Military trains fighting hot weather the danger of "Sun Kink"

Heine, whom is a member of our Model Railway Club, does not only have an awesome Garden Railway, but his and his wife's lovely garden is also on the local 'Garden Society's' 'Garden circuit'. Last Sunday Heine & Astrid invited the to an 'Open Garden' arrangement, and our MRC-members were invited to run trains, to fully show off this spectacular garden. It was also an opportunity to promote model railways to garden enthusiast. It's been a heatwave in Norway lately, and perfect weather to do outdoor hobby activities, so I brought a couple of my military trains and attended the 'Open Garden':

A lot of people were visiting the garden this Sunday afternoon:

The trains are getting ready for service in the fiddleyard:

First out was my German Heeresfeldbahn with a short, but well armed, rake:

Then I was getting my British War Department livesteam locomotive from Roundhouse ready to haul a supply train. There is simply no ON or  OFF button on a livesteam locomotive and you have to heat it up to make pressure. It takes a little longer time:

Here is a YouTube video showing both my German  Heeresfeldbahn train and British W^D train in action at Heine's Garden Railway last weekend:

As there were several kids visiting the gardens this day, there was also a service by 'Thomas the Tank Engine'. Being a standard gauge model running on 45mm gauge, he must be about Gauge 1, and that should be about the same size used for the Thomas models used in the TV-series:

This is a rare sight. This model by Piko comes with only one center car, and they don't make a lot of other center cars to get separate. One member in our club finally managed to find one:

He has both the 'Old' and 'New' version of this train set. A very nice model indeed:

Heine was also running a rake of beer and fuel:

A Swiss passenger train by another member:

And some members had also brought their new acquisitions:

Astrid & Heine are very hospitable, and served coffee, pastries and waffles to their guests:

This was a perfect day out to run trains in the garden!

It even looked like my German troopers in one of the cars enjoyed their day out too!

Thank you for inviting us and for your warm hospitality Astrid & Heine!

Tour de Garden Part II - Pletten Railway revisited

It's typical, but as soon as I hit the publish-button on my last blogpost about our 'Garden Railway Marathon', another day out and running session was suggested. -This time as running session instead of a regular Tuesday club-evening at our Model Railway Club. I usually work odd hours, nights, weekends, red dates and so on, so I'm not always able to attend to our club-meetings on Tuesdays. But last night Thomas invited the club over for a running session at his Pletten Railway again, and that is actually on the way (via a slight detour) to my work, so I was able to make a stop there before going to work. Since I'm commuting by motorcycle I wasn't able to bring more trains that I could fit in my pannier again

This time I was able to fit wagons loaded with a complete Flosssack Pionierfähre/ Pioner Ferry.

The trains are getting ready in the Fiddle yard. These two are firing Live Steam Locomotives:

Here are some impressions of our day out:

I saw the prototype for this model when we visited Switzerland last year:

This is a Piko G-scale model of a V60 repainted as a Norwegian State Railway Di.5 from the 90ies. A very well done paint job indeed:

It looks like there is a small music festival by the coffee-machine:

As I've said before, Garden Railways are in the very social end of the hobby:

Thank you very much for your invitation and hospitality Thomas!

The next blogpost will be something more 'wargame' related...

Tour de Gardens - A Garden Railway Marathon

The weather has been too nice to sit in and do modelling or wargaming lately, so the last couple of weeks have been busy with several members from our model railway club visiting several garden railways. It has also been a large variation on rollingstock and some unusuak seen during our running sessions. Therefore I hope you watch this blogpost to the end. 

The last couple of weeks I've visited a couple of other Garden Railway layouts since I've attended to the Grand Opening of Pletten Railway.

White Pass & Yukon Route Garden Railway

A friend and fellow model railway club member, Gunnar, has a very overall and well executed G-scale White Pass & Yokon Route railway in his garden. He wrote a blog on and had a YouTube-channel on his old layout at his old house. Gunnar and his family has since moved houses within the same neighborhood, and he has been creating a new version of his layout in his new garden. This was not a running session so I wasn't bringing any trains this time. The was just lending a hand to get his layout ready for the season. I'd like to share a couple of photos from it though:

This is how Gunnar's layout looks like before we've inspected, leveling and adjusted the tracks and placed the structures 

Bennett Station

White Pass Station

On 'the wrong side of the tracks' in White Pass the Bank is strategically placed besides the Saloon... 

-And that might become handy as there seems like there are someone who plans for a 'good time' in the Saloon. 

A final test run to see if everything works. This German Mallet locomotive was just for testing the tracks as Gunnar har proper American White Pass rollingstock which he uses on his layout. 

Gunnar's Garden Railway is now ready for running this season!

Opsundbanen/ Opsund railway

Just a few days after our club-members made an effort at Gunnar's garden railway, another member in our model railway club, Heine, invited to a running-session and BBQ in his garden for the Pentecost weekend. This time I brought a train though:

It's the first time I see this Nohab diesel in G-scale by Piko. It's hughe! Similar locomotives was used by the Norwegian State Railway NSB, and I think the ownerhas a plan to eventually give it a Norwegian livery:

Erik's garden railway at Kvastebyen

Less than a week after the day out in Heine's garden, Erik invited us over to his garden to run trains on his garden railway as the weather was really sunny and hot. Usually when I bring my trains over to friends I fill up several boxes just for a modest train. This time I didn't have the car as my wife was using it, so I had to ride my motorcycle instead. -So several boxes was out of the question. Luckily I have an old pannier which is quite large. Which will hold some trains even in large scale.

This is how much trains I could carefully fit into the pannier. It had to be loaded with 'motorcycles' as I was driving one my self to this day out:

Here are some photos and videos of my German Military while running on Erik's lovely garden railway:

Here are some of the other train on the line this day:

Erik is also into H0e and 009 modelling. Both these are narrow gauge locomotives of similar class:

After running trains for a while it was time for a break...

...and BBQ some hotdogs...

...but it's pastry which is Erik' specialty:

Opsundbanen revisited 

Every time I'm about to hit 'the publish button' on this blogpost, someone invites to another running-session in their garden, and this blogpost goes back to the draft again. Earlier this week Heine suggested that instead of going to the weekly meeting at our model railway club, we could bring some trains and food and come to his garden for a running-session and BBQ as the weather was perfect. My wife was using the car again, so this was same procedure as last time:

I brought another train this time though:

Heine was running his German Military Heeresfeldbahn HF110C locomotive in a camouflage livery:

One German, one British. Both military 

There were not so many other trains this afternoon:

We had a great time together with coffee, cakes and barbecuing:

To all of you; Gunnar, Heine and Erik; Thank you very much for inviting and having us and for your great and warm hospitality!

I think this must be one of the most active model railway clubs or societies in Norway regarding the number of running-sessions, so thank you for making it possible guys!