Intro

 The why and wherefore

 

Finding a back story can be problematic, the profile must be a very small station in Thuringia preferably on the northern edge of Thuringia Forest, an area bounded by Ilmenau, Grossbreitenbach und Bad Blankenburg 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 Köditzberg–Königsee railway (KKB) was a railway line in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt in Thuringia, which connected the city of Königsee to the railway network. Shortly after the opening, voices from the industry were heard, which demanded an extension of the railway line beyond Königsee to Gehren in the west to the Ilmenau–Großbreitenbach railway.  

 

The line to Grafenwalde was completed in 1910, it was classed as a Kleinbahn with an initial weight limit of just 12t, which was upgraded in 1917 to 16,8t in order to accomodate the T9.3 that supplemented the line's T3 which pulled a BCPwPosti that 

Lindner built in 1912 for the line's owners.

 

 From 1962, a diesel locomotive of the V15 series operated until the closure together with a Wismar TypB railbus locally known as Molly.

 

Layout

The layout

 

Buildings

The ‘inspiration’ for the station was not located in Thuringia but it is built in the Prussian style, common enough in many areas. On such a small layout there are just a few complete structures, the station group and loco shed.

Workbench

This is a rather playworn Fleischmann BR64 that had been titivated with Weinert items bit very badly painted. It was stripped and rebuilt with a new decoder.

 

 

 

 

A spare body of a DR version was used to check clearances after repairing the mechanism.

 

 

Currently waiting for the cab glazing to set, it has to remain vertical for the liquid to remain in place.

 

 

 

 

The Kristal Klear is setting nicely and is extremely difficult to see.

 

The old body will be used to guide the gentle upgrading of the DR body with additional pipework.

This is the next victim

Gallery

Some random views of ‘old’ Grafenwalde - Intermodellbau Dortmund 2008

 

  

 

Starting the restoration 2025

 

This is Blankenfelde once part of the Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn-Aktiengesellschaft in within the Berlin Bezirk of Pankow, it is the inspiration for the model. 

The line became a popular excursion line for Berliners, the nickname Heidekrautbahn (the heather train) was coined in the 1920s.

The farm & 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. 

A small DDR home

A small Faller building carefully rendered and weathered 

The cottage garden has a couple of fruit trees, vegetable garden and chicken coop.

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.

Operation

Operating the layout 

Timber traffic

1957

The unloading area is large hardstanding for local timber and general traffic.

The unloading area is large hardstanding for local timber and general traffic. There is a raised level platform for the passengers and a small wooden lockup for luggage, parcels etc. 

 The rules

• Only one locomotive in use at any time
• Only four trains
• Magnetic auto-couplings 
• Electric turnouts

Hands free (mostly - although I find the free running rolling stock has magnetic axles - which I must address) operation should mean this isn't a problem. In addition, a tiny 'off stage' area is sufficient to swap out vehicles and store two wagons 'off the track' when not in use.