0-scale German railways.

[Martijn Meerts]

Some of you will know that I like trains of any country and size. Obviously, considering my growing collection, Japanese N-scale is my primary focus, however I'm working on other things too ;)

 

The great thing about N-scale, is that you can run long trains (which in the case of Japanese prototype are a common sight), however, the detailing isn't always what I'd like it to be, even though it's greatly improving. Running characteristics aren't always what I would wish them to be, especially when shunting.

 

Then there's H0 scale, of which I have a few sets as while. The problem with H0 is mainly that it's just too big to run long trains, and just too small to really go crazy on the details. Running characteristics are often great though.

 

There's also 1 scale and bigger, but the price and the size is just too much to make it doable, and I found that some of the Märklin 1 scale locomotives looked very plastic.

 

However, in between H0 and 1, there's a scale that used to be very popular. It's the scale that Märklin started in, the scale that at one point in time people claimed would be the smallest a model train could ever be. I'm talking about 0-scale, and after seeing Lenz is manufacturing rolling stock and accessories designed for DCC from the ground up, I got interested. I then found an interesting site that sold 0-scale track which comes as a kit, in other words, tracks that you have to lay yourself. At that point, I was sold...

 

I'm now making a "small" diorama in 0-scale, hand-laying a bit of track of 914mm long. Sleepers are real wood, and the rail profiles will be nailed onto the sleepers. I've also recently got my first loco, it's incredibly detailed, and incredibly big =)

 

I put up a page where I'll talk about my progress in 0-scale at http://blackforest.jr-chiisai.net/. And here's a little picture to give you an idea of the size of 0-scale. The 0-scale loco is a V100 of the German Railways. The N-scale loco is a DD16, which would prototypically be approximately the same size as the V100:

 

[stevenh]

That comparison is.. daunting. Look how tiny that poor DD16 is... no wonder I am having so much difficulty getting this decoder in my EF81; let alone my DD51 that I also want to wire up.

 

Beautiful loco though... I hope the diorama turns into a full blown layout :)

 

I honestly thought that was 1-Gauge first (We call it G-Gauge or LGB here...which I'm sure it also European).

[Martijn Meerts]

G-gauge is actually slight bigger than 1-gauge I believe. G-gauge just means Garden, of which LGB is the main manufacturer. 1-gauge I think it slightly smaller.

 

Oh, the DD51 is fairly easy to convert, as long as you're okay with having the decoder in the driver's cab. I tried milling out a bit of the frame to make room for a decoder, but the decoder would get to close to the whole drivetrain, and I've seen trains literally go up in smoke because of a decoder touching a flywheel for example.

 

But anyway, 0-scale is ... Impressive ;)

[Martijn Meerts]

Updated the blog a bit.. Stained the ties, painted the tieplates, clamps, and rail profiles, and started nailing the lot to the base. I haven't mentioned the nailing part yet, as the pictures I took of that look rather terrible ;)

 

But, here's an example anyway to give you an idea. The bit I'm building has 61 ties, each tie has 2 plates, each plate is fastened with 2 clamps and 2 nails....

 

[Martijn Meerts]

After almost a year, I finally made another post on my 0-scale blog thingy ;)

 

Nothing all that interesting as I haven't really done much on the bit of track I've been laying. However, with all the setbacks we've had on my father layout, and with the large amount of work spent on N-scale recently, I've been wanting to get back to some bigger stuff.

 

It's hard to plan something in 0-scale, especially if you're going to hand lay all tracks and turnouts. I do know however, that I want to make a 0-scale version of the Trossingen station of which I have an H0 kit. But I wasn't sure about what else to do with it. Until I noticed that Mr. Wenz (the guy who makes the various track and turnout kits, and MUCH more) announced that his turntable kit is available. After seeing the pictures I was pretty certain what I wanted as the main focus of the 0-scale layout. Just look at this: http://www.wenz-modellbau.de/wm0496.jpg ;)

 

For now I ordered the 2010 catalog and some workshop papers from Mr. Wenz. 1 of them is about servicing terminals, so that should help me with some initial planning.

