HO Eine Sekundärbahn

[Tim Hale]

Simon asked

“Which make are they, Tim? I bought a Roco set in the autumn and am very happy with it. The only snag I've found is that neither Fleischmann nor Roco/Hornby close couplings have enough reach to couple the set together, despite having "standard" NEM sockets fitted. I'll just have to stick with the supplied rigid coupling bar for now...”

They were Piko, they arrived and the driving car was taken out of the packaging and promptly fell apart or rather the body detached itself from the chassis. It was returned and subsequently fully refunded.

Roco’s version is old but has received incremental improvements over the years, the last version, 52630, is much improved with a 8-pin digital interface and ‘hidden’ flywheel drive.

Tim

 

[Simon H]

I take it the blue tape on the photo is masking tape or similar, Tim? A good way to keep the edge of the ballast neat.
The AK sand/gravel not working properly is disappointing, though I've tried a couple of alternatives to diluted PVA and found them either not to work at all or only partially, so gone back to good old PVA again.
Cheers,
Simon.

 

[Tim Hale]

I take it the blue tape on the photo is masking tape or similar, Tim? A good way to keep the edge of the ballast neat.
The AK sand/gravel not working properly is disappointing, though I've tried a couple of alternatives to diluted PVA and found them either not to work at all or only partially, so gone back to good old PVA again.
Cheers,
Simon.

Simon,

The masking tape is a legacy of painting motorcycles, might as well put it to good use and it does produce a nice clean edge. Two days later and the ballast treated with PVA mix is solid and crumble-free, RESULT!

Btw, a 25+ year old dustbuster has been replaced by more of the same but with ION batteries, excellent for clearing away the ballast.

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi,

Sunday morning in the shed and it is time to eat the pachyderm, the first turnout to be ballasted, whilst the headshunt is just plain flooded with PVA.

Tim

 

[Roger Pound]

Well done, Tim - ballasting is a messy job at the best of times - second only to wiring on my "least favourite jobs" list ! Glad to see the old diluted white glue method prevails - I have never discovered a better alternative yet.

Roger. '

 

[Tim Hale]

Progress - each time I visit the shed, I pay a penalty, a length of ballasting. The target is a siding+turnout per day and there are six, two done and four more to go, maybe finish next Wednesday at the earliest?









Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

The wherefore of operation on Pottendorf

The layout in the shed is small, only about 3,4m of scenic area with four storage roads, this means that it is a shunting puzzle rather than ‘parade’ style layout. Four is the magic number as there were just four trains per day on a typical branch in the mid ‘50s.

The stocklist reflects the purpose of the layout, just six wagons, three coaches and a railbus are the four trains that shuffle backwards and forwards. The wagons form two trains, the coaches another with the railbus as the simple shuttle that does not shunt at all.

Each of the four scenic roads has at least one uncoupler, the platform has two so that after uncoupling from the head of the train, the loco can pick off vehicles from the train and set them into sidings.

Running through all four trains should take about 25-30 minutes of intense concentration, enough to keep me happy.

​

 

[Tim Hale]

The farmhouse is finished, maybe the stork's next needs to be attached. Sorry but the layout is full of track laying stuff and the old box was the only available clear surface.








The diorama board has seen service on a number of layouts and is at least 24+ years young.

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Progress

Another day, another turnout, 5 done, 1 to go plus complete the sidings and the entry track. Should be completed on Sunday when the ballast is set in place, although lots of clean-up will be needed and testing.

Progress report

 

[Tim Hale]

Hallo,

Sunday Chaos - the much loved process of ballasting is almost at an end, today’s effort needs to harden for at least 36 hours. Tomorrow evening or maybe Tuesday, it will begin again with the very long siding and the last two short sidings, inevitably followed by another hardening process for 36 hours before cleaning away all the excess and testing with power.

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

I finally unpacked the water cranes, all three, bought in bulk as they were cheaper than individual items from the Czech Republic.

​

The effort was rewarded with a difficult to source model of a Spitzner Wasserkran, peculiar to Austria and one or two in Bayern, although in Bayern most replenishment of water was carried out in the locoshed from a supply in the shed roofspace. However, the outcome was worth the difficulty of a self-import.

