Visiting Pappeck

Pappeck is a small Zechenkolonie (Coal miners' company town) with Haltestelle ([Train] stop), something less than a station. It connects to the Hbf in Papphausen via the rail line, the road connecting from elsewhere... The miners commute by rail...

All structures are lasercut card kits ordered from Germany. All images shot on Ilford HP5 400 speed black and white film using a tripod and cable release for these 2 second average exposures. And no, I did not forget the Farbfilm. Lighting for most of these was the bare 75 watt cool-white bulb on the basement ceiling. The layout lights were not on.

Entering Pappeck, crossing the [unsecured] railroad tracks by the Stellwerk. An oversized statue honors some medieval Holy Roman Emperor who passed through, lost apparently... The Trinkhalle (Kiosk) sees to the locals needs for beer, sweets, a currywurst, and gossip...

Stellwerk and looking down the road...

The Haltestelle comes into view. Looks like trouble (or salvation) in the distance...

Some shadows on the house in the background...

Two locals having a Schwätzchen (chat) across the fence. The one on the right was working in the vegetable garden. The Haltestelle at right.

Pappeck's Haltestelle. It's basic with a covering and ticket counter. The local (Märklin 3029 with coaches) was my first train. There are two tracks with switches at both ends so the engines can switch to the front, or park for the night. Not sure what those aliens are doing in the background. The heavy coal train heading towards Papphausen is being pulled by an E50/BR 150.

We'll come back for another visit in the not too distant future.

Capturing Papphausen on Film

Decided to take my Pentax with 50mm lens and loaded with HP5 to the layout and try to take some photographs. Need to work on the harsh lighting and depth of field, but it's a good start. The Diebels "Bude" was a few doors down from my grandparents in Duisburg and the place we picked up Opa's case of König Pilsner and sweets as kids. The Bude in the background (behind the S-Bahn) is the Bergbau-Grill in Bochum. The tank engine is on loan from the Gelsenkirchener Bergbau A.G. (GBAG), a nod to the city I lived in for my apprenticeship.

Fresh roll of film in camera and going to go back to capture more scenes soon.

BR23 with DB prototype bi-levels.

Just a street corner by the harbor... Where's the body? Schimanski probably in line at the Bude chatting up the owner and enjoying a beer.

S-Bahn BR 111 above, Bude below.

GBAG Br 94 by the Bude. Lokführer and Heizer need a Bier...

The Joswood Taubenschlag (Pigeon shed) and a Hinterhof of BMW 2002s.
Love that car, and they remind me of the one I [had] restored. It was sold.

The Bude in the background (behind the S-Bahn) is the Bergbau-Grill in Bochum.

Bundesbahn in 1979/80

Replaced my broken scanner over the break, got one that can also do slides and negatives, and am now having fun (re)discovering people, places, and things I saw in my youth. Among them some railroad pics. First some black and white ones, very grainy and borderline terrible, and thus (almost) verging on artsy. Venues for the first set are between Cologne and Bonn, Germany.

Near Köln Deutz.

Class 110 448 coming into Köln Hbf.

Passenger and railway employee (conductor) at Köln Hbf.

SNCB multi-system Class 18 (here 1801, the first in the series of 60) in Köln Hbf.

Heading past the passenger car yard. Coaches on the right are DR stock,
note also the pointy-roofed Type-Y.

More passenger coaches with the Dom in the background.

The E-lok Bw of Köln. Nicely visible the Class 103 on the left and 110s on the right. Looks like
the 103 is still there based on the picture at Google Maps.

Somewhere between Köln and Bonn.

Plattenbau, Wessi-style south of Cologne in Meschenich-Kölnberg. Also called a Trabantenstadt, these
high-rises were stamped out of the fields...

Typical trackside Shrebergärten/Grabeland - garden plots for the masses, often tucked between tracks...

Love birds in Bonn.

BR 103-147 with TEE in Bonn Hbf.

BR 110 heading west from Konstanz to Radolfzell at Allensbach on the B odensee, summer 1979.

BR 403 EMU being run as coupled multiple units along the Rheintal, June 1981.