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For whatever reason I’ve temporarily lost interest in building the model so nothing to report at the moment. However I have recently set up a Fotopic site to hold some of my Swiss pictures. |
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Progress on the layout over the winter has been reasonable with most of the trackwork in the main station and loco shed area being completed. Somewhere along the way one of the freight loops on the right hand side had to be lost due to a lack of space. |
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However it’s on the other side of the loft where most progress has been made. This picture shows the main line northwards from Erstfeld (left centre of the photo). One end of the planned fiddle yard can also be seen. The two tracks lying across the main line show where the upper level will eventually be. |
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This photo shows the lower level return loop which represents all that is north of Erstfeld. Despite now being planned as an end to end layout with two return loops, I still like the idea of watching trains going around in circles! The short section of track above the return loop allows me to do just that. |
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Finally for now a photo showing the first three roads of the eleven road fiddle yard. Two of the three tracks seen at the back of the photo will eventually form the start of the gradient for access to the upper level. The point in the centre of the picture is designed to provide access to additional loco and unit holding sidings. |
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Since the last update plans have changed again! The idea of a UK based stabling point has been dropped and replaced by a larger storage yard plus a multi level scenic section. As part of the redesign I’m thinking of converting to an end to end layout with return loops at each end. These will by necessity be a much smaller radius than I had originally planned to use. As a result some testing was required to check what the stock is capable of in practice. The test track shown in the photo was constructed using Roco radius 5 curves (approx. 21 inch radius). The initial test train is a rake of Swiss Bahn 2000 Double Deck stock again from Roco. |
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The plan shows what I’m aiming for in the longer term. On one side of the loft is Erstfeld station and loco depot. On the other side of the loft will be a UK based stabling point / depot. This is currently planned as Ranelagh Bridge using the track plan as it existed in the early – mid 1970s. Between the two will be an eight road storage / fiddle yard. I’m still not sure what to do with the two lines that run outside of the Erstfeld 2 track main lines. On the prototype the one at the north end of Erstfled (left of the plan) is a headshunt for the sidings. The one at the south end of Erstfeld runs to one of the construction sites for the new Alptransit Gotthard Base Tunnel. I may just connect the two together to create a third running line or I may use them to access an upper level. |
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Not much happening on the layout at the moment and certainly nothing worth pointing a camera at! However another off topic purchase arrived from Germany yesterday. Based on Austrian Railways Taurus (Class 1016/1116) locos this is 1047 501 of the GySEV. Another superb loco from Roco even when straight out of the box. The lettering above the second axle measures only 0.25mm high yet under a 10x loupe it is all readable! Off topic because the GySEV runs between Austria and Hungary so the loco in question only gets marginally closer to Erstfeld than the ScotRail 170 I sold a few weeks ago! |
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More track laying. This time I’ve been working on the collection of points that form the southern end of Erstfeld. This consists of 3 double slips, 1 single slip, 1 short crossing and 10 other points! Note the use of the large Roco point in the right foreground. Despite being code 83 Roco tracks works well with Peco code 75. The job is far from finished as can be seen from the second picture! |
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Too hot to do much in the loft at the moment other than repair the kinks that appeared in those two nice straight tracks in the picture below! Whose idea was it to put the model railway in the loft. Anyway today was Crewe Works open day. A better event than I had expected with a number of exhibits well positioned for the afternoon sun. Not sure about the new purple monster though! |
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A new arrival today in the form of a buffet car for the Cisalpino Unit. The ETR 470 Cisalpino units are seen at Erstfeld a couple of times each day as they make their way between Milan and Zurich. Luckily Lima produced an excellent model but unfortunately it is not available at the current time. I had managed to acquire the rest of the 9 car set from various sources including model shops in the US and in Switzerland but was missing the buffet car. Just when I was beginning to think I might actually have to model the thing, one turned up on ebay. This was obviously a must win auction and today the parcel arrived from Italy, thanks Roberto. |
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Track Laying continues with the current emphasis being on the fan of sidings to the right which will eventually be the loco shed. The prototype makes full use of curved points in this area so attempting to mimic the track plan using Peco's offerings is proving difficult!
The two long tracks are the two main platform roads beyond which is the complex set of point work at the southern end of Erstfeld. Most of this is currently represented by Peco paper templates. |