A Review of 2024

As usual when New Year approaches I'm looking back at the year's progress on my model of Nystrup Gravel. 2024 has been a year of steady progress. One of those periods of stability and consolidation that any business needs now and then. As I'm celebrating New Year in Berlin I haven't done much modelling since Christmas. But let's face it: There are other things to life than railway modelling. This review of the year will illustrate that.

A reminder of warmer times: A summer image from Nystrup Gravel with skips resting next to the track leading to the lorry loading ramp.

The year began with the major milestone of getting the Fowler diesel locomotive fitted with a Loco Remote control system and suddenly the number of locos in service on my little layout doubled. The Fowler also received some exterior detailing work and a little paint during 2024 but will still need further detailing to the cab interior. In May a driver for the Fowler was also bought from my usual supplier of detailed 3D printed figures Modelu in United Kingdom. During Christmas the figure was adapted to its position in the cab and painted.

Fitted with Loco Remote, lowered buffers, added exterior details and some spot painting. Interior detailing and working lights still to be fitted. 

For a gravel line to have timber bogie bolsters were quite unusual. That Nystrup Gravel had two sets should not come as a surprise, though. Four logging bogies in 3D print arrived from United Kingdom in almost ready to run condition. Of course I had to add details and make subtle changes to the models before they were accepted for service. A great project that I enjoyed a lot!

The Lister shunting a pair of logging bogies (no. 72 and 79) to the delight of the visiting railway enthusiast in the background.

I sometimes need a break from serious modelling and with Spring approaching I decided to have fun with a car project. Not something that fits Nystrup Gravel, but I needed a car to go with the two sci-fi drones I made in 2022. After a short but enjoyable proces I had a Lada Niva i Ukrainian pixel camouflage as a 'mothership' for the drones. Other than the Niva I almost managed a year without adding road vehicles to my collection. One item is currently on its way to Denmark - hopefully arriving before too long.

The pixel camouflaged Lada Niva parked across the tracks with a drone airborne in the background. 

In the beginning of the year I began a campaign of adding ballast, groundcover and vegetation to the layout. I wanted to have the layout covered before the end of 2024. Progress has been steady through the year and for once in the history of the scale model Nystrup Gravel a deadline was met! This doesn't mean that work with landscaping and adding vegetation or detailing the surface is by any meaning finished. Work will continue. See how the layout has been developing and compare with the image below.

This is how my little 16 mm scale layout looks in the moment. Just a small corner above part of my book collection. Layouts don't have to be large in 1/19 scale to take long to build!

As most readers of the blog will no doubt know I'm also engaged in keeping a vintage narrow gauge railway running in Denmark. This year the 700 mm gauge railway HVB near Roskilde hosted the 32 Internationales Feldbahntreffen. The gathering is an annual event and draws practically minded enthusiasts from most af continental Europe. 110 guests from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Romania, Ukraine and Poland participated together with 40-50 Danes. Consequently I didn't get to visit a foreign railway for the Feldbahntreffen, but I enjoyed the event anyway! It was the first time we had locomotives from abroad running on the HVB line as four Dutch locomotives had travelled north.

Participants of the Feldbahntreffen in front of the three active steam locos - one of them visiting from the Netherlands.

A Dutch diesel locomotive with skips meeting a passenger train pulled by Danish Da 7 on Sølund Station.

I have also had fun doing a little modelling in 1/87 scale narrow gauge both on 9 and 6.5 mm gauge. Not much has been finished but the small size of the models are perfect for bringing to the summer cottage for some relaxing modelling during vacations. I worked on a Ukrainian resin kit of a TU4 bogie loco and 3D printed mining equipment. Only four skips were actually finished, but I'll slowly work my way through the kits and plan for a small Eastern European diorama of a mining scene.

In November I finished four tiny mine skips in heavily weathered condition. They are excellent 3D printed models from German Micro_Miners.

