Friday, November 02, 2018

Fremo Regionaltreffen Leimen


Heute fuhr ich nach Leimen zum FREMO Regionaltreffen Rhein-Pfalz. Ein toller Tag in netter Gesellschaft, und natuerlich Eisenbahn.

Die erste Session verbrachte ich ueberwiegend beim HOm Schmalspur-Arrangement, mit vielen Modulen nach Motiven aus dem Harz.

99 6001 in Insfeld
Die Regelspur versorgte die Schmalspur mit Gueterwagen die dann im Rollwagenverkehr im Schmalspurnetz zugestellt wurden.

Offener Gueterwagen auf Rollwagen an der Ladestrasse in Insfeld
 Viele Module waren liebevoll mit typischen Bauten und Szenen detailiert.

Schmalspurpersonenzug 
Auf der Hauptstrecke der Regelspur lief dichter Betrieb, der die Fahrdienstleiter in den Betriebsstellen auf Trapp hielt. Ahlsheim wird von den Anlagen der Brema Kokerei dominiert und hat viele Kleinstadtmotive.


Blick in den Kokerei-Ofen
Bahnuebergang mit 03. Hier scheint ja einiges los zu sein. 
Haltepunkt Ahlsheim
In Moenchshof zieht der grosse Bahnhof alle Blicke auf sich, und man uebersieht leicht diese wunderschoen gestaltete Strasse am Modulrand.


Auf der Nebenbahnstrecke dominieren laendliche Motive, wie ich sie mir auch gut auf meinem Murrbahn-Projekt vorstellen kann.

Holzverladung in Ottendorf (Kocher)
Balkenlager bei Saege Kurt 
Ein sehr kurzer Zug mit Stueckgut auf der Nebenstrecke bei Luffingen
Mehrere Module hatten befahrbare Hallen, die zur Seite offen sind. Ein Konzept, dass mich immer wieder begeistert, vor allem wenn die Halle dann auch noch innen gestaltet ist.



Gegen Ende des Tages fuhr ich den Kohlenzug ueber die gesamte Hauptstrecke, bestehend aus  18 OOt Selbstentladewagen. Die 50er hatte mit diesem Zug ganz schoen zu kaempfen. War vielleicht die vorgesehene 44er kurzfristig ausgefallen?  Es war eine Freude den Regler beim Anfahren seeehr langsam aufzudrehen und mir die Auspuffschlaege der schwer arbeitenden Lok vorzustellen, die versucht, den Zug auf Geschwindigkeit zu bringen.


Zement in Leimen


Als ich in Leimen in den Ort reinfahre bemerke ich diese Lorenbahn. Moment, was ist denn das? Ich drehe um, parke, und gucke mir das genauer an.  Die Loren auf der einen Seite sind voll, die auf der anderen leer. So weit, so gut.


Aber wo kommen die Loren her? Wo gehen sie hin? Und was ist in den Loren, dass sie eine solch aufwendige Anlage lohnt?


Die Lorenbahn verbindet ueber etwa 8km den Kalksteinbruch Nussloch mit dem Zementwerk der Heidelberg Cement AG in Leimen. Die Loren enthalten den Rohschotter der im Werk zu Zement verarbeitet wird.

Guten Morgen!


Ein kurzer Trip die Dorfstrasse runter, und dann frische Broetchen zum Fruehstueck. Lecker.


Thursday, November 01, 2018

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Happy Halloween



Designed and carved by Franziska
with some help from me

FRA - STR


Once again, I'm taking LH130 for the second leg of the trip. Even though it's only a 25 minute flight, business class gets a snack.


It's interesting how they added the jet bridges to the old Terminal A at STR using a steel/glass access bridge for each jet bridge to keep easy access to the bus served departure gates, yet have the convenience of all-weather boarding for some flights. I remember this was a really big deal when it was put in.


Tuesday, October 30, 2018

SFO - FRA


Gate G99. Impossible to take a decent photo of the plane you're going to fly in due to airport window coating. LH 455 is boarding already. I was supposed to fly from SJC today. However, Lufthansa decided that having three flights from Germany to the US West Coast is not economical and canceled the San Jose flights as of October 27. Really a bummer. I enjoyed that flight.

As usual for long distance flights at SFO, we're taking off to the West and circle around San Francisco, over the Marin Headlands and on to Sacramento, the Sierras, and north-east to the Rocky Mountains.

