Intro

The yard

Are micro model railways becoming increasingly popular, with ‘micro’ meaning no larger than 120 cm by 400 cm? The layout is a very tiny yard near the Elbe near Bleckede, Northern Germany during the 1960s.

There is a coal and kindling merchant, on one side of the yard and another general use siding on the other, occasionally it is used by a railbus.

A few images of a forgotten trade, the Kohlehändler.

 

Bleckeder Keisbahn

 

The project is a small general use yard that was built by the Bleckeder Kreisbahn at the end of a spur near Bleckede, the line is now part of the Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG.

On the right side of the module, there is a merchant's sidings and an additional siding with a rudimentary platform for a railbus. Whilst on the left, a holding siding and a small holding.

DSO OHE 

 

OHE Troeger

 

Building the layout

 Progress

The concept was inspired by Kidmore Halt, the only changes were the use of a slightly longer SMS BB017 module and the trackplan was 'flipped' horizontally, thank you David.

The additional length is not readily apparent whilst the height of the rear upstand is useful for a simple backscene.

The DCC gubbins underneath, MultiMaus CPU on the left

First test of the trackwork

 

The test is very successful.

The local freebie paper is used to make templates for the hardstanding. 

 

The first piece of card fitted perfectly, thanks to the paper template and only one layer is needed. Each piece of card was laboriously cut using old kitchen shears, my right hand will take some time to recover but that part is over.

Just need to apply some PVA to the edges, otherwise ready for whatever is next.

Added clouds to the backscene

Now the track has been weathered and the surface has received a coat of concrete paint. The backscene is 'Northern European Grey' the usual colour of the sky.

  

Ballasting is both messy and tedious, the final section of track to be ballasted, just needs tidying. 

 

Ground treatment

 

The top surface has this applied with a 12mm stencil brush,it results in a tough slightly rough finish that can be overpainted with acrylic washes.

 

 

 

The fiddlestick has been added

  

 

Operation

 

 Operating the layout

 

The space between sidings C & B is a hardstanding for the local merchants, amongst others.  

The rules

• Only one locomotive + railbus
• Only three wagons
• Magnetic auto-couplings 
• DCC turnouts

Hands free (mostly - thanks to a Kadee magnet hidden under each siding, in addition, a tiny 'off stage' area ‘A’ is sufficient to store two wagons 'off the track' when not in use.

  

Operationally there are just two things to do - either swap the loaded wagon, or swap the other wagon. The locomotive will be stabled in the kickback siding ‘A’ between moves, so operation always starts here before heading off stage to collect whichever is chosen from the 'hidden siding'. Swapping the stock over takes around 5 minutes. This sounds short to many of you I'm sure – but sufficient in between chatting to the public. 

Move 1

Loco with wagon from 'A' to 'B' leave the wagon

Collect empty at 'C'

Move wagon at 'B' to 'C'

Move 2

Loco from 'A' to 'D' collect the van

Move wagon to 'A' 

The scenario is applicable to almost any scale or location, rather than a coal merchant, it could be an agricultural siding with sugar beet/potatoes, the only limiting factor is imagination.  

OHE 0506

Bleckede 

Backscene

The discovery of Alan Woodford’s article in the Spring issue 21 of Micro Model Railway Dispatch is a game changer.

This idea will be copied

Details

Details

On such a small layout there is just a couple of 3D printed staithes, painted a base of Humbrol 72 with a wash of dilute black and red oxide uprights. 

Bansen or more precisely Materialbansen

 

 

 

Building the small brick office 

 

  

 

It is a Model Scene laser cut wooden kit

 

First, it was given a wash of dilute Humbrol acrylic 113, allowed to dry and then lightly 'stroked' with a Daler Rowney Sketching pencil 'Sanguine Drawing' and the excess rubbed off with the ball of the thumb. 

 It is, without doubt, the most infuriating but satisfying kit. The floor must be installed as the card side walls warp, a fillet of PVA around the wall/floor joint holds everything in place. I like the worn paint around the door handle.

This bizarre situation is a couple of solutions to keep the roof of office flat whilst the glue sets. The kit fights any and all attempts to complete the build.

 

Just needed to paint the underside of the roof, the gap at each end has been covered by a soffit and somewhere in the workshop there are some minute brass pins that will be turned for the door handle.

 

The coal yard needed a fence, gate as well as staithes.

 

There is a small shelter for the passengers from Model Scene

  

 

 

 The chicken coop is also a Model Scene kit 98518

 Osthannoversche Eisenbahn

CSD Vtr

This wagon is a Vtr are 2-axle, high-sided open freight cars, often compared to the German Omm 39 types, that were widely utilized across Europe and became a staple for the ČSD. Very good scale models of these cars produced by Vacek (now out of production) are popular among Eastern European rail modeling collectors. 

 

Vacek Vtr

 

 

Piko Vtr

 

Due to an acute shortage of wagons, around 1000 wagons of this type were purchased in Czechoslovakia in 1948, I believe even with Marshall Plan funds. At the same time, the covered wagons of type Gm 39 (Ztr at the CSD) were procured in the same way. Vtr and Ztr were widespread standard wagons at the CSD and could also be seen in cross-border traffic in Germany until around 1990.

German shippers didn't like the side wall construction with the flaps, which is why the DB wagons were given a UIC-like body in 1959. At first glance, they now looked like other open (or electric) wagons, but were still recognizable by their distinctive truss frame. Already no longer RIV-compliant by 1970, they can be seen in some depot photos from the 1970s as slag wagons or similar.

A recent purchase of a Vacek Vtr