Intro

The blog is about building a very small layout of a very simple terminus, rather than a copy, it is merely an amalgam of features of existing locations in the area but all the features are consistent with a quiet light line. 

 

The original Grafenwalde 2004

Please note

The layout is a very loose interpretation of a rural station in rural Thuringia, the model should show the station in the summer of 1954, at the time up to the end of the 1960s all the tracks were still in place.

A simple trackplan adapted from a closed line

Frauenwald 

 

Grafenwalde 

Plausible fiction

The location of Grafenwalde is in location on the northern edge of the Thuringia Forest, the nearest large municipality is Arnstadt. 

The Frauenwaldbahn or Die Laura

The layout is based upon a Kleinbahn that was originally, a short line, in this case only almost 7km (4.3 miles) to Frauenwald in Southern Thuringia. It was a standard gauge line that was served by tiny trains and lasted from 1913 to 1965.  Due to the topography the station at Rennsteig was a 'Spitzkehren bahnhof' or 'hairpin station' where the train changes direction. The railway had to meet the transport needs of the predominantly rural structure of the area

 

89 5901

The railcar shown below was employed until WW2, although a 0-4-0 tank loco with road number 5 plus passenger cars and goods cars was also employed. This loco was supplemented by one obtained from the Kleinbahn Neuhaldensleben–Weferlingen former roadbed is accessible today as a Wanderweg 

 

 The railway survived the Second World War, in 1949, the railway was nationalised and the operation was taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. At the beginning of the 1950s, tourism to the Thuringian Forest increased significantly. In 1952, through express trains ran from Berlin to the Thuringian Forest for the first time. In Rennsteig, the train, consisting of four-axle express coaches, was split up. Three coaches continued on to Schmiedefeld , the other three were hauled by a T 3 to Frauenwald  

 

The condition of the track deteriorated noticeably, and despite increasing traffic, only the most urgent repairs could be carried out. On February 13, 1965, the line had to be closed due to snow drifts, and trains had to be replaced by buses. Railway operations ceased after that because no funds were available for the necessary renovations.

 

 

 

Railway buildings

As part of the search for a simple station building for Thuringia, I used this Wiki photo album of various smaller stations. The variety of styles is quite amazing, from full fachwerk, to rendered, stone and finally brick, there is almost no common style, maybe because many of the railways in Thuringia were ‘private’ enterprises…. Below is Blankenfelde beside the Heidekrautbahn. 

  

Auhagen's Lokleitung 11389, the similarity to Blankenfelde is remarkable and as it is not a unique design, its use can be justified for Grafenwalde, somewhere in Thuringia. 

  

The wooden storeroom

 The coal stand and lovely old Kibri loco shed 

 

 

BCPwPosti

BCPwPost4i

In 1913, the Rennsteig-Frauenwald Kleinbahn (KRF) was opened. From 1912 onwards, the Gottfried Lindner A.G. wagon factory in Ammendorf near Halle (which later became the well-known VEB Waggonbau Ammendorf) supplied several narrow-gauge railways with four-axle combined passenger, mail, and baggage coaches with eight upholstered 2nd-class seats and 40 wooden 3rd-class seats. The first of these coaches was delivered to the Rennsteig-Frauenwald Kleinbeahn (KRF),

 

BR195

During the ‘50s and ‘60s the Deutsches Reichsbahn (DR) were finding the task of providing a service rather difficult as the Soviet controlled regime did not encourage replacement but rather make n’mend of old stock.

Not to be defeated by these problems, the DR removed the worn out motors and repurposed the railcars as driving trailers replete with controls hauled by lightweight industrial shunters being made in the old O&K plants in Babelsberg which were renamed the LOWA Lokomotiv Plant Karl Marx (LKM). In the same manner, I found a Piko BR195 trailer car which will be hauled by the V15 (LKM) made by Brawa, the trailer simply needs a new close coupling system. 

 

The standard Kadee from below. 

 

   

The lovely Schicht Dosto

Small details

Other details 

The orchard along the front of the layout, this delightful montage is often a feature of parts of Thuringia, some of our neighbours, have orchards with sheep to keep down the weeds. Having mentioned Primo apple trees before, it was the obvious place to procure the orchard.

The Wartburg 311 Coupe, seen in Blechammer 96515 in the ‘80s

I like the laser-cut kits from Model Scene, try A&H Models in Brackley they are good people.

This is item 48502 old railway sleepers

and you can make this with them

You need basic cutting tools, some card, a small lump of foam, earth coloured paints and PVA

 

Try these folk as well

The farm and house

The farm 

 

 

The other buildings include a small house, that has a couple of fruit trees, vegetable garden and a chicken coop

 

 

 

I remember that in my childhood, chickens were bustling around in every village. The owners of the poultry seemed to have no concern for their safety at all. A constant image was the birds taking carelessly walks along the road running through the village buildings. And this sometimes ended in a tragic accident under the wheels of a car.