Welcome return

 More than a few years ago, I made a greengrocer’s dray from a Preiser cart and the vegetable crates from their market stall. 

This is the result of my efforts on the layout owned by the Clevedon and Portishead, Armchair Modellers. 

The latest iteration of Pottendorf is also set in the ‘50s and a greengrocer was needed, this time Preiser now offer a suitable dray. Not quite the same but it’ll do.

I might replace the baskets with some vegetable crates, add a sack truck and remove the ugly tarpaulin.

Unexpected acquisition

 A very nice guy just offered to sell a model that has been an object of my desire for quite some time.

The BR98.5 DXI, the KBayStsB state railway procured 139 examples between 1895 and 1912; it was the most numerous Bavarian branch line locomotive. One was preserved, it is displayed at Ingolstadt

Trix 22414 was in production 1990-98, more info click here and today they are rather sought after. 

Thankfully, there is an online set of instructions for installing DCC decoder it is a very snug fit.

A period piece of farm machinery

 The layout is supposed to be located in a rural part of Mittelfranken, the majority of road traffic is agricultural and one of the iconic items is the muck (manure) spreader.

Today these are a rarity due to changes in farming practices, in the ‘50-60s cattle were kept on straw not concrete and their waste was mixed with the straw. This needed a mechanical action to spread it on the fields as fertiliser, the above image from the mid-‘50s is just such a device. An HO version of a Fortuna dung spreader is available as a new release from Wiking, it is destined for the agricultural supplier in the goods yard. 

The V36

Odd couplings

One of the ‘essential’ locos is a Roco V36, the only diesel, unfortunately it proved to be difficult to find and this rather used example originated in Austria. 

The couplings are something that I have never encountered and will need to be replaced by Kadees, the standard coupling for Pottendorf.

It has been over a month since the last update, unfortunately a bout of long 'flu has prevented further progress.

Updating a Fleischmann Junior model

 Copied, almost verbatim, from an article by Will Berghoff's Modellbahn.net

A simple beginners project

In the 1980s, initially unnoticed by the serious model railroaders, a passenger car found its way into Fleischmann's junior series as a model replica, which was based on the Bavarian mainline passenger car "Ci bay-10" of the DRG. It was available for DM 8.50 (approx. EUR 4.35). Still available on eBay.

 

5002 Junior Model
 

The car was made entirely of plastic - the wheels too, was unpainted, but attractively printed and engraved on the car body and also largely true to scale. A simple replica of the interior was part of the construction.

The modeller soon discovered this car, for which Weinert brought a set of details onto the market in the form of etched brass. Resourceful hobbyists built the C3i bay-2 or the middle car for the ET85 from two of these cars, also detailed with a suitable, different brass etched plate and four U-profiles from Weinert. Gassner provided the appropriate lettering for epochs II and IIIb.

 

Here it is with the unchanged chassis, new buffers, Liliput spoked wheels on Fleischmann axles, the Weinert end platforms, without gas scoops on the roof and newly painted and lettered in RAL 6020 bottle green.

The interior was removed because the structure had to be lowered. A DB kek from Gassner been applied along with the correct lettering. New, vertical cover strips, the small Symoba short coupling backdrop and the Weinert etched steps and stage grilles were installed. After painting in the "old" bottle green RAL 6007, the car was re-lettered with Gassner lettering.

Fleischmann 5092 - from old and new forms

 

In 2003, Fleischmann released the model in a revised form as the novelty 5092 at nine times the original price. The base is still unmistakably 5002, but the chassis, stage and coloring/lettering have been greatly improved. The interior is now a separate part, but the car body and the running gear are the original model. The wood-colored window frames, which were made of metal in the original, are annoying. 

In 2012, the car was released as a model in the DB era IIIa version (no. 509202) with acceptance date November 26, 1952, home station Neu-Ulm, route Sontheim-Gundelfingen. At some point there will definitely be a special series DB Ep. IIIb...

By the way, a model of the last Bavarian 2-axle Ci bay-30 and BCi bay-30 is also still missing on the market. Fleischmann has chassis (thunderbox) and platform (from BCi bay-10 or C3i bay-12).

 

Paint 

At a push Halford's Land Rover bronze green could be used, it is certainly easier to source and much cheaper.