H0 Layout - 'Inspired by Friedrichstrasse'

[Claude_Dreyfus]

There have been a couple of comments on another thread around a H0 German layout under construction by our club. To save cluttering up the other thread, and whilst obviously out of scope for most of this forum, I am happy to drop a few pictures on what we have been up to and any future activities on the Worldwide subforum.

 

Started properly back in 2014, 'Inspired by Friedrichstrasse' is just that, a layout inspired by, but a slavish copy of, Berlin Friedrichstrasse. There were too many constraints to be able to carry out a faithful model - not least the 16' length frontage we have to play with. Whilst there are plenty of compromises, we have tried to keep some aspects of the station - for example the distinctive frontage.  We also took the liberty of adding overhead catenary. You may notice some gaps in the wires in the photos - we don't add the bridging pieces over the baseboard joins for club running nights, but when they are in place we run the electric locos with pantographs up (power comes from the track though).

 

The layout is still early into its exhibition career (it made its debut in 2019, but our old friend Covid hampered any further outings). Being 100% digital, the layout makes full use of available technologies - sound, smoke etc. which has proven very popular with the public. There is also a fully automated tram system. Here are a few snaps of the layout from an operating session a year or so ago. There is still a lot of fine tuning to be done and detailing to add, but it is certainly presentable for shows.

 

An ESU 'Ludmilla' on a set of 'Halberstadt' carriages. The sound produced from this engine is perhaps the best I have ever heard in model form.

 

A Piko 118 on a local train of 4-wheelers

 

More Piko 118s (with rebuilt cab and with epoch 3 numbering) with a set of double deckers

 

Platform. The overall roof is Kibri

 

The frontage has been scratch built using CAD, and then laser-cut mount board. There are four of these structures at the station - all with internal lighting to show off the internal murals.

 

The plate girder overbridges have been scratch built, as have the tram lines and tram catenary poles (we have a member who makes cast figures). The lighting for the bridge is rigged up to an ac adapter so they subtly flicker.

 

Signals are a bit of a cheat. We have wired them to the points at the entrance to the fiddle yard, so if the point is set against the track, the signal shows red. I'm sure there will be words with the driver of the 215 about the several yards of SPAD!

 

As the layout is inspired by Friedrichstrasse, whilst most of the stock is DR, we have quite a large selection of stock from both DR and DB, so all sorts make an appearance. I haven't yet had the courage to try to fit DCC to my Japanese H0 stock, or else that would be running in here as well on occasion!

[disturbman]

Sorry, I had missed this. Very impressive layout, and murals. Would love to see it irl.

Front is the station and the fiddle yard is in the back?

I know it wouldn't be the correct era, but maybe I should see if I could send you some recordings taken in the station one day.

[The Birmingham train spotter]

That is amazing, we Found some Old German DB Stock at our model club today actually!

This looks Brilliant However

[Claude_Dreyfus]

48 minutes ago, disturbman said:

Sorry, I had missed this. Very impressive layout, and murals. Would love to see it irl.

Front is the station and the fiddle yard is in the back?

I know it wouldn't be the correct era, but maybe I should see if I could send you some recordings taken in the station one day.

Well, hopefully it will have a few years left in it for shows around and about.

 

Yes, the fiddle yard is around the back, with an operating space in the middle. The fiddle yard is too small, only three roads in each direction, but that is planned to be sorted this year. 

 

Anything about the station and it's environs would be interesting, so yes, happy to see anything related...even if it is more modern.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

52 minutes ago, The Birmingham train spotter said:

That is amazing, we Found some Old German DB Stock at our model club today actually!

This looks Brilliant However

Thanks! Still lots of detailing and fettling to carry out. Problem is we set the layout up to work on it and a couple of hours later all we have done is run a load of trains!

 

DB stock seems to get everywhere...I suspect most clubs have one or two ancient Roco or Fleischmann carriages knocking around their storage cupboards...

[marknewton]

Very flash, particularly the entrances and murals.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[disturbman]

9 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Anything about the station and it's environs would be interesting, so yes, happy to see anything related...even if it is more modern.

