Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 102 i Voie Libre international

In the 1860s, the question of the nature and organization of secondary railways was still actively discussed within French railway circles. The Society of Civil Engineers (S.I.C. in the French acronym), in particular, focussed on the problem. The minutes of its meetings are packed with statements dealing with this topic. In 1870, Émile Level, a member of the S.I.C., published what purported to be a practical treatise on the construction of local light railways. This was a vast and comprehensive piece of work, and took into account the outcome of those discussions. It dealt with two, closely related, questions, both of which would be of fundamental importance for the history of French local light railways [Voies ferrées d’Intérêt local or VFIL]: track gauge and transshipment. These questions were the subject…

The first laser-cut kits appeared on the market just over 10 years ago, and they were truly revolutionary. Card kits cut out flat and assembled with white glue made an impressive comeback. This also provided an opportunity for artisans to create very extensive ranges, as this technology permits production in small runs or even unitary kits. The Architecture & Passion catalogue, for example, contains several dozen references, including CFD buildings of course. I opted for a type A station building with semi-detached goods shed and high platform, as indicated in the CFD nomenclature. The kit cost me 89 euros, plus postage. TRUE KIT OR «SCRATCH AID» KIT ? Once the parcel was opened, I found myself with high-quality card parts of various thicknessses, together with instructions showing the main phases…

On this small layout, the rolling stock comprises two RPI Paramé type steam locomotives, carriages from the same artisan and goods wagons from the British Wrightlines range. Although the layout cannot accommodate all the rolling stock currently in my collection, I felt like beefing up my small company, to diversify the goods wagon roster and to make operations more interesting for visitors. The bogie wagons One of the box vans looks like the ventilated livestock-cars used by the Americans for carrying cattle. Those used to carry sheep had an additional floor. I don’t believe this type of wagon was ever used in Europe, so let’s admit they were bought second-hand from the US Army. Their colour is somewhat unusual, but not unrealistic, as the liveries used by small American railway…

When planning to build your own track, it is worthwhile devoting some thought to the dimensions of the rails you are going to use, to be as realistic as possible. In the modelling field, a rail is defined by a code, whose unit is one tenth of an inch. Thus, a code 100 rail has a height that equals 100/10 of an inch, or 2.5mm. Therefore, depending on the scale in which you model, such a rail will not represent the same thing. In 1/87 scale, it will represent a 22cm high rail. In 1/35 scale, the same code 100 rail will represent a 9cm high rail… Table 1 shows the dimensions of various commercially available rails and their real height in each of the most common scales. In reality,…

H0-12 TILLIG : NA NEW LIVERY FOR THE MEFG RAILCAR This new livery for the Tillig MEG T3 railcar is an advertising version for the Jägermeisster liqueur, orange on a blue and cream background. Jacques Royan TILLIG REF. 2943PRICE OBSERVED: 220€ 00-9/ H0-9 MINITRAINS : TOAST-RACK CARRIAGES MinitrainS has released these delightful bogie toast-rack carriages. Inspired by those illustrated in the Decauville catalogue, they feature four compartments with wooden seats, and two end balconies with brake handles. The step is glued under the floor, it conceals the trellis chassis of the Decauville prototypes. The end bulkheads and the roof are painted black, the seats and the floor brown. A choice can be made between two references with white and red or white and blue tarpaulins. The carriages are fitted to…

POWERING THE LAYOUT SOME CLARIFICATIONS Our dossier on power supply for layouts published in issue 101 of Voie Libre 101 generated many constructive remarks from our readers, and we thank them for their input. Firstly, to meet a number of requests, we publish the diagram of the power supply based on a LM317T regulator. Again regarding the LM317T, the Gaugemaster COMBI controller is built around a transistor whose casing is indentical to that of the LM317T unit. Coreless motors also gave rise to plenty of comments. According to several sources, a coreless motor is designed to withstand high frequency currents, in excess of 20 KHz. Finally, we must emphasize how much the power supply of our models has evolved over the last few years. Just 10 years ago, sophisticated power…

Procuring the D type Dijon motor unit was effortless: I had subscribed to the collection! I converted it into a railcar able to run on 9mm gauge H0e track. Dismantling and adapting the body Most models in the Atlas range are designed in the same way: the lights or the buffers hold everything together. Sometimes, they are not properly glued, and that’s a great help; other times, sadly, the glue holds and the rod that runs through the parts gets broken. Once the body has been removed, I got rid of all the clutter on the roof: line number signs, pantograph, ventilators… After having filled in the holes with Tamiya or Sintofer putty, I protected the sides with masking tape, then applied a coat of primer to the roof before…

