A (cold) Day Out

It's been a while since I've been running any trains in any gardens lately. My friends and fellow model railway club members have arranged a couple of outings this autumn, but I haven't been able to attend to them due to work. It's been so long so I've actually start missing it. So when Heine invited to a running-session last weekend, which was off work because he knows my working hours, I was delighted and in off course. He warned to us to dress to something suitable for a wet and muddy ground as it's been raining here for 3 weeks. 

When I woke up it was cold, and the wet ground had frozen hard. I'm quite not sure if this was the last autumn running session, or the first winter running session as there was 4°C below and the ground was frosty and the tracks icey. 

Luckily Heine can de-ice large parts of his layout  with 'ice remover'...

...in a custom built de-icer tank wagon which deposits de-icer from the tank to the tracks through the pads. A very clever design:

So today's first train was a short de-icer train:

Thereafter the others were ready to run their trains. This engine made it's maiden voyage and first outing:

Another charming short LGB-train:

Heine's Harz Bahn rake:

One member also brought his Märklin Gauge 1 models (1:32) which also runs on 45mm gauge:

I brought 2 trains to this day out. One of them was my 1:19 scale German military Heeresfeldbahn train. I ran it with various numbers of wagons at various times throughout the day due to the weight and some inclines were slippery due to ice in the beginning, but not anymore when the temperature was rising:

The second train I brought this day was my 16mm Sm45 British War Department live steam engine. It's so heavy that it wouldn't experience any problems with slippery rails. A nice thing with running live steam in cold weather is that the steam/ smoke gets very visible. It takes so much attention to drive this train that I don't manage to take many photos of it while running. And no videos:

Ice in the turnouts could cause derailments...

...and ice on the track traffic jams in the inclines:

So it was just to 'Keep Calm' and enjoy a cup of coffee in the meanwhile:

It was not BBQ season now, but due to the cold weather Heine lit the fire-pit in the background:

-And added hotdogs to it (!):

The generous hosts and Chef himself, Heine:

A lot of people visitied Heine's garden today, both train operators and visitors. It looked like all enjoyed themselves.

Thank for your invitation and hospitality Heine!

So, when is our next day out? It's not decided but the forecast for next week says snow. Perhaps I should start preparing a rake for winter (-warfare)?

Blog PostScript 

When browsing Facebook or online newspapers different adds the advertisers think I'm a potential customer for keeps rolling over the site. They couldn't be more wrong. The last one I read I actually consider as totally unrealistic and 'How NOT to build an army for wargaming'!!

Just to get an idea, this price equals to £ 1703,50, $ 2240,74 or € 1925,11.

And that's for a single figure on 'black week' sales!!

Model Railway Show + a visit to a Model Railway Club in Hamar

The annual model railway show at the Norwegian Railway Museum at Hamar, is one of the major ones in Norway. Due to work there have been some years since I've visited it last, so I was really looking forward to visit it this year:

There were several trade stands, mostly second hand:

The Norwegian Model Railway Association's  stand with G-scale trains kids can operate:

Live steam in 1:1 and model:

Unfortunately there was a majority of trading stands and not so many layouts this time. Here are some impressions of the few layouts on the show.

The first layout when entering this show was the same hi class and super detailed tram layout I've already posted more photos and videos from the Skedsmo Model Railway Exhibition:

A local model railway club, BM86 Modelljernbaneforening exhibited this small layout kids could operate:

Another 'locally' club and H0-layout with vintage Märklin metal tracks:

Another local layout from a local club, this time an American N-scale layout. I liked these Norwegian N-scale trains running on it though:

I really like the way this Norwegian Z scale layout was displayed:

And that was about the layouts in running conditions there was. Not very much this year.

There was another 'layout' exhibited as a static display which caught my interest. It was a modular layout built by the international module standard FREMO. FREMO originated in Germany ans have later gain popularity in several other European countries, among them Norway. Since they're built by a standard module they're inter-connectable in any combinations. FREMO doesn't focus on just running trains, but to operate them according to the prototype with timetables etc. Several model railway society's and railway modellers are building FREMO modules in Norway, and bring their modules together for operating sessions.