Pacific Coast looking south towards Pacifica
It starts to get dark as we enter Canadian air space and I manage to catch a couple hours of sleep.

Engines back-lit by the setting sun
We took a rather southern route this time and didn't even get close to the tip of Greenland. The sun came up as we are somewhere south-west of Iceland.

Good Morning!
Final approach into Frankfurt after a S-curve that took us first flying west along the Rhine west of Wiesbaden with a wide left turn over Rheinland-Pfalz and landing at FRA from the West.


Saturday, October 27, 2018

Silicon Valley Lines November Ops

Franziska pulls the cars for train 216 from Marshall Yard. 
Franziska and I were running Nowheres Yard at SVL today. After a somewhat slow start, where I had time to at least take a photo, the operations session gained speed and trains started to converge on Nowheres Yard.
We had our hands full for the rest of the day, but kept traffic flowing through the yard without clogging up the railroad.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Fitting the conveyors


Yep. This is what I had in mind.

Building the lower base housing will be interesting. Towards the aisle I need to give the impression that the housing and its support structure extend all the way to the ground behind the warehouse. However, it needs to be built so that the club can use the semi-hidden track along the backdrop without any clearance issues.
The upper part will be made from corrugated styrene sheet, while the support structure will likely be a combination of styrene sheet, H-beams of various sizes, and possibly some material from the tall support towers.


The upper end of the conveyor will go into a similar housing to hide the end. The modifications I made two weeks ago work well. The conveyor sits lower on the digester, which helps with slope, and appears to connect to it. This will look better after I file the respective beam ends to the right angle.


Thursday, October 25, 2018

Digitizing Roco 43012 - Truck replacement



I left this conversion alone for a while after I learned that I needed a different truck assembly for the Maerklin version. The shipment has since arrived. Let's see if I can finish wiring this unit this weekend.


Truck replaced. I might have to mill the frame a little bit to ensure that the cable from the pick-up shoe doesn't get squished between locomotive frame and truck assembly.


Sunday, October 21, 2018

Weekend at YMCA Camp Campbell


Franziska and I headed to YMCA Camp Campbell this weekend for some father-daughter time. Our family has been coming here for years, so we know our way around the grounds. There was a wide variety of scheduled activities, and lots of opportunities to hang out, be creative, active, or lazy, as you wish. We had a great time.

Climbing Wall 
Pita Pizza
The High Ropes course was certainly a highlight
Climbing 30 feet up in the trees
Sunday morning in the forest

Thursday, October 18, 2018

DV 605: Gueterbefoerderungsvorschrift - Ortsdienst



I recently picked up the rule book DV 605 that goes with the forms I got last year. Now I can learn how to use the forms properly. ... Not surprisingly, it's a lot of text.


Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Shapes


Visited another building on campus today. They have some unusual wall decoration.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Papermill Conveyors


The long conveyor needs to be shortened by about an inch. A cut-off disk in the Dremel made this easy enough. While cutting, the roof popped off with a bang. ... Oh, right, I glued it on in only a couple spots to make it easier to remove. That approach clearly worked well, but not as I had intended...


Mission accomplished. I cut the conveyor end so that the support structure connects to the digester side and the belt meets the digester slightly above the top.


For the lower end of the conveyor, I built a mockup from paper with some styrene reinforcement. Time for the next test fitting at the club.


With that out of the way, I turned my attention back to the smaller conveyor units. The plan is to use them around the rotary dumper to transport wood chips to piles that will be represented only on the background. Typically these conveyors would have a covered top. I decided to assume some bracing structure that would carry a corrugated metal roof, and low profile metal sheeting for the sides.


The sides are Evergreen 0.020 x 0.250" strip styrene. The top is Evergreen's 4526 0.040" metal siding. I bent the siding lengthwise over a wooden curtain rod, and heated it with a hair dryer. I contemplated bending it harder to get a tighter arc, but this worked out sufficiently well. The thickness of the styrene sheet is visible to the side. I might grind this down a bit if I can't hide it with color.


Here are the three pieces with their covers. I cut the roofs a little bit too short and will add an external cross brace to hide that. Next stop: Paint booth.


Friday, October 12, 2018

Needs more work


The conveyor is a little bit too long and maybe slightly too steep. Nevertheless, this is getting closer to what I had in mind here.