I was thinking sound, but yes, I'll do some video recordings.

There is one thing that always fascinated me at Friedrichstraße, the Tränenpalast (The Palace of Tears). It's a low and relatively unremarkable building that used to serve as a checkpoint between West and East Berlin. It's located on the northern plaza and since it used to be connected to the underground levels of the station, its main hall is sunken from street level. Because of that, it used to be somewhat easy to overlook when exiting the station. It's also cladded in depressing blue-grey colored tiles.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tränenpalast

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Thanks. Sound files are equally as evocative. We have an electronics fiend in the club, so ambient sounds have been mentioned. Runs the risk of being a bit twee, but more subtle sounds (the low hum if traffic etc.) may help the atmosphere.

[cteno4]

Love ambient sounds with a scene, but I kinda gave up on the club layout as my tests (except for a big roar out of Goji) just got covered up by the ambient room noise of events, big open spaces to suck out small sounds, and the bloody wheel noise (especially in smaller rooms). We had 4 trains running at once and two 16 car shinkansens with their 256 wheels at prototype speed really make a huge racket. Always amazed when we shut down how quiet it feels! 
 

but if not a lot of trains screaming thru then might get you some. The tiny, tiny $2 MP3 players are amazing. You can bury them anywhere and trigger them in a number of ways.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Goji rawrs are always appropriate.
: 3

[cteno4]

Fun to make folks jump! Then look silly trying to set off another roar, especially if 2 people you make him roar for one person waving their hand in front of Goji or making noises to him but not for the other person. Breaks show boredom at times! Fun to mess with your audience.

 

jeff

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Not sure there are too many Goji in Berlin!

 

20 hours ago, cteno4 said:

The tiny, tiny $2 MP3 players are amazing. You can bury them anywhere and trigger them in a number of ways

We have thought about this...bells in the church tower, some Eastern European 'diskothek' etc. etc.

 

 

 

[railsquid]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:51 PM, Claude_Dreyfus said:

 We also took the liberty of adding overhead catenary. You may notice some gaps in the wires in the photos - we don't add the bridging pieces over the baseboard joins for club running nights, but when they are in place we run the electric locos with pantographs up (power comes from the track though).

 

It's only a liberty if the setting is intended to be before ca. 1997 (when the Stadtbahn reconstruction and electrification) was completed; the (very nicely executed) brick frontage is from around then as well (prior to that the fassade was, if memory serves correctly, wish I'd been able to take more photos at the time) plastered in dull grey-beige.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:09 AM, railsquid said:

 

It's only a liberty if the setting is intended to be before ca. 1997 (when the Stadtbahn reconstruction and electrification) was completed; the (very nicely executed) brick frontage is from around then as well (prior to that the fassade was, if memory serves correctly, wish I'd been able to take more photos at the time) plastered in dull grey-beige.

 

Interesting, we didn't realise that the building was rendered at the time the layout is set - around the 1970s. Plenty of artistic license has taken with the layout, I suppose this is just another example of this. Thanks for confirming when the knitting went up - I didn't know when this was. until now.

[railsquid]

AFAIK It almost reached Ostbahnhof aka Hauptbahnhof in the later 1980s, which meant E-Lok-hauled trains had to roll unpowered into the station itself which apparently usually (but not always) worked. It reached Bhf Zoo from the west in 1993 ("Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr. ??"), but the full monty had to wait until completion of the complete rebuild of the Stadtbahn between the two, which was completed in 1997, and was a clusterfritz of epic proportions on the day it was reopened. Sadly I was an impoverished student at the time, and couldn't afford to take many photos, which is annoying as I was living in a decrepit apartment with an excellent view over the sectiion between Warschauer Str. and Hauptbhf/Ostbhf between 1995 and 2000.

 

On 1/21/2022 at 6:10 AM, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Not sure there are too many Goji in Berlin!

 

A smaller cluster of punk-esque individuals with an unending supply of 500ml beer bottles sourced from the Edeka inside the station, and random dogs, and the occasional cry of "haut doch ab Du Penner!" would do the trick.