Innholdsfortegnelse for JULY / AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2024 - 118 i Voie Libre international

July, august, september 2024 MODELLERS INVENT REALITY What exactly is reality? Take three modellers, place them before a railway scene, and ask them to replicate it in a given scale. You will end up with three totally different worlds! Who is right? Who is closest to reality? Who has most accurately replicated the scene? Any creation is steeped in what it’s author has experienced, in what he/she was feeling at the time of the project, of his/her way of understanding such and such an aspect of the world that surrounds us. So we, at Voie Libre, will not lay down the law, we support all types of modelling, all styles, all sorts of creations. And what a wonderful feeling it is to discover these many realities, all of which are…

This L 45 H diesel locomotive, the prototype of which was built by FAUR in Romania, has been the subject of some special releases by Bemo for this retailer, including one in CFR (Romaniain railways) livery. It is available with different numbers and for different eras. As an option, this engine can be ordered with a Next 18 ESU sound decoder. The sound of the Maybach motor is convincing and in addition to the usual sounds, several lighting functions are available such as a shunting mode with all 6 lights on, and one with a high/low headlight mode. The brake hoses and small cab defelctors are add-on parts. The CFR painted the brake hose faucets in blue. Jacques Royan Bemo sells H0-12 axles for these engines. BEMO REF. 1020 915,…

Dundas Models has just reintroduced the very attractive military wagons that used to be sold by WD Models. Four references are available: a 4-wheeler Class A sold individually or in sets of three, and a bogie Class C in two versions. The models, made of injected plastic, are unchanged. The engraving is very sharp. Assembly is simple and accurate, using plastic kit cement. All that will remain is to procure the couplings of your choice. These pleasing models will add a touch of variety to your string of Bachmann military wagons. Éric Fresné O0-9 DUNDASMODELS.CO.UK CLASS A 4 WHEELS OPEN WAGON REF. DMLR01: £8,95 (EACH) REF. DMLR02: £23,60 (SET OF THREE) CLASS C BOGIES OPEN WAGONS (REMOVABLE SIDES) REF. DMLR03: £20,15 CLASS C BOGIES OPEN WAGONS (FIXED SIDES) REF. DMLR04:…

A miracle of digitization, all the documents that used to be carefully preserved in archives that were inaccessible to simple modellers have now become available! The French National Institute of Industrial Property (Institut national de la protection industrielle) has opened its archives thanks to internet. On the well designed website, you can search by brand name or inventor name, consult the documents and order a digital copy in jpeg format. Payement takes place online, and the documentsare delivered to your email address within 48 hours. Don’t overdo it, or your computer memory will soon be overloaded! François Fontana INPI DATA.INPI.FR…

H0-m LAYOUT Railway modelling is a window onto the world. First and foremost, onto the pleasure of running scale trains. But also providing them with a settting, a showcase, and sometimes resurrecting a period of history. This is what the SintNiklaas club set out to do, by bringing back to life a small part of the vicinal tramway network around Antwerp. We are here in an area of polders, on the East bank of the river Scheldt. Forts stand on both sides of the river; they used to protect the Antwerp arsenal. The banks of the Scheldt are protected from floods and spring tides by dykes. A line of secondary tramways has been built between the city and the surrounding towns. It must carry a few passengers, seafood, manufactured goods…

DOSSIERSAFETY Imagined by Lenz engineers, the ABC system (for Automatic Brake Control) is a unidirectional automatic device for stopping a train on an isolated section of track. The basic principle calls upon an asymetry within the AC DCC signal, generated by a small electronic module, the BM1. The right-hand rail when entering the stop section is powered via a series of four diodes that lower the voltage of one of the alternatives by roughly 0.7V. The passage, with no voltage loss, of the other alternative, is permitted by a fifth diode placed in parallel and in the opposite direction. If its decoder is compatible and properly configured, the locomotive entering the stretch of track fed through the diodes will slow down and stop all by itself. It can always reverse,…

CENTRAL FOLDER In terms of motive power, the Beira Railway required 42 engines. A first series of 6 locomotives of the F2 type was built by Falcon. They featured a steel cow-catcher, a short smokebox, a funnel fitted with a spark arrestor and a cab whose floor was level with the running board. The tender was of the four-wheeler type. These engines had an inside Stephenson valve gear. The piston crosshead was guided by two slidebars. The cab roof was tropicalized, while the side windows were fitted with sliding shutters. The first engine in the series was the only one to feature two windows on each side of the cab, whereas the five others only had one window on each side. The front panel of the cab had two spectacles…

