Luzern Walking Tour

Kapellbruecke

The Kapellbruecke is one of the signature structures in Luzern. On the inside it features triangular paintings from the 17th century.

A large part of the bridge and many of the paintings were destroyed in a 1993 fire. In one section of the bridge the burned paintings were rehung unrestored as a reminder of the fire.

 Yes, I was there ... and next time should look a bit less serious ...

... maybe more like the guys on the Fritschibrunnen, which commemorates carnival motives.

I was quite impressed by the Hofkirche St. Leodegar im Hof catholic church, not only for its nice interior, ...

... but also for the unusual covered arrangement of the cemetery around the church. 

Of course, we visited the Loewendenkmal, not far from the old city part of Luzern, which is small and an easy walk.

The Rathaus Brauerei has one of the shortest pipes from beer tank to beer glass: ~30cm

Playing with lights and shadow

Luzern

Holzbruecke und Wasserturm

Zurich at night: Lindenhof

Lindenhof

Since it was such a nice evening, on the way back to the hotel the group took a small detour via Lindenhof to check out the view.

Niederdorf and ETH Zurich

Limmat and Grossmuenster

Lindenhof

Warning! Dangerous, live-threatening device!

Kinderueberraschung

If US Customs catches you with this super-dangerous device in your luggage, you will not only loose it, but also might have to pay a fine of $2000 or more. This chocolate egg with a toy surprise inside is still considered contraband by the FDA.

Still scratching my head how a child would manage to choke on a toy capsule that is 1 x 2 inches in size...

April in the City

Aside from a very productive team event, we're having fantastic weather this week in Zurich.
The forecast for the weekend and next week doesn't look that great, though.

Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof

Major construction at Stuttgart Hbf for the new underground station (also known as "Stuttgart 21") is making progress. Where this 70m wide hole is now, there used to be the head-end of the 16 tracks and platforms of the main station.

Looking at the hole from the other side, the iconic station tower with the Mercedes sign and the main station hall are on the right.

As I was leaving for Zurich in IC 187, ICE 518 to Dortmund was leaving at the same time, which made for an at least somewhat interesting video. The swiss Intercity cars are reflected in the ICE windows. This video shows a view of the supporting track arrangements of Stuttgart Hbf that will soon be history and ends as we enter the Kriegsbergtunnel just west of Nordbahnhof.

Inside the Grabkapelle Rotenberg

Over the entrance door of the Grabkapelle the inscription reads "Love never ends".
Kind of ironic given that Queen Katharina apparently got sick running out into the park in the middle of winter because she was so distraught over catching the king with another woman...

The entrance level of the mausoleum is a fairly bland affair as far as churches go. However, it has a very nice cassette ceiling in the cupola crowned by a sky light.

The crypt level is accessible via a steep stairwell. The acoustics in this room are fascinating. The closer you get to the center of the room, the more an echo effect builds up. When talking at the center of the circle, it sounds like your voice is swirling around your head whispering and echoing your own words.

Queen Katharina died fairly young in 1819 and is buried in this sarcophagus. When King Wilhelm I. died 45 years later he was placed next to her.

The hole in the crypt ceiling in the floor at entrance level ...

... and from below.

At the highest point of the crypt ceiling is an opening to let in light from the entrance level. Looking up, the flower petals of the cover are back-lit by daylight.

Wilhelm II, last King of Wuerttemberg

There are a few busts of the kings of Wuerttemberg in the crypt. This is King Wilhelm II., the last king of Wuerttemberg, who was deposed and went into exile in 1918. He lived in Bebenhausen for another 3 years, though his wife Charlotte survived him until 1946.

I find that I have much more interest in learning more in-depth about the history and makings of my home state years after I left the country. This was a nice opportunity to refresh some of that knowledge I learned a long time ago...

Grabkapelle Rotenberg

The Grabkapelle on the Rotenberg was finished in 1824 and is a mausoleum built for Katharina Pawlowna from Russia, Queen of Wuerttemberg by her husband Wilhelm I.
Until 1899 the mausoleum was used as a Russian Orthodox Church, and still sees services once a year around Easter.

On summer weekends it's a popular destination for hikes and walks through the vineyards near Stuttgart. As you can tell from the photo many visitors get here by car, though.

Heimat

Michael-Sebastians-Kirche, Neckarrems

My walk to the bakery took me on a little detour when the church steeple was shining over the rooftops in the morning sun. It's nice to be here.