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi,

I tried to post a before and after upload but was defeated by the weird formatting. To judge the progress, scroll back to the start of the thread, the tear down of Beaminster Road began in October '22, a year plus and numerous delays, there has been rapid progress since December last year.

This is the situation this morning, in another 24 hours, a start can be made removing the rogue ballast and then a rigorous electrical test.

Sorry about the quality of the image, the autofocus is starting to fail.

Thank you to those who provided advice and encouragement, a kind word is always appreciated.

Tim

​

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi,

Sorry but there will be no further updates, I need to take a break from modelling whilst I undergo treatment.

Tim

 

[Heather Kay]

Tim, that’s completely understandable. Please look after yourself. We will still be here when you are ready.

 

[Roger Pound]

Commiserations, Tim - I'm finding myself in the same boat, too. All the best with what you are undergoing and look forward to more news from you in due time.

Roger.

 

[Tim Hale]

Sorry about that, just a hiccup.

This is the current state of play, everything has ground to a halt as all the Tortoise motors refuse to play. They either move exceptionally slowly in one direction or not at all with no sound of the motor running. The tiebars move freely using a manual input and I both masked off the tibebar area before painting/ballasting, moreover all tiebars received a squirt of plastic compatible lubricant.

Given the symptoms, I suspect a power supply problem……..until the problem is solved, the layout is utterly useless. However, the ballasting looks OK, despite very shaky hands, early onset of Parkinson’s.

As soon as everything is working the static-grass gun is coming out retirement and the fun will begin, it will not be a very tidy scene as Pottendorf is supposed to be in its final years.


Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

The station yard at Pottendorf has a bus stop but until now, no suitable bus, it needed to be smaller than the usual 50+ seat monster, if only because it needs to in proportion to both the small station and the local lanes.

The answer is the little bus from Ulm, it was debuted by Setra at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1955. For the first time, the company offered the smallest bus that had ever left its production lines, the Setra S 6. It was the first of the new type for bus brand Setra, which was launched by Kässbohrer in 1951.

The Setra S6 was a truly tiny vehicle with a length of just 6.70m, it could accommodate 25 passengers in comfort, it was referred to as a “Midibus”. The little Setra was very popular with both operators and passengers, it was manufactured in Ulm for nine years and 1,172 left the production line at Kässbohrerstraße in Ulm. Even today, several Setra S 6 are still in service on the roads.

​

 

[Tim Hale]

Having acquired a suitable 'local' bus. a bus-stop is needed? In addition, the other essentials of a rural station forecourt.

courtesy of Wolfgang on DSO​

The 'communications hub' of telephoe kiosk, post box and mechanical stamp machine, beside the bus-stop sign plus the unseen rusting bicycle rack.
The telephone kiosk in the above image is a FH53/55 suitable for the mid '50s onwards but there were the '30s vintage FH32 still around which had survived WW2, a lovely example is to be found in Lübars on the edge of West Berlin.

​

Thankfully Brawa offer a ready to plonk example, at a price. The rest of the post office hardware is available, unfortunately it is matter of 'who sells what'

Post box+stamp machine - Kotol.de
Bike rack and bus stop sign- Auhagen 42572 + 11419
Kiosk - Brawa 5447

The downside is that the little scene will not be cheap, at least Eu65+ mostly due to shipping but it really separates those who make model railways from the rabble.

Tim

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The downside is that the little scene will not be cheap, at least Eu65+ mostly due to shipping but it really separates those who make model railways from the rabble.

Quite correct - these small scenes are not cheap but at least you can get the details to complete them - mostly ready to plonk.

Auhagen also produce the Fahrradständer separately in their test kit range under ref 99030C.

It appears expensive but the Brawa Telefonzelle FH 32 (5447) is also lit.

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi David,

I have found both the Auhagen bicycle rack and a Brawa ‘30s telephone kiosk, in the UK

I already have the bus-stop and post box….it seems that we are in business

Tim