[ToniBabelony]

Awesome model. I always liked the V100, both DB and DR versions. Looks like a model of weight and size. Very realistic. Must be a great runner.

 

Are you planning a switching layout of that station you have in mind or something of a bigger size?

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm not entirely sure where to go with it yet. Considering the automatic coupler on the Lenz loco's, you'd expect them to go more for a switching, or at least point to point kind of layout. The availability of the KöF II and announcement of the V60 also seems to point towards switching. I do have space on the attic for a loop around the walls though, I guess it depends a bit on what Lenz will do in the future with regards to rolling stock.

 

I also have an H0 scale Schwarzwald style sawmill of which I really like the look. Of course, the idea was to build that one in 0-scale as well, and add a bit of "feldbahn" track so that logs can be moved from the forest to the sawmill using small wagons, and then some narrow gauge to transport processed wood from the sawmill to a depot or something close to the Trossingen station.

 

 

Of course, if Lenz ever decides to make a model of the BR 103, I'm gonna have to rethink everything, because I'll certainly be buying that one ;)

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, I got my things from Mr. Wenz a while ago. I've been drooling quite a bit over the catalog, the detail is just unbelievable. I've also been reading a bit in the loco depot workshop booklet, and it's given me some ideas.

 

I'm not a pure switching layout kinda guy, I just not that much into the whole freight thing which would make sense on a switching layout. What I DO like however, is terminal stations and service depots.

 

I haven't quite worked out the details yet, but I'm looking at a "small" (small is relative here ;)) terminal station with some 4-6 tracks. There won't be any turnouts and runaround tracks, trains will just drive into the station, decouple, and a new loco will hook up on the other end. Either that, or the coaches will be pulled to a service track using some shunting moves. The actual number of tracks depend mainly on whether or not I want a double line going to and from the station, or make it a single branch line. It also depends on how much space the tracks will use.

 

Length wise, I'll be looking at around 2 meters for the longest track, which would allow for a train with for example 3 "4yg umbauwagen", which were VERY common in the period I'm modeling. Another option would be 2 pairs of "3yg umbauwagen", or a combination of 1 pair of 3yg, and 1 4yg. All of those options are quite prototypical. At the moment, the 4yg's aren't available yet, but they've been announced. They're also (for now) the longest cars available from Lenz, at about 43cm each. Another reason to limit the length of trains, is that the 4yg will cost around 220 euro's each. It needs to be said though, that these come with interior light, decoder and additional power buffer electronics.

 

Connected to the station is a small service depot. It'll be a home depot with quite a few visible tracks to allow showcasing of the loco's once I get more of them. The depot area will have all the standard devices for servicing both steam and diesel. The main attraction here will be the turntable. I would also like a roundhouse, but that depends on exactly how much space it requires and how it would fit with a modular build.

 

Locomotives that'll definitely make appearances are:

- V 100 on passenger duty (can pull either 4yg's, 3yg's or "donnerbüchsen")

- KöF II on shunting duty

- V 60 on shunting duty

- BR 64 on passenger duty

- VT 98, VS 98, VB 98 railbus on passenger duty

 

I would like some freight as well, but not quite sure yet how to integrate that into a terminal station. If there is some freight, the V 100 will probably be picking up that task, and a V 160 will replace it. Also, the track(s) leaving the station still need a destination, but for now it'll probably "just" loop back. (a full loop requires about 2x2 meters ;))

 

 

The Japanese N-scale has taken a bit of back seat at the moment. The problem is that with all the work on my father's layout, I'm getting a bit of a burn out with all the N-scale stuff. There's a fair change I'll be buying a 0-scale starter set within a month or so, which means I can actually put up a loop and really run my V 100 (and KöF II considering that one's included in the starter set) rather than have it go up and down a 90cm bit of track =)