What do you do, when the real estate you can dedicate to your layout amounts only to a little over 2´by 4´? Well, you take a look into those smaller scales, N scale or even Z scale. But what do you do when your eyes need to be armored with bifocals and your hands are getting shaky? Forget N or Z scale and take a look into those bigger (much bigger!) scales. Now that seems to be contradictory, but it isn´t at all.
After meanderings into various scales in the recent past, I have finally come to terms with G scale. Yes, this scale requires a lot of space, which I don´t have, and a lot of money, which I don´t have either. Yet there is a way to model in this big scale and the answer is modeling a 2 foot narrow gauge industrial line. The German company Regner offers kits for little Diesel critters and plenty of scratch building materials for rolling stock. The size is big enough for my bad eyes and trembling hands, and also suits my budget.
The Story
Schietwedderooge (“Schiet” meaning bad, “wedder” meaning weather and “ooge” meaning island in the lingo of the German Northsea coast folks), is a small fictional island set on the North sea coast in Germany. The island is populated by a hearty bunch of folks, who made their living being pirates. Later in history, the entered the whaling business. When that was gone, tourism took over - another form of piracy. The islanders became wealthy people, investing their money in proud buildings and, at around 1900, a small light railway line, which served the island before the advent of the automobile. The early 1960´s saw quite a lot of road improvement work on the island, and a ferry terminal was built to shuttle the islanders to the mainland and the tourists to the island. The railway line was no longer needed and most of it was dismantled by the end of 1969. Only a small and nearly negligible rest remained, as part of the local fish(or North sea crab) processing plant Jenssen &
Actually, RüKB or Rugen Island Railway, was a large Network covering Germany´s largest island in the Baltic Sea. The entire network had a length of over 55 miles, out of which only 16 miles remain until today. Steam trains are operated daily as part of the island´s public transport system.
The North sea islands of Wangerooge and Borkum still have railways - much to the pleasure of hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting those islands each year.
Sounds ambitious but do-able. It’s nice to see a micro represented here and it sounds like you’re taking the concept to a wonderful state. I love the idea of smells and sounds. Don’t forget to keep the train room no warmer than 10 degrees C. and make sure a stiff wind is always blowing. Strong, hot drinks are recommended. You know, Carl would have loved this.
Lou - Carl Arendt was certainly like a foster parent to me. Although little known to the “mainstream” model railroader, he certainly deserves a place in the model railroading hall of fame.
There are many folks in the world dearly missing him!
Well, here I am again - with bad news! Regner, the manufacturer of the critter I intended to go for, has given up making the kits, so the option is either to scratchbuild my own or find a different way of solving the issue.
I am fine with scratchbuilding structure, but a loco? Honestly, I don´t dare to. My dexterity suffices for kit building, as you don´t need sophisticated machine tools for that. Change of gauge? Why, yes - Gn15 may be an answer. There are a number of kits on the market, employing inexpensive HO scale chassis - that´s to my liking.
So I reworked the plan to adapt it to Gn15 gauge and added some more features, like a traverser and a turntable.
Garden Railways magazine December issue has an announcement that Herr Manfred Regner passed away on July 21st, so that is probably the end of the Regner product line.
According to my information, Manfred Regner´s family will continue to produce fine live steam models, but the future of the “Feldbahn” line of products is insecure.
It is sad to see it go, but it was a very small niche market, probably not worth the trouble to keep it going.
Ulrich I like the plan. I have an unfinished 1x4 G micro based on Carls Imports but lack of display space has kept me from finishing it. I will be watching yours hoping to get motivated again.
The loco kit I intended to buy is no longer available [:'(]
Means I have to go different ways, i.e. scratchbuilding everything, including the loco and the rolling stock. There is a gauge IIf (26,7 mm) chassis I can use as a starting point for the loco, so I revisited the plan to minimize it (or should I say maximize) again.
Latest idea:
The turntable will be made out of an old CD ROM and a flat CD case…
