Nystrup Gravel in Print

Nystrup Gravel is mostly living a quiet existence in my study and online, being mostly shared in a language foreign to me, English. Just recently my modelling adventure has been mentioned in a small Danish modelling magazine being distributed to members of one of the oldest railway modelling societies in the kingdom of Denmark. Established in October 1945 the society is still active modelling in 0 gauge.

Front page of the magazine 'Train 60'. The model of Aarhus Central Station is an impressing model in 1:45 scale. 

A brief history of Nystrup Gravel and several very nicely reproduced photos are included in the 3 page article. The article also deals with my change of modelling scale and there is even a small portrait of me and my railway career combining modelling, heritage railway activity and my real job for a railway contractor.

Two pages spread out on the floor. The large photographs are nicely printed.

Factually there isn't much in the article that hasn't already been treated in detail here on the blog. The difference is the nice style that the article's author has managed to add both in and between the lines. And the fact that the information about Nystrup Gravel is delivered directly to some very talented modellers, of course. The author is Nils Bloch, a Danish writer with several books on his CV, a range of university degrees as well as years of active service for railway preservation.

Nils Bloch's latest book about a small Danish standard gauge light railway line. A book packed with facts and countless stories from the line's everyday life until closure in 1968.

New Skips (1/35)

Skips are what makes the little railway at Nystrup Gravel earn its living. After having ordered a batch in the beginning of the year, the railway has now taken delivery of 9 new skips - one of them with brakes. The skips are built from the Hesketh and Snoodyk 1:35 scale etched brass kit launched last year and produced from drawings of a German Dolberg skip.

Nystrup Gravel's newest item - a 1:35 Dolberg skip from Hesketh & Snoodyk.

Yesterday I received a package from Australia with the skips. I was excited as I had not only bought kits of skips. Rather than build them myself I had ordered them in built condition. It is the first time I have paid someone to assemble kits for me and it will most likely not be a thing that will happen often. I love modelling myself, so why pay someone else for the fun? But the bending and soldering of nine skips occured to me as something I might find both somewhat difficult and perhaps a little boring. Consider me spoiled if you like.

I ordered my skips unpainted but they arrived chemically blackened to avoid oxidation. While they don't look too bad unpainted I will eventually paint my skips later. 

I have yet to examine the skips in more detail and test run them on my modules, but from my intial handling of them and pushing them over a test track everything seems to be in perfect order. On some of them I may adjust the fit of the skip bucket in its cradle just a little. Otherwise I can't think of what I could add to these skips except paint, weathering and a tiny drop of oil in the bearings.

The skip with bucket tipped.

Bucket pulled off the skip frame. Even on my hurried snapshots the fine detail can be seen.

I have previously sought different ways to make up realistic trains of skips. I bought my first skip kits in 1999 from Scale Link and added minor details myself to change them a bit. I continued buying Scale Link skips as they were what was available and looked most like the skips most used on Danish industrial railways. In addition to the Scale Link skips I acquired six Hudson skips from Slaters Plastikard. Quite satisfied with both the look and running of the Slaters skips, the type was however, never in widespread use in Denmark. Consequently I couldn't bring myself to buy more of them. Mark Hesketh and Bernard Snoodyk have now provided exactly the skips I wanted and I'm seriously contemplating if I should order more.

I will now have to consult the Nystrup Gravel archive for that missing half page of their inventory of skips. When numbering my new skips I would like them to carry correct numbers according to Nystrup Gravel practice. I have the top half of the document but I suspect the company's Dolberg type skips to be listed on the lower half of the document...

Blitz Models: Track from the Great War (1/35)

The anniversaries of World War 1 are here. The war that started in 1914 was know as the Great War before the new global conflict from 1939-1945 gave the war the name it is best known by today: World War 1. In the next 4 years we will probably be exposed to much 'celebrating' and ceremonial remembering of the huge battles taking place during the 1. World War. I hope to build a World War 1 inspired model each year for the next four years. As I have a rather full programme for most of this year, the first one will be very modest - a few track panels with steel sleepers and a wagon turntable from Blitz Models of France. 



