Grafenwalde - eine kleinbahn

 

 The why and wherefore

 

The blog is about building a small fictitious location in Thuringia, rather than a copy, it is merely an amalgam of features of existing locations in the area, in short, a plausible fiction.

 

All the locomotives and stock were regulars on the quieter lines in the DDR with much of the ideas taken from this book. 

 

 

Carlsfeld 1960

Frauenwald - die LAURA

 

Please, note although the layout is NOT a copy of Frauenwalde but the trains that ran have inspired Grafenwalde  

  

Kleinbahn means a short line, in this case only 4.9 km (3 miles), it was a normal gauge line to Frauenwalde, it was served by tiny trains and lasted from 1912 to 1965. in the wooded hills of the Thüringer Wald and lasted from 1912 to 1965. The railway had to meet the transport needs of the predominantly rural structure of the area. The main transports were agricultural produce, livestock, fertilizers, coal and building materials.

The railcar shown below was employed until WW2, although a 0-4-0 tank loco with road number 5 plus passenger cars and goods cars was also employed. This loco was supplemented by one obtained from the Kleinbahn Neuhaldensleben–Weferlingen former roadbed is accessible today as a Wanderweg 

 

The railway survived the Second World War without any damage. The diesel railcar was seized by the military government, so that all trains were driven by steam again. The railway was intended for dismantling with many other lines, but this could be prevented. In 1949, the railway was nationalized and the operation was taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. 

In the early 1950s, tourism in the Thuringian Forest increased sharply. In 1952, continuous express trains from Berlin were led to the Thuringian Forest for the first time. In Rennsteig, the train consisting of four-axle express train car was split. Three cars continued to ran to Schmiedefeld, the other three were transported from one to Frauenwald. In 1960, the 98 6216 was retired due to a cylinder damage and replaced by a diesel locomotive of the series. From 1962, a class V 15 diesel locomotive ran until the closure.

 

A short film of the the Rennsteig

 

  

 

 

 

The farm

 The small farm comprises of 95,5 hectares of land, 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. 

The house

 

After 1950, there was a dire need for housing throughout Germany, the detached house designed by the VEB district construction company Bau Meiningen goes back to the designs of the civil engineer Reinhard Blumenstein.

The outer mass of the single-family house amounts to about 8.84 m to 9.0 m, as a matter of expediency, prefabricated panels were often the preferred method of material which best suited a standardisded design – but there were regularly GDR-type deviations in the method of the construction, this house was planned according to variant for up to 4-6 people.

Models are available but most lack the essential utility of the original design other than the new Busch and recent Faller offerings. Below is the Faller 130223 but the windows have an exterior architrave uncommon in the original design.

 The windows have been replaced by those from the Faller 130222, the outer shell was repainted with Heki 6600 concrete textured paint, the roof sprayed red oxide and carefully weathered with repated washes of Humbrol acrylic dark earth. The last wash will be applied to match the dirt on the prototype image, finally, interior details have been added to complete the illusion of a family home.

 

 

 

After weathering 

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

Although unfinished, the result will be acceptable

 

 

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

Rural power supply

This was the attempt at depicting rural power on Grafenwalde in 2004

There are a few mistakes but it is a start, whilst currently on Grafenwalde, a smaller, less ornate Trafohaus is under construction, it will supply the cottage and farm.

It is important to show the correct details, from the front the overhead line at the tower station would first go to the upper insulators and then be braced with the lower insulators. In between (soldered) it goes into the house. Low voltage as an overhead line then on the left (nx four conductors). There should be a yellow warning sign on the door and below it on a white background the name of the supplier, e.g. B. "TEAG" (Thuringian Energy) and the station, e.g. "Grafenwalde Ort" or whatever. Or just the station name on the door and above the door on the utility building in larger letters. Here's an example. It doesn't necessarily have to be TEAG, of course. "Gemeindewerke Grafenwalde" works too. And if it's supposed to be from the GDR era, then something with "VEB Energiekombinat Grafenwalde.

Archive

 

 

 

MOBA Intermodellbau Dortmund 2008

All the above are courtesy of Peco Publications

The above is courtesy of Frank Forsten

All the above courtesy of Adrian Colenutt and Phil Parker

2008

 

 2025

The comparison reveals several changes other than the reorientation of the station, the goods shed is now on the platform and the loco shed is relocated to the other end of the release loop.

These following images are the first DR layout that appeared at Warley in 2005