Loading Crane for Emsingen

The finished loading crane in Emsingen

Over the last couple days I built Vollmer's 5727 "Ueberladekran", a loading crane for the Emsingen freight area. This is a fairly straight-forward build.

I used the nice weather today to set up on the patio and spend the afternoon on finishing up the model after I mostly painted yesterday.

As usual for my recent builds, I did some light weathering with acrylics and weathering powder. Here are some more details and close-ups.

Evening Entertainment

The portable workspace is getting a workout ...

... I just need the whole dining table.

I'm building the crane for the Emsingen freight area.

Detailing and Repairs

Today I went back to fix the Brawa BD4yg Umbauwagen that fell to the floor a little while ago. The Roco BR211, that was in operation on the Welztalbahn undetailed for the last 2 years, still needed its detailing, too.

Getting inspiration and the correct color scheme of stirrup steps and handrails

Detailed 211 082 in Talheim

I also tried my hand at some light weathering of the roof and the hoods. I used thinned acrylics and Bragdon powders.

Grenzzeichen

A Grenzzeichen in Emsingen

What's a Grenzzeichen you ask? Grenzzeichen are used on in Germany wherever tracks diverge that are used to store cars or a train stops. The Grenzzeichen marks the location where a car on one track will foul the other track. This is obviously useful for in switching yards, freight stations, and similar situations.

The typical Grenzzeichen is a pipe stuck into the ballast with a round enamel head painted white and red in quarters. I have thought about how to model German Grenzzeichen for a while. I considered painting a round piece of styrene. However, in HO scale the head is only 2mm in diameter, and painting quarters of that in red accurately was a little bit more than I felt like doing.

I considered early Reichsbahn Grenzzeichen, a white stick with a red top, but by the early 1970's they would have been replaced pretty much universally.

The other issue is that a scale Grenzzeichen is really small, and easy to overlook when switching cars. If I put those things in, I also want to use them for their actual purpose. I was willing to make them a little bit oversize so that they are more obvious to operators. 

Eventually, I found Erbert Modelltechnik, a small supplier in Germany, that makes scale Grenzzeichen among other neat lineside details, and I ordered the O-scale version, which is just perfect for my use case. Ordering was easy and the various parts arrived with no fuss within a few days.

Most of the roadbed in Emsingen and Talheim stations is not yet ballasted, so it's a bit early to fuzz around with this kind of detail. Nevertheless, I did try it out in the yard, and I very much like the effect.

Makerfaire 2015

May, time for Makerfaire. This time around the weather was overcast and not nearly as sweltering hot as the last couple times. 

We had fun this Saturday, but I do notice that the novelty has worn off. Yes, there's lots of cool stuff to look at, and yes, we recognized exhibits from last year. 

Nevertheless, there's always opportunity for surprises.

One of my favorite part is the combination of metal working, sculptures, and fire. There were several opportunities to press buttons and send some fire into the air.

The Megabot exhibit was well attended, but they had a weapon system failure during the show we saw, so the oversized paint guns did not splash a car in paint.

The "Mission Impossible" booth were one needs to pass through a web of laser beams to "steal" the glowing ball was quite popular.

Overall,  this was a good way to spend a Saturday. The proliferation of Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and 3D printers continued. There was a vast supply of kits and add-ons on display in booths, and/or available for purchase, and I completely ignored them. If one wanted to see things that were not computer-connected or all-electronic, one had to look a little bit harder.

Middle of the Month Ops

A quiet moment at Bayshore Yard

To my surprise Silicon Valley Lines operated today. I thought we would just have an Open House for attendees of the NMRA PCR meet. As it turns out trains were staged and guests were ready for some action.
For a change (and because I had a committment later in the evening), I ran Bayshore Yard, which was a very laid back way to spend the evening.

Nowheres Yard is busy as usual and there is traffic in Jacksonville

I also finally installed the two turnouts in the wood yard at the South Hallelujah paper mill. I'm starting to come up with a concept for the style of the various buildings and connecting infrastructure.

Wood yard turnouts installed

Yes, there is rain today

Just in time for Bike-to-work-Day, rain is in the forecast, and as you can imagine in times of a severe drought emergency and mandatory water conservation, every drop of rain is welcome. Having lunch outside in a light drizzle is fun, too.

Household Chores

Refinishing the counter top and attempting to fix showers and kitchen faucets. Fun Saturday afternoon.

Ouch!!!

As I was preparing for an upcoming operations session, I ran one of the local freights back into staging, and didn't stop quickly enough. Momentum ran the train into the end of track, and it partially derailed on track 3 which is hard to reach from the aisle. GRRRRRR.

Oh well, ... I took two cars from the train that was staged on track 2, put them aside and started tending to the derailed cars. ... I hear a rolling sound ... and before I can react, see one of the cars roll to the edge of the table and fall head down onto the floor, landing on the coupler, which goes flying. GRRRRRR².

