A journey from here to there

 A personal philosophy 

In order to be a modeller of railways there needs to be a model railway. It doesn't matter if it is a loft or an Ikea box, there has to be a railway, otherwise we are mere collectors of things in boxes.

Occasionally, a thought begins to become a concern, why build a model railway and why choose a particular subject? My obsession, for it is an obsession, is to create something naturalistic that pleases the eye and restores old memories of quiet rural railways of Southern Germany. 

I greatly admire those individuals who devout a lifetime to build a perfect representation of a actual location, set at a specific time/date. Their dedication is admirable but there are constraints, as they can utilise space and have access to information, neither of which I enjoy. By contrast, my world is one of limited to just 5m x 1m and limited information from both the internet and the few books that feature my chosen subject.

My project is based upon a notion that a modest rural line in Oberfranken  had been extended a few more kilometres before funding was finally exhausted and the planned wayside station became a terminus for the remainder of its short life.

The generic trackplan is simple, the only extravagance is a tiny wooden loco shed with fuel+water and the style of the station buildings is typical of the builder. 

Various features (LDEs) from around the location are recycled, all chosen for their similarity to other local features. Colours are carefully chosen from a palette used in the location, mostly natural, a mix of greens + earth, subtle rather than brash. 

The stock was carefully selected with help from local experts, there are no 'special' visitors as everything must have been used on rural lines within 25kms during the timeframe 1950-68. 

The wherefore of operation on Pottendorf

 

The layout in the shed is small, only about 3,4m of scenic area with four storage roads, this means that it is a shunting puzzle rather than ‘parade’ style layout. Four is the magic number as there were just four trains per day on a typical branch in the mid ‘50s. 

 

The stocklist reflects the purpose of the layout, just a few wagons and coaches plus a railbus are the four trains that shuffle backwards and forwards. The wagons form two trains, the coaches another with the railbus as the simple shuttle that does not shunt at all. 

 

Each of the four scenic roads has at least one uncoupler, the platform has two so that after uncoupling from the head of the train, the loco can pick off vehicles from the train and set them into sidings. 

 

Running through all four trains should take about 25-30 minutes of intense concentration, enough to keep me happy.

I hope that this explains the approach.

The cottage

On the latest version of Pottendorf there is a small cottage for the farmworker, it has a couple of fruit trees, vegetable garden and chicken coop.

 

The Faller cottage has a vague similarity to the Häcker family house from Ergersheim preserved as building 12 at the Fränkische Freilandmuseum in Bad Windsheim. Rather scratchbuilding maybe just the removal of the lower level of fachwerke?

 

These archive images show the original building and its original proportions.

The building is a timberframe built around 1706 and an external stucco finish on the lower section of the walls .

Link to the museum's description click here

 

The cottage, below is a new kit that was reworked. There really wasn’t too much scope the lengthen the building as the sub-base of the scene is finished but it has lost the fachwerk (timber framing) below the top of the ground floor windows. It has been carefully stipled with AK Interactive Terrains acrylic, a texture normally used for roads etc.

I am fine with its actual size although it is about 30% too short compared to the Häcker family house but all other dimensions are 1:87 moreover buildings of this size were once common until the '70s when living in a two down one up became unacceptable. 

 

Although unfinished, the result will be acceptable

 

 

 At the bottom of the cottage garden, there are some chickens

 

Tim

Goods for Pottendorf

Timber 

The goods traffic is based on a small terminus in Oberfranken, logs were loaded in the yard. The sidings would have been used for shifting other actual local products, timber but 50 years ago loading was achieved with ingenuity and man power as the only methods. 

A few choice images:-

The gardens

There are a couple of vegetable gardens on Pottendorf, examples of the Schrebergärten movement started by Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber (15 October 1808 – 10 November 1861) His publications predominantly dealt with the subject of children's health and the social consequences of urbanization at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Schreber was the founder of the eponymous "Schreber movement".  In 1864, the first Schrebergärten , was established by leasing land for the physical exercise of children.

 

 Move forward 150+ years and you're zipping along in an ICE high-speed train, munching happily away on your bratwurst , just as you're wiping the last blob of mustard from the corner of your mouth, a lazy glance out the window, though, comes as a shock. Rather than the well-ordered suburbs or well-kept factories you have come to expect- miniature houses tucked in next to the train tracks as far as the eye can see.

It's a sight that greets visitors on the approach to almost every town in Germany --  the clutter of ladders and rakes leaning against the back of the structures, neatly ordered flowerbeds, well-tended fruit trees and picture-perfect picket fences are lined up like regiments of tin soldiers. The phenomenon is known as a Schrebergärten -- an area outside the city where the gardening-obsessed Germans can rent out a small plot and plunge their fingers into the soil.

