Selktalbahn 2018 a Battery Powered Operating Day on the Dunnybahn. Plus other Operating days.

dunnyrail

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I expect many of the that will have visited the Harz Mountains in the last 3 or so Years will recognise this Timetable and perhaps poured over it to plan a day out and possibly ponder why you keep seeing different Railcars. Truth is I have analyzed the Timetable in detail and was amazed to find that in addition to the Steam Working at least 4 other Railcars get in in the act, 1 (GR1 p) from Gernrode which just a few years ago was a second Steam Turn on dated Fridays to Saturdays. The other 3 (NR1,2,3) on runs starting at Nordhausen.
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Now it just may be that you have seen things a little different to how I have portrayed them in this thread. In real life there will be places in the Timetable where Railcars will get swopped out to ensure that they return to Wernigerode for Regular Maintenance or whatever. So what you see here will be a perfect day where nothing goes wrong.

As I only have 3 Railcars Nordhausen NR1 becomes Nordhausen NR3 as they would pass at ET on the day. The other anomaly is that the Steam Engine would leave Gernrode Chimney First. A leave over from my DCC days where locomotives run to orientate correctly with the Massoth Handsets. Also I do not have a Quedlinberg Station so Trains just sit out the time at Gernrode.

So let us get started, but first I have to clear the decks in Alexisbad that acts as a Holding Location for much of my stock, thus Batty Wizzy Cranks will move the Stock out to Silberhütte and stay for the duration of the schedule. Winston showing little interest in what has been occurring at Silberhütte, perhaps he is thinking about his Lunch.
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Start up at ET with two Railcars one with a Coach as the second one Red will be working NR2 as it is a Box Motor. The Green 2 car set will be working NR1 and NR3. Belief must be suspended a little to accept these two sets as Harz Railcars!
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Gernrode also needs a bit of shunting for the setup before the start up, but here 6001 can be seen at the head of a 4 Coach Train no cycle wagon and the Railcar GR1 waiting for its first run to my non existent Quedlinberg.
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6001 starts things rolling with its first run out to Harzegerode at 0734 Train 8961 from Gernrode (early start to cover this train), I could not resist a picture of it running over the Bridge with the Golden Rod and other plants in full bloom.
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Arriving at Alexisbad the Train will be run round on my simulation, in reality the run up to Harzegerode would be straight ahead. Also 1 coach must be left behind as my Harzegerode can only accommodate 3 Bogie Coaches. Here 6001 is seen about to enjoy a well deserved drink at the Water Column at Harzegerode before returning to Quedlinberg as Train 8960 Depart 0845.
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This Train will call at Drahtzug and it is useful to watch this on the CCTV from inside the Shed to see that it has stopped at the correct location before going back out to the Garden.
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6001 will pass the first train from Quedlinberg at Mägdesprung. This is Train 8951 which left Q at 0830 and is likely to have a few early starters on it. Note my Mägdesprung is orienteted the weong way round!
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Having got thus far it is now desirable for one my man Operation to bring the first of the Nordhausen Railcars NR1 into play from ET representing both it and N. This will be Train 8980 which runs at 0854 x N seen sitting at my imagined Hasselfelde having arrived at 1006. Imagination has to be used in great quantities to imagine this with 6001 just above at Magdesprung!
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NR1 returns to Nordhausen at 1012 ex Hasselfelde as Train 8982 and passes the 0830 ex Quedlinberg (Train 8980) at Stiege. Not the most impressive of locations below Alexisbad, this location is usually just a fiddle yard.
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Our old friend 8951 runs to ET and returns to Quedlinburg as Train 8952 departing at 1105.
image.jpeg Returning To Alexisbad the Hasselfelde Train is first to arrive at 1119 shortly after by the impressive arrival of 6001 at 1131 on Train 8963 from Quedlinberg. This will be the Train that most of the tourists and Steam Lovers will have used. It will terminate here returning to Gernrode at 1146 as Train 8962. No time for a beer if you want to go back with it, though some have tried! The Railcar is seen being given the right away at 1133 for Harzegerode where it will arrive at 1143. 6001 leaving soon after will return Alexisbad to its slumbers till the Railcar returns heading back to Nordhausen arrive 1439 as Train 8981 1211 ex Harzegerode. In the normal scheme of things that would be all that we see of NR1, however this actual beast will return to the story as NR3 later on in this saga.
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But before it disappears from the face of the Selktalbahn it will pass the returning GR1 Railcar that left ET for Quedlinburg and the 2 will pass at Alexisbad around 1215 ish. Matey givingbthe rightbof way to the ET to Quedlinberg Railcar 8952.
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At this stage I felt a little drizzle and looking at the phone rain was expected so I decided to pack up for the day.

