At the beginning of the year Bad Niedrigsrode mayor Sebastian Vogelsinger announced the procurement of 600mm gauge biodiesel trainsets for the Loewenherz park railway. A tender was awarded to the company that designed the famous Porsche trainset for Karlsruhe and … Continue reading Loewenherz Takes Delivery First Park Railway Trainset

In July. I wrote about my challenges with the pedestrian underpass. The structure is completed and now I am adding the long-awaited lighting. My MIST-61 member advised me how to position the LED light strip and taught me how to build one. The end result looks great especially how the lights shined on the cobblestones. I will dim the brightness somewhat. The LED strip is positioned on the the roof of the tunnel and hidden from view (Foto: Jimmy Low (c)) To cover the length of the underpass, I needed 4 LEDs on a strip. Wolfgang taught me how to … Continue reading Light Not At End of the Tunnel

Many of us are familiar with sedan chair, where two or more persons on each end carry the passenger on a chair. It was an early form of transport before cars. I have seen my club members using two boards, one on each end of their modules to ease the transport of the modules. I called them “Sedan Module”. I made mine using 550mm x 450mm 10mm thick boards. Each identical board has two 10mm end-module panels (450mm x 150mm) so that the fragile, protruding plastic parts of the Märklin C-tracks are protected during transport. I maintained 10cm space between … Continue reading Sedan Module for MIST-61 Modules

As they say in the carpentry business, “measure twice, cut once!” Despite all the best effort and machinery, you might not get the precise cut that you asked for. I found out about this when I was testing the module electrical connection with my mentor René. Each module base was supposed to be exactly 1080mm long. The Märklin C-tracks are exactly 1080mm but the module itself is exactly 2mm short. It may not seem to be a problem but it is an obvious gap. I thought about the gangway between two carriages. It serves as a damper and an enclosure. … Continue reading Elegant “Damper” Solution to a 2mm Gap Problem

One of the highlights of my Loewenherz modules is the pedestrian underpass. The visitor side of the module is separated from the operator side by the main line. I wanted to bridge both sides with an underpass instead of a bridge over the tracks. In my May article I wrote about some of the key challenges namely the available space and the module legs. I built a few prototypes to test the design of the underpass as well as gauging where the obstacles could be. I setttled for a design which I like. Underpass portal at operator side. Unimog street … Continue reading Overcoming the Biggest Challenge: Pedestrian Underpass is Now Completed

In my previous article “Constructing Stone Wall and Cobblestone Street“, I showed how I used a mechanical pencil to engrave and carve out individual stones and cobblestone. In this article. I finished this part of the Module 1b, which I named it 1bV (Module 1b Visitor Side). I used toothpick, tweezers and a presser made of coffee stirrer to create more prominent features on the stone wall such as making the individual stones more obvious, cracks and broken stones especially on the top section of the wall. The presser allows me to create rough surface on each stone; YES, each … Continue reading Finishing the Stone Wall and Cobblestone Bus Stop

Landscaping and structural work begins on Loewenherz modules. On Module 1b visitor side, I originally planned for a simple city bus stop. The asphalt street and a pavement will serve as a temporary stop. The pavement will lead to the other side of the park off-scene (Module 1a) After some thoughts, I decided to add a staircase leading to the train viewing platform (bottom right). Instead of asphalt road for the bus stop, I wanted a cobblestone road, which clearly marks it as bus stop zone and no other vehicles are allowed. Staircase made from XPS (Foto: Jimmy Low (c)) … Continue reading Constructing Stone Wall and Cobblestone Street

I have been following a few Facebook groups and YouTube channels on building dioramas and weathering. Those who do tabletop modelling for wargames (1/35 scale) really make impressive models. I want to apply their techniques on my 1/87 modules, which mean 60% smaller (yes!) than what they make. Extruded styrofoam (XPS / Styrodur) is an easier material to work with then expanded styrofoam (EPS / Styropor), which are the white, beaded foam that comes in electrical device packaging. XPS is used for building insulation and comes in densed foam. Lightly carve out each stone on the XPS. I found the … Continue reading Making Cobblestone Pavements