murphaph

The above excellent pic of the briquettes certainly suggests that the wooden limiting boards were removed as it would have been impossible to load the wagon like that with the boards in place. So I'm assuming the laden 48 tonne wagons at least occasionally looked something like this:

https://irishrailwaymodels.co.uk/

Maybe a failed train of empties being rescued? Don't think a single 121 would have been able to haul a laden train like that.

Yeah Joe it was another hot one. 32 degrees in Zittau yesterday mid afternoon. So a few videos have been uploaded:

So yesterday I took another spin to another narrow gauge steam system. This time the aforementioned Zittauerschmalspurbahn. Unfortunately there are still works restricting the capacity on the Berliner Stadtbahn (our 100 year old version of Crossrail that runs east-west right through the heart of the city, except all on a viaduct or otherwise elevated above street level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Stadtbahn The works mean my local regional train, the RB14 terminates at Charlottenburg but this trip involved traversing the city so I waited briefly for an RE1 (they have priority and can still use the Stadtbahn it seems) and took this to Ostkreuz (eastern cross, where the Stadtbahn intersects with the Ringbahn, or circle line). From here I took an RE2 to Cottbus in the far south east of the state of Brandenburg. There the connection was delayed but connecting trains waited and I had a cross platform transfer to the RB65 to my final destination on the mainline network, Zittau in the far south east of the state of Saxony. Unfortunately there are track upgrade works so at the moment the middle-of-nowhere station of Hagenwerder is the terminus. From there a seamless rail replacement service took us by bus to Zittau Hbf. In the end the rail replacement service added a nice bit of interest and my phone welcomed me to Poland and back to Germany the whole way along the route as the border parallels the road. From Zittau I took the narrow gauge direct to Oybin, then straight back to Zittau, then to the Junction station at Bertsdorf, where I changed trains and headed to Jonsdorf, from where I took the train back to Bertsdorf, changed again and headed back down to Zittau to catch my bus and head home the way I came. I made a stop in Berlin Hbf as it turns out and took the RB10 home instead of the RB14 as the timing was better. A couple of pics of Berlin Hbf are therefore included for completeness. It's basically a large shopping centre with a railway station inside it really. Ok, so on to the pics... Arriving into Lübben, which is the first station in the bilingual Spreewald district. The other language here is the minority Sorbian, a slavic language, which is strongly protected by the German state following the persecution of Sorbian speakers under the Nazi regime. I can thoroughly recommend a visit to the Spreewald. It has a real primordial feel to it. The area is known for its canals and features Germany's only canal boat postal delivery service. The little punt is also Germany's smallest Postbank outlet and sells stamps and other postal services to customers: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postkahn (sorry German only) All change at Cottbus, where a track measuring train sits idle in the yard: DMU traction now all the way to the end destination. Next point of interest is the border station of Görlitz. Presumably they needed many more platforms at one stage to perform customs checks on trains arriving from Poland. Now abandoned: My temporary rail terminus on the mainline system for today, Hagenwerder, where we changed over to a bus replacement that was waiting for us: And now a few images from Zittau itself, including what appears to be an old ballast wagon: Loco running around in the bus station in Zittau: Arriving Zittau Vorstadt: The junction station of Bertsdorf now: The terminus at Oybin: And now the other terminus at Jonsdorf and some snaps along the way back to the junction at Bertsdorf. Note the signal cabin is located slap bang in the middle of the junction, controlling it by way of semaphore signals still: And for the sake of completeness a couple of snaps of Berlin including Hbf as I did pass through here too. The station is two level (excluding the U5 U-Bahn and under construction underground S21 S-Bahn), with 8 low level platforms running north-south and a further 6 high level platforms (4 for IC & regional, 2 for S-Bahn) running east-west, connected by the world's slowest lifts (pro tip, unless you have really awkward luggage, take three escalators rather than waiting for a lift). The station is (in)famous for its huge glazed roof being too short. The contract was poorly defined and the contractor was forced to end the works prematurely so the station could open without scaffolding for the 2006 world cup. The roof contractor sued and won his case and he has a legal right to come back and finish the station roof to its full length (presumably when times are hard again in the building trade!). The low level platforms taken from an intermediate level: The east-west tracks are supported by those columns. The bridge in the very top of the foreground is carrying the S-Bahn tracks left to right: CD operated Eurocity train from Prague to Hamburg departing from the same platform my RB10 will depart from shortly. Loco appears to be leased from a German owner however: A Talgo "Bumblebee" (Hummel) shunter at Bhf Warschauer Straße (Warsaw Road Station). This depot did at one stage service Talgo coaching stock but I haven't seen any here in a while: Videos of the steam part will be uploaded to YouTube and linked in a subsequent post Edit. The editor decided to insert these images without me clicking "insert". I don't know if that's expected behavior but anyway I'll just leave them. One of them I actually forgot to add so I'll comment that as it's rare.... A diamond crossing of an unusual type. The track we are crossing over is standard gauge mainline rail belonging to the Deutsche Bahn. This requires communication between our conductor and the DB signaller, which is what is happening in the pic below where he is standing at that yellow DB post on the little halt immediately before this diamond: This viaduct carries the mainline rail we are about to cross over. Strange arrangement:

Fascinating details that the working timetable doesn't provide Noel. Thank you for them! Was Ballina the only destination for block fert trains or did they also go further south? Has anyone got more detailed pics of the actual pallets? I am working on some custom transfers based on net nitrate pallet loads I've found on the internet but the pics are few and far between. The first attempt was simply a cut out of a jpeg from an old IFI brochure I found online but the resolution was very poor so I created a vector graphic in GIMP to get something a little sharper and from 2' away it's absolutely fine now. The first (very pixellated) attempt can also be seen for reference:

IRM's commitment to re-runs earns them a huge gold star. It means nobody is under "pressure" (imagined or otherwise) to buy for renumbering. They can just wait until the next run and buy one rake again. That's my plan anyway. One rake from each run and then wait patiently for the next one.

