SteamPower4ever

Fantastic run. You're made of steel

That I will do. Thanks Jens

Gentlemen: While surfing the web for information about the 567 engine, I came across a thread at the Railway Preservation News site, where one of the members have scanned a 83-page booklet describing the history of the development of the 567 engine, written by E. W. Kettering, the chief engineer at GM EMD division. Dated 1951, the paper is written when the 567C was being developed, and it is absolutely fascinating to read. I especially love the closing remark, showing the approach to the job at hand: In closing it must always be kept in mind that the 567 was neither designed or developed by any super intelligent or analytical mind. The engine has dictated every improvement that has been made. We, at Electro-Motive, have only done our best to interpret what the engine was trying to tell us. The engines are still being used today, more than 60 years later. Legendary stuff ... Best regards Jens

I have no experience with battery operation and any possible advantages, but I think I'd go with unpowered NWSL trucks with current pickups from the wheels. Saves the trouble with recharging. Jens

Still dreaming about those F7s - and adding sound to the B units: In real life, how were the engines of an ABBA lashup started? Did the engineer start the motor in each unit one by one, or was there a central start button (or whatever) in the lead cab? Jens

There's a narrow gauge train all the way to the top at Brocken, hauled by 2-10-2 steamers, and you ran up and down the mountain? You, Sir, are really weird But seriously, I'm not into running myself, but it must be a great place for doing it. The scenery looks fantastic on all the pictures I've seen. And the beer and the wursts after the run must have tasted like a meal for champions. Summer - sure, but winter can certainly be great too, if you luck out with the weather. Try a picture search for "Brocken winter" and see what I mean Anyway, it's certainly within range, and often in my thoughts, so maybe some day ... Best regards Jens

Isn't it great? I am very happy with it. KM-1 has announced a new slightly different batch, and I have one on order. Meanwhile, here's a photo of a 4 x BR50 lineup at the club's main station. It was the first hobby show after the product release, and by sheer chance, the engines were all different variants Mine is the one to the far left. The HSB engines are great too - both full scale and in G. I wouldn't mind modeling the HSB. I never went to Harzen although it's less than a day's drive from where I live. I always wanted to, but with the internet there is so much footage available, I'll probably never get around to it. There's even a webcam at the Wernigerode steam depot Most of the time, there's at least one or two steamers there. Best regards Jens

Of course, if you really want to show off, you could wait for Lematec to release this piece of eye-candy. But a word of warning: You may want to win the lottery first. If you have to ask the price of this one, you can't afford it ... I asked. I most definitely can't afford it. I can dream, though Best regards Jens

Ah, well, you did specifically say Piko The one we've seen (guest starring) on the club layout is the incredibly yummy VT11.5 from KM-1, but it's sold out from the factory. You can find them on the German eBay site occasionally. Also, we have the BR103's from Märklin and Wunder with matching TEE or Rheingold passenger coaches from Märklin. All exactly 1:32, although the coaches may be a bit shorter than exact scale. Here's a video from our club at a 2012 hobby show, showing a BR103 in the opening sequences. Best regards Jens

If you mean this one, it's G (1:22.5). At the Copenhagen hobby shows, we're normally situated close to the G scale glub, and I've seen that TEE on their layout. Best regards Jens

Great train, great scenery, and I love the trestle Best regards Jens

Hi all, I read somewhere here in the forum about Aristo-Craft closing. Now, you guys probably know the history better than me, and maybe you know this already, but from what I picked up on a German site and on the company site itself, it looks like Aristo-Craft is now being continued as Polk's GeneratioNext, offering G-scale track and eventually rolling stock and accessories. That's gotta be good news if you were sad to see A-C go. Best regards Jens

Thanks, Chuck. The club actually has two layouts. The one you see in the movie - with the gently curving station area - was originally built and owned by a club member, who has passed away. The club inherited the layout and decided that it should be the primary one for exhibitions. The station on the old club layout is now being used as a staging yard inside the large oval, and other pieces of the old layout are used for ad-hoc sidings, exhibition space permitting. The trouble is that a room for a layout this size in or around Copenhagen is way too expensive for the club, so most of the time, the layout is in storage. This means that expansion and detailing is very slow, waiting for a permanent home somewhere. The upside is that when we do get together at two to four shows each year, we're all very "hungry", and we're having a great time running trains. The setting is that the club owns the layout, and the members bring their rolling stock, which is unrestricted with regards to road name and time period. You'll see old-timers such as the German Adler along with TEE sets, and even the occasional Big Boy (4014, no less). That's why I have no problems dreaming of a Sante Fe F7 set, even though I have no train for it ... yet As for animation, you're absolutely right. Even though the shows are actually our operating sessions and we couldn't care less if anyone is watching, there is always a crowd looking at the loading facility, because you don't see that every day. We have plans to increase the playability with more roads for the R/C guys, various sidings and loading docks and double-slips at both exits of the yards with blind tracks for shunting without interfering with the main line traffic. Also, we are planning a rotary dumper for emptying the open freight cars, so we can do point-to-point shipping of "turnips and grain". Hours of fun being had and to be had ... Speaking of animation, and going off-topic to 1:87 scale, you should check out Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, if you don't already know it. You don't really need a translation of the name, but it's a model railroad gone completely mad, and it has evolved into the largest tourist attraction in Northern Europe. They even have an Airport, which - if the rest of the layout hasn't - blows your mind. Going back on-topic, once you're in Hamburg, you shouldn't miss the gauge 1 layout at Hamburg Historical Museum. It's Europe's oldest gauge 1 model railroad, originally opened to the public in 1949. I remember visiting the museum in the early 70's, but as a young teenager, I had no idea that it was gauge 1, and I didn't even have dreams of modeling the scale Best regards Jens

