A Piece of Genuine Nystrup Gravel History!

Apart from some images, newspaper clippings and documents very little remain of the original Nystrup Gravel. Last week I was surprised when I found that a large wooden box had been placed up against the gate to my house. When I looked closer it turned out to be a box with firm connection to Nystrup Gravel! Some follower of this blog obviously had this box in his or her possesion ever since the gravel company closed down and had now handed it over to me anonomously. The box was empty but I will no doubt find use for it and take good care of it! Thanks a lot!

A real piece of Nystrup Gravel! A wooden box with 'Nystrup Grus A/S' (the Danish name of the company) painted on the lid. Now I just have to find a nice old pad lock for the box.

My modelling is going through a quiet fase. Only little work is progressing on the Land Rover and another car model.

40 Years Anniversary

The premier railway in my life turns 40. And no, it’s not the 1:35 scale Nystrup Gravel but the 1:1 scale HVB – a 700 mm. gauge vintage railway in the Nature Park Hedeland. We take the opportunity to celebrate the 40th anniversary with special trains, visiting friends and societies (some even bring their own locomotive and steam roller), fresh, local beef from the barbeque, beer, cake and tea. Politicians give speeches, a vintage mobile stone crusher will be working, old lorries moving about while you enjoy the lovely Danish spring weather. Saturday 20 May is the day and should you visit HVB just once in your life this weekend surely is the one to choose! Check out the programme here.

Da 7 will definately be working during the weekend.

Sunday 21 May we kick off our regular summer's traffic - probably with some special trains to boot and two steam locos in traffic. If you manage to stay until Monday you even have a special steam train for a group of disabled passengers to enjoy from the lineside.

We'll try to get as many locos moving during the weekend. Petrol loco M 2 should be seeing some action. Perhaps with a train of skips. Photo: Anders Lyngesen, 2015.

As I'm chairman of the society behind the HVB I will be working hard, tending the visiting VIPs, giving a speech or two and presenting locomotives at the great loco parade - not to mention hosting a volunteers' barbeque Friday evening. Hopefully I will find the time to slip into my comfy vintage workman's clothing and take a loco and some skips down the line Saturday or Sunday.

In regular work clothing preparing a spicy chili during a day out on lineside work.

If you decide to show up, please come by and say hello. I'd love to take you sightseeing if I can spare a minute.

Driver In Nystrup loco No. 1 (1/35)

Earlier this week I finished Nystrup Gravel loco no. 1. I completely forgot the driver figure I had carefully built to fit in the loco, when I had the loco and a single module in the garden for photography . The driver has no legs. Instead he's equipped with a single nut in his lower torso to enable him to be bolted to a narrow platform just below the door opening. In that way I can remove him when the loco is parked idle on a siding or in the loco shed.

A snapshot of Nystrup no. 1 perched on the wooden box that will become its safe home when the loco is not on duty.

The Alpha E 10 Painted and Weathered (1/35)

Started almost three years ago my interpretation of one of the earliest Danish built locos with internal combustion engine is now finished. The loco from around 1908 was Nystrup Gravel's first loco. Surviving as long as into the 1950's with its original engine must be considered well done, although the loco wasn't used regularly from the mid twenties and forward. My model of the loco will get some exercise now and then, as it acts as a spare loco in case of break downs etc.

An old relic moving slowly and noisily through the woods around Nystrup. Built around 1908 it's a wonder it is still in running order.

I tested different ways to portray the greyish galvanised finish of the prototype. Here is a snap shot of some mixes on a scrap of foam board. The paint mix is pencilled below each test square.

I wondered how best to create an impression of the galvanised upper body. After some testing I settled for a 40/60 % mix of Vallejo 70.992 'Neutral Grey' and 71.064 'Chrome'. I air brushed the mix all over the upper body, roof and all. To make the colour appear a bit more varied I sprayed selected parts of the loco with a darkened mix of the base colour. With heavily thinned white and blue oil paint I added further variety to the colour. Then I brushed on random spots of 'Chrome' and 'Medium Grey' all over the upper body. I used a small brush as my experiments painting the spots with a teased out sponge didn't work out well. Going over the body with a few thin layers of a home mixed light grey oil paint blended in the spots. I think the result is passable for a galvanised surface when seen from a distance.

Chrome and Medium Grey spots appplied all over the body. Photo taken before the layers of thin grey oil paint were put on.

Front number added with brass stencil, masking tape and red paint. 

All major work finished on my model of a Frederikshavn Iron Foundry type Alpha E 10 loco. First snapshot on a hastily cleaned up worktable. I use snapshots like this for final 'quality control'. There is often something to be fixed on my models and digital images are perfect making the faults stand out. I fix some of them and live with others.

