Piko 59311: Talent 2 in bwegt design

The Welztalbahn is set in the early 1970's. So far I have always resisted opportunities to break out from my chosen era and locale. I think that is a good thing. It makes purchase decisions really easy: Did the prototype for the model in question run within BD Stuttgart or BD Karlsruhe in the early 1970's? If No, don't bother buying it. If yes, take a closer look. I'd consider whether the model would be appropriate for a non-electrified, somewhat rural, single-track mainline. Especially for locomotives, consider if I can find evidence of the locomotive class in one of the BD Stuttgart Buchfahrplans I have, or the model is based within BD Stuttgart.

I am somewhat flexible with timing and era. A bit earlier than 1972, because I do like steam locomotives. A bit later, because I do like the ET 420 and the 614. However, I have not purchased anything modern.

Until now.

I consider the bwegt design used by the infrastructure agency of Baden-Württemberg to be very attractive. Since catenary is problematic in combination with prototype-oriented freight operations, I have been looking for a Diesel train in bwegt design for a while. Piko 52206 VT 612 "Regioswinger" was a candidate, but sold out quickly, is impossible to find now, and a rather bland and ugly prototype. 

When I first saw the Talent 2 / DB BR442 in bwegt design at Stuttgart Hbf two years ago, I was a bit skeptical. It's also powered by electricity, so not really appropriate for my layout. Nevertheless, the train and the design have grown on me. When the bwegt Talent 2 became available for pre-order from Piko earlier this year, I reserved one, and the shipment arrived in time for Christmas.

Piko has been offering variants of the Talent 2 since 2012, so the digital side of the model is a bit outdated by now with the NEM 652 plug, and the awkward option of adding sound with a rather expensive SUSI module. Nevertheless, the moldings are very well done, with crisp lines, nicely detailed trucks, roof, and sides. The shape of the train front is spot on. Due to two effective flywheels the train runs very well, even with not perfectly clean track. 

... and it looks cool. I'll get to enjoy it outside formal operating sessions.

Marzipan Delivery (Bonus)

One crane was not enough, so the crew brought in the steam crane to help with the unloading ...

This picture didn't really fit in that well with the actual layout of Emsingen station, nor can you see the truck the Marzipan is loaded on. It's a bit overkill to call in the steam crane for unloading a car when there is a gantry crane on the other side of the station, so the photo with the gantry crane won out.

Nevertheless, I do like this picture, and it gave me an opportunity to play with the smoke effect at the crane. So here it is as a bonus.

Merry Christmas

Marzipan Delivery (6)

The sweet freight has reached its destination: The  big stage on the Emsingen market square. It's time for the big celebration and everybody gets some Marzipan to share.

I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[ Bonus ]

Marzipan Delivery (5)

"... and you all have been good this year."

[ part 6 ]

Marzipan Delivery (4)

The loading crane makes easy work of the heavy load.

[ part 5 ]

Catenary in Palo Alto

It's still very odd for me to see catenary over Caltrain tracks, even though the first of the new Stadler-built EMUs are scheduled to arrive in 2021. 

The catenary physical design seems a bit strange, if not haphazard. The H-profile masts with arms and catenary holders look like they were built using whatever they happened to have available in the yard. I know that is not true, but it certainly doesn't look like a brand-new system. E.g. the mast in the lead photo of this post has two completely different mounting systems for the catenary wires.

Maybe it's this weird only around the Palo Alto station, I'll have to check elsewhere. I'm sure there are good reasons for this. Maybe there are space constraints, too much space, or other considerations, ... In either case I'd love to learn more about the reasoning for this design. 

Nevertheless, I'm thrilled electrification is happening and I'm very much looking forward to using the new EMUs in passenger service in 2022.

Update Jan/02/2001:

I found a video from "The Four Foot" that shows the state of electrification in the corridor, and also mentions the various catenary styles in use. It appears that the Palo Alto segment has indeed a different style than the rest of the line.

Marzipan Delivery (3)

The freight house also got a delivery. Looks like they will need at least a pallet jack or maybe a fork lift.

[ part 4 ]

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Marzipan Delivery (2)

The treats arrived at the loading ramp in Emsingen. "How are we going to fit them into the van?"

[ part 3 ]

Marzipan Delivery (1)

I woke up early today and caught this special delivery arriving at Emsingen station. Looks like the town is getting ready for yummy treats.

[ part 2 ]

Dessert

 

Third Sunday of Advent

 

Published

 

The December 2020 issue of the NMRA Magazine features an article about Silicon Valley Lines which is my first published print article. Dan Munson shot fantastic photos of the layout last August. Creating this 9-page feature was a lot of work, made easier with the help from a lot of people. It's really a milestone for the club to be represented in print and I'm proud of what we have accomplished. A big thank you to all that made this feature possible.

Niles Depot

I went to Niles Depot today to pick up auction purchases (more about that in another post). I had no idea the Niles Depot is _this_ pretty. Located on the old Transcon route via Sacramento to Oakland there's a lot of history here. The building has a museum inside and the Tri-City Society of Model Engineers has their layout in a building next door.

There are also a couple restored railroad cars on the grounds outside, including this Western Pacific caboose.

Nice weathering on the trucks with a cool dynamo contraption to charge the caboose batteries.

It would have been nice to visit the museum or the layout for a bit, but that can be done some other time.

