HSB goes indoors

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ColinK

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Hi from a new member. First, many thanks to everyone who replied to my 'new member' post.

I had a garden railway for about 10 years, based mainly on what I saw on visits to East Germany, my first trip there being in 1988. Here is a link to the cine film I took on that trip

The garden line was dismantled 5 years ago as we were going to move house. Now we are settled in our new home and all the DIY is done, its time to get the LGB out again. We have no garden, so the model railway has to go inside. I've the front room downstairs and I had a framework professionally built. It can take two layouts, one above the other. At present my small OO layout is on the bottom shelf and the G Scale is on the top.

So far, I've made the baseboards (thanks due to folks at the model railway club who showed me how to make square and flat boards), laid the track and yesterday done the wiring. Its early days yet, but trains can run and the points change by remote control. I'll upload some photos when my computer has stopped misbehaving.
 
Hi Paul, most of my stock is from the Harz, so it will have a Harz flavour.

As promised, here are a few pics, not very exciting yet, but constructing the lift out section was quite a challenge.

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ColinK said:
Hi from a new member. First, many thanks to everyone who replied to my 'new member' post.

I had a garden railway for about 10 years, based mainly on what I saw on visits to East Germany, my first trip there being in 1988. Here is a link to the cine film I took on that trip
.
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So many thanks for posting an important piece of Historical Movie. I assume that the sound was as in the day which helps me to understand why you gave up Movie with sound would be horribly exoensive as you way. If you have dubbed it, well a superb job sir.

There is so much in here that it would be difficult to mention it all, the 0-6-0 shunting at Wern Hasserode has to be a classic. I have a small section taken here with the 0-6-0 as well taken perhaps within a year or three from yours with my first Camcorder.

Few people realise today that the Harz used to be the Trans Harz with services between Wernigode and Nordhausen as the norm, the Brocken being just an important side show. Of course this was the situation in the days of the East with only Schierke being served by Non Military Trains for the village residents. Brocken itself only used to get Military Trains with suplies and presumably personnel. That 3 coach train leaving Wernigerode early in the Film could be just such a Train flr the village.

Plenty of Freight still in evidence and the sequence at Stiege is super and helps me to understand Cut Timber en route to Silberhutte for presumably the Barrell Works located there. My favourite formation of 2 Coaches and a Red Van shows up nicely at Gernrode. How silly it and the 2 coach look behind a 2-10-2 but perfect for your indoor line.

I had not found this sequence before as I usually search Youtube for Historical Vids for my Modelling research. Must try the place that you have rested yours in to see if there are other older Movies of the Harz in the old days of the Reich as they are pretty but not entirely rare.
JonD
 
Many thanks for your kind words. The sound is indeed the original. Getting the cine film digitised was very expensive, but worthwhile if people like you enjoy it. The digital vesion is in HD, but I've had to reduce the quality a little to post it on Vimeo free of charge. I use Vimeo in preference to Youtube as there are no adverts to annoy people, but the search engine is very poor. It sure was a very different railway in the Harz back in 1988 to what it is now. Many thanks, Colin
 
ColinK said:
Many thanks for your kind words. The sound is indeed the original. Getting the cine film digitised was very expensive, but worthwhile if people like you enjoy it. The digital vesion is in HD, but I've had to reduce the quality a little to post it on Vimeo free of charge. I use Vimeo in preference to Youtube as there are no adverts to annoy people, but the search engine is very poor. It sure was a very different railway in the Harz back in 1988 to what it is now. Many thanks, Colin
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Wow!
Remined me of visits in 94 & 95, all seams abit to polished these days. You can see its true use and not the tourist side you see to day, it's a bit like seeing early footage of the Festiniog and Talyllyn! Must be having a Harz day, saw a copy of Die fahrzeuge der Harzer Schmalspurbahnen on amazan on Friday, came this morning, your film is a nice treat.
Pete
 
Colin and Pete, Pity you guys live so far away, sure you would enjoy a Running Session on my representation of the Selktalbahn. Timetable running based in circa Feb 1981 the date of my first visit to the Harz.
JonD
 
dunnyrail said:
Colin and Pete, Pity you guys live so far away, sure you would enjoy a Running Session on my representation of the Selktalbahn. Timetable running based in circa Feb 1981 the date of my first visit to the Harz.
JonD
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That would be great fun. If I'm coming your way sometime is it OK if I get in touch?
 
