Innehållsförteckning för JULY 2015 - 82 från Voie Libre international

You have now finished building that fine little kit you used to dream of. You have patiently put the driving mechanism together; there is just the right amount of play, neither too little nor too much! Naturally, the chassis will be black. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned, sanded, coated with primer and painted. Yes but… the gear train, the wheels, the motion, the electrical pickups and who knows what else, will all have to be masked, because the kit wasn’t designed to be easily dismantled. And the paint, even applied in the thinnest coat, is always going to create an extra thickness. How about blackening? 1 De-greasing This is the keyword: the parts must be de-greased. Start by washing them thoroughly in warm water, before brushing them carefully, and…

Akihiro Morohoshi is a 46 year old Japanese artist who lives in Yokosuka, a coastal city 40km south of Tokyo. He has been a train fan, and more specifically a model train fan, since his childhood. His passion for creating scenery and houses led him to imagine highly detailed and carefully weathered scenes. Little by little, he then went on to create micro-layouts in an expressionist style, verging on the caricature, rather than strict scale reproductions of reality. Materials galore When it comes to materials, no holds are barred for Akihiro Morohoshi: wood, card, paper, plastic strips… He bashes commercial kits, scratch-builds whatever is not available, subtly paints and weathers all the elements he stages. He uses acrylic colours applied with a paintbrush or an airbrush, calling on the techniques…

Fortunately, there is plenty of water – allegedly the best and “softest in France” – between Castres (altitude 172 m) and Lacaune (800 m). Fortunately, as the brave SACM 2-6-0 T locomotives of the Chemins de Fer Départementaux du Tarn needed to take on water at frequent intervals in order to work their 60 ton trains all the way up the route. This water sometimes came from tiny streams, caught as best could be. Some history (just a touch)! Viane (Pierre-Ségade) station was inaugurated in 1907 after five years of work. A large double “belfry” – that’s how water towers are called in the South – was built there. Oddly, it wasn’t yet in service on inauguration day, the 17 m3 tanks can be seen lying on the ground, waiting…

Supplies • Piko open wagons ref. 96023 • 2mm thick balsa • 0.5 x 1mm flat brass strip • Evergreen: - plastic sheet assortment ref. 9008 - corrugated card ref. 4529 - 1mm square strip ref. 142 - 1.5mm sqaure strip ref. 153 - 0.5 x 2.5mm flat strip ref. 125 - 0.5 x 3.2mm flat strip ref. 126 - 1 x 1.5mm flat strip ref. 143 - 0.75 x 4.8mm flat strip ref. 138 - 1mm diam. half-round strip ref. 240 - 0.88mm diam. Round strip ref. 220 - 4mm U strip ref. 265 The carriages used in the early years of the Cap Ferret railway are very convenient for modellers. Their simple shapes make them an ideal subject for a scratchbuilding project. They can even help an enthusiast hone his/her skills before…

The Western train consisted of a tender steam locomotive and of assorted passenger carriages. Here is the story of these models, sold at first by Egger-Bahn, then by Jouef as early as 1968. Any resemblance with the real thing would be fortuitous and involuntary. At the root of the dream: the Winnetou locomotive Egger-Bahn created this model (ref. 1009) to keep in step with the feature film based on Karl May’s novels, “Winnetou”. At the beginning of 1966, Constantin Film, a German film producing company, took a share in…

As I write these lines, it’s too late to say that 3D printing is the future of railway modelling. I would rather tend to think that it has very much become the present thing, judging by the number of industrial and artisan firms who now use it for producing both prototypes and small runs of parts. A simple look at the “What’s New” section this quarter will confirm this trend. On the other hand, the modeller wishing to venture into this field does have a major obstacle to overcome. Whether free-of-charge or commercial, modelling software packages (CAD/ CAM) require some serious training before they will do as they are told. Although no expert yet, I have reached the stage where I can produce simple items. A small wagon in H0/00…

On the prototype, the couplers are of the “pocket” type. In H0, given their small size, the loop that fits into the pocket is replaced by a small spike which fits into the hole of the coupler. The coupling beams (figure 7) are made out of Evergreen strips: 0.5mm diameter round rod (ref. 218), 1.6mm diameter round rod (ref. 222) and 2mm U shaped strip (ref. 262). Better than a long speech, the drawing shows it all. The U strips overlap the round rods by 4mm, the distance between the tip of the 1.6mm rod and the center of the spike is 2mm; the length of the loop is 3mm. If the van happens to be coupled to an item fitted with a loop coupling (Jouef/Egger Bahn, MinitrainS…), one of…

The simple U-shaped layout measures 180 x 80 cm and has two terminals and a shed, entirely devoted to the movements of two shunters, a couple of open cars and a small service vehicle; the dune is dividing the scenery and the layout is visible from three sides. The curved part of the background is completely hidden by the pine forest, carrying the banner and lighting. The track was chosen from the 016.5 Peco range. The rail might seem a little heavy, but nearly everywhere, it is hidden in the earth or in the sand anyway. For the buildings, there could be no hesitation, they have to be Art Nouveau: concrete chalets with added-on cornices and, of course, a lighthouse in the finest classical tradition. You will have to make…

This little Iron Horse remains in our memories as a totally untypical train in the Egger-Bahn and Jouef ranges, hard to fit into a layout. That’s why I made it into the star of these photographs. I didn’t create a specific layout, but simply used parts of my Fleischmann H0 scale American layout, shown in Réseauxrama 4, as well as dioramas put together just for each shot. the capital of Egger-Bahn, and this had some influence on the creation of this specific train. The locomotive was in the livery of the Union Pacific Railroad company. But this model wasn’t really a new release, because actually it made use of the body and chassis of locomotive n° 5 ref. 1005 known as the “Mondsee-Steinz line engine”. The only features added were…

The layout at a glance • Scale: Sn3 (1:64 proportion)• Gauge: 14.3 mm (3 ft)• Style: point to point, set in a room permanently• Control: walkaround DC throttle with memory I already described in Voie Libre most steps of my layout construction and scenicing: the sawmill (VL #21), the logging camp (VL #27), the Craddonia Mine, Canuck Creek and the surrounding mountain area (VL #35), Grault Ste Marie Village, the miner and logger settlement (VL #50) and the high country cattle grazing range of Roger Vista (VL #63). All that was left to describe was the spot I should actually have started with, the first one to be seen when entering the layout room: Port Cradding. Port Cradding It was here, in the Brutish Colorumbia Rockies, that in the very early 1920’s, an important…