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!!

Airfix 1/32 scale Railway Enthusiasts set - Making the set Airfix didn't

In some toy soldiers Facebook groups I follow there was a phenomenon of making AI-generated images of 'What-if' box art of 1/32 scale figure sets by Airfix, actually never made. This phenomenon was trending at the time I had attended 3 Railway Garden meetings in only 4 days, so I was heavily influenced by these impressions when making my contribution:

I also 'stretched' this phenomenon and challenge a little further by adding an image with a suggested content to my suggested 'what-if' Airfix box of 1/32 scale Garden Railway Enthusiasts:

These AI generated images by ChatGPT intrigued me to much that I imagined what these figures, if ever made, would look like beside Z-scale (1:220) or T-Gauge trains (1:450). I don't have any T-Gauge trains (yet), but I do have a starter set of Märklin Z-scale. There was only one way to actually find out, and that was to make the figures myself. So some suitable miniatures was scoured on Thingiverse, which I resized and 3D-printed to 1/32 scale /54mm:

I also found some engines and resized them to look right as garden trains for my 1/32 scale figures:

Then everything was given the simplest paint-job ever:

This is how my miniature garden railway enthusiasts in 1/32 scale looks beside a 1:220 scale train by Märklin. I wonder which scale this train will actually be in relation to the figures?

And here are a couple of video shorts running the train with my miniature garden railway enthusiasts:

 

This was a quick and fun little 'project'. What I'm going to use these hastily made miniatures for now I don't really know yet. Any suggestions?

Blog PostScript

As earlier mentioned, this Facebook phenomenon and challenge was initially about soldiers and  military sets. Last week when I posted a blogpost with some photos from a Norwegian model railway exhibition I'd been visiting, showing a Norwegian WW2 themed layout, Mark at the Man of Tin Blog 2 followed up with an epic blogpost on his Sidetracked blog on how this could be transferred to a wargame. Please have a visit on his blog to read about his ideas. One thing he suggests in his post is what kind of miniatures to substitute as 'WW2 Norwegians' in his wargaming ideas. Well, this blogpost was originally about Airfix What-ifs, so at least I can suggest the Box Art for Mark's Norwegians:

A Model Railway Exhibition in Norway

Even if members from my model railway club often goes to model railway shows abroad, we do have model railway exhibitions in Norway too. It's not so many of them and they are usually not so large. It's nice to visit them because the model railway society in Norway are not so large, so you're going to meet a lot of freinds and other nice people (you probably knows some how).

Earlier this autumn I visited one such small model railway show at Skedsmo, some 15km north of the capital, Oslo. There were not so many layouts on such a small venue, but I was struck by the high level of standard and detail on some of them.

Here are a couple of overview photos:

Layouts

The first layout out in this blogpost is a H0-scale Norwegian Tram-layout from Oslo. It's 'freelanced' but all the structures are built after real prototypes. I used to pass the row of buildings in the second photo every day to and from work for 7 years, so this was very nostalgic to me. This layout is built to a very high standard, and the builder is extremely skillful:

This N-scale layout is a rebuilt ready made landscape-board by Noch. The season is altered to winter, and set to the Rauma line in Norway:

A modular island-style Norwegian H0-scale layout also built to high standards by father and son:

This small H0-scale winter layout is actually built as a window-display for a pharmacy (hence the shelves between the tunnels) by a member of our model railway club:

A Z-scale layout:

Some scenes from another Norwegian H0 scale layout:

Here is another 'Norwegain' H0 scale tram-layout. It's mostly freelanced, but the fire station (the large white building) is based on one from Oslo:

The Model Railway Association of Norway, MjF, displayed a large G-scale layout on the floor with several trains kids could run them self: 

Displays

On the show there was also some displays in H0 scale with static trains. The first one depicts a scene from the 'Flight of the Norwegian National Treasury' in 1940, where the Norwegian gold reserves was loaded from train to lorries near Åndalsnes to keep it away from the Germans. It's recentlybeen made a movie about this (perhaps on Netflix?):

This H0 display was a funfair with a lot of 'animations' and lights:

Another H0 scale display with moving cars. Probably by Faller Car System':

This is from the Living Steam stand with live steam and RC diesel engines. I think a 'grey' diesel would fit my collection (?):

I didn't actually plan to buy anything at this show, as I've already have model railway projects enough to keep me busy through the whole winter. I did end up buying this heavily worn LGB car looking like a piece of junk for only £ 14,90 or $ 19,90, because I was looking for LGB steel wheels for another project, and a pair of those costs £ 29,43 $ 39,30 in the shop. The wagon it self looks like it's been serving as a transition wagon with LGB-couplings in one end and Märklin Gauge 1 couplings in the other. The re-modelling is not very neatly executed. The wagon it self is of the same type as I used for my own transition wagon with LGB-couplings in one end, and 3 link coupling in the other. Even if I bought this wagon to get it's steel wheels, I guess i can refit it with plastic wheels and salvage it some how. Time will show:

Some acquisitions are mandatory on shows though...

All in all this was a great little show. It's usually held annually in the beginning of October, and I recommend a visit if you're in the area.