Realistic Operation Or a lifetime learning with enjoyment
Staging The beginning at the zero point In the forties, it was my greatiest wish to have a Ho model railroad. My idea was an abstruse track arrangement with several different running paths. Lucky, I found an instructive literature: The manual from MAERKLIN. One of the less fine examples showed a station arrangement with station building, goods shed, platform between tracks, and a bridge for pedestrians. I found this much better than abstruse arrangements.
To search for further literature was a good idea. Und I found it, the manual called TRIX-HANDBUCH 1:90. It helped me to gain my lifetime hobby, because there were some examples of realistic operation. I was especially fascinated by the fact that one of them had a real ‘point-to-point’ arrangement. This example with track plan, timetable and vehicle positions was described in the tongue of railroaders. It showed a train-run from the station ‘Pappstadt’ via ‘Steindorf’ and ‘Blechhausen’ to ‘Holzheim’. Until that moment, I had done handicrafts and made a lot of section tracks, switches and tracks for disconnect car-couplers. With this I soon emulated the TRIX-example, simplified only a little. That was a great success for me. At the terminal stations, the engine had to run around the train, as the original does. I tried yet a loop, but failed. Too much tracks and space were needed. Neither I could accept the missing compactness, nor I was satisfied by the run-around layouts with some stations. Instead of the stations fancy names, I tried operating the model of a real route of my original, the SBB (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen).This failed, because the prototype is not a island route, but connected with other routes. Therefore finally I decided for the conception ‘Pappstadt–Holzheim’. |
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Observing the original, my daily freight train soon started delivering and picking up cars, to freight sheds and to team tracks. Thus the train become especially interesting. The limited-stop train with parlour-car and dining-car didn’t appearing trustworthy, to short was the run. After many waiting years I got the possibility to build a permanent layout. Only the ‘Pappstadt–Holzheim’–conception was arguably then, but by a superior manner. Detailed verifying showed difficulties, the needful space was missing. I in addition wished a handsome mountain range with tunnels and bridges, instead of the bleak and flat ground I had had till now. In the meantime I wanted a higher quality, too. I had build, as real models of my original, two engines and two freight cars. You couldn’t buy them at that time. All my toy-looking engines were liquidated, and also were all cars which didn’t remind my of a known original. The industry-made wheel-sets failed too much, therefore I turned them down to a known standard. |
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| Beginning Staging yard The deficiency of space pushed me to build only a part of the total line, for example the Holzheim Station with several metres of route only. But, what would be at the route’s ends? A loop, or a hidden loop, were out of question. The whole train would be turned there, instead of the engine only running around the train. As trains had also be formatted there, the only solution was a staging yard. Should it be visible for visitors, or not? As the switching tasks are not equal to the original, a sufficient hidden yard would be better. Under the layout there would be enough space, if it was planned at time. But there were further difficulties. To operate at the hidden yard, reliable automatic couplers and opener for couplers are needed. I built these after an idea of A.Balmas, published by the periodical named Modèles Ferroviaire. The coupler connects the cars pushing them together, und disconnects above an electromagnet, situated under the track.
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How can I make sure that in the invisible hidden yard the desired coupler is exactly above the electromagnet, so that the coil can be excited for disconnecting it. I found a solution for this difficult problem at that time. The edge of my layout is mountainous, not level. In a groin of the landscape I disposed my control panel, with sight to the hidden yard, through a window. I could see all opener from here. A lamp did brightness there. Later, modifying for more landscape, I minified the control panel and substituted the window by a little opening, reminding you to a dragon cave, After the first part of my layout, the hidden yard, operated with all coupler-disconnections in a satisfactory way, I initiated to build tracks and landscape. As I didn’t want to wait many years for the possibility of operation, I laid my old sectional tracks on the roadbed. This on the whole layout, included Holzheim station. Part for part I replaced this tracks by the final tracks with landscape. |
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| Beginning At last the operation, the railroad event My beginner timetable contained three pairs of passenger trains and one pair of freight trains. Not to see bad models in good landscape, I rebuilt my ugly passenger cars to more exactly models. The freight cars I was enriching with forest products. As time went by, I disliked arbitrary equipping the freight trains with cars and loadings. I was looking for a way generating freight bills, as the original receives by his cliental. This must be a statistic manner I reasoned. A fine way to gain that are sudden look at your watch, what second it indicates. You find statistic numbers between one and sixty or zero and fifty nine. A sixty-line list is able to enclose up to sixty bills of loadings, differently or equally. The sudden look on the watch says what loading is to transport from the shipper to the consignee. But this way has a disadvantage. The number of the bills is arbitrary, not statistical defined.
