Well, Sh*t...

 

The Beneken 1-scale BR151 Heavy Freight Locomotive in original green livery

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  What some may consider to be one of the ugliest locomotives of the Deutsche Bundesbahn happens to be one of my favorites, the BR151 heavy freight locomotive.

The image above is a 1-scale model from the company Beneken, a model that would be completely out of my price range.  However Marklin has just announced that this locomotive will be produced in 1-scale by the Göppingers.  The list price is set at over $3000, but I'm sure it will be available for less. Normally I could inhale deeply and bite the bullet, but a pet peeve of mine is seeing a pantographed locomotive run without overhead wire.  This means that I would need to add catenary across all visible tracks on Carstenbahn one.  That's a cost that starts at about $50 a mast, btw.  Ugh.  Maybe the upgrade to the AV receiver will have to wait.

Anyway, I thought I would share this dilemma of mine.  But as my wife used to tell our daughter, "You can have anything you want, you just can't have everything you want."

Carstenbahn One, Where Have You Been?

 Yup, months and months since I posted, and a LOT of time between posts.  It has also been a long time since I did any work on the layout.  Well, okay, it's been a long time since I did any work on that layout.  

What you see in the image above is a trio of modules from the Great Lakes Chapter of ETE's modular layout.  The module with all the tracks, grass and ballast is part of the staging yard from the chapter's old layout, while the two modules in the foreground are new approach modules for that staging yard.  You see, for the past six months, I have been focused primarily on the ETEGL's modular layout, and with our first exhibit looming in just over two weeks' time, things are progressing at a hectic pace.  

A pair of newly-built corner modules for the ETEGL's modular layout

If you'd like to learn more about the ETEGL and our modular layout, feel free to visit the website at www.etegl.org.

Elevating the Experience

 One thing that bothered me on the former layout was that the curves were flat, while there is usually some 'banking' on real railway lines, especially in Germany, to provide more comfort for passengers on trains traversing the curve at a decent speed.  When I first laid track, I figured it wasn't 'a big deal', and didn't bother to look for a solution.  But over time, that little detail began to bother me as I watched trains enter and exit curves.  Again on the new layout I initially decided that super elevated curves weren't really necessary, and I left them out of my planning. But again, over time it annoyed me, so it was time for a solution.

The images above show the only location on the layout in need of super-elevation.  It's where the trains come out of the tunnel, and where the last of the curve straightens onto the parade section.  I won't be super-elevating the curves approaching the station, because trains are speed restricted in the station area already.  

I picked up some N-scale roadbed made by Woodland Scenics at the local hobby shop.  I figured it was thin enough so I could experiment with multiple pieces, it's flexible, and will even help with some sound dampening.  

Here you can see the roadbed, provisionally placed under the track.  Initially I tried placing a pair of roadbed pieces on top of each other, but the banking was too extreme.  After all, I didn't want this to look like a modern TGV line with trains running at 300 kph through the curve.  So this is the modest banking I decided on, using a single strip of N-scale roadbed.

With the piece of N-scale roadbed now installed, you can see how the locomotive has a gentle 'lean' to it when compared to the first pictures in this post.  I also super-elevated the other track, and the results are exactly what I was hoping for as trains go into and come out of the curve.  

The next step has already begun, at least in a test phase- the ballasting!  Stay tuned...