-zat, Push-me, Pull-you thingy?

Please Paul..
 

PaulRhB

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PhilP

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Thanks Paul.. :)
 

DRG11

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Thanks, looks like another good mag to get on Harz etc :)
 

dunnyrail

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I am a bit of a Map nut and have a great need for a decent map of French Railways. I am aware of the Schweers and Wall one, but it is of just Northern France and this was printed in 2015 with still no sign of the rest of the Country. So when I saw this in Voi Libre I ordered one, fortunately with much more luck than I have been Having with Germany trying to order Eisenbahn-Paradise Harz that Paul recently reviewed.

So what are my views of this Map, well it covers my needs but the lack of a front index is a real pain as all the maps are listed in Dėpartments alphabetic order. Tedious if you are unfamiliar of where those regions are. There is not a Legend of the Lines used in the Map though each Dėpartment does have one at the top of each page. What was the cost €42.40 with postage from France. Would I buy it if I had not already, yes it does fulfill a real requirement for me. The Maps have been produced in what I consider to be a charming way. I like it.
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dunnyrail

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NARROW GAUGE WORLD ISSUE 146 MAR-APR 2020
Not a Magazine that I buy every issue but this one has a piece that is of great interest. Reports of a Barry Type Scrapyard in Zaragoza. A Town I visited in the 70’s, I wonder if there was anything there then, if only I had known. Anyhow Spanish NG has always been of interest to me, missing Steam in Majorca by not too many years but never being brave enough to risk Spain in the 60’s when there was much of interest still about.

So in more recent times I visited Alicante in 1990 and had to travel on the line to Denia. Of great interest was that much of the infrastructure of the line to Alicante was still present at Denia. But more interesting was the remains of the old line to Cartagente just across the way. In fact the old Terminus had been used for some years by the Alicante Trains after the Cartagente line closed thus probably preserving the site a little in aspic.

In 1990 this is what I found, note the remains if the overhead roof and Turntable particularly in the BnW pic.
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Now in NGW the report lists 2 surviving Black Hawthorne 4-4-0’s Works No 618 and 676 of 1881 No’s 1 and 4 from the CD Line. Perhaps in the pic below right shows one of these remarkable survivors in happier days at the Roundhouse. 7B92D5DE-B32A-4FDE-85ED-E6EAD4B43493.jpeg
Now if ever 2 locomotives deserve to be repatriated, these two do. Also for those interested this line (the Cd) already has a Train ready to go as it had a couple of Pig Nosed Wismar Railcars so beautifully made by LGB.
 

dunnyrail

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Just 4 years since I started this thread, and still buying books. Not sure why I never noticed but one of the starter ones was Harzer no II. How did I miss that, still never mind managed to search for No I yesterday and it arrived today. As did the French book No6 in the series (blue one on the right I think that there are 5 and I now have 4), not cheep but a superb resource. Just need no.7 now for the set.
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dunnyrail

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I have edited the Title of this thread to reflect the reality that I sometimes review Books in this thread as well, makes it easier for my management of threads that I have created.

So this one I saw advertised by Platform 5 in Today's Raikways Europe and as it looked interesting I ordered a copy but via Amazon as that gave me a saving getting on for £15 by the time you take in P5 inflated cost and massive postage. It cost just a few coppers over £30 and when you allow for the fact that it was ordered Tuesday and arrived yesterday evening when I was in the pub one cannit fault the service from Amazon, much as I hate some of the ethics of them. But let us not get into that! As this was tabled as Band 2 I also searched for Band 1, this was most interesting as it is for East Germany but I have had to get that via the second hand trade, also Amazon and has at least been dispatched. But that was considerably more expensive. In the old days I would have ordered these direct from Germany and in fact found a Band 1 considerably cheeper, but supplier would not deal with UK! Alright in the rest of EU though!

So what is band 2 all about, well it is a superb collection with interesting Pics, maps, track plans and timetables of sundry what I can only call the equivalent of Col.Stephens Light Railways but in West Germany. Many of these lines were fairly large by UK Light Railway standards but no less interesting for that. Some are Standard Gauge, some Narrow and it was i teresting to see a Jaegermeister Standard Gauge version of the LGB Pig Snout Railcar in the pages. On the NG front there are pictures of what look to be like LGB 2051/21510 BoBo Centre Cab Loco (DB 252 class) that I associated with the Oschenhausen Bahn (south of Ulm) but clearly they mast have moved around a bit as these are in the Nebenbahn from Mosbach near Heidelburg. Of course there was also the one recently mentioned within this forum that ended up on the RHB, was this converted from 750mm to Metre Gauge or was it one from a similar batch that was built for Metre Gauge? There was an article about this class in the G Scale Society Journal some years back that may clarify. But I digress, this book has much inspiration for both SG and NG, certainly using Piko trains a good SG line could easily be built, 4 wheel Railcars, the class 2-6-2 tank and 2-6-0 tender variant plus the 4 wheel stock and many of the wagons give a great start. No reason why a 50 could not be used either though none appear in the book, biggest I have noted on a flick through is a 2-8-0 Tender Engine. Food for thought if you like backwoods minor small interesting Railways.
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Will report on Band 2 when it appears.
 
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