ColinK said:
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I had a garden railway for about 10 years, based mainly on what I saw on visits to East Germany, my first trip there being in 1988. Here is a link to the cine film I took on that trip
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What an amazing video montage Colin, well filmed and edited, thank you.
As others have said too many good bits to mention them all, but it was nice to see the real life reverse loop in action, and prototypical short trains, and I'm still amazed by how small the narrow gauge locos seem compared to the standard gauge box cars on roll wagons. And by the immense clouds of thick black smoke they generate. Thanks again.
 
Excellent pics. I expect the black smoke comes from burning low grade brown coal (Lignite). They look a lot cleaner than that now pulling twice the load.
 
A most enjoyable set of films. It was a bit of an eye opener for me having no knowledge of German narrow gauge practice. I have always thought of the German locomotives being over large for narrow gauge and to me it seemed a bit unrealistic to think of them hauling only a couple of coaches or wagons. I was pleased to see that practice is quite prototypical. The longest train I counted had no more than six coaches and there were several with only two or three, also two or three wagons seemed quite typical, some trains being not much longer than the locomotive itself. Very informative, thank you.

David
 
dunnyrail said:
Colin and Pete, Pity you guys live so far away, sure you would enjoy a Running Session on my representation of the Selktalbahn. Timetable running based in circa Feb 1981 the date of my first visit to the Harz.
JonD
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Well nearly dropped in at tea time last night! Day trip to London to see the David Hockney exhibition and the west coast went pear shaped, home via ECML, Leeds and Manchester, quite a day out!! mind you I didn't have the out of gauge kamel with me!
Pete
 
Fezwig said:
Well nearly dropped in at tea time last night! Day trip to London to see the David Hockney exhibition and the west coast went pear shaped, home via ECML, Leeds and Manchester, quite a day out!! mind you I didn't have the out of gauge kamel with me!
Pete
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You Railway with Travel?
JonD
 
No work so far this week, so a bit of progress. I've made platform edgings from balsa sprayed with stone effect paint. The line nearest the camera is the inside of the platform face, hence the lack of paint.

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I've now completed painting the platform edge.

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Before glueing, the balsa edging had been sprayed with stone effect paint (thanks for the suggestion). Once the glue was dry I tried to make each slab look different using Humbrol enamel washes (plus some Woodland Scenics green). I did 6 to 8 'stones' at a time. First I brushed dark grey into the joins to try and create a shadow effect. While the grey was still wet, I then painted some individual stones with dark brown, white or green. Again before the paint was dry, I painted all the stones, including those already painted brown/white/green, with a sand wash. The aim being to make all the stones slightly different, but still toning in together. Hopefully this has worked.

If you wonder what the black is under the track on the left, it is thin plasticard. The layout is on 8 baseboards and needs to be able to be dismantled. To assist this, the track section over the baseboard can be removed by undoing the Hillman rail clamps (I remembered to get the screwheads on the right side). The black plasticard will be glued to the sleepers on the removable track, after which it will be ballasted. Hopefully I'll just be able to lift the section out, complete with ballast. There is also a small length of similar plasticard under the end of the fixed track to bring it up to the same height as the removable section.

What I am finding suprising/challenging is all the new things I need to find out because I've gone indoors with my LGB. For example, I need some platform lamps, but these need to work and be easily removed, yet look realistic - where can I find some?
Secondly, there is a space between the tracks which won't all be filled with ballast, so I'm having to study photographs of the Harz lines to find out what would be there - certainly don't want flat painted baseboard on show.
Third, I'm going to need some doors and windows for my scratch built station building, but where do I get them from?

There will now be a couple of months gap while I'm too busy with work etc to make much progress.
 
Between the ballast tends to be finer stone mixed with various amounts of growth of grass at many stations.
Platform lamps of the modern HSB style aren't made as far as I could see. There are various old style lamps on eBay.
I made up the light posts out of plastic tube and was just going to add a shade and LED on top, which I never got round too.
For ease of removal think about using small audio jacks, you could glue the plug into the base of the post and mount the socket in the baseboard so they just plug in a bit like the HO Busch lamps.
 
Thanks for your help and encouragement Paul.

I've been looking closely at DaveF's european photos on RMweb.
 
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