The molded plastic noses holding the coupler in place are sheared off. Taking a lesson from American-style coupler boxes, I cleaned up the remains, carefully drilled a hole for a screw, and mounted the coupler back to the body. I didn't get the hole perfectly vertical, so the coupler now hangs about 1 mm too low, but this is manageable. So far, so good.

Fixed coupler on the left. Undamaged original assembly is on the right.

Since it was still early, I decided to finally detail the Roco 211 I bought two years ago. The train with that locomotive was staged on the inside tracks of staging so I decided to back it out from it's track. As I was doing that, the last car derailed and fell to the floor. GRRRRRRR³ and then I noticed it was one of the new BRAWA Umbauwagen. GRRRRR⁴

The trucks had come off and the end steps on one side of the car are damaged. Also, one of the pressure springs at the trucks was missing. After searching for the spring fruitlessly, I was so utterly frustrated, that I packed up the modelling supplies, and went to bed early.

Dinner fresh from the grill

Ready for Departure

LX38 is ready. Boarding will start in a few minutes.

My luggage is filled with goodies...

... and it is impossible to take photos of the plane after arrival in San Francisco. Oh well. You'll have to live without the arrival photo.

Bye bye Zurich

... until next time.

Evening Colors

Vierwaldstetter See

We took the boat from Luzern to Weggis. The sky was still quite overcast when we arrived.

However, during the hike from Weggis along the lake to Herrewald and Roehrli, the sun came out.

So beautiful up here ... and so green.

Lunch was on the patio of Hotel Friedheim in Weggis. What a view. The food was good, too, and they handled our unannounced group quite gracefully.

"Hey look, california wine!" This looks a little bit more inviting than Sushi Kalifornia.

The view was a little bit clearer as we got ready for the boat trip back to Luzern.

Gourmet Burger

I know what you're thinking: "Huh? He's halfway around the world, and eating a BURGER????"

Well,  ... yes. And this Kraut Burger at Korner was fantastic. A little bit on the messy end, along with the slightly too greasy fries, but very yummy.

Sunday afternoon coffee

Time for some coffee and Hefezopf, while I browse through photos and videos from the steam train trip, and get some serious work done.

Schnaaggi Schaaggi steam train ride

[Schnaaggi Schaaggi posts]

Not having any plans for the weekend, Tristan and I agreed to meet up in Zurich-Wiedikon for a steam train ride organized by the Zuricher Museumsbahn down to Sihlbrugg and back with a long layover in Sihlwald. This route mostly follows the SZU Sihltalbahn (S4) with exception of the tunnel between Wiedikon and Bahnhof Giesshuebel, which gets used only by occasional freight trains coming up this route and on to bypass Zurich main station.

Arrival in Sihlwald. The grill is ready to feed hungry travelers.

Most of the trip leads through suburbs of Zurich, and, while nice, is actually not that impressive (well, with the exception that we are RIDING IN A STEAM TRAIN! YAY!)

It gets pretty between Langnau-Glattikon and Sihlwald, and really scenic between Sihlwald and Sihlbrugg.

Sihlbrugg is a junction with the regular main line that runs south from Zurich along Lake Zurich via Thalwil to Zug and Luzern. Early in the video Schnaaggi Schaaggi is running around our train in Sihlbrugg while an IR to Luzern is greeting it from the main line. It was fascinating to see this juxtaposition of "our" little steam engine and the modern electric passenger trains that dominate the Swiss railway system. Similar encounters repeated throughout the trip, thanks to the very dense and busy Swiss passenger rail system.

Sihlbrugg: Ready to return to Sihlwald

Sihlbrugg is a popular starting point for hikers. There are several routes to choose from that eventually lead to Sihlwald or further up the Sihltal where they can take S4 back to Zurich.

We took the steam train back to Sihlwald and watched servicing of the locomotive for a while.

While Tristan wasn't too pleased with the offerings at the grill, I got myself a sausage with bread, and enjoyed the view.

Eventually the locomotive service crew came over as well, grabbed food and drinks, and had their lunch, too. 

 

Just as we were starting to get bored, the locomotive came back to the train and the crew prepared for the return trip to Zurich.

I'm impressed by how the steam train schedule is part of the regular Sunday schedule, even though the train only runs on the last Sunday of the month in the summer. Most of this line is single-track, so meets between S-Bahn and steam train are built into the schedule in a way that maintains punctuality for the S-Bahn.

Back a Wiedikon, the locomotive had to run around the train again for the last trip to Sihlwald. Because of the busy S-Bahn schedule they really had to hurry up to get to the other end of the station. The video has this scene starting at 6:50.

I hung out on the platform until the train departed and got to watch more servicing, while the pressure relief valve lets off steam.