Nothing to see here

I'm away in distant lands doing 'field research' again.

Alas, I was a long way from the real (and my model) Wassen, but here is a recent pic of a semi-topical Re 6/6 at St Saphorin just to prove that I'm still alive.

More on my Flickr (warning: it is mainly mainly RhB of late, a probable next project after Wassen)

My normal intermittent service here may resume in about three weeks.

Nothing to see here

Apologies for the delay in postings, but as mentioned, I've been "in the field doing research" and should be back with the layout again in a few weeks time.

I managed a detour to Switzerland - mainly running around on the RhB narrow gauge in the southeast - but I did catch a few of the old machines floating around on the SBB network.

An Re 4/4 at Mols:

And I suppose, as Immensee is considered the northern end of the Gotthard Bahn, we'll consider the second picture relevant to a blog about a town on that former line:

Good to see quite a few of the classic Gotthard Re 10/10 combos still running on the route, albeit as they head south these days they are well beneath Wassen town in the base tunnel. 

Field Research

Apologies for another brief pause in the stream of content, which, as you will have noticed, happens rarely and sporadically. 

At least this time I have an excuse, as I'm in the field - indeed, in 'a field' - doing vital research.

I can even say that (technically) a fourth visit was recently made to the Gotthard Pass.... albeit for only a several minute visit to Goschenen.

My, how things have changed, with only little Flirt railcars plying the rails these days.

Sigh. Can't stop progress.

It's been a little quiet lately...

Apologies, I've been doing some 'research' in the land of Swiss.

Not on the Gotthard, alas, but I did see a few interesting and relevant items nonetheless.

And picked up a few modelling materials for the layout as well. Things may be a bit sporadic for a few more weeks, but I promise to get back into Wassen soon.

Update from the Field

It's been awfully quiet on this blog of late, but don't worry, I'll be back into the layout in about three weeks time.

In the meantime, I've been doing what scientists call 'field research'.

The former Wassen station, an item carelessly left out of my layout.
An Re 460 passes with a long InterRegio. 25 Aug 2016

From up on high

I didn't post this pic on Flickr because the sun wouldn’t come out for me, but here is a view from above the Wattinger bridge looking across the valley at some of the things I’m trying to approximate. On the top level, a covered steel train behind an Re 4/4 and Re 6/6 is approaching The Command Post knob. On the lower level, a plastic fantastic ICN tilting train, also going downhill, has emerged from the tunnel, crossed the Wattinger bridge and is following the Reuss river downstream. 

You can see the incredible height differences between the levels, which is a major struggle to replicate on a 1.9m long layout!

Beyond a spark - track planning

My initial thoughts for a layout were based around whether a reasonable representation of Wassen could be built on a door-sized piece of real estate. Obviously this would have to be done in Z scale (or smaller!) to work, and given the size constraint, serious compromises would have to be made to realise this without looking too toylike -  one of my issues with Z scale layouts I've seen in briefcases, guitar cases and pizza boxes. 

The plus of sticking to this size is that it would be a one-piece layout (module track joins between multiple tracks at different levels sounds like a recipe for disaster) which would be fairly portable and could potentially fit in a station wagon or van.

Downsides of Z scale itself are that there's only limited models available (no Re 6/6 and no modern container wagons for example), and having never really done anything in the scale before, I imagine its daunting working in such a small scale with its fiddly details and need for super smooth track work to prevent future problems.

So one could do N or one could upscale the layout size, but then the portability would be lost. So lets see what could fit onto a door in Z.

The real Wassen looks like this:

A pure, scaled-down Wassen would be more than 10 metres long so as with all semi-prototypical modeling, selective compression comes into play. The 'signature scenes' I’d like to include would be…

• Wattinger Curve and bridge
• The big Middle Meienreuss bridge with third level bridge behind
• Wassen Church and a smattering of Wassen village
• The ‘Command Post’ on the upper level
• The ‘other’ upper Wattinger bridge could easily be included
• The curved approach to the Muhle tunnel might be possible too.

Although the A2 Motorway is a large visual component cutting through the real scene, in my fantasy Wassen I feel it would dominate such a small layout and take up too much space so will be excluded/merged with the local road.

My rough concept mocked up in trackplanning software (badly, and of course for a layout plan, over-optimistically) is thus:

Basically three levels of double-track are linked by hidden spirals to gain additional height for increased visual separation of the levels. 

An uphill train would emerge at the Muhle tunnel traveling ‘left', where the track comes out of hiding, curves under the Wassen church, runs alongside the Reuss river to the Wattinger curve and bridges, re-emerges heading ‘right' on the middle level to cross the big bridge, curves into the tunnel there, re-emerges facing ‘left’ briefly between tunnels in the background to cross the upper bridge, then pass the command post on the upper level before vanishing for good.

Then the track has to get back down to ground zero to start again…. Somehow…!

p.s.  I've probably mis-spelled all the locations and obviously mis-pronounce them too. Apologies!

Hooked

The Gotthard Pass is one of those places I’d wanted to visit for some time, and that time finally arrived in October 2015. I’d previously noted that Switzerland is like a 1:1 model railway, with picture perfect mountain backdrops and not a weed or stick of dead grass to be seen; but the town of Wassen is something else.

The Pass itself is a major north-south freight route between Italy and the countries to the north, primarily Germany and The Netherlands. On each side of the pass, continuous steep grades, dozens of tunnels, countless bridges and multiple loops and horseshoes allow the track to gain enough altitude to reach a 15km long summit tunnel. The ‘North Ramp’ following the Reuss river between Erstfeld and the summit station of Göschenen is probably the most visited bit, and not far below the summit lies the railfan mecca of Wassen.

Here at either end of a tiny village, a pair of 180 degree horseshoe curves, almost entirely in tunnels, provide three levels of track that wind their way up the hillside, such that passengers pass the same church three times on various sides of the train as they travel the line. With plenty of trains and dozens of photo positions including the famous Wattinger Curve easily accessible with a little walking and climbing, I was hooked.

With a new 57km long(35 mile) basistunnel due to open underneath this spectacle in June 2016, the future for the old route is uncertain, so for the next few months its bound to be flooded by railfans like me hoping to catch a first or final glimpse of the line in its heyday. If you fancy a visit, there’s no time like today.

The only problem on my own trip, was the weather, with the sun threatening to make itself seen over the mountaintops between 11 and 3, but only managing to pop out from under mountain mists surrounding the deep valley for between zero and fifteen minutes on the three days I was there. As you’ll guess, this was usually when there were no trains to be had.

What an amazing place though. Exploring the hills, eating schnitzel with mushroom sauce, drinking appfelwijn (cider) and watching the chunky old electric locos snaking their trains around the old town was an incredible experience. 

I just had to go back. 

Booking a second visit in February in the hope of getting some sun seemed like a bad idea, with the forecast promising a week of miserable weather as the date approached. Indeed the trip down from Zurich was made in light drizzle and the next day that drizzle turned to rain and then snow. On the plus side, sun sometimes follows snow, and lo and behold the next day dawned clear, so I was up at the ‘command post’ overlooking Wassen for sun-up and spent one of my most memorable days ever photographing trains.

Towards the end of my first visit I wondered whether it might be possible to model some part of the Pass, preferably Wassen of course, in Z scale… I've never modeled in Z, but had collected a bit of track and US rolling stock for another project that never materialised.... And that’s what brings us here.