As promised, here's picture of 3 type PE and one PER which has been converted and are ready for the paint shop. These are the last of the odd-colored cars I have, and once painted, the full train will look the part, even if some of the other cars are still in German livery. The added details are brass and steel wire. Here's a side shot, showing the added parts. As you can see, I've added handlebars where needed and the steps at the side gates and at the corners (for the yard crew while shunting). Also, In the lower left of the car wall, there's a small cage for the destination slips. These are brass parts made by Hegob. Note also the brake lever below the car body. The PE had a very simple parking brake at only one of the wheels. The brakes were designed so that the yard crew could sit on the brake lever, using their weight for leverage, thus braking the car. The lever could be locked in place with a cross pin when parking. One of the end walls of the car was hinged and could be opened for emptying the car by tilting. It's locked with a crossbar, which from the factory is part of the mold. I've ground it away and replaced it with suitable brass wire, as shown below. The picture shows the end wall of the PER, and you'll notice that the crew step in the corner is a different type than on the PE. This is also a brass part from Hegob. Best regards Jens

Thanks, Ray I have four more PE/PER cars almost ready for the paint shop. The last of the green/blue ones. I'll post pictures in a few days, showing the completed, but unpainted conversions. Best regards Jens

Oh, and Kevin: Outstanding and inspiring weathering jobs! Well done. Jens

It's a smoke unit, providing smoke and cylinder steam. And it's DCC. You can see it in action in this video from approx. 3:30. Märklin may have revived the gauge in Europe years ago, but they have not been terribly innovative in the digital age. This has opened a market for other manufacturers such as Kiss and KM-1, which give you a lot more bang for the buck. In turn Märklin has been forced to catch up, and they have recently released a BR38 with all the bells and whistles (quite literally) that are required today. Unfortunately the current generation of KM-1 smoke units seem to have a flaw that causes the fan motors to fail after a fairly short time of use. Almost all models with this unit seem to be affected sooner or later. The theory is that the smoke fluid - or fumes from it - are killing the bearings of the fan motors. One of the guys has found a replacement motor - actually a tail rotor motor from a small R/C helicopter - that can be used as a replacement, and although this motor is slightly longer, it works. All the engines that have had these motors fitted are still working perfectly, so now we're going to buy a bucket full of these motors. The smoke units have a fairly large tank with two wicks for smoke and cylinder steam. When I had the unit apart for replacing the motors, I noticed the wicks (made from heavy felt) were burned, probably from running dry. One of the wicks broke off when touched. After a couple of days of head-scratching and searching the web, I ended up using flat gasket string for an indoor stove. It's cheap and made to endure the heat, and it's braided fibreglass, so it's the perfect wick material. Works much better than the original, too. During the test run, I noticed the smoke stopped rather abruptly, and I thought I had a new breakdown on my hands. But no, it had just run dry. The new wicks are so efficient that the amount of smoke does not fade with the level of smoke fluid in the tank Best regards Jens

Thanks Jim. It's always nice to find a friendly forum here on the wild wild web About the conductor car that I am scratchbuilding: The Danish State Railways had a range of 2-axle passenger cars that where never very popular with the public. They were quite long for 2-axle cars, and they really should have had trucks, but although there were plans for it at one time, they never got it. Instead, there were a lot of experiments trying to improve the suspension, but to no avail. The cars had gotten their nickname 'rystevogne', which translates to 'shaking cars' ... not unrelated to the German equivalent types, the 'Donnerbuchsen' or 'thunderboxes'. When these cars were retired from passenger service, they were used as conductor cars for freight trains, which at the time had a conductor who was responsible for the train. One of the compartments was converted into a small office with a desk and a stove for heating. Here is one such car as it looks today at the local veteran railroad: As I said, the car body will be made from laser-cut veneer. Below are some of the CAD drawings for the body. Each side is three layers, where the middle layer provides a pocket for the windows to be inserted from above. This allows me to assemble and paint the sides both inside and outside without having to worry about getting paint on the windows. Best regards Jens

