Modelling German Railways

    

The Facebook group Modelling German Railways has just re-booted itself and is open for new members - click here

Closure of Grafenwalde

 Hi, it is regrettable but our small group of friends (Dorset Reichsbahn Gruppe) has decided to cease any further progress on Grafenwalde. The group began in 2000 and was invited to a number of exhibitions in the UK and mainland Europe, here at Intermodel, Dortmund in 2008.

Unfortunately time and age cannot be ignored, Grafenwalde will no longer attend events. 

All the stock and models for Grafenwalde will eventually need new homes.

Thank you

Tim

Intro

 

Click the shield

The blog is about building a very small layout of a simple station, it is merely an amalgam of features of existing locations in the area but all the features are consistent with a quiet rural line. It shares the same layout as Pottendorf, the stock and buildings are simply swapped. I like small trains, this is reflected by a couple of locos that should not really be used but Grafenwalde is not a copy.

Thuringia

 

 The original layout 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. The location of the layout is a location on the northern edge of the Thuringia Forest, the nearest large municipality is Arnstadt.

 

 The Rennsteig

Locos of Grafenwalde

The locos used on Grafenwalde are simply those which I like and are typical of small rural lines.

The T3 is a standard small loco for lightly laid rural lines

The T9.3 is another small tank loco

The V23 was used to haul redundant trailers that had been repurposed as coaches

 

Buildings

The small station building is typical of the Prussian style, Auhagen's 11389, is appropriate for use as a small station. Click here for an illustrated list of stations in Thuringia

The wooden storeroom

The 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),

 

 

Progress

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. 

These were used in Thuringia but mostly centered in the area around Ebeleben. 

 

The standard Kadee from below.