Month: June 2014

Education, German Railways, Layout PlanningLeave a comment

Guide to German Railways Operation and Signalling Principles

traiNmaster

For those who are looking for German railways operation and signalling principles especially in English, I highly recommended the following: Source: Mark Vogel (Flickr.com) Dr. Joern Pachl wrote an excellent document on the German railway operation principles (PDF), explaining in detail how the German system works compared to Anglo-Saxon’s. Wolfgang Meyenberg did an excellent job on documenting and explaining the various German railways signal principles from last 2 centuries as well as the latest practices. I hope both references will be useful to you in building a close to prototype railway operations on your model layout. Continue reading Guide to German Railways Operation and Signalling Principles

Benchwork, DCC and Electrical System, Layout Construction, Planning BookLeave a comment

Build #13: Maiden Power Test Run on First 3 Km

traiNmaster

The first stretch 1.8m (or 3km in real-life) (each track) is ready although not ballasted. While waiting for the World Cup games to start, I spent some time cleaning the excess glues of the tracks and tested the pickup connection. At full throttle, it registered 17V (I am using Fleischmann analog DC transformer for tests) This time, Kato E8/9A volunteered to make the maiden trip, to and fro. I am happy with the result. It is a baby step but an important step for me. It is a sign that I am progressing rather than procrastinating. Continue reading Build #13: Maiden Power Test Run on First 3 Km

Benchwork, Layout Construction, Planning Book5 Comments

Build #12: Track-laying Begins

traiNmaster

In the rest of the world is today Father’s Day. Here in Germany, the Father’s Day is celebrated on 29th May each year, which is the ascension of Jesus to Heaven. I guess it is the Holy Father that we are celebrating then. Anyway, the German Father Day is a day where fathers (those of us who are on Earth) took out the beer cart and enjoy a full-day drinking. As for me, I continued working on my layout. It was time to lay some tracks. Sometime back, I bought a pack of 3mm cork wall tiles from Hornbach. For … Continue reading Build #12: Track-laying Begins

Layout Construction, Planning Book2 Comments

Build #11: Dive! Dive! Dive!

traiNmaster

It has been exactly two months since I did any serious work on my layout. Checking back on the Build #10, I stopped at one-half of the staging yard track arrangements. I am happy to reduce from 7 originally-planned tracks to 6. This time around, I went back to the standard modules Segment F-H. I disassembled all the 3 modules and took them to the front garden for further work. The nice thing about having a modular home layout is, you can remove them anytime and work at a more comfortable location. I avoided having saw dusts flying around the … Continue reading Build #11: Dive! Dive! Dive!