SHADES OF GREY Rolling stock is available off-the-shelf, including versions of the Hunslet prototypes produced by Bachmann in H0e. So let’s take a look at a few techniques brought together on a small diorama to use natural slate for the scenery and loads of our narrow or standard gauge trains. The various stages of the scenery are described in the order in which they were built. We are off to Wales! GETTING SUPPLIES… First of all, where to find slate? Leftovers can sometimes be obtained from a roofer. Mulch based on Belgium slate, of a greyer shade, as well as blocks of the material, can be found in many garden centres and offer different shades. Finally, construction material stores can also retail you a few slates. RELIEF Relief will be…

Announced in Issue 115 of Voie Libre, the RNAD Baguley-Drewry locotractors produced by Bachmann Europe have been available from retailers since mid-May. Bachmann had indicated that the model would be of a high standard, and this is indeed the case. The chassis and superstructure are finely cast metal. The model is fitted with a small coreless motor that provides very smooth running even before being run in. Add to this a cab with inside furnishings, perfectly applied liveries and the possibility of fitting a Next 18 decoder, and you have an almost faultless engine for 140€. These models will be reviewed in depth in our next issue. Éric Fresné WWW.BACHMANN.CO.UK BAGULEY-DREWRY 70 HP DIESEL REF. 392-025 À 392-029: £119,95 00-9…

ROCO REF. 7350001 DCC SOUND, PRICE: €354,90 REF. 7340001 ANALOGUE, PRICE: €229.90 A new reference for this era IV/V diesel, when it used to be based on the Waldviertelbahn close to the Czech border, and when it was still on regular passenger and goods services out of Gmünd. This sound version remains very faithful to the prototype, with realistic sound, reversible 3 lamp lighting with high/low headlight mode and cab lighting. Running qualities are excellent, and the speed is realistic (60kp/h maximum speed for the prototype). This model is fitted with a Plux 22 socket and Zimo MS 450 P 22 decoder. A few touches of paint on the electric connectors and the brake hoses will further improve the appearance of this locomotive. H0-9 Jacques Royan…

Brilliant! You had dreamt of them, Benoît Delaye has designed them for you. 3D printing techniques have been doing wonders over the last few years, and BD Concepts has closely followed these developments! New techniques, new machines, new materials, everything has been monitored with care. The result is a range of driving bogies for us bashers: 16.5mm gauge with 28 and 34mm wheelbases, and 10.6mm diameter wheels. 12mm gauge, 28mm wheelbase, 9mm wheels… Three-point suspension, smooth running and reasonable speed, easy digitaization with a pair of wire cutters, these bogies are supplied with a washer and a fixing screw. The gears are printed in a specific resin designed for mechanical movements, the keeper plates are printed in a relatively flexible resin that prevents any breakage during handling. Two small holes…

MODELLERS CREATE REALITY The Kaeserberg layout is a large model railway open to the public and spread over several levels in a dedicated building. The main attraction, on the two upper levels, is an H0 scale layout representing a long stretch of open line and a large station on a standard gauge double track, as well as an exchange with a long single track metre gauge line serving a mountain town. On the third level, the lowest on the layout, is the huge fiddleyard where trains are prepared and stored. Three driving positions allow operators to manage the running of the trains under the eyes of the visitors. The exhibition takes place in the visitors’ areas, in the middle of the layout, as well as in the large entrance hall:…

DOSSIERSAFETY François Fontana: Hello Denis, you run a DCCfitted REE Billard railcar on your small analogue layout, so how do you operate without disasters? Denis Le Tourneau: This small layout was built for the “Passe ton train” challenge, to which I added a loop and a siding to increase operational interest. This means there is a turnout with a polarized frog right in the middle. If the turnout is not in the right position, when approached from the toe end, the railcar runs full speed into the siding and crashes into the parked consist. If it approaches from the heel end, a short-circuit occurs and generates a nasty squeak. One way or the other, I did not want this to happen. So I worked out how to protect my turnout…

DISCOVERY The Lausanne – Echallens stretch, opened in 1874 and 1875, was considered as the first part of a narrow gauge network whose aim was to serve the Vaud countryside towards Yverdon and Payerne. The funds available for its construction being limited, affordability was the main criterion. At first, the single-rail Larmanjat system was considered. However, this solution was unconvincing and following lively debates, metre gauge was finally selected. Early years The original station, located in the Lausanne district of Chauderon, was ca. 1km away from the main standard gauge station. After a stretch built down the street, the metre gauge track ran in parallel to the road over most of the 14.22km leading to Echallens. Beyond, over the 8.66km stretch opened in 1889 as Bercher, the track was entirely…

CONSTRUCTION Plan of the layout Sweetheaven is the latest amongst the small exhibition layouts built by Fred Mazza. A kind of comma in a modelling life focussed on the PLM, a break in the time-consuming creation of his layout «Chamonix, the PLM seen from the mountains». The Sweetheaven project measures 90 x 45cm for the decorated part, with an additional 25cm wide strip for the fiddleyard. It is built in 1/87 scale on 9mm gauge track and takes us somewhere, we don’t quite know where, but undoubtedly to some part of the United States. Fred kindly agreed to answering questions that will help us better understand how he approaches the construction of a layout. François Fontana: Fred, where did you seek inspiration for Sweetheaven? Frédéric Mazza: I like my layouts…

