Hello everybody, and welcome to Newsletter Number 19. A New Year has begun and membership renewals are very good. Sorry this newsletter is so late, but I was waiting for delivery of the scale rulers. All those of you who renewed will find their ruler enclosed with this newsletter. I hope everybody is happy with them, our thanks must go to the company of Linex in Denmark for the excellent quality and price.
I have also included last years buses for those who requested them. I am very sorry they have been heavily delayed, also that they are not in clear resin as I had hoped, but the production cost would have made each unit more than the membership fee.
Those of you who have not yet renewed as always this will be your last newsletter. I am sorry that you have decided not to continue as a member, and thanks for your support.
Just before I started typing up the newsletter I received word about the new items from Marklin. Quite a large program of repaints and several new items are promised. I list below the details that I have to date, together with my comments.
81418 Z SBB Old-time Passenger Train w/Ae 3/6 II Nice to see that the Ae 3/6 has made a come back. All repaints.
81561 Z Anniversary Starter Set w/BR 74 Repackage of old cars probably - definitely the loco.
82366 Z Container Wagon Lgjs 598 with tank-containers of "Dortmunder Union" (Brewery).
82367 2-Pc. Set Container Wagons In DBAG-Cargo colours
82375 Z Open Rotary Slide Wagon 'Eva' Repainting
82383 2-Pc. Set Z Freight Wagons
82382 Hbbillns 305 of DBAG NEW!!!
82509 4-Pc Set Z Henkel Goods Wagons Repainting.
86221 2-Pc. Z Set Auto Transporters Laae 540 with 8 Real Beetles in metal(we produce a kit for these)
86301 3-Pc Set Swiss Cement Wagons Repainted Fals wagon.
88021 Track Cleaning Railbus 8802 Re-painted
88181 Z DRG Steam Locomotive BR 18.1 Yet another re-paint Würtemberger class C in DRG-black.
88431 Z DBAG Electric Locomotive BR 143 (red) NEW! The first former GDR loco
88453 Z SBB Electric Loco BR 460 Space Dream How many versions are they
88572 Z Electric Locomotive BR 151 Cargo Re-Paint.
88641 Z Diesel Locomotive BR 361 Re-Paint.
87711 Z ICE 3 Middle Coaches
88712 Z ICE 3 Train Set This is all new with the mechanism in the restaurant car
If I receive any further news regarding these and any other manufacturers' items, I will include it in the next newsletter.
New Projects
For all you techno freaks out there we have now gone live with our own web page on the good old internet. We are at 'http://www.ford.demon.co.uk' and if anybody would like to have a picture of their models/layout just send me a photograph and I will include it in the photo gallery.
In the pipeline from ourselves are our own wheelsets, a conversion kit to create the overhead line inspection coach from the 8816 railbus, and a Laaeks553 double-deck twin car transporter - but this will not be until the latter part of the year. (Did anyone see our excellent product review in the Railway Modeller?)
Germany Trip May 15th - 18th
Since the last newsletter I have done a lot of looking around and have come up with a proposal. Based on between 20 and 25 people going on a four-day trip to Goppingen by train, the cost would be about £300 per person.
The itinerary would be as follows:
Friday Eurostar from Waterloo Dep 10:27 Arrive Bruxelles 14:05
Intercity from Bruxelles Dep 14:54 Arrive Koln 17:46
Intercity from Koln Dep 18:00 Arrive Mannheim 20:25
Intercity from Mannheim Dep 20:29 Arrive Stuttgart 21:08
Saturday Travel to Geopingen with a short walk to the Marklin factory and a day looking around.
Sunday Could be spent at the Marklin factory but I would suggest a day spent in Stuttgart enjoying the City
Monday Intercity from Stuttgart Dep 08:11 Arrive Koln 11:30
Intercity from Koln Dep 12:02 Arrive Bruxelles 14:35
Eurostar from Bruxelles Dep 14:56 Arrive London 16:39
Accommodation would be in the Hotel Mack based on bed & breakfast only and there would be an inclusive single room supplement of £42. The price would include travel insurance.