As usual I have been visiting interesting places to see interesting railways - both in my professional capacity and in my spare time. I've been spending time in Krakow, Berlin, Dresden and the Harz Mountains and I am sitting in Berlin again as I write this.

99 1747-7 in front of the loco shed at Radeburg Station on the 750 mm line Radebeul (Dresden)-Radeburg. The loco was built by Berliner Maschinenbau AG in 1929. 

Visitor wise 2024 has been like many previous years with between 3.500-4.500 views pr. month. The only number that has kept rising is the annoying spam in the comments' section of the blog. Clearly written by AI and always flashing some completely unrelated manufacturer's website. I've had to activate the blog's moderation filter to spare you for utterly useless spam comments. My activity on the blog has been moderate to low with 40 posts - a little more than 3 post pr month in average. December (as usual) is the month with most posts - due to holidays, weather, traditional modelling season and of course the 'extra' post of review of the year.

My weathered model of Ferguson TE-20 from Schuco parked near the petrol pump. The tractor's driver has disappeared. Perhaps to get a sip himself?

Looking forward to 2025 I hope to advance Nystrup Gravel's fleet of locos further with a finished Fowler and the Baguley-Drewry loco that Nustrup Gravel took over from the Danish sugar beet lines. On the list is also weathering and detailing of a Lanz tractor and trailer as well as more work on detailing the layout.

Happy New Year - see you in 2025?

Fowler Driver Finished

Relaxed modelling over the Christmas holidays has produced a finished figure of the driver in the Fowler locomotive. As usual it is a Modelu figure adapted to its role and position on my Nystrup Gravel layout.

You only see the back of the driver. But he is there and he will stay in the cab, even during a derailment.

In the previous post I had begun adding material to the back side of the figure. I converted the figure to fit on the edge of the lower part of the rear wall in the cab. I added enough 'Green Putty' to create an overhang of the figure's jacket and a narrow 'channel' to fit over the cab's edge. This allows me to carefully remove the figure while it will still be held in place during most operating situations. Once the general shape was obtained I added putty to even out the surface and sanded everything smooth. It takes several stages of sanding and putty and a decent amount of patience. 

Rear view of driver test fitted in the cab. The green is added material from 'Green Putty' to the original Modelu figure.

After priming with 'Chaos Black' painting is now in progress.

When I was satisfied with the figure it was washed with hot water and a soft brush. After drying overnight it was primed with my favourite primer 'Chaos Black' from Citadel. For the layers of covering paint I used Vallejo acrylics.  The jacket was painted first in 70940 'Saddle Brown' then the shirt was painted white (70951) the sweater 70837 'Pale Sand'. I then painted the skin areas and shadows in the clothings' folds were accentuated with a darker tones of the colour as appropriate. Once the upper parts of the figure were painted I painted the trousers 900 'French Blue' and the shoes a dark grey. I didn't spent a lot of time on detail painting and facial detail as the figure isn't particularly visible in the cab. Once finished I air brushed a layer of matt varnish over the figure to protect the paint and give the clothing a flat look. Skin areas were given a thin wash of oil paint. 

The finished figure in the cab. Notice the tight fit on the rear wall and wooden blocks for use in case of derailments.

Here the driver is out of the cab for a brief moment to show off in all his glory.

The brake coloumn was finished alongside the figure and I also got it primed and painted. The testing of different shapes of wood for the wooden blocks to be used in case of derailment was worth the trouble. I decided on quite different shapes and sizes than I had originally planned. The blocks were sanded and dyed with light grey wood dye.

The driver is partly visible through the front cab windows. At least as long as there is no glazing.

After the driver figure next up is more interior details like sand boxes, panel with gauges and switches as well as the necessary levers. 

Fowler Driver Figure and Brake Column

With the Christmas holidays just started after the last tasks were done on the job, I jumped directly to the worktable, cleared away the worst mess and began working on the driver figure for the Fowler and continuing work on the brake column. Christmas will be the time for cab interior on the Fowler!