I prefer defining an
average number and not a fixed number of loading-bills. As an example it should be four
bills daily. Then I use a listing with In the middle of the 20th century, forest-work was usually done in the winter months only, and therefore the transports weren’t distributed regularly over all months. Therefore I fill twelve different months-columns along with their streaks. Today, this columns contain 290 to 350 streaks. I think that is a easier way, instead of writing the same amount of loading-bills on the usual cards. Selecting the loading-bills by a computer may be possible, but do not forget the programming work. Only my watch is replaced by a chart of statistic numbers today. |
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Loading-bills-application is fascinating, if you exchange loading-dummies on the flat-and gondola-cars. I did handicrafts an amount of them. As not each car has got a set of possible loading-dummies, the selection of cars needs any accurateness. Changing the loading-dummies in the hidden yard is frustrating, as you have to creep below your layout, better planning had been needed. Some decades passing I enlarged both my layout and the stock of the vehicles, initially according to my gusto. With time passing I got worried whether I was on a false way which could generate cars or loading-bills not suiting to my layout conception. I asked myself which stock of vehicles was needed. The most beautiful cars for limited stop trains are not priority. Different industries on the layout demand roughly the same formation of types and quantity as at my original. I count 1 model car for 100 cars of the original, additional some special belonging to their industry. With the eight passenger cars, I can equip two trains, one of they with full capacity, One day I got the rulebooks of my original. The route Steindorf-Holzheim is comparable with the original route Vallorbe-Le Brassus. According to the annex of the ‘Reglement über den Fahrdienst Teil a’, only railcars and the lightly electric Re4/4 were allowed, because of bridges of less load capacity. That restriction was welcome to me, not only because I could use my available drivers. A long time I doubted of the short tracks at Holzheim, depending from lack of space. Now I saw that this facile drivers could only pull less cars to Holzheim, 6 passenger cars with the engine Re4/4 and 4 with the railcar CFe4/4. The length of the run-around track is therefore long enough, and I must say myself: what a fortune. Along with a similar manner I calculated the tonnage for the other routes. I also need to know the car weights. For each wheel-set I assume 5 tons for freight cars being empty, and 10 for cars being full. |
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In the rulebooks, I found rules for freight trains formatting. Not all cars had an air brake at the time. On the tail end, only two such cars are allowed on little grades, und and no one on grades of three percent and more. This concerns especially the grade and route to Holzheim. |
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| Beginning Do not vergot the corect velocity The speed-regulation me disturbed many decades. Permanent trimming of the velocity was needed. My engines stability was bad. With a great effort I enhanced the current lines and magnified the gear reduction. This reduction must be equal for both engines. I chosed equal motors earlier constructing the engines. As well double-heading needs this provision. My controllers, continuous type, have got soft notch positions, at speeds of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 kilometres per hour. That is a very comfortable speed control, similar to modern engines. For me this is a new feeling of success.
I stipulated the speeds on the different parts of my layout, considering the very s railroading-feeling, a great success. harp curvatures and
turnouts. I fixed: This exertion made a further improvement possible. If a train leaves the Steindorf-yard, switching should begin immediately. But it is difficult to operate two controllers at the same time, for a one man operating crew. I developed an automatic operator for the Steindorf-Waldau route. With a low cost programmable steerage I could program a step work with my PC. The steps were initiated by programmed timers, or contacts in the track. That is a good help, it may be I make this for other routes later. |
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| Beginning I
never intended to represent the entire graphical timetable. The reader is hardly
interested to study the zig-zag pattern of such plans. On
several websites he finds such examples. But the head of my road map contains interesting information of
the line. It was modeled from the Swiss railways. I show the head of the timetable
containing the first two hours of the journey.
The non-illustrated section on the track plan from the Waldau tunnel to Pappstadt is also part of the timetable. To draw the train journey the entire circulation should be clear.Explanations of each column: A)
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B)
Height profile with tunnels. Tunnels are important for the staff. The cars need to be illuminated. In the steam locomotives, the heating system had to be adjusted.
