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Oh, Bother...

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After another winter spent slumbering in the Really Useful Boxes, last week I got Schinkendorf out again, mostly to play trains. Unfortunately, the MDF baseboards amd/or the joints between them seem to have warped in places, perhaps due to the wide variations of temperature and humidity in the garage. The worst affected place seems to be the join between the pairs of boards, as seen below: I have experimented with putting weights on the affected places, which helped, but only temporarily. I'll try again when it's a bit warmer as I think that might help. In other news, there are some new items of rolling stock, mostly for Ep.III/IV...the Roco 6-wh Umbauwagen pair seen above being particularly ideal. I also picked up a couple of Lenz handheld throttles, a Command Statiin and two heavy duty transformers for a good price recently; I'm planning to start installing and programing chips into some more locos soon, the capabilities of the Lenz LH100 should help with this...
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Out of Hibernation...For Now.

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I've finally got around to removing Schinkendorf from the hibernation it has endured since we moved. It doesn't seem to have suffered much from being boxed up, although the baseboard joint may need some attention and the backscene has wrinkled in places. I've now got most of the parts to mechanise the point operation (hence the engineers' train in attendance, this has nothing to do with the new (to me) blue Umbauwagen I bought yesterday 😁). Adding a control panel on a wander lead will make it more suitable for operating at exhibitions as well as at home as I can then operate from either side. What next? Well, I'd like to be able to run longer trains, so it may get incorporated into, but removable from, a larger layout. Don't hold your breath, the garage needs a lot of work to make it habitable first.  
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(Down At) The Old Pull And Push.

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I visited one of my favourite model shops, Jane's Trains of Tooting, on Wednesday and was delighted to find a used Roco control trailer in the very attractive DB Turquoise livery, for a moderate price. I'd been looking for a control trailer to use on Schinkendorf for a while as it makes an ideal substitute for the staple railbus set. While it seems to have been unusual to run a control trailer solo, I have seen photos where it's occurred...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! http://www.janestrains.co.uk/ 
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Passenger Alternatives.

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Following on from the last post about Nachlösewagen, a bit of a look at some coaches, these can be used in the absence of the railbus set or at busier times: First up is a 2nd/baggage Bogie Umbauwagen, this is the vehicle featured in the last post... This is probably the most typical branch line vehicle I have so far, there's also a 1st/2nd, the only snag being that a 2-car train won't fit in the loop for the loco to run round... Both consists are hauled by the Piko Hobby 218, though motive power could equally be a 211/2, 260 or 290, possibly even a 333. Next up, something less likely...a Roco main line 2nd coach, picked up for a fiver at the Knowl Hill show. Motive power this time is the 333, and we're a few years further on, in the mid-1990s. As the Umbauwagen are no longer in service and the railbuses are getting very long in the tooth, there's a bit of a stock shortage, so this rather unsuitable vehicle has been pressed into service... Not totally out of the questio...
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Nachlösewagen-Fahrkartenverkauf

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So what's that? When I bought my Roco 798/998 railbus set, I noticed a blue placard in one of the windows, with the words "Nachlösewagen-Fahrkartenverkauf". Google translate didn't really give a satisfactory answer, although I guessed that it related to ticket sales from the second word. An enquiry on RMWeb got a most useful response from several fellow members, to the effect that they were used on lines with unstaffed stations without ticket issuing facilities, this meant that you could board the coach, then buy your ticket without having to pay extra; this, of course, is ideal for Schinkendorf. I recently bought a couple of bogie Umbauwagen, with one came a transfer sheet with destination boards to fit to the moulded boards on the coach sides, among which were a pair of Nachlösewagen-Fahrkartenverkauf boards so I duly applied these to the boards on the 2nd/baggage car, so this will be an appropriate substitute for the railbus set, as well as providing extra cycle ac...
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Lightening The Road.

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I've been looking at prototype photos again, always a dangerous thing! Among others was a photo of Obing Station in Bavaria, which shows the yard and areas around the track to have been a lot lighter than I'd originally finished it.  There were also a few areas that had picked up a bit of staining, no idea where from but it looked pretty pants. So...a quick trip to Hobbycraft yielded some acrylic paints, Concrete and Mouse Grey were mixed to give a good base colour, this was then brushed over with several shades of weathering powders. I also added some fencing, along the back of the yard there's now a section of rustic wooden fencing which gives way to decidedly non-rustic Armco-style barrier. I wasn't happy with the greenery, too much in some places (the trees were hiding much of the station so were reduced), not enough in others (contemporary prototype photos show a lot of grass, weeds, etc. so more was added in likely places.  Following all this, it was time to clean...
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More beet (2).

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It took a couple of sessions of glueing on Juweela beets to the load I'd made for the blue MB tipper. This evening, I added wing mirrors and a pair of Amber rotating beacons to the cab, and painted the number plate white. Having done that, I fitted the load to the lorry to see how it looked...nearly there, I think.  I need to adjust the tip angle slightly, and weather the lorry, lightly as it would be nearly new.
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