Through the years I have built a few models of WW1 subjects - of both narrow gauge and non railway subjects. Here is my model of a long wooden wagon built in French army workshops behind the front line. The model was built from drawings in Christian Cenac's "La Voie de 60 Militaire de la Guerre de 14-18 en France". The French officer is in white metal from Scale Link.

As track panels from The Great War actually found their way to Denmark it was only too obvious that Nystrup Gravel should have some as well. Recently Blitz Models have brought out some 1:35 track elements and a Campagne loco tracteur. More models have been announced on their web site. As I have already built a Campagne from scratch I only ordered a little track to test the quality.



Plastic bag and a printed label constitutes packaging and information. A single pack is 6,5 € from the Blitz Models' web site.

Contents of one bag laid out on my cutting mat. The flimsy resin rails are destined for my waste basket.



A single steel sleeper close up. It fits the 1:35 drawings in the Cenac books.

A length of PECO code 100 rail fitted on three Blitz Models sleepers.

The Blitz Models resin is flexible and with heat from boiling water or a hair drier I suppose you could straighten the warped resin rails. As the sleepers fit standard code 100 rail I will simply slide the sleepers on some PECO rail and super glue them in place. The metal rails will add strength to the assembly. Something I think the resin rails will not be able to. I will use my sleepers primarily for a few loose track panels. For working track on the Nystrup Gravel line I'd rather use the Coldicott track panels as they are designed to take the strain of running trains.

I hope to finish some French track panels in the coming weeks - not forgetting my mission to finish the doors for the Nystrup Gravel loco shed.

One of the Small Joys of Modelling (1/35)

Modelling brings many joys. Most non-modellers don't quite get it. Gluing bits together and painting it - isn't that something for kids? Well, in many ways I'm pretty grown up and I still find it great fun to build or rework a kit and paint it up nicely. I have even more fun when I build something from scratch or combine several kits into one unique model that can only be found one place in the world - on my shelf.

Yesterday I received a letter - in it self a rather rare occurrence these days in Denmark where most people my age use e-mail or Facebook and letters from public services are digitally sent to your personal e-box. The letter was from Odense and contained my latest batch of decals from 'Skilteskoven' (in English 'Forest of Signs'). Receiving modelling stuff and looking at it the first time is great - a bit like opening a Christmas present. So just receiving new stuff is actually a part of the joy of modelling.

On the new sheet is a series of Danish army license plates, lettering for my 3D-printed Schöma and markings for the Fordson 7V which is currently being painted. While four models need military license plates to finish, the Fordson lorry decals will be used first.

'Skilteskoven' specializes in Danish road signs etc., but also takes on custom orders. The proprietor, designer, printer and draughtsman of 'Skilteskoven' apparently never grows tired of receiving text, fonts and unclear notes from me. The one man-business somehow manages to produce nice decals despite my poor instruction.

I appreciate all the small businesses that despite hard economic odds keep me supplied with good stuff to make my modelling easier. Particularly the decals make a vital contribution to help me make my models fit in the 'Nystrup universe'.

New Skips for Nystrup Gravel (1/35)

Just as 2013 drew to a close the Hesketh and Snoodyk series of skip kits in 1:35 scale were released. I have not yet seen any of the kits built, but hope that Nystrup Gravel will soon take delivery of a number of them. From the images available online the skips looks very promising. With my little railway being a gravel line it relies heavily on skips. So far the skips have been Scale Link skips rebuilt in various degrees and a batch of Slaters Plastikard Hudson skips. From drawings and images the Hesketh and Snoodyk skips will likely be a good representation of the type of skips that has been the dominant type of steel skip on Danish narrow gauge industrial railways.



Painted and weathered skips of both braked and unbraked type. Photo: Hesketh Scale Models.

More info on the skips and prices can be found on the website of Hesketh Scale Models.

Nystrup Gravel's batch of skips will be delivered through the well known Danish dealer of skips, locomotives, rail and spare parts, V. Spøer from the town of Middelfart (and no, the city's name has nothing to do with gas...).

Aerial view of V. Spøer's premises in Middelfart, probably during the 1950's. A few skips can be seen in the centre of the photo, while track panels and rails are stocked on the area to the far right. Cropped part of a Sylvest Jensen photograph (NKS 04382) now residing in the collections of the Royal Danish Library.