Great pictures everyone I noticed a single European entry a while back, so I hope it's allright if I add one more. This is my Gauge 1 BR50 - a German 2-10-0 made by KM-1: Best regards Jens

Welcome ... and fire away There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. We've all been new to the hobby at some point in time. Best regards Jens

Hello all. When I introduced myself to this forum, I linked to a video from a hobby show where my gauge 1 club attended. The question was asked if a train in the video was being run from the phone, and I replied that I have made an app for iDevices, with which you can control your layout - if you have the right brand of command station, that is. For the record, my app is called TouchCab. You see, it took a while for me to start digitizing my locomotives, but when I finally got around to it, I never looked back. Having a background with computers, hardware and software, the next logical step was to try to attach a computer. What I discovered was that while the software packages available for the purpose may be technically formidable, they are not user friendly in my opinion. Even with a tech background, I found myself struggling to make a simple network connection. I told myself I could do better, and since I have a Mac at home and the developer tools are free with it, I set out with a Mac app. About the same time Apple opened for third-party apps on their iDevices, and I very soon switched to this platform. TouchCab was born. This was back in 2009. Since then, much has happened, and there are several apps out there, but usability is still a problem, I think. While there are plenty of tech-savvy people in the hobby, there are even more 50+ users who do not have a particularly technical background, but just want to run their trains. They may not know what an IP address or a CV is, and neither should they have to. DCS from is new to me, but it appears MTH have made a great effort to hide away the tech and let the user play. Well done, gents, I say. What I try to do is the same for DCC. I can't make a living from this and I don't expect to any time soon. I do take pride in having made an impact on the hobby already, and I am not done trying. Thus, I am an associated member of RailCommunity, a European association of digital equipment manufacturers, joined for the purpose of improving the end user experience of digital model railroads. My approach to an app or computer program is to include less features, but to really excel in those that I do include. Showing how it can be done and how easy it can be for the user is my contribution to the hobby. I'll be happy to answer any questions here, but support issues should always be addressed through the TouchCab website. Best regards Jens

Thank you, Trygve. Lovely picture with the sun from the left and snow in the background Jens

It was. All the trains are. We're using DCC and Märklin/Motorola formats, controlled from an ECoS command station, which has a LAN socket. Attachs a WiFi router and you have wireless access. So I made an app for controlling trains and accessories. I write for iDevices, but other apps are appearing for other phone systems as well. What actually happens is that the app is controlling the command station, which in turn controls the trains, but from an operating perspective, each of us walk around with our train

NWSL - of course. Thanks. Browsing the forum, I even came across this thread, which seems to present the solution for powering the B-units Great show, isn't it? I lost interest at the beginning of the third season, but seasons 1 and 2 were really good. Duly noted, sir. Without having thought it through, I think I could very well find myself repowering the A units with NWSL trucks as well. In addition to the flanges and sliders, the traction tires on the A-units is of some concern to me. Having decided that the A units should have tires and thus reducing power pickup by 25%, it makes sense for MTH to use the sliders for a stable pickup, especially for garden layouts. Indoors at my club I don't need the tires, and thus I don't need the sliders. Looks like the outline of the project is taking shape. You guys are doing a terrible job, helping me find a reason not to buy Best regards Jens

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm not sure where I got the affection for the F units. I'm a steam guy after all. I suppose it's an old flaw in my personality, but maybe it's because the F units were the predecessors to the legendary Danish MY and MX class diesels, which also had the GM 567 prime movers. So far I still feel like buying, although it is looking more and more like a project. You see, coming from DCC, what I actually want is a great looking model of an ABBA consist at a reasonable price. I know and acknowledge that MTH really excels in sounds and features, and that the DCS system provides something that DCC does not. However, once again assuming I go for it, I would fit a sound decoder and smoke unit into each B unit - possibly even a motor if I can. Then it would be a matter of matching the sounds. If the ProtoSound equipped A units would accelerate or sound different than my DCC equipped B units, I'd fit the same type of DCC decoder to the A units as well. I would lose some features, sure, but I'm not really that feature-driven in my modeling. Having a great running, looking and sounding consist would be my goal. Painting the pickups black sure does make them disappear. I would still fear that they could rip up a point or two on the club layout, though. Learning that the MTH diesels actually have brushes at the wheels, I think I could (or would) fit metal pickups on all wheels and remove the sliders. The pickups are available as aftermarket parts, and we run 4-axle diesels all the time without any problems. It's an indoor layout, after all. About flanges and codes: It looks like some guys are running newer MTH equipment on Märklin track without any problems, and that would mean code 200, I think. I've written MTH directly, asking about it, so let's see what they say. Oops - picked the wrong forum, there. Sorry Best regards Jens