Brake column needing only final sanding and cleaning before it can be primed and painted. The wooden blocks are test pieces to check what sizes and numbers of jack blocks can be fitted under the cab floor.

The brake column is a simple thing glued together from plastic tubes of different diameters set onto an (almost) eliptical mounting plate and fitted with bolt head imitations of sliced hexagonal plastic profiles. Not entirely prototypically, but good enough for its future hard to see location in the cab. 

Quite fast I decided that the driver on the Fowler locomotive had to be the standing figure in Modelu loco driver pack 11219.  The figure arrived in May among a batch of stuff from Modelu. The figure is almost a perfect fit leaning against the low rear wall in the cab. Initially I have adjusted the figure's height by trimming shoes and cap with knife and sanding sticks. Not much work but the pose improved and taking a milimeter or two of the figure's height also makes it easier to get it in or out the cab once its filled with levers etc.

First stage of 'building up a butt' on the driver figure. The in-progress brake column is just visible in the cab.

The most time consuming work on the figure was adding material to the back side of the figure. As the figure is designed to sit on a flat surface and I'm having my example sit on an edge I was in for some plastic surgery of adding 'tissue'. I used 'Green Putty' from Green Stuff World building it up in layers. I'm working on a good fit between figure and loco, to make the figure removable and yet being able to keep its position while traversing bad track (as all track is at Nystrup Gravel). Currently I'm adding the last layers of 'Green Putty' and smoothing out the surface before sanding begins.

When the figure arrived in May he was photographed leaning against the Fowler loco. After being 'tailored' to fit in the cab he will probably seldom be seen outside. Too bad actually, as it is a lovely scale figure.

With a good start on the holidays modelling wise, I look forward to some time at modelling table. It needs a more thorough cleaning. After working with vegetation and ground cover it is covered in fibres and gravel. Having started on the figure and cab interior I've an urge to finish as much as possible during all the other Christmas activities. 

A few printouts from the article kept safe in plastic chartecues in my 1/19 modelling binder. Easy to see I'm a modeller from the previous millennium!

Besides prototype photos the article by Bill Strickland in the November 1980 issue of 'Merioneth Mercury' is a good guideline for my work on the locomotive. I think it shows how good quality magazine articles are a lasting ressource in modelling. Don't throw away that kind of treasures!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is on its way! I wish all railway modellers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2024 has been a good year for Nystrup Gravel. Tthe little layout has moved on with decent results and two major milestones met. 

The usual Christmas card from Nystrup Gravel: a tree and a train. The Baguley-Drewry loco was so large it barely fitted through openings in buildings around the Nystrup Gravel site.

As usual I'm going to celebrate Christmas with my family. This year's holidays will probably provide less time to scale modelling due to travelling. In the new year more challenges await me creating exiting features on the small layout in the large scale.  A large loco rebuild to finish and another to start and further detailing on the layout. 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 and war. If you are well-off and don't usualle donate to people in need, please make an exception during Christmas. Most people running a model railway can spare a sum for a donation to a good cause.

Merry Christmas!

Layout Ground Cover Finished

A major milestone has been reached on my small Nystrup Gravel layout: all surfaces are covered in basic, appropriate materials. After the petrol pump was placed and the area around it covered in sand and gravel, I got the remaining surfaces on the layout covered. Much better than the painted disposable kitchen rags (that themselves were much better than white foam blocks and plywood). I even made it before my set target by the end of December. The milestone places my little Nystrup Gravel well in the semi-finished category 4½ years after building the module frames were begun. 

A view along the tracks with one of Nystrup Gravel's structures in the background. Fowler loco reversing to pick up a train of skips.

My ballasting activities were almost brought to a halt due to supply chain disruptions. The amount of ballast needed on the layout almost outstripped my available material, but fortunately I could make the last batch stretch. Imagine a model of a gravel line running out of gravel. Humiliating!

Workshop manager Petersen looking at the shrubbery behind the brick shed.

