The station at Rothausen is the prototype for the Pola kit, it has been used on various layouts since 2004. I am trying to capture the same grotty atmosphere that the old layout had in spades. The trick was the choice of depressing colours, greys, greens and browns, no bright tones.
Pottendorf- Eine Sekundärbahn
Monday, 21 July 2025
Spare
Sunday, 6 July 2025
The why and wherefore
The why and wherefore
Pottendorf - Plausible fiction
Plausible fiction
Please note the layout is NOT a copy of any particular location but it is influenced by elements of the branch lines of Oberfranken. I am building a loose interpretation of a typical station, my model should show the station in the summer of 1954, at the time up to the end of the 1960s all the tracks were still in place.
The railway buildings
The station is an old Pola kit, although the style may look odd at first but the KBayStsB favoured the Italianate for the Würfel or cube style of station. Variations of roof style with a hip roof being the most common with the gable end slightly less so.
Thursday, 15 May 2025
P'dorf details
The goods traffic is largely logs that were loaded in the yard, 50 years ago loading was achieved with ingenuity and man power as the only methods.
A few choice images:-
Other details
The ladies
Roadside features
The sheep were a different matter, a small flock of Skaledales, seem to be fairly similar to the wooly mammoths that always seem to escape to roam the local lanes.
However the
depiction of a trackside orchard is a bit of concern as the railways of
Germany are not required to erect fences instead they are the responsibility of
the farmer, moreover it seems during the '50s onwards there was a lack of electric
fences available to farmers in the east.
Some form of
sheep proof but cheap fencing is needed, chestnut paling is required but
notably absent, the offering from Scale Model Scenery LX004 is rather
careworn and the cardboard does lend itself to rural trackside fences,
by cutting off the bottom of the fencing, the resulting lower profile is
suitable for 1:87
The rocks
Parts of Oberfraken are a tad rocky, Fränkische Schweiz is renowed for the rocky limestock outcrops.
It can vary in shades of biege, grey and ochre depending on the location. Pottendorf's rocks tend to be flecked with ochre.
Another batch of hard foam rocks has been sprayed white before repeated washes of yellow ochre watercolour.
Once dry, the rocks will be glued in place and later grasses and moss applied to soften their shape.