New HOe Wagon Arrived

Ice cooled reefers on Soviet narrow gauge? Yes, particularly the narrow gauge lines located in the agricultural regions of the Soviet Union were equipped with isolated refrigerator wagons. The 1/87 scale model of a Soviet narrow gauge reefer is part of a larger order that will arrive piecemal with irregular intervals from Ukraine. I was so satisfied with the quality of the two platform wagons that arrived in September that I had to have more!

Fresh out of its box. Another item for the Soviet narrow gauge collection.

The model is handbuilt in Ukraine by 'Miniland', the organisation that operate Ukraine's largest 1/87 scale model railway in Kyiv. The reefer is supplied in a tailor made wooden box with a laser cut outline of the reefer on the top of the lid and foam lining cut to fit tightly around the model. 

The prototype 'isothermic' wagon was built by the East German manufacturer 'VEB Waggonbau Bautzen' in 1954. As the term 'isotermic' reveal the wagons weren't exclusively for keeping their contents cool but rather at a constant temperature. In fact, the wagons were equipped with a heating stove and could consequently also keep the freight from freezing. Bautzen called them 'Kühlwagen' and in Ukraine they were known as 'Льодовик' literally 'glacier', so I guess the main role of the wagon would be to keep meat, fruit and vegetable cool in the warmer months of the year. The wagon was insulated with a layer of 20 cm thick insulation material and could carry 2 tons of ice in compartements to keep the freight cold.

As everything on the Soviet narrow gauge railways the reefer wagons were quite large with a carrying capacity of 15 t. Via thermometers the temperature could be monitored from the outside. Ladders on the ends gave access to roof boards that were used when filling the ice compartments.

Works photograph from Bautzen showing a light coloured 'Kühlwagen' - cooling wagon. The wagons were seen in light grey (perhaps white?), green and brown colours. 

A preserved reefer in the railway museum in Anykščiai at the 'Aukštaitijos' 750 mm narrow gauge railway from Panevėžys to Rubikiai in Lithuania. The thickness of the doors are evident. The wagon has lost many fittings, including the end ladders.

The wagon is priced at 116 € and that is only a little more than a pretty standard H0 Danish passenger car  - and the reefer comes with a nice storage box rather than a flimsy one made from cardboard. Being very good quallity, a rare prototype and handbuilt by a craftsman/woman, I don't consider the price high.

Brake cylinder, back up air tank and piping. Hard to believe this is 1/87 scale and hand made. 

Good, clean decal application. Paint has been applied without faults. Nice work.

Roof running boards around one of the openings for filling the internal ice boxes. Notice the drain leading water over the wagon's end.

Delivery was swift and from ordering to delivery a mere 6 days passed. Quite hard to understand how that is doable from a country being the victim of a Russian invasion and suffering devastating air attacks on its cities almost every night. All the more reason to appreciate the careful work laid in the detailed model!

Ladas in H0

With a steady stream of Eastern European railway models in 1/87 scale arriving, I have begun collecting a few matching cars as well. I had no problem selecting the first type of car to buy: Lada. Rugged, practical, and iconic, it symbolised (well, kind of) national pride in the Soviet Union and will continue to outlive the USSR for many more years.

The Busch Lada 1200 loaded on a Soviet narrow gauge flat wagon. Not an unlikely load in a post-Soviet rural area even today.

There is a wide range of Lada models available but I chose two of the models from the Busch range. I decided to have a rather early model and one of the more recent that I remember myself - including a taxi ride in one on some very frozen streets of Leningrad.

The 1971 Lada 1200 is a finished model while the 1976 Lada 1600 is in kit form.

Instructions for the assembly of the Lada 1600. I think I can handle this level complexity...

The Lada 1200 (VAZ-2101 'Zhiguli') was a licence-built version of the Italian Fiat 124, that was heavily modified and tailored for the rough climate and road conditions across the Soviet Union.  The car was widely and successfully exported to the West under the Lada brand for more than two decades.