Ahuge metre gauge network, the Chemins de fer de la Côte-d’Or (CDCO) extended at its peak over no less than 357km. All that remains today are a few buildings and civil engineering works. To evoke this network, I built the station of Bligny-sur-Ouche in 1/87 scale, and it had to be served by a railcar that was typical of that railway, the A1, known as “Saurer” because of its motor. Before getting started Documentation is scant. The book Histoire des Chemins de fer départementaux de la Côte-d’Or published by Editions du Belvédère deals with this railcar. The fourth part of this book also features a very useful diagram, but studying it carefully shows that there were differences between the diagram and the prototype. Issue N° 155 of the magazine Chemins…

Text and photos: François Fontana As is customary with other REE productions, nothing has been left to chance on this technology-packed model. Benoît, its designer, reviews it for us. FINE BODY… In real life, this machine is highly curvaceous. Its windows are almost flush and the front ones feature polished metal frames, whereas there are none on the side windows. The roof consists of a series of arcs and riveted seam covers, with horns, ventilators and an exhaust pipe emerging from it. To record the smallest curve of this body, a high definition scanner is the most suitable tool in our digital day and age. Accurate to within 3 thousandths of a millimetre over a distance of 30 metres, and when scaled down 87 times, this leaves little room for…

Quality engraving, fine running qualities, perfect decoration… there’s no shortage of superlatives to describe these small wagons. To be sure, they are going to find their way onto many a layout. Compare the scale models with pictures of the prototypes, it won’t take much to convice you how accurately they have been reproduced and painted. If something must be criticized, these wagons are perhaps a trifle too neat and clean, so some light or even heavy weathering would bring them fully to life. CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLE The body is made of injected plastic, the chassis of metal. The models feature a few brass or plastic add-on parts. Each wagon is supplied with a pair of 9mm gauge axles… Nothing is left to chance. For instance, the brake shoes must be fitted…

Right from the outset, secondary railway companies frantically sought to save money, and this often led to choosing metre gauge track, as well as by building extremely basic facilities. In this respect, the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Départementaux was very typical and its facilities were frequently illustrated in the literature of the late XIXth century. We found our information in volume 6 of the Railway Treatise by Auguste Moreau, dedicated to secondary railways. And the outcome is that most of the recommendations made by the CFD are easy to reproduce in H0 scale, with very little adaptation required! SHORT STATIONS The CFD facilities were highly standardized. The company even drew up model formats that could be used on all the networks it was put in charge of. Of course,…

On the Voie Libre forum, the lockdown period we have just lived through provided the opportunity for a small group of modellers to tackle new projects, just for the fun of sharing distance-modelling moments. My choice was to start building a small 00-9 layout around the central theme of a stone quarry. One of the challenges of this informal competition was to work with what each modeller had in store at home. As far as track was concerned, all I had were the Peco Setrack lengths of my test oval, quickly taken to pieces. The board it was fixed onto also found a new life as the baseboard for the new layout … The trackplan, kept very simple, naturally features tracks laid inside the quarry. And for these, I decided…

The Mine of Dreams could be described as an 0 scale narrow gauge micro-layout, used as a showcase and test bench for specific rolling stock. But is also a fine model that conjures up memories of an incredible mining site. Enrico Boniforti: This micro-layout is an evocation of the former Drinc line in the Vale of Aosta. The line is still in existence, and a few years ago it was even refurbished with a view to operating it as a tourist railway. Sadly, and despite investments having been made in the project, including buying new rolling stock, everything has since been totally abandoned, for bureaucratic reasons! François Fontana: Tell us something about this mountain railway! EB: The 900mm gauge line was 12km long and ran under the Drinc pass, hence…

In December 1932, a request for proposals was issued by the operating authority of the CDCO network for the supply of two railcars. Two comapnies were awarded the contract: the «Société des automobiles Marius Berliet» and the «Compagnie française de matériel de chemin de fer», each having to supply one railcar. In April 1935, the latter company delivered the A1 railcar to the railway. On the network, this machine was known as the «Saurer railcar», because of the Saurer monogram that graced the radiator of the 6 cylinder, 90hp motor that drove the railcar. Offering seating capacity for 30 passengers, this railcar featured a carrying bogie at the front and a single driving axle at the rear. It was 10.565m long and 2.40m wide, with a wheelbase of 5.800m. In…