In the proces of adding of basic ground cover I fitted the petrol pump and test fitted some coarse shrubbery behind the fuel shed. The layout still need a lot of detailing. Some work, like vegetation and plants, has been started, some work is planned and other elements are still only in the 'I could also do that-stage'. 

In this north-westerly view it's clear how much better the layout looks with a basic ground cover added. The petrol pump also adds life and colour to the scene.

And to be completly honest: the layout still need a little ground cover material at the layout's edges. To avoid damaging the backscene or the floor of the room I'll be adding the ground cover along the remaining edges once I have the layout set up in a more appropriate work area. 

Close-up of the brick shed showing how the area to the front and right of the building still needs some ground cover and blending in. A model railway is never finished!

I'll now be clearing away the containers and bags with sand and gravel and clean up my worktable. The work in the coming months will focus on locomotives and road vehicles.

Embedding Petrol Pump

As part of the work giving the Nystrup Gravel layout a more prototypical surface, I have been working on the area around the petrol pump. I wanted the petrol pump to be removable, still not having its looks spoiled by gaps between ground and pump foundation. Not an easy task to accomplish.

In this view the Nystrup Gravel petrol pump towers above the flat meadows to the north of the tracks.

The pump is a cheap chinese toy model I bought back in 2019. I have been refining it a bit but am still looking for a finer detailed pump. By having the pump able to be lifted off the layout it is easily replaceable. When moving the layout, the risk of damaging structures and details is also much smaller when they can be lifted off separately. 

My initial plan was to mount a bolt in the pump and attach it through the layout with a nut from the underside. A bit over the top for an item that won't just fly off at the slightest touch and I settled for a simple piece of brass rod fitting tightly into a brass pipe glued into the foam baseboard.

Before scattering ground cover material around the pump's foundation I wrapped the pump in plastic cling wrap. The thin plastic material creates a good barrier between foundation and the mix of glue and sand for ground cover. Once the glue has dried, the petrol pump was carefully lifted off, the wrap removed and the pump fitted again. A few tufts of grass helped to blend the foundation into the ground.

A brass pipe buried in the layout surface to accept the brass part added to the petrol pump.

Brass rod fitted for keeping the pump in place on the layout.

Diluted white glue has been added to the sand/gravel mix around the petrol pump. The cling wrap prevents the white glue from cementing sand and pump solidly together.

From the front of the layout there is hardly any gaps to be seen even if the petrol pump is removable.

Adjusting Ballast In Turnout

As I mentioned in the previous post I had used foamboard inserts of a wrong thickness in a Peco turnout. Fortunately I discovered the problem before gluing the ballast in place. Making mistakes is an integral part of modelling and facing the faults always makes you a better modeller. My resulting remedial work to get back on track was quite simple: Once the surrounding ballasted areas were dry, I ripped out the three offending pieces of foamboard with scalpel and tweezers.  

The turnout has been reballasted after a faulty installation of foamboard inserts to save weight.

I removed most of the foamboard and only one insert was left in a cut-down state between the sleepers at the tongue fishplates. I gave the worked on areas between the sleepers some dark sand colour and poured a thin layer of ballast material. The ballast was adjusted with a brush and the turnout tested several times to make sure no sand obstructed safe working.

Three foamboard inserts before they were removed. I waited until the surrounding ballast was fully dry to avoid disturbing it and creating even more problems.

With the ballast positioned as wanted I added glue during a late evening work session before going to bed. Having fixed the mistake at the turnout, next task on my list is adding tufts and coarse grass to remaining ballastless track on the layout.

The turnout seen from above. I have missed a few spots where the foamboard show clearly between ballast and grass tufts. Perhaps caused by working too late in the evening?

Ballasting In Two Scales

Trying to get some simple modelling started, I have been ballasting in two scales and even painted and weathered four wagons. Some accomplishment - if it wasn't for the fact that the wagons are 1/87 scale and tiny!

Ballast and grass tufts are spreading around the brick shed for fuel and lubricants. Here in 'wet look' after application of glue/water mix.

