Katzhagen - Archive - February 2010


There's always some work left ...

and be it just cleaning up the bequests of a horde of bored magpies.

One day in autumn 2009 I found numerous small parts broken off buildings scattered all around Katzhagen. It was a well known circumstance that small parts do break off from buildings and similar now and then, but this scenario had a new dimension: A ribbon-like trace of devastation concerning roof antennas, traffic signs, fences and bicycles was found in Katzhagen's main street. Just like a 1:22-Godzilla got lost here. I started to change my mind regarding a friend's report telling about bored birds, martens and hedgehogs and the related results on his garden railway, which I had taken not really serious, yet. And then...


This is not the plastic forrest's autumn - Regards from Hitchcock's "The Birds" ...

... looking out of the window the next day, I couldn't believe my eyes. Two magpies were amusing themselves disassembling the (more or less expensive) little Busch model trees in front of the brewery in Katzhagen. The offenders absconded from justice and arrest and the forrester only could document the damage (which of course no insurance was willing to pay for) and take care for replacement.

A bus stop

for the park near Susch city limits was established using some parts from the box of remainders, a piece of 2.5mm brass wire, a piece of ABS plastic and a Pola-bench as well as laser printer.
The "H"-sign (German bus stop) was made from a piece of ABS plastic and a self-adhesive transparent foil printed with a laser printer. Mounting both the "H"-sign and the timetable which was taken from the remainders of a Pola kit and applied to another piece of ABS was done with a methacrylate adhesive. A bench taken from a Pola kit, decorated with a bit of paint and Madame Preiser provide for a scenic impression.

Pole and sign

A smoker which does not smoke...


A fortunately rare scenario - fault clearance
... is probably lacking power.
The petrol station's smoke generator's failure was one of the rare opportunities to deal with the circuit boards sitting in the distribution boxes which were built years ago - I had nearly forgotten what the cards looked like.
A first check showed that there was no power at the smoke generator's leads. The next check revealed that the card's related output didn't deliver any power, too. Since the card returned "OK" on powering on and off the channel, either the final stage or something in its perimeter had to be faulty.
This proved to be true - a degenerated soldered joint was the reason. So fixing the culprit was quite easy and once again transporting the tools and the meassuring instruments took longer than the repair itself.

As soon as everything is done (or maybe not) ...



RhB 611 Landquart hauling a motley goods train

... it's operations time !


January 2010 | Archive "Current Affairs" | March 2010