To be continued.




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ColinK

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That looks like great fun running the actual timetable. If is wasn’t so far to come I could have brought you another railcar.
 
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dunnyrail

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That looks like great fun running the actual timetable. If is wasn’t so far to come I could have brought you another railcar.
Perhaps you might one day, can always manage BnB!
 
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DougLN

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While JonD was doing his Selktabahn runs yesterday, I was doing a replica test run on my indoor layout from Quedlingberg to Gernrode with Railcar T6 (ex Ruschbahn) Prompted by a video on UTube of DB railcar 772-367-9 just before the service was withdrawn in Dec 2004. Also on UTube is a cab ride on a Hartz Railcar from Gernrode to Quedlinberg now narrow gauge (from June 2006) The narrow gauge track is much better than it was in standard gauge times!
 
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dunnyrail

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While JonD was doing his Selktabahn runs yesterday, I was doing a replica test run on my indoor layout from Quedlingberg to Gernrode with Railcar T6 (ex Ruschbahn) Prompted by a video on UTube of DB railcar 772-367-9 just before the service was withdrawn in Dec 2004. Also on UTube is a cab ride on a Hartz Railcar from Gernrode to Quedlinberg now narrow gauge (from June 2006) The narrow gauge track is much better than it was in standard gauge times!
Great minds work alike eh Doug? My first trip to the Selktalbahn was in 1981 and for the life of me I canot remember what was on the Train, more than likely a SG Kamel with a couple of coaches or a set of East German 4 Wheel Railcars, nodding Donkeys to us in the UK. Either option would work for you to take back the years.
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Timetable of the line for you Doug, Summer x 3 June 1984/5
 

Sarah Winfield

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Is it possible to post links to the videos please?

Thanks,

SW
 

DougLN

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Sarah, I cannot post the links to UTube but here are the titles. 772-Streckentillegurg-Balkan Quedlingburg-Gernrode & Skelketalbahn-Im-Fuhrerstand von Gernrode nach Quedlingburg
 

dunnyrail

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Selktalbahn 2018 a Battery Powered Operating Day 2
The morning dawned bright if a little cool today so it was appropriate to carry on with the session. Stock was returned to where it had been at completion the yesterday so ready to start again.

