Interior for Oil Engine Loco (1/35)

In spare moments on my vacation I have built most of the interior on my oil loco. I have not tried to replicate anything in great detail as very little of it will show on the finished model. I have installed a rough presentation of the one cylinder engine, gear box and the most visible levers. We have had a wonderful summer in Denmark and all modelling has been done outside on a garden table. You can actually work on your tan while railway modelling!

Beginning the interior: Closed gearbox, engine mount and flywheel. All from scraps of plastic exept the flywheel that is a converted Panther tank roadwheel from my spares box.

Most of the interior in place. Engine built up from plastic and resin bits from the spares box. Brake handwheel from TichyTrain - gearshift handwheels will be leftovers from a gun kit.

I have also begun modifying the MK35 figure that will become the driver of the little contraption. Until now I have been cutting heavily into the figure's legs to make him fit in the cab. He will be fitted in the cab by brass pins through the floor to make him removable.

This is what you see of the interior through the only opening in the loco body. Even without a driver it is rather little. The body itself is ready for its 'outer skin' of thin plasticard to be fitted.

I hope to be able to present a finished loco at the next Gauge 1 exhibition in November. Even with other projects going on. I think it is a realistic deadline.

A Decauville Skip

During my vacation I had the chance to see a Decauville skip. It was rather a coincidence, as I simply turned up at the gasworks museum in Athens, Greece. Apart from the Greek railway museum and a preserved Liberty ship (Hellas Liberty) in Piraeus, the gasworks museum is the only major industrial museum in Athens. The gasworks museum is a really good one, with several good exhibits. Even the air in the retort building still had an unmistakenly smell of burned coal. Nice! See the museums website.

Cast axle box on the Decauville skip in the gasworks museum in Athens. Although the skip body is a reconstruction the skip really is a Decauville product. I have seen several skips being labelled as a Decauville product by misguided museums curators.  The gasworks used the skips to transport coal to the retorts. The skips were manhandled and the gasworks never had any locos.

The gasworks in Athens was built by French investors, opened in 1857 and only closed in 1984. The old retorts were still used until closure and fired in the same way as when the gasworks opened. It must have demanded a good deal of Greek flexibility towards environmental and health and safety standards! See a few images from the museum at my Flickr-album.

You don't have to go to Greece to see historic Decauville skips as the Dutch Decauville Spoorweg Museum has several. Visit the museums website.

Back home I have enjoyed some quiet outdoor modelling in the summer cottage. There is some progress on the oil loco to report - more on that later.

Narrow Gauge Progress at NLB (1/35)

Some time ago I mentioned that a ‘companion’ to my Nystrup Gravel is slowly being built in another part of Denmark. Although this narrow gauge industrial railway is in 1:32 scale (as it has to match the owners’ Gauge 1-layout called 'New Langeland's Railway' - Ny Langelandsbanen in Danish) I consider it very much a ‘partner’ for my own 1:35 railway as they share both gauge and theme. Recently there has been much progress on the layout. Not least around the narrow gauge line. My friend and his wife has done a lot of track laying and landscaping. While there is still some work left before the line is finished (will it ever be?), I thought I would share a few images with you. Notice that there is still being worked on the layout.

An overview of the narrow gauge terminus at 'Broløkke Halt'. From the woods around Broløkke firewood is assembled and stored to be transported to the standard gauge railway loco depot by narrow gauge railway. The difference in gauge is striking. Photo: Arne Nielsen.

The railway's single loco pulling a newly constructed tank wagon and two flats for firewood. The Henschel DG 26 is the ASOA-model in 1:32. The model has recently been re-released by ASOA with a new chassis from sb-modellbau. The standard gauge halt with its characteristic reinforced concrete building can be seen in the distance. The building is carefully scratchbuilt from a prototype on the Danish railway 'Langelandsbanen'. See photos from the real Broløkke Halt here. Photo: Arne Nielsen.



An innovative scenic break: A wood lined avenue separates the Broløkke area from the main station on the layout: Arnborg. Photo: Arne Nielsen.

The Henschel approaching the ungated crossing. Low speed and much vigilance from the loco driver are necessary when crossing the road. Photo: Arne Nielsen.

With the progress on the owners' home layout I wonder if they will have time left for work on their narrow gauge modules? Their modules can be attached to mine and share my fiddle yard as one end of our common line. We hope to make contact with a standard gauge module in the other end of the line. We are not co-running our modules often, but will be running trains of skips together at the next Gauge 1 exhibition in November.

Gauge 1 exhibition 2012: Almost 7 metres of industrial narrow gauge railway. Closest my fiddle yard (still very exposed and unpainted), next my three modules and in the distance the three modules supplied by my friend. I hope we can present a little more coherent look in November. At least I promise to paint the fiddle yard!