The ground cover had enough time to dry and I could finally start with something of a higher level: The fence for WBS. Building an N-Scale Fence I choose to build the fence myself. I cut pieces of 0.6 mm spring wire into pieces. The wholes were drilled spaced about 5 cm apart. That might be slightly too far but attaching the mesh to the posts is not that funny so less fence post are less annoying.

The module has been used at a few meetings in 2017. This month I found the time to continue my work on the landscape. I wanted to mimic the look of an active lime stone quarry, where some rubble has been dumped. But I started with ballasting the track. Track is ballasted, let the scenery grow! Non-quarry areas covered with dirt. It takes a night to dry before I can add the green stuff and rubble.

After laying the track I started to create the base of the scenery. As a visual key feature this module should contain flooded quarry pits on two of the segments. A ramp leads from one segment into the first pit on the next segment. >   <>   <>   <>   <>   < Basic scenery for the quarry.The foam is covered using beige plaster and the bottom of the pits is painted in a color that is not too far away from the prototype.

After the successful test of this module I continued on building the scenery. I used static grass and fine turf in various shades to create an interesting structure. >  >   <>   <>   <>   <>   < Cascade used in Vögelsen and Waldenburg in 2017.Some areas are still kept free for the structures I intend to add. The key structures have been built as paper mock ups to add a third dimension and give an impression of the future look.

After completing the woodwork, I installed the track on the segments for my new module. For an easy setup I installed positioning dowels between all segments before laying the track. While the glue for the track dries, I work on the scenery of another module. When laying track over a module connection I use a 1 mm sheet of styrene as spacer between the segments. My cut might go slightly wrong and this spacer gives me enough safety distance to make cuts between the modules without leaving an unwanted gap.

Just line modules, he said. Last weekend we had a construction meeting. Dirk was so kind to let us occupy is garage and workshop. A few days before I brought my workbench and some power tools and Dirk prepared all the parts we would need. Dirk hand built a jig to build curved modules and we used it to build curves with a track radius of 160 cm and an angle of 30 °.

For a long time, I had the idea to build a module with a quarry. Sometimes I just draw a track plan and later look for a matching prototype. This has proven to be very inefficient. The proper way seems to be finding a prototype and creating a concept and track plan to create it as a model. That’s what I did for this module. The Prototype The quarry Reproducing this prototype to scale would result in a quarry scene that is about 5 meters long and straight.

After woodworking it was time time to add ballast to the track and cover the plywood pacific with something that does a better job in imitating nature. First I painted the surface in colors to match the later usage (brown for dirt and grass, gray for gravel and roads). The next layer is sprinkled over most areas with colored, flexible gap filling putty (like Lugato Universal-Fuge-Flexibel). You can get it in different sized bags and multiple colors which can be mixed to create an interesting and varied surface cover.

The whole module required 8 segments. Four straight modules of 90 x 40 cm, two straight 60 x 40 and two curved modules with a track radius of 160 cm at 30 ° each. The total length is about six meters. The segments are built from 12 mm multiplex birch plywood. The heavy stuff with 6 mm pine plywood on top. I would not use this material for a complete module anymore.

This is a short photographic overview of the modular meeting of the FREMO americaN group in Lauffen am Neckar in May 2016. You can find more a report of this meeting at fremo-net.eu. Read more for my Photos. Feel free to ask for high resolution version of the photos. >   <>  >   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <

New scale new prototype. I have started my journey to north american railroads with a lot inspiration from Lance Mindheims books. Thus I was attracted by the modern prototype and CSX Transportation. On the FREMO-meeting my son ran switchers in the yard and an Alco RS-1 for the local jobs. My daughter loved running steam locos and waiting for the water to be refilled. So the new timeframe should be right in the transition era, late 1940s to mid 1950s.

Last weekend my kids and I were guests at a FREMO-meeting of the local americaN-group. The subject of this meeting was set in the early transition era with a focus of steam operations. I’m more into diesels nevertheless it was a lot of fun. We stayed for a little more than four hours. Most of the time we spent holding a throttle and running trains. My seven year old daughter was a little reluctant and didn’t want to run a train on her own in the first place.