But while getting back to nature is an instinct many of us indulge in, the German gardener takes it very seriously indeed. Flawlessly clipped lawns, neatly sculpted bushes, and flowerbeds entirely free of even the tiniest weed are the norm with many gardens revealing a feng shui exactness that would put a Japanese bonsai master to shame. Other vegetation virtuosos prefer a more playful perfection and opt for a liberal distribution of garden gnomes and plastic windmills with cheap replicas of Greek fountains and other water features a must for those with a bit of cash to burn.

 

  Ordered, trimmed, enclosed, ornamental, each strip has some kind of glorified shed with floral and vegetable displays. As for people, they’re only temporary visitors, because however fabulous the summerhouse/cottage/shed – and some are very fancy –one of the many hundreds of rules is that a Schrebergärten is strictly non-residential and rules are there to be obeyed. These enclosures are the garden equivalent of white bread: nature with the wildness extracted – and with more fertilizer per square metre than any farmer would dare to use.

 

I like creating Schrebergärten, mine are largely Busch, Noch and scratch, they include strawberries, green and red cabbage, cauliflower, green and red lettuce. Over the next couple of weeks, I would like to share the creation of a Schrebergärten for Pottendorf. 

The small garden is part of the farmhouse, the original was at least 14 years old and used on at least two previous layouts. There is some further work needed, the washing line will be given some clothes and there is a bear. 

However, there is a rural reality of cultivating vegetables, certainly not the ‘pretty’ cottage garden, a gentle chaos of compost heaps, raised beds, garden frames and general detritus.

The cottage garden

The layout is home to three small vegetable allotments, a reflection of what I see from my workbench and each is slightly different both in size and scope.

The oldest is attached to the farmhouse, the cottage has a more formal arrangement whilst the station garden is tucked away near the end of the station.

Currently, the allotment by the station is the the process of being created, the actual ground is waiting to be laid in place but first the surrounding area must be completed with some grass and garden rubbish.. 

The station garden

 

Naturally, the allotment must have a shed and it must have an armchair.

The tatty fence is in place, the furrowed earth inset has developed a slight curve whilst the tomatoes and potatoes are growing but it still needs a lot more detail. 

The third garden is the cottage click here for more

Model Gardening

I am also interested in developing skills for making model gardens and finding useful products, I first used MiniNatur in Munich in the ‘80s and it is still around. This is their Lupins 999-22

The Farm

The farm comprises of both a farm 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. 

This is the completed model after weathering and a layer of dust

Never seen this modelled but easy to do.

The station buildings

I think that Pottendorf warrants a slightly more imposing building at the end of the line, maybe a würfel such as Ebern moreover Pola once offered a small example of the würfel (dice) building in various forms. 

It bears a similarity to Redwitz an der Rodach on the line from Bamberg to Kronach, it just needs slight changes, moreover, the kit has been used before on an earlier  Ep2 version of Pottendorf.

I tend not to move too far from my comfort zone, having used the same kit on three different occasions over the past twenty years. Its simplicity lends itself to modification, none of the three stations were identical although I tend to repeat the same rendered finish with subtle washes of yellow ochre.

Ten years seperate these images, the unfinished scene still needs weathering and details.

2014 version

 

2024 version

 

Thanks to Michael H and Michael G

The books

The collection of books is just a few old favourites about the region but these books were invaluable:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A plausible fiction

The blog is about building a small fictitious terminus based on a location in Oberfranken, it is merely an amalgam of features of existing locations in  Fränkische Schweiz, in short, a plausible fiction. It is presumed that there was a further extension beyond the existing terminus at Behringersmuhle to line known as the Dampfbahn Fränkische Schweiz. 

 

 The map below shows its route.

 

 A short description 

The layout is based on Pottendorf, a fictional train station which is one of those stations in Franconia (and elsewhere) that were built at a time when it was still believed that the railway would continue to make mobility and the development of the area possible in the future. However, the station was always a loss-maker throughout its life and was finally shut down and demolished in the late 1960s.

Things were supposed to be different...

Apparently the route was extended at the instigation of the town of Pottenstein however, the extension was no longer funded by the town when it opened,  consequently it was named Pottendorf. I can't say to what extent this is true, but there were plans of a continuous connection through to Pegnitz. However due to the First World War and the subsequent development of the automobile as an essential mode of transport, all of these ideas were abandoned.

During the DB's steam locomotive era, the following series ran here: 98.8 (Bavarian GtL 4/4), 64, 86. Later: Vt 95.9, V36 and of course the V100. The route belonged to the management area of ​​BD Nurnburg.

Pottendorf thanks to Peco Publications

The plausible fiction

Certain liberties have been taken to make the station more interesting, a simple loco shed and facilities have been added, in addition, the line was saved by enthusiasts and runs steam trains on weekends during the summer using the ELNA Type6 Lok4 owned by the DFS 

Streitberg DFS ELNA Lok4

 

Click here for Sekundärbahn Erlangen - Eschenau 1959