This is a new version of a fairly old engine, but which remains an interesting and accurately reproduced model. The chassis features a single, centrally-mounted 5 pole motor, which drives both bogies and all four axles, unlike the earlier versions that had one 3 pole motor per bogie. They are designed to operate with the twin-blade Abt system Bemo rack track, with one pinion per bogie. The Swiss 3 + 1 lighting system is still missing, but a Next 18 decoder socket is now included. The only caveat is the significant amount of light leakage via the cabs and the access areas. Various add-on parts are provided, such as handrails, steps and various hoses for vacuum and air brakes, as well as heating, and electric connectors. Here again, a few…

H0 ARCHITECTURE & PASSION WWW.ARCHITECTURE-PASSION.FR PRICE: €103 A very fine H0 scale building, with a semi-detached one-door goods shed, hexagonal stone base, brick quoins and slate roof. Ideal for small layouts. Regnéville-sur-Mer is located in the Manche département. It is a beach-side terminus, a dream location for whoever is a fan of small single-track standard gauge branchlines. But it could equally well be used on a secondary metre gauge line. The laser-cut kit is supplied with bricks engraved in pre-coloured paper… brick colour, precisely, to ease assembly. The building measures 275 × 174 mm. François Fontana…

When I designed Quittancourt (see Voie Libre 95), the priority was to have a layout that would offer plenty of operational interest. The initial project foresaw a point-to-point arrangement, which ended up becoming a looped layout. This idea, which sounded attractive at first, actually reduced the fun potential of the layout. Six years on, this configuration is no longer fully satisfactory. Adding a fiddleyard did improve things somewhat, but I am now planning a second fiddleyard that would allow me to dispatch trains from Quittancourt towards two, and maybe three, virtual destinations. This would add a lot of operational interest. TO BEGIN WITH, ADDING A TRACK Before starting work, I took the time to have a hard think about the overall design of the layout. If, as planned, I wanted…

If you remember your physics courses, you know that a diode is polarized. Both poles — the anode and the cathode — are not equivalent. While the currrent can enter the diode via the anode and leave it via the cathode, the current cannot do the opposite. This property can be immediately applied to our layouts. STOPPING A TRAIN We shall start from the principle that our systems are installed on the right-hand rail, connected to the positive terminal of the current source. In this configuration, if a section of track is fed via a diode oriented in the “blocking” direction, cathode connected to the + of the source, the current cannot enter the section and a locomotive will stop there. If the polarity of the current is reversed, the…

P'tits Kits VOIE LIBRE IT MAKES OUR HEAD SPIN Nscale, H0 scale and O scale, 9, 12 and 16,5 mm, two pit and turntable sizes which, when combined, provide five variants. • H0 and N standard gauge: 110.3 mm pit and 97.4 mm turntable for H0 16.5 mm gauge; 75.5 mm and 66.4 mm for N standard gauge. • 16.5mm gauge track in 0 scale: 110.3mm pit and 97.4mm turntable for 0 scale narrow gauge. • And in H0 metre and narrow gauge: 75.5mm pit and 66.4mm turntable for 12 and 9mm gauges. This turntable is a model designed by our team, and printed in Europe by an industrial company. We used the same mechanism for all the diameters and an copper-clad epoxy plate, slotted in, so that the engine…

With a total of 14 references, the MiniatrainsModèles range is beginning to leave its mark. Surfing on the REE Les secondaires programme, the artisan had already released DE Dion Bouton trailers for railcars, four versions of the single-axle CFD trailer and an attractive passenger trailer for De Dion Bouton railcars. Hugo Coron, who is behind the firm, has just added to his catalogue four wagons, three carriages and a van, all 4-wheelers, from the Tramways de la Corrèze. 3D PRINTING The models are designed with a small number of 3D printed parts; a single one for the one-axle trailers and for the goods wagons, two for the carriages and the van (the chassis with the inside furnishings and the body). Laser-cut chassis strengtheners and brake shoes are add-on parts. The…

H0-9 LAYOUT L’usine du papy russe produces the “Papier qu’on sent”. Denis tells us this long story: the story of a White Russian refugee who starts a paper paste mill, before turning to making printing paper, to which he decides to add a fragrance. His son then takes over the business, but gives its production the name “Le Papier de Qualité”, slightly modifying its makeup on the way. Denis explains that, sadly for the brave little company, posterity only remembered its initials: “PQ*”! The first of the two small layouts represents a paper paste production site: a locotractor hauls two skips loaded with paste, enters the building, and comes out again once the skips are empty. The second layout is a storage area for the famous rolls of printing paper.…