The why and wherefore

The Wiesenttalbahn

Forchheim–Behringersmühle railway line

Alfred Trabert DFS

Finding a back story is always fun, the profile must be a very small station in Oberfranken, preferably on the edge of Fränkische Schweiz, an area bounded by Nürnberg, Bamberg und Bayreuth. The region is known for its exposed rocks, pretty villages and scenery, add numerous venues for refreshment.

There are a number of branchlines, although many have been long closed, the line from Ebermannstadt to Behringersmühle is open as a museum railway, the DFS. 

Only part of the Wisenttalbahn remains open, the line to Behringersmühle, which was at one time considered for a connection to the mainline at Pegnitz. Pottendorf attempts to replicate the station near Pottenstein that would have been the terminus of the abandoned extension to Pegnitz.

Whilst looking for a plausible alternative and likely scenario for a short lived secondary line that could be used as inspiration, this trackplan was of interest.

 

Veilbronn Halte

Buildings

The station is an old Pola kit,  although the style may look odd at first but Bavarian railways favoured a rather plain style of station called an Agenturgebäude.

The building was part of previous version of the layout which appeared at Warley and later at Intermodellbau exhibitions. 

  

This is the replacement goods shed also from Pola, again suitably plain.

The only other major railway structure is a loco shed and its watercrane, also Pola

 

 

 

The locoshed awaits a chimney and some paint.

Project Lokbahnhof

Memories

Veilbronn Oberfranken 

Amongst the photo collection this series of images has a special significance, the location was Veilbronn, a halt just one stop onward from the ‘hiring’ in Unterleinleiter, that was a temporary home to the Hale tribe. The Leinleitertalbahn to Heilingenstadt from Ebermannstadt was completed in 1915 before the line to Behringersmuhle, it closed in 1965. 

I recently acquired a Sachsenmodelle version of the railbus……it has no matching trailer but I do have one of the Vb140 ‘square’ version from Trix in DB dark red which do nicely. The railbus is Vt135 065 Hydronalium both of which spent their last years on the branchlines around Bamberg.

The mother and boy are essential for Pottendorf, though I would have preferred not to wear a cardigan.

Humboldt

In 1983, the first steam locomotive owned by the DFS (Dampfbahn Fränkische Schweiz) began steam operations were introduced on the association's own line with locomotive number 2. This engine had previously been used to haul coal trains at the Nuremberg city gasworks, Ploxemam, built by Hanomag in 1923

Unfortunately I possess neither a model of Ploxemam, nor the skill to scratchbuild but I do have a reasonable green substitute, a Fleischmann T3 Humboldt also number 2

The cottage

A small Franconian farm labourers' home

The Faller farm labourer's cottage is a bit too small, although it bears a distant resemblance to the Häcker family home in Ergersheim, which is preserved as building 12 in the Franconian Open Air Museum in Bad Windsheim. However, a new homemade version is urgently needed.

 

Perhaps it would be possible to create a model that is 25 mm longer; these archive images show the original building and its proportions.

 

The building is a half-timbered structure with a stucco façade, built around 1706.

Click here for a link to the museum description.

Please note that I am very grateful to the Bad Windsheim Museum for providing the images, without which it would have been almost impossible to start this project.

Updating a Faller kit

 

It began with Faller 130222, the upper floor was masked

 

 

The lower floor was covered with acrylic daub

 

 

 

 

And carefuly reassembled

The farm and cottage

The small farm comprises of a low house and a small yard separated by a railway line.

The farm buildings include a Wills SS30 barn kit that has been improved with a layer of Polyfilla fine surface render.

 

 

Just a couple of scenes in the farmyard, the farm is a tiny dairy unit, just three working buildings around a courtyard.

 

  

The 'futtersilo' a must-have on any farm from Epoch 2 onwards but this is the actual reason why there is a silo

 

Hunting for Frogs

The earth cellar. 

Whilst looking around an old farm we found an odd feature found beside the farmhouse, it was a small stone hut built into the side of the hill. It was the entrance to a cold store or 'Erdkeller' for the 18th century farm, although farmhouse had a basement it also had a separate earth cellar. 

In terms of room height and shape, it penetrates far less deeply into the ground, only two steps lead down to the brick entrance. The quarry stone vault of the cellar is also completely covered with soil and potatoes are stored here over the winter - dark, cool, but frost-free.

There were a couple of other similar garden cellars in the village, one was not built into the side of a hill, instead merely cut into the farm garden and covered with the displaced soil. 

 On the layout there is a small cottage, it has a couple of fruit trees, vegetable garden and chicken coop.

The cottage garden

I remember that in my childhood, chickens (and other domestic birds) were bustling around in every village. The owners of the poultry seemed to have no concern for their safety at all. A constant image was the birds taking carelessly walks along the road running through the village buildings. And this sometimes ended in a tragic accident under the wheels of a car.

Details

Timber traffic

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. 

Other details - The ladies

The orchard along the front of the layout, this delightful montage is often a feature of parts of Thuringia, some of our neighbours, have orchards with sheep to keep down the weeds. Having mentioned Primo apple trees before, it was the obvious place to procure the orchard.

  

Station Lights by Manfred Mitze DSO