Rain

Ewwww. Wet stuff falling from grey skies. I'm not used to that.

Ready

Swiss hospitality today. ... as much as that is possible on a plane.

Waiting

I'm ready to go. The shuttle to the airport is not.

BR 42 heavy freight steam locomotive with oil burner

042 096 showed up in a box at work today. No idea how it got there ...

This a class 42 locomotive with oil burner as it looked in the early seventies. The model is very nice, though the sound is sub-par. The best thing I can say about the sound module is that the steam horn sounds pretty good.

Solo ops session on the Welztalbahn

Today was one of those days where it's nice to just hang out in the garage and run some trains. So I did and ran the full schedule in a little under 4 hours. My objective was to give my recent digital conversions some work-out, and see if there are any problems cropping up.

Here's a selection of the instruction cards for the train crew. I used the German version today, but also have a complete set in English, used depending on who comes to visit to run trains.  These cards give detailed instructions for each train, its make-up, limitations, route, stops, as well as special instructions as needed.

Ng 83746 from Prechtal arrived a little while ago. After the engine uncoupled and moved over to the Lokstation for servicing, the Koef II is taking care of the cars and sorts them into the right yard track.

For now I'm using the ubiquitous MicroMark car card and way bill system, although I'm thinking about how to make something with a more distinct German flavor. The Koef performed well, but had trouble when pushing 5 cars uphill on the north-side of Emsingen as part of the switching chores for local freight train (Nahgueterzug) Ng 83 720. It was doing fine with 5 cars on level track, but going up the slightly uphill track was too much. It doesn't have any traction tires, so the wheels start slipping, just like the real thing. The power pickup is tough around turnouts, so I will order a buffered Lokpilot4 Micro for this little locomotive.

The next Ng was switched with 260 417, which was a joy to operate.

Busy time in Emsingen

Northbound fast passenger train (Eilzug) E 3579 led by V200 006 meets southbound local passenger train (Personenzug) P 8176.
260 417 has just completed its transfer run (Uebergabe) from Talheim and waits on track 3 for the passenger trains to clear the station. Koef II is parked at the end of the track on the north-end of Emsingen.

V200 006 exiting Tiersteintunnel on its way north towards Hausach

I did run with the Fast Clock enabled, so trains left on time as specified in the schedule. However, because I ran the schedule by myself, there was not enough downtime between trains to do switching chores, so while a two-operator session lasts 2 1/2 hours, it took me an hour longer to complete all the required work. I stopped the clock a couple times to let me catch up with switching

Portable Workspace

I gave up the workbench with a view due to spousal eminent domain proceedings, and used the opportunity to clean up all the junk that had accumulated over the years on the supply tablet, and in various boxes.

Here is my new portable work space.

The bottom box is attached to a handle with wheels, and the top box mounts to the cover of the bottom box. This makes for very compact storage when I'm not actively working on a project.

Opened up, the various trays and boxes reveal tools and supplies that I use regularly with room to spare. All other supplies, kits, and scenery materials continue to be stored around the train room. I'm planning to use the tray for holding the project(s) I'm working on, while tools and supplies will need to be packed away at the end of a work session.
Setting up the workspace on the dining table and packing everything away just take a couple minutes each, so while it's not quite as convenient any more as having everything on the work table ready to go, the impact should be minor.

I need to figure out whether I still need a work lamp, and if so, how to attach it in a way that folds away to keep the whole thing portable.

Turnout motors for the papermill

[Hallelujah Paper posts]

The papermill in South Hallelujah at Silicon Valley Lines hasn't gotten much attention lately.

Life and other projects at home and events at the club got in the way. It's also not particularly interesting to write about soldering track joiners and add some feeders, which is pretty much the only thing I did since my last update on this project. Tonight I made some visible progress again and moved Tortoise turnout motors that were still mounted under the benchwork from the previous track arrangement in Hallelujah South to new locations.

South Hallelujah from below

The motors still need to be hooked up to NCE SwitchIts and the command bus, and the yard needs more feeders. One thing after the other ...

V60: Let there be light!

V60 in Talheim

I finished the digital conversion of a Maerklin 3065 V60 class switcher. Not only was this my first attempt of using a motor kit from sb modellbau, but also I'm very happy that I managed to find a way to replace the light bulbs with LEDs, and still have all lights operational without having to resort to dealing with SMD LEDs. As you can see in the photo above, the arrangement of the lights is a bit tricky.

