Katzhagen - Archive - June 2007
Vacations ! This is the time ...
"Prefab" houses ensure that fast progress can be made
... when one gets done almost nothing. The wife's alpha-orders, household appliances needing unexpected repair, renewing work with the balcony, weather insanities. Laying a foundation for a farm building near the station built a year ago was the only thing I managed to make time for.
Additional to the planned extension of "Susch" (e.g. the farm), two further
project are scheduled here. The Pola level crossing (which spent decades
just standing around in a cabinet) finally will be installed and a small lake
with some sort of catering as a destination for tourists is planned.
I purchased the used level crossing years ago and some time later I also got hold of the hut belonging to it. The gatekeeper's hut kit contained most parts of the long sold out prefabricated "Exclusive Model" which are needed to operate the winch imitation and the bells. Some further parts from ship model building helped to enable these functions. On top the gate was equipped with blinking warning lights above the St.Andrew's Crosses. More about this will follow as soon as the gate will be installed.
The picture on the right was taken by our son fortuitously, when he asked for the digicam while I was fiddling around with the farm building shown above. "Pa ? I'd like to take some pix" - Well done, my son !
I purchased the used level crossing years ago and some time later I also got hold of the hut belonging to it. The gatekeeper's hut kit contained most parts of the long sold out prefabricated "Exclusive Model" which are needed to operate the winch imitation and the bells. Some further parts from ship model building helped to enable these functions. On top the gate was equipped with blinking warning lights above the St.Andrew's Crosses. More about this will follow as soon as the gate will be installed.
The picture on the right was taken by our son fortuitously, when he asked for the digicam while I was fiddling around with the farm building shown above. "Pa ? I'd like to take some pix" - Well done, my son !
Nostalgia express
"...donkey's years ago"
By pure chance I got hold of the covered gondola which allowed this scenario. Short trains like this were used on the feeder line connecting a coal mine near my parent's house - at Lake Baldeney in Essen (a major town in Germany) in the 1960s.
Handicrafts
gravel load
I had been searching for a suitable load for the RhB Xk and Lbk cars for a long
time - in vain. Until my wife lately showed up with two 1l-cans containing some
sort of granular material which claimed to be meant for decoration purposes.
The type being used for a "DIY storm lantern" with a candle in a glass ball...
- no comment.
As the "Bonsai gravel" was to heavy for filling up the cars completely, I had to fake the load. Remainders of styrofoam cut into pieces fitting into the cars were used as a foundation for the granules which were fixed with waterproofed wood glue. The same method was used for glueing the tracks's gravel.
Cookie sheets were used between the walls and the load when glueing the granules to the styrofoam in order to prevent glueing with the bins. As a result, the load can be removed from the cars easily as it is a solid unit.
As the "Bonsai gravel" was to heavy for filling up the cars completely, I had to fake the load. Remainders of styrofoam cut into pieces fitting into the cars were used as a foundation for the granules which were fixed with waterproofed wood glue. The same method was used for glueing the tracks's gravel.
Cookie sheets were used between the walls and the load when glueing the granules to the styrofoam in order to prevent glueing with the bins. As a result, the load can be removed from the cars easily as it is a solid unit.
