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.

Three New Underground Skips

Another three Hudson underground skips are now in service on my little 1/19 scale industrial narrow gauge railway. They are as dirty as the first three, carry the numbers 31, 34 and 36 and are from the same shipment that arrived in December 2022. I began assembly of the last three skips during summer and continued with final assembly and paint in September.

A full train of underground skips at Nystrup Gravel. The three new wagons in the foreground. The skips were primarily used to transport ash from the company's boiler room.

As the proces of painting and weathering is essential a total repitition of what I did on the first three U-tub skips I will refer to the post on finishing the first three skips. Below are a few images further illustrating the painting and weathering process in addition to the images in the post linked to above. 

Wheels sprayed with 'Chaos Black' from Citadel directly from the rattle can. Axles protected with masking tape and the single wheels double taped to a piece of scrap cardboard.

The first layers of weathering is on. It looks like a total mess at this stage. It will look better once finished... Notice numbering covered with dirty deposits.

With most of the weathering in place I just had to finish the couplings. That was done adding homemade hooks to the single chain links made previously. I only fitted hooks on one end of each wagon.

Home made hooks bent from nickle silver wire.

Last touches of weathering being applied. In reality the process will probably continue until I have found a level of ash deposit and dust I find reasonable.

With black paint on the hooks and a quick wash of heavily diluted rust coloured oil paint the skips received an air brushing of matt varnish with a little pale sand added. Then wheels and frames had track dust added with a thin layer Vallejo 71.142 'Sinai Sand' mixed with a lot of water.

Model Trains as Decoration

Many, if not most, railway modellers have too little room to build their dream layout and many has very little room for just a small layout and their collection of locos, rolling stock etc. I'm no different. I had been wondering if by making small dioramas or miniature settings I could enjoy some of my models in a different way. A 1/87 scale speeder, due to its small size, became the first of my model trains to appear outside of the model room. The small diorama on a slice of birch has been exhibited in our bed room on a low cupboard. It's small, green and kind of cute - not too different from a small plant. 

A mini diorama as decoration.

I have even taken the liberty to drag one of my 1/10 scale skips into my office at work, where it due to its large size is perfect as a conversation item. Not least because I work for a company building railways.

My next project is a narrow box diorama to fit between books on one of my shelves. A mine adit with track, lights and a underground skip - and maybe even forced perspective.

33. Internationales Feldbahnertreffen

Four days of narrow gauge trainspotting, forest trekking, a guided tour around a closed clay mine and good German beer. That was some of the ingredients in this year's Internationales Feldbahnertreffen at the 600 mm 'Stumpfwaldbahn' in Ramsen, ca. 16 km northeast of Kaiserslautern in Germany.

Henschel 24011/1939 with a pair of timber bogies moving through the forest.

The 'Treffen' is the major annual event for vintage narrow gauge industrial railway enthusiasts in continental Europe. As usual the event had four days filled with networking, presentations, train rides and visits to usually off limits workshops and storage buildings. 

A pair of visiting Hatlapa locomotives pausing in front of the station building at Eiswoog terminus.

American Fairbanks-Morse speeder visiting from France speeding along the line.

A large concrete and steel girder viaduct towers over the Eiswoog Station. Here a view down on a Jenbacher Werke 'Pony' visiting from Romania.

The 'Stumpfwaldbahn' is located in a hilly, forested area and with beautiful autumn weather both resident and visiting locomotives looked their best. The hosts must have been relieved with the weather turning out so nicely!

Gmeinder 1992/1937 with three skips being filled by a 1970´s hydraulic excavator.

The loco shed in Ramsen with Henschel steam loco being readied for service in the foreground.

Two Deutz locomotives in the 4-track shed.

As usual the event provided a good view into another organisation's way of doing things and several observations was noted that may be useful on the vintage railway where I volunteer myself. As a modeller inspiration was picked up and as usual the details on several types of steel skips made me think about the next project.

The viaduct above Eiswoog Station is an impressive structure.

Henschel 24011/21939 taking water from a small stream.

The sign from the event's bar is passed on from this year's hosts to next year's from Apedale in the United Kingdom.