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Over the past few years my collection of modern era locomotives with a Brenner Pass theme has grown to the point where I don't have any room to run them on my layout in the loft. It seems a shame to just leave them in boxes so I thought to display them on a shelf somewhere downstairs. And there the thought rested until "The Virus" came and I found myself working from home.

After a week at the dining room table which was uncomfortable, draughty and cold, the following weekend was spent clearing my desk in the smallest bedroom. More clearances followed and eventually it was possible to reach the single straight uninterrupted wall which would make a good location for an adjustable shelving system.

In due course some twinslot uprights and supports were put up and some 12mm plywood shelves. Most of these were filled with my collection of railway books, some modelling materials with a small amount of space for displaying locos.

Rather than just getting some bare track, I bought some Roco RocoLine ballasted tracks and finishing ends.

So far so tame. The plot thickens. Careful arrangement of the shelves left a gap at the bottom:

to be continued...

 

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After some initial sizing up, I decided that I could afford a 24" wide shelf for the first 35" just inside the door, so I bought a couple of 610mm brackets.

This was followed by a sheet of 12mm hardwood ply 35" x 24".

The length of 35" is one third the length of the wall. The room is just over 6' wide at the far end so the railway is going to be very simple. I am planning on making a small elok maintenance depot attached to the side of a small country station.

Part of the idea behind this shelf layout is to see what I can achieve with RTR locos, 'set track' and buildings from kits. Years ago I had a couple of Faller kits and have always fancied building a few more. In other words, something a bit simpler than the monster project in the loft. I also want to create something which evokes some of the southern German towns we have visited and enjoyed in recent holidays. Reading this article on this BBC website about people recreating elements of holidays in the Scilly Isles, I am not unique in wanting to do this.

So this first baseboard is going to be a town scene inspired by Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbuehl and Noerdlingen and there is no better model to start with than 'The Swords Tower' from Rothenburg by Faller:

I have spent many hours trawling through the Faller, Vollmer, Kibri and MSL websites for suitable buildings. From holiday photos it seems that Bavarian town houses have the roof ridges running fore and aft to the street, whereas most of the kits I have come across go from side to side but they have pantile roofs, multi coloured walls and timber framing, so I think they will capture the essence I am looking for.

My first building is a low relief house from Faller. This shows the true scale of The Swords Tower.

David

 

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Received a consignment of A1 5mm foam board from Hobbycraft today. I have used this to mount the first section of Faller's 'Small Town' background - 900mm x 500mm. I secured it with 3M double sided tape along the top, bottom and middle. The small town is actually "Rothenburg ob der Tauber and I have walked along the path just outside the wall in the picture.

I also completed the second low relief house.

David

 

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Among other things, my wife gives piano lessons and the piano is in the dining room which meant that my tenancy there was always going to be short lived. But there's still a problem as the room I now occupy is directly above the dining room and being a modern (ish) house, I get to hear a lot of what goes on.

Having lost just about all her other work due to lock down, my wife has been able to continue teaching 'willing' pupils via video so, after a few weeks, the idea of a garden office came up and that somehow morphed into a sound proofed studio.

The building work was completed a couple of weeks ago and the electrics hooked up last week. Professional piano removers shifted the piano and organ to their new home last Friday and the first lesson took place yesterday afternoon. Sound reduction has been measured at between 45 to 50 dB which meets the commitment made by the builders.

So the distraction technique was not particularly subtle. My wife likes trains and is particularly pleased with the theme as she too misses our visits to quaint walled towns in southern Germany.

David

 

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Regensburg and Passau are certainly well worth a visit.
I don't remember seeing the old river port in Regensburg but we did find an old steam loco displayed near one of the locks by the Danube.
On our visits to Passau we didn't stray far from the old town either.

David

 

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The town grew during October

The residents now have a large church and a Gasthof.

One of the residents is having the front of their building painted

This is an attempt to show just how tall the church really is:

Next on the agenda is the Rathaus.

David

 

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Here's the Rathaus. Of the many models available I chose Faller's model of the Rathaus in Lindau as we have visited Lindau a couple of times and have good memories of our visits.

The rear is almost as impressive

The market square might end up looking something like this

David

 

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QUOTE The Germans make really nice model house kits and a good range too, shame they are a bit small at 1 in 87
That's part of the reason for this layout. I have fond memories of building some Faller kits in my early teens. I think I may still have the village church but the stork flew away long ago. Thinks - must get a stork's nest for the church - most towns around there have at least one. I think I have got some white wash to 'weather' the roof.