First picture is of the Steam Locomotive 6001 on its midday layover. It has already run out to Harzegerode and back then out to Alaxisbad and back. The layover from 1231 to 1357 will have been used to Coal and Water the Locomotive plus no doubt a good clean out of the Firebox. It is seen on the front of Train 8965 the 1357 to Hasselfelde. This is the start of a long run to both H and ET with the return via Quedlinberg which returns the loco back to Gernrode at 1958. A remarkable 6 hours out on the line. The Railcar sat behind it will have gone to Quedlinberg passing 6001 at G. It returns back from Q at 1339 as Train 8953 giving worried passengers just 3 minutes to connect with the Steam Train 8965 and the Railcar will layover for some time before departing G at 1502.
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Meanwhile at the other end of the line N2 Railcar (8972 1225 ex Nordhausen) is seen passing N1 (8981 1211 ex Harzegerode) Railcar at Stiege. Not the most interesting of places on my line under Alexisbad but it works for the Timetable.
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8972 will carry on to Quedlinberg arriving at 1516 but is seen here pausing at Alexisbad at 1412-13.
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It will then pass the Steam 1357 x Gernrode at Mägdesprung at 1429.
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At Gernrode (1459-1500) it will pass the Gernrode Railcar waiting to depart with Train 8955 at 1501 to Alexisbad only which arrives at 1546.
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Meanwhile 6001 has been forging along the line and is at Lindenburg (Staßberg) passing the third Nordhausen Railcar NR3 today being in charge of Baby Kamel (Playmobil Battery Diesel) Train 8914 1324 ex Nordhausen for Hasselfelde with a single coach. It is not unusual to see a Kamel in charge of 1 Coach Trains, this formation being used to cover for a Faulty or In Works Railcar. In reality the Green DMU had run out of Battery so Baby Kamel was pressed into service for the day. Of such dramas are interest in what is occurring created.
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Baby Kamel will continue on to Alexisbad arrive 1541 as Train 8916 after having run out to Hasselfelde arr 1435 dep 1439. Though this departure would likely be delayed some by the necessity to run round at Hasselfelde. The picture shows her being Signalled away from Alexisbad on the first of 3 round trips to Harzegerode with the last one Train 8919 departing at 1840 to return to Nordhausen. This trip as well as the outwards one would in reality have resulted in a Run Round at Alexisbad but on my back to front Alexisbad this is not required! Though a run round would be required in all cases on the shuttles that just run H to A.
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Meanwhile NR2 Railcar has been to Quedlinburg arrive 1516 returning to Hasselfelde at 1530 on Train 8973. Seen here passing 8954 at Mägdesprung 1618 on the penultimate Train to Quedlinberg arrive 1715. No doubt conveying a good few tourists who will be anxious to return to their Guest Houses to get cleaned up before Dinner.
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NR2 continues its run back to Hasselfelde, seen here at Alexisbad while Baby Kamel is signaled for the connecting shuttle departing to Harzegerode at 1634 as Train 8979.
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NR2's continuing run to Hasselfelde will involve passing 6001 at Stiege on the 1702 ex ET which it departed at 1702. To the dismay of many enthusiasts 6001 will not have used the loop at Stiege having been allowed 10 minutes here to run round its train. The reason for this is to keep 6001 facing out of Gernrode and the fact that it has run out to Hasselfelde and then onto ET means that running via the loop would have turned it only once.
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6001 continues to forge its way towards home and passes Baby Kamel at Alexisbad at 1820-27. Baby Kamel has one more shuttle to do up to Harzegerode and is seen being signaled away after any customers have changed out of the Steam Train.
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6001 next encounters the Gernrode Railcar at Magdesprung on its last outing of the day as the 8957 1752 Quedlinberg to Harzegerode arrive 1913.
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The Gernrode Railcar will Terminate at Alexisbad and is seen here at Road 2 with the Kamel on its run back to Nordhausen on 8919 due back at 2053. Note this is on Road 3 the first Train seen on this Road today as it will be the only time that trains to/from Harzegerode are at Alelexisbad in this Timetable.
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The final picture of the day is of the Gernrode Railcar at Harzegerode prior to its return to Gernrode departing at 1923 as Train 8957. Thus Harzegerode can slumber till tomorrow morning with the first arrival of the day, Steam at 0835!
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dunnyrail

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Finally it remains pertinent to show the stars of this Battery Powered Soree.

Genrode Railcar GR1, a converted Newquida Coach Railcar, seen with seated Mr and Mrs Chumney Warner who have not appeared to be much in conversation all day!
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NR1 - DMU9 a converted former live Steam "Locomotion" Railcar and Trailer, one of my very early Battery Conversions that may be showing signs of its Battery Age. Seen with the Lady that has been hanging around Alexisbad all day. I wonder what has delayed her for a complete day. Perhaps her man has been delayed somewhere?
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NR2 - Box Motor With coach another fairly early Battery Product. Here seen with Hans the Alexisbad Station dogs-body attempting entry to the Goods Sgphed.
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NR3 - Baby Kamel with a Coach. Again seen being dispatched by Herr Flick.
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99 6001-4 a venerable LGB 2080S recently converted to Battery Power. Seen here with Herr Flick the venerable Station Master of Alexisbad.
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D8 not to be forgotten this Wizzy Cranks Loco will have been busy moving stock around to enable this operation to be carried out. Clearly Mr and Mrs Chumney Warner are back in speaking terms having moved seats and seen looking at each other now. Fritz the Station Cat puts in an appearance as does Herr Flick again. You cannot keep a good man down.
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Finally finally it must be mentioned that I only encountered one real failure beside the Unit that ran out of Battery. D8 was running with the most peculiar gait at the start of today. I originally thought that perhaps it had picked up a small piece of Ballast and was bumping along on it. Not a bit of it, the Traction Tyre had broken and lost a bit. The bumping was the Gap between the bit of Tyre that remained on the wheel, the offending left over bit seen in front of D8 below. Must be said that sans said tyre with no new one she runs just fine!
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dunnyrail