The Lada 1600 (VAZ-2106 'Zhiguli') was a modernised version of the original model and it became the Soviet contribution to top the Eastern Bloc charts for comfort and prestige during the communist period as the really expensive and luxurious GAZ and ZIL cars, intended for party members and various state officials, were completely out of reach for ordinary people. 

The Lada 1600 was in production 1976–2006 and after the fall and disintegration of the Soviet Union the model was produced by Russian IzhmashAvto in Izhevsk and RosLada in Syzran. There seems to have been a 'shadow production' in Ukraine, but it was most likely nothing but a tax evading assembly of parts imported from Russia.

I'm slowly beginning to settle for a 2000-themed Eastern European in the western, rural part of the area. Consequently the Ladas will be rather old cars and heavily weathered.

Fowler Finished - Nystrup Gravel no 8

Finally a finished Fowler F 30 on the Nystrup Gravel layout! It has been a long drawn out proces, and over the last couple of years the loco has played the role of the project that could always be set aside when something easier or more enjoyable came along. But now the long suffering loco is on track to be the main source of motive power on the line in the coming years.

Bonkers! Having lined up for a perfect shot of Nystrup Gravel's recently arrived Fowler another photographer forces his way into the image. And wearing a bright yellow pullover!

First job, picking up where I left, was to fit the scratch built sandboxes in the cab. The sanding pipes were adjusted to fit and pencil marks added to aid in placing the sand boxes in equal height above the floor. The boxes were glued in place with AC-glue.

Inside the cab I repaired a tiny amount of overspray, where green paint had crept under the masking tape during painting of the exterior, before I weathered the cab interior. Minor details were also added to the cab floor: two whitemetal wrenches and an oil can. Once the cab was painted I could also fit glazing to the front window openings.

Sand boxes glued in place in the cab and some flaking paint on the company name on the cab rear wall as first stage in weathering.

Moving closer to the finish line!

The previously tested front and rear LEDs were unsoldered from the circuit and the tiny LEDs fitted into the lamps, AC-glued, tested and once I was convinced everything worked I passed the thin wires along the inside roof line of the cab and glued them down with AC-glue. Through a hole drilled in the cab front wall the wires reached the Loco Remote unit in the engine compartement, where they were resoldered and protected from short circuits with heat shrink. I couldn't wait getting the bonnet in place, and the loco was tested on the layout a late evening. It worked!

My wiring probably wasn't the prettiest but I got it all jumbled into a 'bird's nest' and crammed away under the bonnet. Everything was tested once more before I fitted the resin lenses in the lamps. I used Humbrol Clearfix to glue the lenses.

Front lamp glued on (for the second time). The tiny LED is just visible a yellow rectangle in front of the reflector.

Late night testing on the layout because I just couldn't wait! Despite dangling wires all worked fine and nothing on the layout got caught in the wires.

Daylight testing. Wires rolled up the best I could and hidden under the bonnet. Exhaust pipe (chminey) fitted and the Fowler is ready for a little weathering.

With the wires tucked away under the bonnet, I fitted the cab and fastened it with the two small screws through the rear buffer plate. From here it was plain sailing with small details painted, scratches and wear applied with fine brush, sharp pencil and graphite powder, oil washes, rust painting and getting some track dust on the lower part of the loco with the air brush. Finally I could fit the driver figure in the cab and take the loco on a tour of the layout. In no time loco no 8 gathered quite a crowd!

Close up of the loco's rear end. I could get tired of the standard screw heads used to attach the buffer plank. They may be replaced with proper bolts in the futore. Other than that I'm quite pleased with the busy look of the cab interior showing.

'Looks solid and sound good' says Thorleif Petersen, chief mechanic and workshop manager at Nystrup Gravel while another employee stands ready if more oil is needed. The driver seems quite relaxed despite all the hype...

I managed to get a good shot of the loco pulling skips through the red wooden building, once the other enthusiast had left.