Konditorei - kaffee und kuchen - one of our favourite pastimes, although I don't remember visiting one in Lindau. There's a particularly good one in Garmish and if you are ever in Innsbruck and take the tram out to Rainer's Modellbahn shop, there's a rather good one at the other end of that block nearer town and the tram stop.

David

 

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No. It's on the main street, which is pedestrians only. There's a large seating area upstairs about half of which is outdoors. You just need to keep an eye on the weather. We've known it go from warm and pleasant to torrential downpour in about 30 minutes.

David.

 

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I have now completed eight low relief Faller houses and have started to make up the pavement from Auhagen parts. The street cobble stones are also by Auhagen.
The DHL van is by Busch.
Access was a bit tricky which is why the focus is a bit soft.

In the RTR spirit of this layout all this is just assembling kits.

David

 

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I've been building. The town houses are almost all done.

This view across the rooftops, as if from the town wall walk, is pretty much what I was hoping to create.

The cobbles for the town square have arrived and all but one of the buildings are present.

The residents of Mauer Gasse are not happy with the town council because the pavements promised months ago are still missing.

The cafe is open but no one is indulging in Kafe und Kuchen.

As you can see from the photos, there's still a lot of work to do on the pavements and street surfaces.

Another challenge is finding a camera small enough to get street level views. Go Pros are too large and the rather neatly packaged Polaroid Cube+ appears to be out of production.

David

 

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QUOTE may have inspired me to get back to Porlock and its Gas Works thanks to you and Roger.
In that case, I'm just returning the inspiration you gave me with Porlock

I finally got round to ordering a 6' x 2' sheet of 12mm plywood to make the shelves for the other two thirds of the layout on this wall.
Then I attached the other two sheets of the Faller back scene to 5mm foam board. I can now confirm that the wall dimension is 2700mm less the 25mm for bending the backscene in the far corner.
I now have a flat earth space for the station.

Some views of the station.

The 3 track electric loco shed will be in the top left corner.

The loco is an ESU 265 in Voith livery. My story is that it's on lease from Voith to tide the operating company over a motive power gap.

The track is Rocoline.

I think there will be room between the kick back for the loco shed and the station for a smalls good shed. The three tracks - kickback, goods line and station platform will then form a set of Inglenook sidings for shunting puzzles.

David

 

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Here's a link to the appropriate page on the Faller website - https://www.faller.de/gb/en/Products/Model-...n-sid11658.html

David

 

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I would like to recreate those hanging signs but so far I've not had a 'sniff' of anything available off the shelf. I'm somewhat surprised as there is an amazing amount of small details available for German locations.

It is possible that when I run out of the 'ready made' details, I will create some of my own as I also have some holiday snaps from Rothenburg.

David

 

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The past week has been spent building Faller's 3 road electric engine shed which is the excuse for the number of locos which will be present on the layout.

I am pleased with the outcome.

David

 

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Work this week has concentrated on the pavements, kerbs, gutters and road surface.

The DHL van has now been able to park in a side street instead of the main street.

Pulling back a bit further we see that the van is in a cul-de-sac because the town has pedestrianised part of the street. This has allowed the cafe on the left to provide outside seating.

David

 

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Thanks Julian. I am very pleased with how it's turning out. The appearance of each item is down to the kits - in this case Faller, including the scaffolding. The choice of kit and placement is my input.

David

 

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Thanks Norm, glad you enjoyed it.

The scaffolding is part of the kit. I don't think it shows in the photo but the front wall behind it has been given a rather shabby appearance to suggest old paint being peeled away before a new layer goes on top.

For 'retrofits' I am pretty sure that scaffolding on its own is available from one of the detailing specialists.

David

 

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Work continues on laying the paving slabs and planting some saplings for a bit colour in the summer.

The small square at the rear of the town hall.

This photo was taken with the 'selfie' camera on my phone so it's actually a mirror view.

This was originally a through street but the town council pedestrianised the centre section and planted some more saplings. The Cafe has taken advantage of the extra space for outside tables.

One of the passage ways down the side of the town hall has been completed.

Even the alley ways have alleys off to the side.

This quarter of the town is now more or less complete.

David

 

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Great to hear from you again Paul!

Glad you like my impression of a southern German town.

David