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I ran this Timetable again yesterday in the sun. Now I have 2 more battery Railcars to add to the mix, one a bogie conversion from Playmobil and the other a Pig Nosed without the noses. Both have had their conversions written up elsewhere in the forum.

As last time the line needs to be got ready, in particular Alexisbad in the Shed is used for storing Wagons that will populate Silberhutte, the wagons for Lindenburg are in the low level fiddle yard and there will be some shunting required to give a through run to Eisefelder Talmhüle (ET).

First we see the players as put out on the line.
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At the left can be seen the Loco that will sort out Alexisbad and the 2 Railcars that will cover what in real terms is 3 Railcars from Nordhausen. 6001 and the Railcar next to it will start the day from Gernrode. Below the simplifiers for the varying turns to be run, in effect I will run part of a turn till it can go no further without another being run. This inevitably means stopping where there is a passing move with another train. I keep track of where I am by sliding Paper Clips along the sheet. Colours represent the varying turns with a flag on each one so that I can keep track of where I am.
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But first 6101 has worked to Alexisbad and deposited the wagons out of the way in Silberhutte Yard, note once this has been done the battery will be turned off as the loco will not be required again till the end of the session where it will be utilised to put the stock back to Alexisbad in the Shed then run light back to nearest the house to be taken of the track and taken back indoors.
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Start of the day at Gernrode, note that I cannot replicate Quedlinburg so all trains start and terminate here at G. All the runners were turned on prior to this startup where 6001 has cleared out some wagons to the yard so that run-rounds can be undertaken and to marshal its train for the day.
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Once that was done the 2 Railcars are worked out to ET sorting out the stock in the Shed en-route.
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6001 seen at Alexisbad with a passing Railcar, this is the second run out that most Tourists will be on. This train is an outbound Train from Quedlinberg to just Alexisbad returning to Gernrode only. The Railcar has worked out from Nordhausen and forms a connection for Harzegerode. 6001 meanwhile takes water, this scenario is a much photographed one on tourists day out. one wonders what all the tourists do, a return on the Steam dumping one off at Gernrode may not be seen as much use but there is a Railcar just 30 minutes later to get one back to Quedlinburg. Or a look round Gernrode may be of interest.
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Seen here at Lindenburg (Straßerg in real life) the last outwards working of the Puffer passing the PM Railcar now on the third Railcar working x Nordhausen. Efficient use of this resource, in truth it makes sense to use this Railcar for the 2 workings as I do not have a Nordhausen Station and the 2 workings pass in ET.
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A 2 railcar pass at Alexisbad later in the day.
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6001 returning back from ET to Quedlinberg where its day will be finished. Similarly the Railcar is on its way back to Nordhausen to complete its day. The other 2 Railcars from Nordhausen are already back there and in bed. Or perhaps one may be working the Trans-Harz back to Wernigerode.

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6001 at Magdesprung passing the final Railcar working from Quedlinburg, it will go to Alexisbad before returning to Gernrode where its day will end. On arrival there will be time to watch 6001 being disposed having returned from Quedlinberg. Butbthe hapless passenger that was on this Railcar and hoping to get back to Quedlinburg will have to seek out a bus if there is one!
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Finally having sorted out the stock in the low level the 2 Raikcars head back to the House, I run them vis the continuous run that rarely gets used, it is also not usual to see 2 trains like this so I thought it a worthwhile addition to the portfolio
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All that remains is for 6101 to put the stock back in the Shed and run to the house.
 