This image shows different stages of development on a FREMO module:

A couple of FREMO modules connected:

But it was actually this FREMO station modules which caught my attention. It's a operating FREMO  (station-) module depicting the similar scene as I saw as a static display at the Model Railway Exhibition at Skedsmo earlier this autumn; The Flight of the Norwegian National Treasury. The only difference is that this could be operated in a larger layout and greater FREMO setup. When seeing this FREMO-module I was immediately thinking of Mark The Man of Tin's blog post on the Gulltransporten/ Gold Transport Norway April 1940 where he looks at the possibilities to transfer this into a wargame scenario where one of the lorries breaks down while the Germans are closing in. I'm following his progress with great interest, and he's started to look at how to convert regular plastic toy soldiers from Airfix into 1940 Norwegian Infantry. 

Since there wasn't so many layouts to see, I took a look on the Norwegian Railway Museums permanent displays as well:

And they do show some static models too:

In an earlier blog post Alan at The Duchy of Tradgardland askes if Norway ever had any own production of toy soldiers. Well, we didn't, but Norway did actually have an early, own production of model trains just after the second world war. Not very true to scale nor prototypes:

In the Railway museum's exhibition I saw this interesting builder's plate revealing that some early wagons actually were made in the city where I live, Moss. This is not a very known part of the local history in Moss:

The old emblem and logo of the Norwegian State Railway:

A visit to a local Model Railway Club

Slightly disappointed that there were so few layouts on display at the Model Railway Exhibition, a friend and I decided to visit a local model railway club at Hamar, which arranged an "Open House", to see their club layout. This was the same club that had exhibited the small winter layout that kids operate at the Railway Museum. Here are some impressions of BM86 Modelljernbaneforeningen's large Norwegian H0 scale club layout:

 

An equipage from one of the Norwegian 'Olsen Gang' movies where the armoured van is a giant rolling safe the Gang is trying to rob

These impressive ship models are actually made of paper and cardboard (!)

In the background I saw this old Norwegian fortress:

only the rooftops were modeled as only they could be seen by the spectators:

There was even a larger and more complex castle. Not quite a 'Norwegian type'. This castle was located...

...on a 'British sector' of the layout. It was built to 00, but still shares the same gauge and loading gauge as H0.

Some 23 years since I was at this location in 1:1. From one of my favorite tv-series 

Is this a MoD or WD design?

All in all we had a great day out in Hamar. There were fewer layouts on the Railway Exhibition than earlier, and I hope that will change for future events at the museum. I'm very glad we visited the Model Railway Club in Hamar too. Their layout was not only very large but also built to high standards.

Blog PostScript 

Intrigued by Mark at The Man of Tin's figure conversions to make Norwegian Infantry of readily available plastic figures I decided to stop by the nearby Norwegian Armed Forces Museum at my way home from work yesterday just to have a look at Norwegian 1940 uniforms and equipment. I couldn't help stopping by the Museum Store as well as this is the same shop I bought my long serving Army Men back in 2019. They didn't stock any Army Men or toy soldiers now, but I found this 1:32 scale M3 Half Track kit from New Ray for just $19,86, £ 15,10 or € 17,07. I think this is within my scope of 'budget wargaming' and the size was right for my Army Men, so I bought one so my little troopers can drive into battle in the future.

I was toying with the idea how it could look like in service for my UN Army Men, and ChatGPT suggested this:

Time will show what to make out of it. 

After this I didn't go straight home as I stoped at the Shopping Centre in Ski. It's still a while until Christmas, but it seems like Christmas decorations keeps coming even earlier each year. 

It's a really large Märklin Gauge 1 display with 2 loops, each with a short train pulled by a small Tank Engine going opposite directions. The Engines and rollingstock (except for the vans) are standard Märklin Gauge 1 items painted to look like Norwegian rollingstock. The conversion is both very simple and successfully. The station building is a scratchbuilt Gauge 1 model of the old station house in Ski. The large Gingerbread 'house' is the Shopping mall it self. 

It's a lovely Christmas display and I hope its will enjoy a lot of people in all ages in the time to come.