Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Continental Modeller

The first ideas for the this layout emerged during the OntraXS! exhibition in the Dutch national railway museum in March 2022. At that time I was modelling Saxon narrow gauge railways in Oe, but after a conversation with Dr Franz Rittig I came up with the idea of designing a layout in HO based on a north-east German theme as an interim project. It would primarily use commercially available proprietary models. It was to be a compact layout with a small station. Just two or three locomotives and a handful of typical coaches and wagons were to be purchased for this purpose. Well, that was the theory. Even during the planning phase, which occupied me quite intensively, the project grew into a full-fledged layout. The aim was to capture the…

This is my fifth Z gauge exhibition layout. The first Cheyne Junction (CM December 2016) was exhibited at Zedex in 2015. It was subsequently rebuilt onto a wallpaper pasting table, becoming twice the length, and shown at Oxrail in 2019. It folds up for storage (and fits in the car boot). It is an attempt to include a high speed line into an existing landscape. There is no interchange between the two systems. The high speed line is a single loop and surprises exhibition viewers by disappearing into and returning out of the same tunnel entrance. This line is equipped with working colour light signals operated by electronics from MERG. The layout features a quarry with old abandoned works buildings adjacent to a fishing club lake. There is a stud…

On buying a new wagon I am torn between keeping it looking mint or weathering it. The problem is that wagons straight out of the box never look convincing and they need lots of dirt and grime, some damage, and (sadly nowadays) graffiti to look realistic. I recently bought some bogie open wagons secondhand – they were in perfect condition and all looked too clean and shiny to be used on the layout, so I set myself the challenge of making them look more realistic using just paints and brushes, plus adding a load. The first project was to make a type Eas wagon look like a well-worked carrier for sugar beet. Swiss sugar is produced from beets at two mills, in Aarberg and Frauenfeld. It takes around eight beets…

The Patiala State Monorail Tramway used the Ewing system of an outrigger running on the road to support the tram. There were two lines in Patiala State (now part of the Indian Punjab). The first, from Sirhind to Morinda, opened in 1907 and although operated by mules seemed to carry considerable traffic – 20,000 passengers were reported on the 15 mile line in one month. The second line, from Patiala to Sunam, also opened in 1907 but it is not clear if it initially opened as far as Sunam. It was short-lived and had closed by 1914, apparently due to road competition. Four 0-3-0 locomotives were built for it by Orenstein & Koppel. They were never used on the Sirhind – Morinda line, which continued to operate until 1927, and…

Consolidated Nickel Mines depicts the complete setup of a mining installation. The layout consists of the underground mining section, the two-way hoist that takes the ore to the surface, the loading station, where the ore is loaded into rail cars, a private railroad, and an unloading station equipped with a rotary car dumper. The ore is nickel sulphide, in a seam of inert rocks. The location of the fictitious mine is a desert area in the south-west of the USA. In the underground section, an auger dosing/feeding unit feeds the raw ore to a horizontal conveyor belt. This feeds a two-way hoist that lifts the ore to the surface. The skips are hoisted to the top of the headframe and their load of is ore discharged into a primary buffer…

Fusine – Laghi / Ratschach Weissenfels / Ratece Bela Pec – three names for a station which is now just a memory. Three borders, three languages, three names for the same place – stories of ordinary everyday life for those who live in the Fusine plain, nestled between the Karawanken mountain range to the north and the Julian Alps to the south. In this valley today runs a beautiful cycle path on the route of a former railway, which after the Second World War became one of the least known Italian railway crossings and which, without exaggeration, has always been surrounded by an aura of mystery, due to the very scarce written and photographic documentation. This particularly intrigued me. If we add that the people who experienced this railway first…

Welcome to Châteaux-Léman. This layout is certainly not intended for rivet counters, and its motto is more like ‘model railways are fun.’ Thus, the basement of Alain’s house is dedicated to his world, and the room is bathed in a railway atmosphere – various items of memorabilia adorn the entire room, such as old lanterns, paintings, railway signs, etc. The name comes simply from the fact that Alain likes castles – there are three on the layout! – and that, living in Geneva, he is very close to the lake. In the past, Alain had dabbled in model railways, including layouts in Om (Alpin Line), N, and even Z – with a friend who developed an axle counter for him! By reading articles in specialist journals (from Switzerland, France, Germany,…

NMRA brand revitalisation The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) is the largest worldwide organisation dedicated to the model railroading hobby. For 90 years, the NMRA has worked to advance the hobby through education, standards development, advocacy, and fostering a community for enthusiasts. The NMRA has announced a comprehensive organisational refresh, unveiling a bold new brand identity that aligns with a new ten-year plan for growth and innovation, including a striking new wordmark logo. This comes as the NMRA celebrates its 90th anniversary, a significant milestone that prompts reflection on the organisation’s profound impact on the hobby. The new brand identity is designed to match the vigour and boldness of the NMRA’s vision for the future. The new logo is inspired by the dynamic power of locomotives and cars, symbolising the…