ColinK

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That looks like so much fun.
 

Paul M

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Marvellous way to while away the hours
 

AustrianNG

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Great thread Jon. Loving the pics - you have caught the essence of narrow gauge here.
I took the traction tyres off a few of my Stainz - I too found they worked fine (you may recall all mine are well over 2 kilos each so tractive force is still excellent.
 

dunnyrail

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Further to my running day I decided to have a look at the 2020 Summer Timetable for the Selktalbahn to see if there were any differences from 2018, I do not have the 2019 one so these changes may or may not have occurred last year. The service os predominantly similar but there are 2 more departures/arrivals at Quedlinburg things appear to be slightly better at that end if the line. The other end of the line is much the same but for the odd minute retiming here and there. The main item of interest is that the second Steam Departure from Quedlinburg at 1030 to Alexisbad on return does not give up at Gernrode but goes back to Quedlinberg returning to Gernrode for a break of an hour. Much better than being dumped at Gernrode to wait just over 1/2 hour for the next Railcar as used to be the case. Sadly I doubt that many of us will be able to enjoy the Harz this Summer.
 

MTheStrong

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Further to my running day I decided to have a look at the 2020 Summer Timetable for the Selktalbahn to see if there were any differences from 2018, I do not have the 2019 one so these changes may or may not have occurred last year. The service os predominantly similar but there are 2 more departures/arrivals at Quedlinburg things appear to be slightly better at that end if the line. The other end of the line is much the same but for the odd minute retiming here and there. The main item of interest is that the second Steam Departure from Quedlinburg at 1030 to Alexisbad on return does not give up at Gernrode but goes back to Quedlinberg returning to Gernrode for a break of an hour. Much better than being dumped at Gernrode to wait just over 1/2 hour for the next Railcar as used to be the case. Sadly I doubt that many of us will be able to enjoy the Harz this Summer.
Hi Jon,

I was on the Selketalbahn in January this year. They were running the Winter Timetable. I caught the 1030 Steam train to Alexisbad and then took the retun journey. It stopped at Gernrode and I then had a wait to catch the DMU back to Quedlingburg. Fortunately the weather was great, although no facilities were open at the Gernrode Bahnhof.

Here are some photos of Gernrode:

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Regards

Martin
 

dunnyrail

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Not the full monty but a little taster of the Operating session on Wednesday 17th April. I was expecting 5 visitors for the 3 diagram Timetable, plus 1 gives a Yard Manager at Silberhutte. The 5th visitor to manage Alexisbad in the shed would be good, but space just too tight with even 2 plus one part of the Timetable requires 3 in there for the tripple departure which is a bit cosy, 4 would be just almost impossible. So a plan was hatched for the Yardmaster to have an assistant as coupler/uncouplerer plus assisting driving the 4th train we have out, this being a Railcar that runs from Magdesprung round to where Hasselfelde is behind the wall. Hasselfelde (post 1 pic 10) can be seen in the Railcar Timetable above. But for added interest the 2 Pway Drasines were out, one on pway duties just before Alexisbad that needed to be shunted out of the way into Alexisbad before each train could be run into or out of Alexisbad. But to add to the congestion in Alexisbad the other one was parked up in Siding 5 to be a nuisance.

Below the 3 locomotives to be used on the main trains, I decided on a Diesel day today. Being all battery in the garden these day I have found it better for battery life to ensure all the fleet gets a few days use and thus discharges/charges cycles during the year.
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The working on the day Drasine in place here during the day, turned on and run left to get out of the way of service trains. Not left powered on all day as I am not sure the batteries would last the day. In the event part way through the day it had to be taken out of service as the Traction Tyres were completely shot. As this is a Dickies job I doubt new ones would be available. Options open are a few O rings or some Bullfrog Snot.
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I could have brought the other one into play, but this is a bit of a pain as the roof needs to be lifted off. I think I will organise the switch on this one to be more accesible somehow. This is the Peppa Pig conversion.
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The day went very well with no big wagon foul ups noticed plus we nicely got finished and packed away before the rain started.
 

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