It's being said that a model railway is never finished, and I guess the same is true for any model I build. There is always something that can be improved. I've already found a few things on loco no 8 and more will probably show up. But now it's time for a new project! 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is here again! It's incredible how fast a year passes by! I can't believe that in two weeks' time I'm going to take stock of the year's modelling progress, I wish all railway modellers and every reader of the blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

As always the Nystrup Gravel Christmas card features a tree and lights, but this year a fox has sneaked in as well. The skips almost disappear in the murky background.  

As usual I'm going to celebrate Christmas with my family in Denmark - a small and peaceful country. I'm blessed with manageable challenges. Not everyone is so fortunate. As usual my thoughts go out to people with little time to design model railways; humans hit by powerty, unrest or war. If you are well-off and don't usualle donate to people in need, please make an exception during this Christmas. Most people running a model railway can probably spare a small sum for a donation to a good cause.

Merry Christmas!

Help! Lights, Poles and Shadows.

It's quite seldom I'm doubting if my modelling adds or detracts to my little layout, but with my newly installed wooden poles with lamps I'm not quite sure how to rate the result. Last week I finally got some time at the modelling table and I had two lamps installed on prepared poles with 3D printed isolators. The lamps were wired and painted in no time. The wiring is only temporary but everything works fine.

Snapshot of the two lamps at the lorry loading ramp.

My problem is the annoying shadows the poles cast on the backscene. The poles are placed no more than 7 cm from the backscene. My modules are only 40 cm deep so everything is quite close to the backscene! The shadows are cast almost no matter angle light is projected onto the layout: my usual room lights makes the poles cast shadows, light coming in throug the room's window the same and even when I blind the window and turn of the room's lights - the lamps on the poles cast shadows when I turn them on. And to think I own quite a collection of old LP's with the 'Shadows'! Now I don't like them...

Can some of the knowledagble reader of this blog spare a second for some good advice on how to mitigate the shadows? Am I going to ad some lighting above the layout to blend everything together or do I have to accept defeat and pull up the poles?

Mushroom cloud shaped shadow cast by the lamp mounted on the pole at the ramp. 

Working Lights At The Loading Ramp

Phew, it's been a busy November and I haven't had any time for modelling. Only on the last day in the month I managed to get some time at the workbench. I devoted the time getting a pair of lamps mounted on poles I finished a long time ago.

I have had a working lamp detailed with lampshade and painted mounted on a post earlier, but I have bodged the final installation several times leading to short circuits. This time I took a different route and soldered wires and battery connection up before I added 1/19 scale versions of enamel lampshades.

The lampshades are cut from a piece of thin metal upcycled from an old soft drink can. Precut with a circle cutter and cut free with a pair of cissors, the metal circle is then cut, bended and glued with AC-glue to form a flar cone. The lamps are cheap Chinese LEDs in white metal housings in H0 scale bought from ebay. The soft drink can lampshade is AC-glued to the lamp, blended in with fillet of extra glue and then painted dark grey. Quite simple really. 

Discs of metal cut from a soft drink can.

The home made lampshade fitted to the Chinese H0 scale lamp.

Complete assembly waiting for the glue to dry. I have since fitted a fillet of glue to blend in the lampshade better. Once painted it will probably look quite decent.

Then and Now 2

As my 1/19 scale layout has gradually developed to a semi-finished state I've looked back on a few old images on the blog. I have enjoyed seeing the difference three to four years of hobby work has made. The first 'Then and now' post can be found here.

I have tried to set up almost identical situations on same location to create a 'now and then' comparison. 

In April 2021 track works were making shunting difficult. A lot of planning was needed to keep the supply of gravel running. Still no landscaping, ballast and even the rails are still in shiny nickle silver.

Image from October 2025 showing that a range of improvements have taken place and the photo shows an almost entirely landscaped layout - still with lots of tasks remaining, though.

The Baguley-Drewry locomotive has only reached first stage of rebuilding. In 2021 I removed current collecting gear and taken out the glazing in the cab windows. Hand rails on the top of the bonnet have been removed too. The Baguley will probably become my next loco project once the Fowler is finished.