Oberwesel layout

I've long wanted to model Oberwessel. I lived in this region of Germany in the early 1980s. This stretch of track was hopping with traffic in those years and famous locomotives like the Br103 that looks more like a 747 than a train. The layout is designed as two modules that will plug into an immense staging system that I've been building for several months already. The staging will serve engine hauled trains through iconic scenery like a train jukebox. 

The layout is currently acting as a foam cutting station for the Lost Shore layout. The layout will be wider than this, I will attach a lowered sextion to the front of the layout for the Rhine and its bank.

I've been working on motive power and digital conversions. This is an engine room casting for a Br111. 

These are models from the 1980s, getting upgraded grab irons, pantographs and Lok Sound 5 before heading to the paint shop. 

Staging under construction.

Oberwessel Layout Staging

The staging yard for the Oberwessel Layout circles half the basement above my work benches and then has a return loop in the furnace room. It's all hand laid track with code 83 rail and a code 40 center conductor (the visible portion of the layout will use very small etched nickel silver contact points (pukos) that are hidden the ballast. This is also going to be hand laid. I've been building my own fixtures in the mold of Tim Warris, only in wood since they don't need to last forever.

Kinderbahn

I built a rapid model railroad at Christmas so my daughter could play trains with me in the basement. Trains are best when they are shared, so I took my old metal track and built a layout that the kids could operate. My daughter who had not yet turned 3 already did a masterful job of operating the signals to stop and start trains. The entire thing is classic Marklin system from the early 1980s, with some older pieces mixed in.

These are the same transformers that I used when I came back to the US after living in Germany.

Wiring analog layouts with blocks and signals is no joke, even if you are well organized!