Indoor Saxony Railway

[JRinTawa]

Being winter down here in NZ the Wellington Garden Railway Group sort out another indoor venue for their monthly running day (turned out sunny anyway but who can pick the weather!). The regulars were in for a real treat with a visit to a large indoor 1:32 scale Saxony railway.

Tim is not a member of the WGRG, though we'd love to have him! But with a 21mx12m basement the railway is bigger than most gardens!

It is a mix of standard gauge DB stock on 45mm gauge track and 750mm narrow gauge on 32mm gauge track.

Absolutely beautiful models. Perhaps fidelity of the detail would be tempting fate out in the garden. Tim is one really nice gent, and he has a 15 year plan in place to have the railway completed. It's so well planned out I fully expect the goal to be achieved.

And the tender.

 

[Zerogee]

Great pics, John, and exquisite modelling!

Are they scratchbuilt, commercial, or a mixture?

Thanks for posting.

Jon.

 

[JRinTawa]

The lads were certainly impressed.

Roll wagons to carry standard gauge on the narrow gauge.

Oh and did I say the railway is on two levels

The stock is a mix of Marklin, Hubner, KM1 Modellbau and possibly another (I forgot).

I was just impressed regardless of the make.

 

[JRinTawa]

Great pics, John, and exquisite modelling!

Are they scratchbuilt, commercial, or a mixture?

Thanks for posting.

Jon.

Rolling stock is commercial Jon, though I got the impression some of the makers are kind of specialist doing limited runs. It's buildings and scenery that are really Tim's specialty, so it's going to be exciting to watch the railway develop.

He has folders for each of the 15 principal areas with photos and drawings of the buildings and scenes to be modeled.

If I remember correctly the railway is 5 years old at this stage. Hmm I doubt I'd have got this far in that length of time!

 

[JRinTawa]

Wow.

Wow indeed Nigel

Just look at those semaphore signals

And yes they are operational

Control is DCC. This is one of the panels. Turnouts, signals etc are controled using the panels rather than dialing up addresses which makes sense on a layout this complex. Oh and yes most locos have sound.

 

[JRinTawa]

That's Tim second from the right. Wayne, at left in the red cap, who models Saxony in "G scale" didn't stop smiling and drooling all afternoon

Once sceniced there will be scene divides etc so you want be able to see it all in one view. The station layouts are laid out following actual station yards.

 

[JRinTawa]

Last few photos.

Tim did offer us to drive some trains but we were all so impressed and full of questions the afternoon was just spent watching and chatting - excellent.

I'm hoping to visit again....please

 

[PhilP]

I suppose that is the sensible way to do it.. IF you can be that disciplined!
Get the bare bones of the landscape. Then get your track and signalling right.. Only then start on the scenic and buildings.
VERY impressive.

 

[Zerogee]

Thanks John, more superb photos! Sorry, I missed the comments in between the pics where you'd already said where most of the stock comes from.

Jon.

 

[JRinTawa]

Thanks John, more superb photos! Sorry, I missed the comments in between the pics where you'd already said where most of the stock comes from.

Jon.

Thanks Jon. I think there were a few more sources too, hmm, but I'm very good a forgetting. I'll update you if I remember some more!

 

[JRinTawa]

Update

Tim has kindly provided these notes about his great railway: -

For completeness I can advise that the stock is a mixture of Besig, Dingler, Hübner, KM-1, and Märklin. The standard gauge track is Peco and the narrow gauge track is Hübner/Hegob, with Hegob having taken over Hübner narrow gauge, when Hübner sold up a few years ago. The signals are nearly all KM-1, with a few Besig.

The 13 individual scenes I am modelling over the next 15 years are from the 1920-50 era. 11 in Saxony at Bertsdorf, Cranzahl, including the Cranzahl standard gauge bridge, Hetzdorf including the standard gauge Hetzdorf viaduct, Jöhstadt, Jonsdorf, Oberrittersgrün, Oybin, Radeburg, Steinbach, Wilischthal including Wilischthal narrow gauge bridge, Zittau; and, 2 in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg at Hirschsprung and Kappel-Gutachbrücke including the viaduct over the Wutach river just past the station, both which I modelled previously in HO. Because of the size of two of the scenes at Hetzdorf and Zittau (I mention there are 15 scenes) as I need to break these two into the viaduct and station at Hetzdorf; and, the two stations (standard and narrow gauge)at Zittau and the engine servicing & rollwagen operations at Zittau.

The four stations where the narrow and standard gauge join are at Cranzahl, Hetzdorf, Wilischthal (on the lower level) and Zittau (on the upper level).

Thanks Tim, so well planned, love it.

 

[idlemarvel]

Simply amazing planning and execution. It's a pity it is in a basement with (as far as I can tell from the pictures) no "outside awareness", given that it looks like Tim will be spending a fair proportion of the next 15 years there! I guess some of the modelling can take place elsewhere. I look forward to pictorial progress reports.