In a previous post I mentioned my ambition of having the layout completly covered with a basic layer of ground cover and vegetation. Now only finishing work remains around the brick shed. At least for a basic 'almost finished look'. Adding small details and weathering will be an ongoing proces for a long time.

Having begun work at the right end of the layout I got the plastic sleepers painted grey and weathered before gluing foamboard scraps between the sleepers to reduce the amount of ballast needed. A method I have used with success before. In this phase I must have lost concentration as I used two types of board with different thickness. A few of the thickest type were unfortunately glued under the tongue section and didn't leave room for ballast. They will need thinning down before ballasting can continue. Apart from that everything went according to plan. Soon only a short section of plain track lacks ballast.

The original plastic sleepers of the Peco turnout painted medium grey before weathering.

Foamboard inserts being fitted between the sleepers.

Ballasting in progress. Obviously Nystrup Gravel wasn't bothered by the missing fishplates in the rail joint in the foreground. A proper industrial railway!

As a follow up from my summer's modelling I got four mine tubs in 1/87 scale painted and weathered. I glued two brass L-profiles to a piece of foambord, painted them rust and added a little ballast around. Foundations for the Soviet concrete fence added from pieces of plasticard. The tubs are gauged for 6.5 mm track so we are talking diminutive modelling here. A 9 mm track will be added in the foreground.

Four awfully tiny coal tubs painted and weathered. Capturing them on a photo almost more difficult than painting them. But a different challenge is welcome now and then.

It's good to be back modelling again, even if it is only adding ballast and grass tufts. Before too long my little layout will look a lot more harmonic with a full basic ground cover.

Little Progress

There has been little progress on Nystrup Gravel during the last month. Obligations in other directions have been taking up my available time. Fortunately things are now getting better as we move into the traditional modelling season. As a small appetizer I added a few additional broad leafed plants to the layout's right end front.

The front slope is beginning to look finished. Now the remaining surface needs some attention.

The right end of my small layout will be further developed in the coming weeks with the prospect of melting together with the rest of the landscaped part. Other projects on the list are cab interior in the Fowler diesel, and painting of a few small scale models that I didn't get to finish during summer. The major reasons for not being able to show more progress is two other railway events in my life.

As usual I attended the huge railway exhibition InnoTrans in Berlin during september. I knew the managing director of Nystrup Gravel was also going, but I didn't meet him (among 170.000 attendees it would have been no small wonder). As usual I was part of my company's staff manning our exhibition stand, but I managed some tours round the exhibition and even got to see some narrow gauge equipment. The exhibiting companies continue to use models to illustrate their products and is to a large extent using 3D printed models. 

The most detailed models were seen at the stand of Полтавський Тепловозоремонтний завод (Poltava Locomotive Repair Plant) from Ukraine. In addition to the 1/87 scale TjME3 above a model of a M62-locomotive was also exhibited.

The use of 3D printed models is becoming very widespread. Here the technology is used to show maintenance equipment complete with scale figure.

Shortly after a week spent in Berlin for Innotrans the major annual event for vintage narrow gauge industrial railway enthusiasts in continental Europe, the 'Feldbahntreffen' was hosted by the Hedeland vintage railway (HVB), where I spend a good deal of my spare time. Volunteers had planned and prepared the event for several months, but most of the work took place in the week before the meeting and during the four day it lasted. Four Dutch vehicles visited HVB, the first time the railway has hosted locomotives from abroad. Naturally I spent a lot of time planning, working and enjoying the meeting.

Visiting Dutch locomotive nr. 6 'Ijsseloord' from Smalspoor Katwijk Leiden.

One Dutch engine and two Danish resting after a day's work on the 5 km HVB.

110 European enthusiasts from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Romania, Ukraine and Poland joined more than 40 volunteers from HVB for four days of networking, presentations, train rides and visits to usually off limits workshops and storage buildings.  

Wooden box with 'Nystrup Gravel' painted on top in use as illustrative load in a wagon during the 32. Internationales Feldbahntreffen at the Hedeland vintage railway 10.-13.October.

