Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

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daan
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Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:59 pm

Well, let me introduce my little steam railway. I nicknamed it the "Cats and Dogs railway" because when I built it, our dogs and the cats from nextdoors where debatting their problems mostly on my layoutspace. Since, it has been more quit, but the name still excists sort of.
Officially my theme is Austrian Narrowgauge, a bit like the Bregenzerwald bahn. This is a 760mm narrowgauge railway which was built mostly on the banks of a mountain river called the "Bregenzer Ache" and started at the Bodenlake in Bregenz. From there the line climbed up to the city of Bezau, about 45km's further on and a few hundred metres higher.
The line was a real mountain railway, with steep rockfaces, bridges and wild water rivers. Eventually the river took the track away several times and landslides cuased the railway to stop operations a lot of times, finally this was the reason to cease operation. Nowadays there is only a small section in use as museum railway.

Though 760mm I use the 45mm track from LGB. I sort of grew into the hobby of live steam when I bought a Beck "Anna" for 45mm gauge, since then I sold the LGB stuff mostly and steam took over.. :lol:

So, whats it like? Its very basic, a dented oval and a station area on a 3,5 x 3 metre area in the garden. Lifted off the ground by about 2ft, set on a stone and concrete roadbed, apart from the station area, which is a board covered with roofing felt.

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It has no trackpower, live steam and battery operation only.

In use for traction are the "Anna" made by Beck, a predecessor of the Merlin Mayflower. One recoughnises the cylinders and valvegear, only this one as a slip excentric for direction.

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I did some tinkering on the burner to give it more breath, but its a fairly good running locomotive with power enough to run a decent train of 3 to 4 LGB cars or 6-7 homemade freightcars.

The other live steamer I have is a Roundhouse "William" which is used as the powerbase of a HF110C with the name "Bielefeld". It is a small series from a german firm and bought in need of restauration by one of my steamcolleagues. He hadn't the time to get it running well, so I bought it from him and finished restauration. Now it runs great and looks like the real thing.

Lets follow the Bielefeld, which later became "Franscesca S" in the real world, across the layout..

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I named the bridge "Alpsteinbrücke" because a lot of rocks are from that mountainrange in Switserland.

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Crossing the small bridge (has no name yet)

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Rounding the bend at "Kristallhang" since it's known to be rich in mountain crystals. You can see them in the rocks if you look closely enough.

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Just behind the bend there is a short tunnel which leads to a short straight into a nice valley.

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The small plants are growing and flowering nicely here..

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Then it's around another curve, onto the station area.

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And onto the bridge again, which completes the tour around the layout.

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the last locomotive running at this moment is the homemade "little one", a battery locomotive running on 24volts (16 penlite batteries) with a huge Bosch motor in it. It has chaindrive on both axles and is used to retrieve stalled locomotives and push the snowplow..

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Because real mountain railways don't stop operations in winter..
I hope you don't mind the amount of fotos added. Have a happy easter and enjoy the trains!

Cheers Daan.
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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tom_tom_go
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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by tom_tom_go » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:06 pm

I think I speak for other members that we have no problems you posting as much content as you like :thumbup:

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by invicta280 » Sat Apr 15, 2017 5:58 pm

Excellent railway, and nicely planted out. I like the rocks you 'borrowed' from Switzerland! Is that a dead crocodile in your lake?

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daan
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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Sat Apr 15, 2017 10:07 pm

O yes it is.. I have some Playmobil crocky's laying on a rock. My grandchildren put them there and I think they look great. Alas the dog drank some water and pushed the crock in the water, being afloat upside down.. :lol:
Besides that, there are some living scale crocks in the lake, since lots of salamaders chose to live in it.
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by Peter Butler » Sat Apr 15, 2017 11:27 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:06 pm I think I speak for other members that we have no problems you posting as much content as you like :thumbup:
I'm OK with Tom's message as I totally agree with him, the line is a treat to behold, small but beautifully formed!!!
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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by Dwayne » Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:16 am

Cool little railroad. :)

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by LNR » Sun Apr 16, 2017 2:06 am

As others have said, great little railway. You've certainly crammed a lot in such a small space.
Grant.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by ge_rik » Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:16 am

Plenty of character in a small space

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by Lonsdaler » Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:19 pm

A pleasure to see what you've done in a small space :)
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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by Soar Valley Light » Mon Apr 17, 2017 9:01 pm

I agree with everyone else Daan, you've got a great little railway there. Your rocks and planting are absolutely fantastic. I shall be studying the photos a lot more for inspiration!
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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by markoteal » Tue Apr 18, 2017 5:36 pm

Great photos there Daan - I love the bridge on the brick pillars - we all love a tour along the line of anybody's railway!
Where did I put that uncoupler?

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Tue Apr 18, 2017 6:09 pm

Thanks for all the nice comments! Soon the line will have it first building..It's in laquer at the moment, I'll make some pictures when it's out on the line..
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:03 pm

The stationbuilding is complete for now. I made it from stripwood and roofing felt, with plexiglass windows.

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From behind..

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At the front..

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And it fits in the landscape..

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And with the trains.

It still needs some details and the base needs some embedding with mortar, but the wood needs to stay away from continuous moisture, so it's places on a tile which is made to fit just within the footprint of the building. Together with varnish I hope it will hold a few years.
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by LNR » Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:11 am

Nice building. I like the way you have returned the flashing on the verandah up the front wall a bit, and the barge cappings on the gable ends. Just the way real buildings are done to keep the weather out.
Grant.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:53 am

Well, a long time ago since an update on my railway has been posted. The plants are growing to giant proportions, so I need trackmaintenance to clear the tracks quite often.
A short video of my Anna from 1979 pulling a passengertrain through the rather overgrown garden.. :lol:


She has a selfmade burner, the original one didn't have enough capacity to keep the pressure up for continuous running. With the new burner she manages 3 carriages with ease without needing to stop to raise the pressure again.

It's a nice little engine, running smooth and reliable.
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:35 pm

Today there was a bit of a blizzard going on. Strong wind and snow, but with snow it is difficult to resist plowing, so I didn't spend the effort to resist it.. :lol:



Youtube however is very enthousiastic about the speed of my trains, if you play it back on 75% of the original speed it looks more like the real thing. The first round was very cold, though using hot water to fill the boiler, the loco barely got steam enough. The second round I dicovered that the gastank was very cold and that the nozzle froze, causing the burner to be very weak. The second round the loco was heated through and I filled it with gas which came from inside the house, so then it had plenty of steam.

the remarks are in swiss language, to fit the Theme :lol:

Hope you enjoy the video. Happy saturday!
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by ge_rik » Sat Mar 17, 2018 5:32 pm

Did I spot "der Finger Gottes" once or twice?
(Sorry Google Translate only does German - the closest I could get to Swiss)

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daan
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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:40 pm

:lol: indeed it needed a push now and then. Shunting with the 0-5-0 helper locomotive :lol:
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by FWLR » Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:11 am

Wow thats some snow….and we moan about the bit of stuff we get lol… :lol:

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Re: Cats and Dogs Railway (austrian narrow gauge)

Post by daan » Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:21 pm

Another small video of the freshly painted "Tierwis" with a new chimney and chuffer.


the railway will be changed a bit, the baseplate of the station area is starting to rot, since water has come under the roofingfelt. I've premission :lol: to move the station next to our terrace, so that the place used by the station can be landscaped. The station itself will also get a turntable (inspired by the India-topic by ge-rik!) and will be build as an end station.
"En schöne Gruess" from an Alpine railway in Holland.

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