Obviously the model had to have the number 1 painted on its sides. I used a brass stencil from an old Stencilit set and red paint. When all four red numbers had dried I gave the body a quick spray with Vallejo matt varnish from a spray can. I then added a thin wash with black oil paint. A little rust here and there was suggested with burned sienna oil paint. Finally a thin layer of Humbrol acrylic 'Matt Kahki' was misted over the upper body from above with the air brush to represent dust. Grease cup and fuel lines were picked out in Humbrol 12 - 'Copper'.

The frame was painted  in Vallejo Air 71.123 'USAF Dark Grey' with buffers in contrasting 'French Blue' Vallejo 900. Weathering the frame was done with a black wash, black oil paint around the axle boxes, scratches and worn paint with paints and pencil, a little rust with oil paint and dusting with thin Humbrol acrylic 'Light Kahki' and an application of a little pastel chalk. On two of the axle boxes I represented wet oil spillings with a little more black oil paint and gloss varnish.

There is oil in the can for propulsion and the bucket is used to refill the radiator with water. Using evaporative cooling the loco probably needed almost as much water as it needed oil.

I fixed home made coupling chains to the buffers front and rear. The chains were blackened with 'Ballistol' and painted rust. I added an etched brass bucket to the right hand side of the loco. The bucket was painted white with two blue stripes and gloss varnished.

The loco managed trains of five loaded skips on the relative flat Nystrup Gravel line.

Unfortunately there seems to be tiny cracks developing on the right side and rear wall. Perhaps caused by the sandwiching of several layers of plastic card. I'll keep the areas under observation.

Smoking Man With Tie (1/35)

The postman brought me a package the other day. A 1:35 scale figure of a smoking man made by the company of Balaton Modell, Hungary. It's a pleasure to discover yet another nice figure to populate my little layout. Particularly as the model has a nice slightly overweight look to it.

Although labelled as 'Smoking men, 1930-1945' (in plural) there is only one figure in the ziplock pack. The figure has not been cleaned up in the photo.

While the figure according to the label is placed in the World War 2 time frame I can see a great likeness to some of the friendly taxi drivers of Moscow, Kaunas and Budapest that have helped me get from place to place. No matter what, I'll get him to fit in around Nystrup! Only very little flash will have to be removed before the figure is ready for primer and painting.

Balaton Modell has a lot of other interesting civilian kits in 1:35. Just think of a East German Barkas B 1000 or a IFA W50 - or the Soviet buldozer DT-74.

Fire Brigade Land Rover (1/35)

There wasn't a fire station in Nystrup before 1950 when a volunteer fire brigade was established. Until then the nearest fire station was in Skovby where the company 'Zonen' had a station with two fire engines, two recovery vehicles and an ambulance. A brand new Land Rover series 1 fire tender equipped the team of volunteer fire fighters in Nystrup. I'm currently building that particular Land Rover from a Roadcraft 1:35 kit.

All four wheels touch the cutting mat and the chassis is level. The result of a somewhat fiddly proces which I wouldn't recommend to anyone without some experience with short run kits.

Test fitting the three main resin body parts to check for any alignment issues. It looks like a Land Rover!

After having fitted the spring assemblies permanently I glued on axles, gearbox and other chassis details with AC glue. With all chassis parts in place I fixed the wheels with slow drying two part epoxy. With the slow setting glue I had a whole evening to check and adjust wheel settings.

With the wheels fitted I just added the front bumper and I had a complete chassis. Only the driveshaft to the rear mounted pump is missing as it has to be glued to the underside of the rear body.

The finished chassis seen from above. All parts fit well, but it's quite a job to get everything in place in such a tight space.

I'm now in the proces of fitting the main body to the chassis. For readers who can't wait to see a finished Land Rover fire tender check this gallery at Track-Link. The only finished Roadcraft Land Rover kit I have seen photos of.

New Photo of my Grandad

In Denmark the majority of national and local archives are gradually making their collections available online. That makes it much easier to find interesting stuff. Recently a new photo of my granddad has come to light. I have shown images of him and his loco before.

Grandad on a JWE-loco with gas generator. The train is photographed on Orebo brick work's clay pit with three skips. This new image is the first I have seen where the gas generator installation is clearly visible from the rear. The original cast steel rear buffer was moved to the front, but it seems the ability to couple skips to the loco's rear end was retained. Image: Lokalhistorisk Arkiv og Forening i Allerød Kommune. Crop of download from arkiv.dk

The photo belongs to a local historical archive in Allerød north of Copenhagen. The archive has captioned the photo as coming from Allerød brick works. Allerød is almost 100 km. north of Orebo where my grandad worked during the 1940’s. The good people at the archive can’t be expected to be experts on industrial narrow gauge internal combustion locomotives, so the miscaption probably isn’t that surprising.