Did they transport peat as well? Anyone got any pics?

Now I need to buy more wagons.

How many fert wagons typically ran in a fert block train on the GSWR?

Sorry for your loss bufferstop. She sounds like one great lady indeed.

Fabulous. Very atmospheric indeed. I really like it, shades of Dugort Harbour about it. I'm no expert on backsecenes, having never made one but would a blast of matt varnish be an idea to reduce the light reflecting back from the lanterns?

The NIR buffet, generator vans and driving trailers are super niche as well and share little with the GB mk2's. If those things are viable then most stuff is I'd say.

My oh my that looks like a tricky masking job George. How are you doing it with the variable width swooshes, cutting them out by hand?

I actually wouldn't like to be a GB modeller right now. The amount of top drawer stuff AS is releasing would mean passing on this or that and then regretting it immediately. At least with our less frantic pace we have a chance to acquire things we like and then let the wallet recover in time for the next hit.

Brexit made Irish passports desirable in GB. The Deltics will make an Irish* address even more desirable lol. *Or other EU.

That's a lot of non-buyer's regret

The flip side of that particular coin is that if IRM says "we want to release x at some stage" then the "when is x finally coming, you announce stuff but then don't deliver for years" comments start. IRM now has a firm policy of announcing a new model when the first engineering samples are ready and not before as they can reasonably predict the time to market from that point. As was mentioned with the recent Class 89, even getting access to the prototype can pose major challenges so it's unwise to announce stuff you haven't at least got your CAD done on. The basic rule of thumb for Irish models and IRM is simple enough though I would assume....more or less everything will be done eventually, certainly anything that existed in numbers in real life. The one offs are the most difficult to justify but at least of you decide to scratch build a one off you will only make one and not a rake or something. Anything you could conceivably make a rake of I would suggest will eventually be covered by IRM and to keep your powder dry, unless you enjoy making stuff. In which case there's no harm done.

Weinert Modellbau maybe but the prices will make your eyes water. The British are just way more into scratch and kit building etc. than elsewhere in Europe IMO.

He's really friendly on the phone and it works. Bit old school but at least the man takes credit cards and ships outside GB.

Nice to get the feedback so I know I'm not just spamming the forum with irrelevant content connolly. Much appreciated. My next "target", probably next week is likely to be the Zittauerschmalspurbahn or Zittau Narrow Gauge Railway. Zittau is located in the Free State of Saxony, right in the corner where Germany, Czechia and Poland meet: https://g.page/zittauer-schmalspurbahn?share Germany to the north, Czechia to the west and south and Poland to the east. The railway heads south from Zittau, departing from the narrow gauge station adjoining the standard gauge mainline rail one. The line continues to Bertsdorf where it branches in two. Both lines continue south into neighbouring parallel valleys and terminate at the spa resort towns of Jonsdorf and Oybin. During the week trains to Oybin are through running with a change at Bertsdorf required to head to Jonsdorf. Interestingly however they run trains between the two branch line termini, via Bertsdorf without the need to change. The route takes about an hour in each direction from Zittau to either terminus, so I can cover the whole network behind various traction (diesel and steam operate, the steam trains hauling DR stock) and still be home at a reasonable hour. I will again depart from my local station at 5.40 and reach Zittau at 9.56. If the RE2 is running through Berlin again (it currently only runs to Charlottenburg in western Berlin) then it's a fairly pleasant journey with just a short hop two stations and then the RE2 all the way to Cottbus (the RE2 is one of Germany's longest regional expresses) and just one more RB (Regiobahn, or regional train), the RB65 to Zittau. https://www.zittauer-schmalspurbahn.de/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zittau–Oybin/Jonsdorf_railway There is a "hefty" €5 surcharge for a day's use of the network for holders of a €9 ticket. I think I can manage that lol. Normally a day ticket is €17, which isn't bad either in fairness but the €9 ticket means I can get there and back for nothing.

I think you guys have rolled with the Brexit punches better than any other firm in this industry. There was much sticking of heads in sand and some places are still not shipping outside GB anymore due to the increased paperwork.

If Johnson wasn't tearing up the NI protocol a warehouse in Newry might be an attractive option right now.

Hmmm, it seems like these things are pretty rare in Europe. I never really took any interest in them tbh. There are only 11 in Germany. The rest are in Pakistan and Malaysia according to Wikipedia. I assumed they were more common than that, probably because the HVLE is my "local" private railway and they own 9 of those 11 and the other 2 belong to ITL which is based in Dresden, which isn't a million miles away and I have seen at least one ITL example around here too. I will be more attentive in future and if I see one I'll take a snap or two. DB doesn't own any and never has, though the German wiki says the Autozug (Motorail) was pulled by one for a few days several years ago.

Hi Leslie, All the steam I took is included in the €9 ticket. The section from Drei Annen Hohne to the summit of the Brocken is the only part of the network not included. I was actually thinking the same myself today. I'd be surprised if three scheduled narrow gauge steam services meet anywhere in the world like that. Possibly any gauge.