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C)
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D) E)
H) I) J) There are different opinions on the time at modelrailroad timetables. For me as a one-man team, the usual quick clock is not interesting. Originally I intended to establish one. It showed an imbalance between too short train runs and too long switching runs. Too little station spacing and too tight track arrangements are the cause. I enjoy the schedule pass in step motion. A train journey, some switching, or only a fraction of them, result in a new situation at the plant. I enjoy every day the new image, with the beautiful rolling stock on the beautiful surrounding. Regular operation retards gathering dust and keeps the plant ready for any unexpected visitors. |
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| Beginning My Goal: The proposals in this paragraph, named operation, may appear irrelevant to many readers. They are not! A model railroad can be much more than railway trains circling its presentation laps. See the following suggestions! I wish to show how the railway really
works, well, not merely as running trains. But they don’t end in themselves,
they have to transport people and goods. That’s why I execute train
composition and maneuvering as if the model railroad transported people and goods.
Passenger transporting needs a
time-table. For carrying freight it’s advisable too. Interchangeable
load-dummies emphasize the purpose, the freight trains serve. A statistical system
to draw lots for traffic and transportation needs is the engine for operation-fun. Many modelers would like to organize a
similar operation. But they realize too late that their investment is not suitable, and
the rolling stock contains superfluous and evil gaps. Here are some suggestions to avoid such errors. To trackplan It
should show a web. In the simplest case, there is only one route from an end-station to
the other end. At
least one of the stations is considered as shadow station, also named staging yard. It
replaces the rest of the world, the space you can’t represent. The shadow station is
not part of railroad models. It is only an arrangement to put the trains together. It
doesn’t have to be visible for visitors. With two or more shadow stations, we see the
extent of loading-dummies for transit only, in comparison to local transports. I
personally find thies much more interesting than transit traffic. The distances between neighbouring destinations should not be extremely different. That conditions may occur by thoughtless long helix to the staging yard. Therefore the staging yard should not be at the end of the planning. The station
equipments should be appropriate to remind to a possible prototype, and fit in the town or
village existing in your mind.
To rolling stock Too much generally creates more trouble than too less. Don’t select what is interesting or offered by the trader. Learn to think as if you were the prototype. No Railway buys two locomotives, if a single is enough for the necessary drives. For transportation of passengers the basic version of the car normally will suffice. Luxury trains require stations too big to model them properly. Distinguish freight waggons in frequently and rarely used ones. Frequently used ones are required in large number, rarely used ones only according of your industries. Unfortunately, the modelist’s favorites, the local freight trains, are now extremly rare. The industries of smaller towns, the station we prefer to model, get their cars by a rail tractor or a small locomotive from the regional center. The local switching is still a fraction compared to former times.
Goods to dispatch Model railroaders, perhaps professionally using the prototype, may design the passenger traffic and timetable. They gain a view of passenger frequencies, depending on time of day and week days. This is much more difficult for freight trains. Small cargo is no longer transported and carload traffic is disappearing. Block trains with equal vehicles put together are the new goal of the railway today. In case one wants to reproduce the operation of an earlier era, so we consider what mainly has been transported and what not. The more the period dates back, the more difficult the task becomes. Until recently there haven’t been refuse transports as we know them. Cattle transports for summer stay disappeared. The average transportation distances are increasing. Individual pieces once sent by train were transported on the road today. Mainly the transport of bulk goods is left to the track. Origin and destination are appropriate industries. I don’t know any literatur that contain information on freight transport statistics in earlier times. But I could imagine that the freight car loads were documented at least in summary form and those old books may be found somewhere.
How do I all that know? My dad had a
small shop and commanded me often, to bring or pickup pieces to the station, by bicycle
and trailer car. It also happened, that instead end of leisure time, the truck driven to
the station. We had to unload a wagon, immediately, of course, and to bring the goods home
in several trips. I observed, who
went to the team track too, I was thinking, what about they would unload. The screw
factory, the sawmill, or the regional food supplier suggested my fantasy. The impressions
were soon used at the railroad games. Later observations confirmed many things and let me
forget others as illusion. This is probably the standard way of any successful modelrailroader something conceivable try to gain experience, to improve, and, if possible, without breaking off. Try and hold out, you winn! |
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