Schuco 452655300 - Stückgut Vans

 

As I was working on my express freight warehouse in Emsingen a couple years ago, I wanted to populate the street side with the typical Deutsche Bundesbahn delivery trucks. I went as far as collecting photos for use in a truck repainting projects. That project never made it to the top of the list, though.

I was delighted last January when the Q1/2020 MHI announcement included Stückgut trucks and a van made by Schuco, in exactly the paint scheme I was looking for. Naturally, I immediately ordered them. 

Today, the shipment finally arrived, and I have to say, I'm thrilled.

The trucks are beautifully detailed, and even have proper license plates! The bodies are made from metal. The covers of the loading area look good, but have too much a plastic shiny look. That's easily fixed, though, so I'm not really complaining.

Now I just need to add a driver in one or two of the trucks, some light weathering, and they are ready for the layout. Nevertheless, even out of the box they look great. 

Nikolaustag

 

Our Adventcalendar today had two jolly fellows appropriate for the day, and they tasted good, too.

First Sunday of Advent

Accurail #80792 Wescott & Winks 40' Wood Reefer

I purchased this Accurail kit several years ago on another business trip that included a stop a Eastside Trains in Kirkland, WA. There were several versions of this wood reefer on the shelf, decorated mostly for PFE, MDT, and other well-known carriers. I didn't want to renumber the car, so I got one I knew wasn't on the club layout. 

Here's the car body straight out of the box.

I started with the underframe and applied washes of rust, dirt, and railroad tie brown. I generally just dip the brush into the color, and thin the color in a drop or two of water. That's enough for one pass. While the blotches of color and brush marks look quite terrible at first, after several applications, the blotches combine to translucent layers and create a very nice and natural color effect. At the very end, I apply a thin dusting of Pan Pastels Raw Umber Shade to pull everything together.

For the metal roof I started with a wash of light rust, focused on the ribs and crevices. When that was dry, I cut off the molded grab irons and stirrup steps and replaced them with painted Tichy grab irons (I need a finer drill for smaller holes...)

I left the molded ladders intact, because the replacement ladders I have are very finicky to deal with and seem too fragile for an operating car.

I followed the rust wash on the roof with several layers of Pan Pastels Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber shades. I toned down the car sides a bit with a Pan Pastels white shade and a light dusting and streaks of dirt still on my small deer foot brush. I'm very pleased with the overall result.

I did make a big mistake and while dusting the car side hit a spot I had painted white earlier. The pigments stuck to the slightly tacky paint clearly bringing out the outline of the paint. I made it worse by dabbing over the spot, and ended up with a nice round dark splotch on the white car side. After that I called it a day yesterday evening, and let the car sit overnight.

Today I tried fixing the blob, scratched off some of the paint and pigments, and tried to hide the mistake with white shade and dirt. This created some white splotches on the roof, which I thankfully could mostly wipe off. I could not fix my mistake 100% without having to start over on the car, but at least it's not an ugly round splotch anymore. 

I still need to add a tiny dab of paint to hide the oversized drill holes.

Accurail #5129 50' plug-door BN/RBWX box car

RBWX 79248 painted and weathered, but I skipped all further detailing

I've never built an Accurail car before. Why would I want to build a car if there are many finely detailed ready-to-run cars available? And why build one that won't even run on my railroad?

I picked up this kit on a business trip last year -- in the olden days before the pandemic -- along with the Bowser cars I wrote about before. The club requires metal wheel sets, so I ordered Intermountain wheel sets to replace the plastic wheel sets that came with the kit, and I should replace the plastic couplers with the respective Kadee couplers (looks like #148 is the right one). 

The car body is preformed, and the plug door needs to be installed. I wanted to the body to be closed, because otherwise I'd need to find a solution for hiding the weight that runs the length of the car. I popped off the roof walk when I toyed around with the kit in February and haven't touched the kit since. It bothered me that the roof walk is the same color as the car body, so I decided to paint it aluminum and tone down the sheen with a dirt wash afterwards.

I painted the trucks, wheels, and axles in rail tie brown, which is a nice undecipherable dark dirt color, and  applied a wash to the trucks to accentuate the details a bit more. The floor underside got a brown wash over the black molded plastic. I don't usually look under my cars, so I did this mostly to break the black plastic sheen.

I found a color photo of a ... reused ... RBWX box car and noticed that the ends are painted a brown-red commonly found on cars in reefer service. The Accurail car has the same yellow everywhere. I like the brown ends better, so I fixed that. The car numbers would need to be restenciled in white, but I'm not going to worry about that.

While I was applying a wash to the roofwalk, I also started dirtying up the roof. That didn't quite come out the way I imagined, but that's ok, the final weathering with Pan Pastels took care of that.

I used Neutral Grey extra dark to darken the roof, Burnt Sienna extra dark and Burnt Sienna Shade to set some rust highlights, and streaked these as mixture along the rivet lines on the sides. I used a make-up sponge and a fine brush to apply the Pan Pastels. Finally, I used deer foot brushes (medium and small) to tipple and brush the pigments around the car to create some variety of color shading.

I was after a slightly dirty look on the sides and a dirty, but well maintained roof. The sides got dirtier than I had planned, and the roof detail worked out differently than I imagined. However, I was happy with the look, so I sealed the paint job with Dullcote. The Pan Pastels thankfully don't react and disappear with Dullcote like the Bragdon powders do. Phew.

Weathering sealed with Dullcote.

So, why do all this? I eventually want an all weathered locomotive and freight car fleet on my own layout, so this is good practice and learning. I'm happy with the roof, not so happy with the sides, but that's ok. On to the next victim.