Wonderful webcam to watch, especially this time of year.
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Flying Hamburgers (Fliegender Hamburger) in the 1930s
Documentary from the early 1930s about the construction and running of the first high-speed diesel railcar of the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft. The train connected Berlin with Hamburg at then unheard of speeds.
Below, a later variant running on my layout.
Below, a later variant running on my layout.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Sunday, January 20, 2019
More vintage Märklin
Running more of my vintage Märklin. Louder, "rougher," and with that distinctive ozone smell.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Pigeon Shed by Joswood
First kit in a while. A racing pigeon shed like those that dotted the Ruhr. The working man's race horses and far from rats with wings. There's a nice video (in German) from the WDR about raising pigeons here. See also some photos here.
The laser-cut card kit is by Joswood. Instructions are clear and materials are first rate. If you want to model northern, industrial, gritty, honest Germany, this is where you want to get your structures. Not an alpine hut in sight.
Will weather a bit before permanently placing on the layout, but I like where it is now.
Now to assemble the 1:87 pigeons - separate wings, legs, and beaks! Better have a Pils und n' Korn first to steady the hands.
Weathered and populated. One of the pigeons is not like the others - inspiration from a colleague whose uncle would use a slingshot to get rid of birds not his...
The laser-cut card kit is by Joswood. Instructions are clear and materials are first rate. If you want to model northern, industrial, gritty, honest Germany, this is where you want to get your structures. Not an alpine hut in sight.
Will weather a bit before permanently placing on the layout, but I like where it is now.
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| Let's get started... |
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| Roughly framed in and ready to start adding the exterior trim |
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| Exterior mostly on, now lots of details and more layers |
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| Done except for some weather. Joswood made that easy because the laser cutting left artifacts, and the materials look very natural. Instructions also say to avoid perfect and right angles – make it look ramshackle... |
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| Provisionally placed on the layout |
Now to assemble the 1:87 pigeons - separate wings, legs, and beaks! Better have a Pils und n' Korn first to steady the hands.
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| You didn't seriously think I'd assemble pigeons from kits/scratch, did you?!?! |
Weathered and populated. One of the pigeons is not like the others - inspiration from a colleague whose uncle would use a slingshot to get rid of birds not his...
Now, play the video below while looking at images for the full effect... ;-)
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Running my classic Märklin again.
Pulled out a bunch of my old classic Märklin to run for a change – back to the basics for a while. 😃
The E03 with the TEE (the classic tinplate) was my childhood pride and joy.
An hour ago the E03 wouldn't run or gears move. For the first time EVER totally took apart motor, cleaned gears and brushes, AND even managed to put it back together...
SIE LÄUFT, DIE E03 mit TEE am Hacken.
Still more to do, but it's a start and most importantly, I'm having fun and really enjoying it. I've missed that feeling.
My father's childhood SE800 also got put on, but without traction tires (never had them) wasn't going anywhere. I have a version with though, too, so will run in spirit.
The E03 with the TEE (the classic tinplate) was my childhood pride and joy.
An hour ago the E03 wouldn't run or gears move. For the first time EVER totally took apart motor, cleaned gears and brushes, AND even managed to put it back together...
SIE LÄUFT, DIE E03 mit TEE am Hacken.
My first Märklin train.
Running the switching puzzle. I've taken this to numerous trains shows — the kids love it.
Still more to do, but it's a start and most importantly, I'm having fun and really enjoying it. I've missed that feeling.
My father's childhood SE800 also got put on, but without traction tires (never had them) wasn't going anywhere. I have a version with though, too, so will run in spirit.
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Bahnhof Friedrichstraße
Thought I'd share this postcard I just got depicting the lovely P8/BR38 heading out of Berlin's Bahnhof Friedrichstraße.
A sign on the left indicates that this was taken during the renovations and expansion of the station that started in the late teens and went into the twenties.
And here another Berlin BR38 amidst the ruins of Weimar's downfall and the war... A Hamsterfahrt about to head out from Anhalter with Berliners heading out into the countryside to barter for food. Image by Margaret Bourke-White for LIFE magazine.
A sign on the left indicates that this was taken during the renovations and expansion of the station that started in the late teens and went into the twenties.
And here another Berlin BR38 amidst the ruins of Weimar's downfall and the war... A Hamsterfahrt about to head out from Anhalter with Berliners heading out into the countryside to barter for food. Image by Margaret Bourke-White for LIFE magazine.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Cleaning and first time running in a loooooong time
Due to bookish (bookbinding and writing) projects my layouts have languished and Shelob and her offspring have run amok, dust built up, and trains stopped running smoothly. Contributing to this were also ongoing accessibility/mobility issues on my part that made areas unreachable. Thanks to lots of quality time at home (almost 2 weeks) and familial help, Shelob succumbed to "Sting" and trains are now running again. I even enjoyed the experience and am looking forward to more and ongoing modeling projects. At one point I had toyed with "flattening" the layout, metaphorically and in reality to make it easier to reach. That thought was banished when I realized that rebuilding would be much harder than begging more regular "donations" of time for dusting...
While cleaning, took some time to explore areas I detailed but that normally are hidden due to facing the (removable) backdrop. Yes, there was "road work" to be done, in part to help the trolley run smoothly.
While cleaning, took some time to explore areas I detailed but that normally are hidden due to facing the (removable) backdrop. Yes, there was "road work" to be done, in part to help the trolley run smoothly.
Let's run some trains!
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