Light package in long hood

I started the lights on the long-hood side of the locomotive to get some experience working inside this very narrow and somewhat shallow hood. Since I'm mounting the LEDs in the shell, I needed a way to disconnect the shell from the chassis, so I built a low-tech connector from header pins.

A 5mm warm-white LED feeds the ditch lights, and a dedicated 3mm warm-white LED feeds the headlight at the cab.

The long hood also houses the decoder

The white, yellow, and blue cable were left just long enough that I can take off the shell and pull the connectors from the header pins.

Short hood light package

The short hood houses the motor, and in particular the flywheel, so space is at a premium here. I decided to route the wires along the insider corners of the shell, as well as mount the 3mm LED into the exhaust block. That required some gentle drilling to make room for the LED. I also had to reposition the 5mm LED in a sub-optimal way to avoid the LED touching the flywheel, which now spins only a few millimeters away from the LED contacts.

LEDs and wiring inside the shell

And that completes the digital conversion of this loco. Things left to do are some paint touch-ups on the shell, and tuning the decoder programming.

This loco comes with a TELEX coupler on each end, which are wired serially to function output 1 of the ESU Lokpilot 3.0 decoder.

Finally, here's a short video that shows the completed locomotive in Talheim. The motor is so quiet now, that the locomotive is almost begging to be equipped with sound.



This is the last post on the V60 conversion. The earlier posts are part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.

Velella Velella at Rancho Del Oso Beach

Hmmmmm. What is all that stuff on the beach along the surf line?

They are Velella Velella, also known as "by-the-wind sailor".

The sail is stiff, and they have no tentacles.

"Let's go!"

V60: Some progress

Now that the motor is glued in place, I test fit the chassis and ... what the heck? That's not right! 

Hmmm, looking good on this side...

BUT! ... not here. That gap between the buffer sill and the walkway is not supposed to be there. The motor assembly is too tall and doesn't fit inside the locomotive. I double-checked the instructions and verified that I did all the metal working exactly to plan. Hmmm ...

I added a dab of paint on top of the flywheel, put the chassis on, and we immediately see the problem: The clear plastic piece conducting light from the light bulb to the upper headlight is in the way. Then I remembered hearing about that specific problem a few years ago. For now I removed the light conductor from the chassis and everything fits properly.

After installing the NEM 652 plug and the decoder it was time for a short test run on the layout.


I'm very impressed with how quiet the locomotive runs now. There seems to be some occasional binding in the original gears when running very, very slowly in speed step 1. We'll see if I can track that one down. So far, so good.

V60: Motor glued down

I really dislike working with Epoxy glue, but this stuff works. Here's another test run of the 260 417. The Maxon motor is now glued down permanently. There is sufficient (but not too much) play in the gears, so that everything runs smoothly. The flywheel on the motor is very effective. Even at medium speed the wheels rotate a couple times when I remove power abruptly.

On to installing the wiring harness with 8 pin NEM 652 plug, relay for remote uncouplers, and fitting the decoder.

Save Water!

Finally, Gov. Brown announced mandatory reductions in water usage for California, and attempts to put some teeth on enforcement as well. Instead of silly measures (water only on demand in restaurants, hotels optionally washing bed linens less often), we now have an order demanding mandatory 25% less water use compared to 2013 across the board. Reduction of water thirsty landscaping. Various elements to manage water in the delta. Various elements to speed up government drought response.

Something like this was way overdue. The actions around agricultural users seem a bit on the weak end, water use for industrial applications is not mentioned, and I wonder if the order applies to e.g. Fracking which uses lots of water as well. The comparison year 2013 is a bit disappointing, since people just need to hit the same savings as last year and will get pretty close to meeting the order. However, given that this is mandatory and tied to financial incentives, as well as penalties, it has more teeth than the voluntary reductions from last year.

I'm delighted that large campuses, golf courses, etc.  that often have lush lawns around buildings need to reduce their water use just as well, and I hope to no longer have to see pointless and wasteful irrigation on company campuses or residential areas.

This is a big step in the right direction. What took you so long, Governour?

Music at work

Private concert with Guster on the patio at work today. Great music, and an excellent way to kick off the afternoon.
Having played Portland yesterday, they'll be at a sold-out show at the Filmore tonight.