I now hope to be able to devote a few more evenings for modelling and hopefully breathe some life into this blog again!

New Plants

Last week I experimented with some soft plastic broad leaved plants and I decided to carry on with the work. The soft plastic took paint reasonably well and I liked the contrast to the overwhelmingly grassy growth on the layout. My layout is too small for 1/19 scale trees so variety in low growing vegetation is important.

Butterbur plants with an assortment of grass tufts, stones and ground cover on the small slope next to the fuel and lubrication shed.

Before fixing the plastic plants, I glued some grass tufts in place and also fixed a piece of scrap wood and some rusty scrap metal to the slope. Then I scattered some finely sieved brownish sand to the slope fixing it with thinned white glue. The holes for the plants were kept open with tooth picks that kep away sand and glue. Further holes for plants were made after the glue had dried. I simply punch holes through the top of the layout with a screwdriver.

Before the glue dried completely I added the first butterbur plants. While I was working a sign saw the staff somewhat baffled. 

With the plants in place I'm now wondering if I should fit some more in the same area and perhaps also add a little 'colony' of the plants near the lorry loading ramp. The most important development is however, that I've now begun to add ground cover and vegetation to the layout's right hand end. I hope to have the whole layout covered by Christmas.

A zoomed out view of the fuel shed (a resin kit from Kippo Models) showing the right hand end of the layout with the fence creating a minimum of a scenic break. I built the shed back in 2019.

Politics at Nystrup Gravel

Most model railway enthusiasts are not incorporating politics on their layouts. On Nystrup Gravel on the other hand it's actively integrated into the history of company, layout and the figures giving character to my Nystrup universe. For general elections period election posters are hung on telegraph poles and prominent personalities on the layout have political views representative of Danish political history. Sometimes small anomalies creep in, though. 

The fuel and lubrication shed was a favourite spot for posters. As many political observations were present among Nystrup staff the political posters were often changing. The Vespa posters have been up for ages.

The new poster glued to the fuel storage shed is nothing out of the usual despite being in English. The design is 1950's with a simple slogan, although one of the symbols seems to be a little off for the modelling period.  You can't get everything right. It turned out the conservative owner of Nystrup Gravel didn't approve of the poster's anti-royal statement and as the chief mechanic didn't like the anti-communist hint they both agreed to let it quietly dissappear. 

Experimenting With Vegetation

In February I acquired some artificial grass from IKEA for an experiment with high vegetation looking a bit like the rushes growing in poorly drained areas. Although intially very promising, I ditched the solution after having installed a few tufts of cut down IKEA grass. It was too obviously plastic grass from IKEA and no amount of matt varnish or detail painting could hide that - particularly as they were placed at the layout's front edge. Now a new experiment is unfolding at the same location: planting butterbur.

At the right end of the small layout new, experimental plants have started growing

I don't know where I bought the plastic plants with large leaves, but they were probably cheap. I found 3 wraps of them in a bag while cleaning out a cupboard and they look like a type of plastic plants used by by people keeping fish in aquariums. They are from the time when I modelled in 1/35 scale and I probably decided they were too large for 1/35. Now I wanted to try them out in 1/19 scale.

A handful of plants were wiped with a wet cloth and when dry given a spray with black primer. The root end were cut off and the leaves painted green. Once dry they were stuck into holes on the small slope at the layout's right end.

3 stages of butterbur for Nystrup Gravel (from top down): unpainted plant, primed and painted. The fourth plant is as bought with stem and roots still attached.

First impression of the plastic plants isn't too bad. With some groundcover and a little colour variety these plants stand a greater chance of survival in the Nystrup biosphere than the IKEA grass.

My greatest concern is if the paint will hold on to the soft plastic over time. I have tried to rub the primer off the leaves without succes so perhaps I'm worrying too much. No one will be touching the plants regularly and they can be spot painted if needed.

The roots and stems have been put into storage. They may come in useful later.