I worked a lot with skips in 2012 and below are a few links to earlier blog posts on those activities:
Filling Scale Link skips with gravel
Two skips with brakes
New British skips for Nystrup Gravel

Track with Steel Sleepers (1/35)

One of the great advantages of narrow gauge industrial railways were their ease of construction. The steel sleepered track panel was a major contributing factor. The steel sleeper came in several designs, but all of them rather difficult to model in 1:35. Several modellers have been working on scratchbuilding the sleepers from different materials, some using plastic profiles others experimenting with 3D-printing.

Different steel sleeper profiles. Scan from an Orenstein & Koppel catalogue from 1922.

Recently James Coldicott released a range of steel sleepered track panels in resin. It is now possibly to order lengths of track, both straight and curved, just like a company in 1922 would have ordered track panels from Orenstein & Koppel, Dolberg or Decauville. I couldn't resist the temptation to do as any sensible industrial railway operator did in the past, so sent off for 5 straight and 5 curved panels. As I use 16,5 mm gauge I ordered the sets 20S18 and 20T1 - as below.

New supplies for the track builders at Nystrup. The track came well protected in a solid cardboard box lined with bubble wrap. No damage from the trip over the North Sea!

One straight panel and a short and long curved panel.

Find the track panels on the website of James Coldicott complete with link to ordering and payment. On the website you will also find a most useful PDF document with prototype information and advise on how best to lay the track segments. No excuse for not trying! The design of the panels has rendered the thin profile of the steel sleeper ends very well. Without compromising structural strength of the panel. The resin bar beneath the rail profile can be removed with care if you should want to recreate a sparsely ballasted track. See two close ups of a straight track panel below.

I plan to install a stretch of steel sleepered track on a future module, perhaps with the odd wooden sleeper added for stability. On Nystrup Gravel's lines most of the orignal 10 kg/m track on steel sleepers didn't last long into the 1930's but on some straight parts it wasn't replaced until much later. Straight track isn't influenced by the same forces as curved track, so the gravel company spared heavier rail and better sleepers where they were most needed.

New 1:35 Kit - O&K MD2 (1/35)

Having modelled industrial railways in 1:35 for more than a decade I have not grown accustomed to the luxury of having a selection of kits in the scale for neither locos nor wagons. Most of what pulls skips at Nystrup Gravel is more or less home made or cobbled together from a resin upper body and a drive unit that has been adapted to fit. The only exeption has been the kit of the Swedish Sala-loco currently undergoing maintenance and updating at my work table. I have accepted that without any problems as 1:35 is not a traditional railway modelling scale.

But now a new company has announced what looks like an extremely promising 1:35 kit of the Orenstein & Koppel MD2. And from my interpretation of the company's post on the FS32NG-group it seems it will be the first of a series of locos in 1:35. Something I never dared to hope for. 

Finshed MD2 with cab. Photo from Mark Hesketh.

I have always fancied the sturdy looking O&K-locos. Because of their slab sided construction, many of O&K's locos designed before the war lends them well to etched metal construction.

You can see more images of the model on the web site of the small company that makes the kit – Hesketh Scale Models. You will even be able to start planning the build of the model, as the instructions are online as PDF-files. A nice drawing of an MD2 can be seen on the Dutch website Industriespoor.

"A Package from Paris" (1/35)

...said the postman as he handed me a small card board box. A resin kit and some figures had arrived from Blast Models of France two days after I ordered them.

The kit is one of those surprises that sometimes comes along. I knew that the French company U-Models were selling the well known kits of the 1:35 Billard-loco and Pechot-wagons (originally from 13'eme Dragon) but that they had released a Jung-locomotive was completely unknown to me. It didn't take long for me to find my credit card and place the order!

I'm checking the main parts of the 1:35 Jung kit just minutes after the arrival of the parcel.

Parts layout and assembly instructions from the kit.

I hope to be able to fit a BullAnt to power the model. I would like my model to be like a real Jung-loco as the producers themselves described it in 1938: "einfach im Aufbau und in der Bedienung, kräftig, unempfindlich, stets betriebsbereit".

You can find info and drawings on Jung-locos in 'Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review' issues 50 and 51. More on Jung's production of locomotives on Jens Merte's website.