Indholdsfortegnelse for JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH 2018 No. 92 i Voie Libre international

In 1872, the first subsidies for a local railway network were approved by the Vienne departemental elected assembly. After several years of the customary hesitating between routes and gauges, a meter gauge line was built from Poitiers (PO line from Paris to Bordeaux) to St-Martin-l’Ars (PO ligne from Civray to Le Blanc) between 1892 and 1896, under the name of “Tramways de la Vienne” (TV). The track was laid with 15kg/m flat-bottomed rail, in lengths of 9m. Motive power was provided by 16 ton Amédée Bollée 0-6-0 T locomotives, fitted with drag-flue boilers and driven from the front. Sadly, no drawings of these interesting engines have survived. It was decided in 1893 to build additional lines: Neuville-de-Poitou to Lencloître opened in 1913; Châtellerault to Chauvigny on 21 March 1914. Lines…

The harsh Swedish winters led the SJ company (“Strömming Järnvag”, “Järnvag” meaning “railway” in Swedish, see instalment 1) to build a small shanty next to the dead-end siding, for “fika” breaks (coffee and cookie breaks, essential for any self-respecting Swede) as well as for meals taken by railwaymen and sailors calling at the wharf. I wanted this structure to have a typically Scandinvian appearance: this is the only scenic item at Strömmingvik which is directly evocative of “Viking land”. WALLS AND CLADDING Work begins by cutting the walls and the base out of peeled foam board. The various parts are painted with acrylics on the inside, before being assembled with wood glue. In a second phase, I add the outside cladding made out of sheets of peeled wood. Each wall…

This green bower, called “Somewhere behind the front…” encases a small 60cm gauge military railway depot. Bernard Junk, who created it, offers us a trip down memory lane: the scene took place exactly 100 years ago. At a time when the centenary of WWI is at its peak, we were expecting to encounter many layouts inspired by military railways. In actual fact, we only saw 4 in the various shows we visited: one in 1/35 scale, one in H0 standard gauge, one in 009, and Bernard’s layout in 1/43.5 scale on 14mm gauge track. François Fontana: Bernard, you have chosen a topic that few modellers have dealt with, what prompted you to do so? Bernard Junk: I was expecting to see many WWI narrow gauge military layouts, but it appears…

Actually, talking of industrial production, there hadn’t been any since Jouef’s Decauville 0-4-0 T back in…1966! In the meantime, and fortunately for us, a few fine models were released, but all in kit form. Via Voie Libre, MinitrainS had launched a wide-ranging poll to find out which model we would prefer, the Schneider LG or the Decauville Progrès. Rather unexpectedly, the results had shown that the diesel engine was an obvious favourite. However, Andreas Schönfeld, who runs MinitrainS, was fond of steam and of diesel, so he decided to produce both! Announced in January 2017 in Nuremberg, these models are are now available. Let’s review them with a critical, but quite admiring eye. AT FIRST SIGHT The shapes are right, the proportions are perfect, the liveries are well chosen, the…

The initial concession for the railway, granted in 1896 to the Compagnie centrale des chemins de fer, was transferred in 1898 to the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Beaujolais (CFB). The network consisted of two lines, both originating in Villefranche-sur-Saône, where they shared station facilities with the Tramways de l’Ain (TA). Two Lines One line went North. Linking Villefranchesur-Saône to Monsols, it was 48km long and served fine wine-growing communities, many of which produced the original Beaujolais-Village vintage. After covering 32km, it reached Beaujeu where it encountered the standard gauge PLM line from Belleville-sur-Saône to Beaujeu. The terminus station at Monsols was shared by the CFB and the RSL (Chemins de fer départementaux Rhône-Saône-et-Loire). The other line, which struck southwards, connected Villefranchesur-Saône to Tarare. 44km long, it ran through…

Traditional Swedish dwellings call on two types of materials. The walls and the foundations are made of stone or concrete. The outside facades are covered with wood cladding that provides thermal insulation. The space between the wooden planks is protected by strip of wood which acts as a seam-cover. This cladding is usually painted in a burgundy red paint known as “Falun red”, its pigment being produced from the tailings of the Falun copper mine (north of Stockholm). Doors and windows are always painted white…

Twenty-six participants! And twenty-seven layouts, as one of the participants had built a two-part contribution. All this to say that the latest challenge jointly organized by LR Presse and the RAMMA club in Sedan was a great success with modellers. At the end of the show, we asked each participant about his or her motivations and invited them to describe their small imaginary world. Once the answers came in, we realized that beyond sharing a moment with other modellers, beyond mediating between modellers and visitors, taking part in a challenge also opens onto a different kind of modelling, onto a type of creativity that is seldom expressed. So, let’s give the floor to the creators, let’s listen to them presenting their layouts and let’s step with them into these whimsical…

This article explains how I scratchbuilt my own railcar out of plastic sheet. The body is cut out of 1mm thick sheet. It consists of 7 different parts: the front panel, the two small sides which correspond to the driving cab, the two folding doors, and the two long sides which, having curved at the back, meet to form the rear panel. 1 The body is assembled around the ceiling (called “upper part”), also cut out of 1mm thick plastic sheet. The folding doors are glued inside the body panels with an overlap of 1mm. The door measures 18mm. Inside the passenger compartment, glue a strip of plastic, 4mm wide, and 9mm from the bottom. It will support the body on the chassis. 2 Once they have been curved, the…

MAIN SUPPLIES 1 and 0.3mm thick plastic sheet 1mm thick Evergreen board and batten sheet (ref. 4544) Evergreen plastic strips, 0.6 x 0.8mm (ref. 8203), L-shaped 1.5 x 1.5mm (ref. 291) and round diam. 0.75mm (ref 210). 0.3mm thick brass sheet Offcuts of U- or L-shaped brass strips A TRAIN IN THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS Building this snow-plough was inspired by the following video on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDzMjYbu8qk) where a snow-plough is propelled by locomotive TU4 nº 1693, on the Vyhoda to Mindunok-Solotvenski forestry railway, in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. CONSTRUCTION 1 The basis was a commercially-sourced passenger carriage that provided a loading gauge (height and width). A small scale figure was used to confirm a few measurements. The materials used are simple and for the chassis, might as well opt for…

The bricks are from the www. miniaturziegel.de. range .…