On the (t)rail of history: Heritage train on one of Norway's most spectacular Railways

My wife took me by surprise when she suggested we should join a heritage train ride this weekend on the Rauma Railway, which is one of Norway's most scenic and spectacular ones. Of course I couldn't resist. I'm not only into model railways, but like to study the prototype as well. Besides this travel is in an area with a lot of WW2 history. She is a keep!

The train ride started in Hamar, which is the town where the Norwegian Railway Museum is located. This heritage train ride was arranged by the Railway Museum, and the motive power of the day to pull the old coaches was a 1958 Nohab Di.3 diesel. A really Classic:

Maps like this was signposted in all of our old coaches, and also presented some few facts about Norway in different languages. It seems like our population was 'less than half' back then:

I've marked our trip on the map; It began in Hamar in the south and went up through Gudbrandsvalley to the mountain at Dombås, before going down the Rauma valley to Åndalsnes, then returning the same way. A trip taking some 11 hours through different and spectacular scenery and changing weather conditions:

Shortly after departing Hamar:

A short stop at Vinstra on the way up to the mountain pass at Dombås:

Dombås is a mountain pass between Southern and Northern and Eastern and Western parts of Norway and an important road and railway junction. Dombås was strategically important during the battle of Norway in april 1940. It was held with combined Norwegian and British forces, but the Germans tried to capture Dombås by using Paratroopers for the first time during WW2. The German Paratroopers landed to scattered and lost the airplanes with their heavier weapons. Even if it came to heavy fighting, the German mission failed and the Paratroopers were eventually captured. Due to this the Germans heavily bombed Dombås and Rauma valley. Since the Norwegians managed to secure Dombås, The Norwegian King and Crownprince could also be evacuated by train passing Dombås.

This train had a bistro-coach:

Our lunch: 

After passing the highest point at Dombås, we continued at the Rauma branch line on our way down to Åndalsnes. Now the weather drastically changed into winter:

Further down the Rauma valley there were less snow again:

There were a lot of battle actions through the Rauma valley in april 1940 as well. The Norwegian gold reserves was evacuated from the Germans from Oslo 1940, and transported by train to Åndalsnes to finally evacuate it by ships. The Germans kept bombing Åndalsnes very heavily and the 'gold train' was withdraw to Romsdalshorn station to get some protection against the aerial attacks by the steep mountain there; Trollveggen. At the station 49 tons of gold was eventually reloaded onto trucks and transported to Molde by road and eventually evacuated by British ships. I've seen the reloading scene modeled a couple of times in H0 on Norwegian layouts:

A couple of photos I took from the 'Gold Train' display at Romsdalshorn station during a motorcycle trip in the summer of '23:

Both these actions could serve as inspiration to create wargaming scenarios. Coincidentally Mark at the Man of Tin blog also made a post about using the evacuation of the King and gold as inspiration for scenarios using his newly painted combined Norwegian 1940 Infantry/ Star Wars Hoth Rebels this weekend. A very interesting project I recommend you to visit and read:

That's the brief history lessons for now. Time to continue down the valley to Åndalsnes:

This is at Åndalsnes Railway station at sea level. The 'Golden Train' in the background is a tourist train taking mainly cruises passengers to Bjorli and back in spectacular scenery and telling the important war history from this area:

Back at Hamar later in the evening:

It's always difficult to film a train in which you ride yourself. -But I've found a YouTube-Channel where the user sthalvardsgt had uploaded 3 videos of this train while running:

Perhaps about time to take a look at the movie Gold Run again. 

Important updates on 1 BC (Brain Cell) Toy Solder Rules by Pete Kautz

From a wargame using 1BC Toy Soldier rules from 2024

An attentive reader of my blog very recently brought to my attention that all the links in my blog to the 1 BC (Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules by Pete Kautz was broken. Thank you for notifying me Miquel! 

When checking the links I see that not only Pete Kautz' pdf file for the 1BC (Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules (http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/1BCToySoldiers.pdf) is currently offline, but also his entire website at https://www.alliancemartialarts.com/ . I don't know for how long time they are offline, but in worst case; forever.

As all the published links to these rules through the internet terminates at these URLs it means that his rules are not as available as they used to be. -Which is too bad as they are easy to play, great starters and they are also my "go to rules". 

I've found a couple of saved copies of the rules online:

• 1 BC (Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules on Wayback Machine
• 1 BC (Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules on SCRIBD

I have updated all my links I know of in my blog correspondingly. I know these rules, which are turning 25 yrs this year have a lot of fans and I recommend other bloggers to update and share these new URLs to these rules too so we can keep them available and in live for other and coming wargamers.

Blog PostScript 

Inspired by the comments to this blogpost, I've decided to post a complete copy of the rules them selves on this blog, so they'll stay online on another URL as well:

From a wargame using 1BC Toy Soldier rules from 2024

Easter Special

This is about to become an annual event as Heine invited to another 'Easter Running Session' on his Garden Railway this Easter as well. This was an opportunity to try out my new 'truck loads' in running trains just some few days after receiving them:

They didn't look too out of place in a rake pulled by my WDLR livesteam engine either:

A lot of people came by Heine's garden and here are some impressions of the 'Easter Specials' running this day:

Heine's Chocolate train. 'Kvikk Lunsj' (almost similar to Kit Kat) is often associated with 'Easter, skiing or hiking' in Norway. This load was even enough to supply the visiting kids 

This is a scrtatchbuilt RhB locomotive

This RhB locomotive. a 'Crocodile', is a WiP 3D-printed model

This was an 'Easter Special' after all, so I've loaded some railway cars and trucks (which were revealed when I removed the lorry canvas) with some gifts for Heine since he kindly keep inviting us over:

"Easter Feast" The Gleng MRC way:

Even if is Heine's Garden Railway is a really large one, he have plans for expanding it even further (!)
Exciting!!

A while ago there was another 'thing' occurring on Facebook, but it didn't make it to another 'trend' though. It was like the earlier A.I. 'action figures challenge', but just with Lego instead. I made it to make a contribution:

It's about time doing some table top battles again, so I guess the next blogpost will be wargame related. Perhaps trying out some new (free) rules this weekend?
Stay tuned and find out!