I was offered as an alternative the Hotel Rieker. This hotel is right next to Stuttgart station, but due to there being a large trade fair the week of the trip the first night would only be in single rooms so couples would have to be split. The cost of this hotel would be £330 per person on a half board basis with an inclusive single room supplement of £24.
The reason for choosing to travel by rail was based on the fact that everyone is interested in trains and would enjoy the experience of European rail travel. If anyone prefers to travel by air, you would have to make your own flight arrangements, however, I can arrange the hotel accommodation.
If you are still interested in doing this trip could you please send me a
refundable deposit of £50 per person before the 10th March, and
state whether you wish to travel by air. I think there will have to be a
minimum take up of about 20 people in total, so if there is enough interest I
will make the booking.
I have been asked many times to include articles on other peoples layouts. Following is an article by Chris Atkinson on his layout - to date, Chris is the only member to have responded. So, everyone out there with a layout - get writing (please!)
A small part of Switzerland
Fiddle Yard
Viewing
Side
Introduction:
The layout represents an imaginary section of main line in Switzerland. The main feature of the layout is the station. To the left side of the station the double track main line reverts to a single track, this adds to the operational interest as the trains must wait in the stations to pass (see track plan).
The layout has been exhibited four times mainly at the events of the Swiss Railway Society.
Construction:
The layout was designed around two key needs, one to be able to be stored
easily and to be easily set up for operational sessions.
The stored size is 6 ft x 1 ft x 6 in. Whilst in operation the layout is 6 ft x
2 ft x l ft and can be mounted on a table. The fiddle yard area neatly lifts
off the scenic areas and is mounted on a frame at the rear. The layout can be
set up or dismantled, including setting up of the rolling stock in a maximum of
30 minutes (figure 1a).
The construction of the scenic and fiddle yard sections are both made of plywood box sections, with cutouts to allow access between the two sections. A timber mounting frame locates the two sections together whilst in operation, with a series of pegs.
Scenics:
The scenic contours are made up with layers of polystyrene tiles and coated with a layer of filler. The track bed is made of sheet balsa wood raised up on the polystyrene tiles. This allows the ground to slop down to the front of the layout (see figure 2). The filler is painted with green emulsion paint, which is covered with green flock to represent the grassed areas. Roads, rock faces and the track bed is just painted.
The buildings are mainly Vollmer, the vehicles are from Noch and the people are by Preiser.
Catenary:
The catenary is only for cosmetic use. It uses supports that have been fabricated from brass rod for single masts, but following Swiss practice the main station area utilizes supports which cross all the four tracks. These supports were made of sections of rail soldered together in a tufnel jig. The contact wires are the standard Marklin products.
Electrics:
The track layout is split into two sections each operated by separate controllers. Individual sections being controlled by a bank of switches mounted in the fiddle yard area. A ribbon cable fitted with a 25 pin D connector at each end connects the fiddle yard and the scenic sections.
Rolling Stock:
The majority of items are from Marklin; there is currently an extensive range of items suited to the Swiss scene. However there are some common items (i.e. RE 4/4 II locomotives and type II coaches) that are not available. In order to create these items it has been necessary to convert the standard Marklin items.
Exhibitions
I will be at the following exhibition with Wintersdorf so please come along and have a chat if you are free.
March 6th Odiham, Hampshire
Sales and Wants
Rob Palmer Member No 0006 would like to sell some Swiss wagons and coaches if anybody is interested contact him direct at 99 Waddington Street, Norwich, NR24JX
Well that’s about it for another quarter except to remind you all yet again that the newsletter is only as good as the articles you submit and I am still waiting for all the promises to be kept. Hopefully next newsletter I will start a series of articles on Wiring a Layout - from Basics to Binden.