Operating session #4

A three man crew consisting of Jan Petter, Halvor and my self a couple, completed operation session#4 on the GFB a couple of weeks ago. As last time we went through two "days" in one night, running four passenger trains and one freight train in one day. Here are some pictures. Please post a comment if you'd like :)

Halvor running GFB no.2 with today's freight train from Rise to Grimstad.

 

A new locomotive, GFB no.1, had it's debut today as the Rykene switcher. Here Jan Petter is running it down to Lia spur to spot a T0-car.

Halvor is sorting cars with GFB no.7 at Grimstad. I've removed the background wallpaper here, and I think I will try to paint a background instead.

 

Jan Petter with a passenger train with a BM87 from Rise. As you can see here, the majority of my layout is quite unfinished.

 Jan Petter's passenger train is arriving at Grimstad.

The industrial area at Rykene is pretty empty after the second "day"

A small detailed area at Grimstad.

 GFB no.7 is spotting the last couple of cars at the end of the session.

Harbour part III

Finally something happens with Torskeholmen again. I've started to add the pier fronts, and I am experimenting with cobblestones. The ship is from the dutch company Artitec and the model itself is built by a friend of mine.

 

One more for the gallery

A norwegian class Di2 diesellocomotive on it's way to Grimstad with a freight train.

One for the gallery

Today I stumbled across this picture while "tidying" a bit on my computer. The picture is taken at the 2010 Fremo meet in Zuidbroek, NL. You can barely make out the Grimstad turntable at the back of the little Skd220c locomotive. Further back is another Fremo-module. I think this makes for a cool and unusual background.

Operating session #3

What? A new operating session already? With only 6 months past since the last one? Things are certainly picking up at GFB! Tonight two of my good friends, Styrkar Braathen and Halvor Sannæs, visited for GFB's third official operating session. I've not worked at the layout for quite some time now so I thought nothing is better for inspiration than a good ol' op session to get the creativity up to scratch again.

We actually ran two sessions in one night, with each session representing a day at the Grimstad Line. During one day we ran three passenger trains, one freight train and a couple of "locals" between Rykene and Lia. Each session lasted about 90 minutes and we had a lot of fun!

Here are some quick shots I took during the sessions. Nothing too fancy or exciting new stuff to show, but here goes:

 

Passenger train Pt2580 consisting of BM87 motorcar and type Gx baggage car on it's way to Rise between Grimstad and Lia.

 

Your's truly as the Rise stationmaster. The loco on track 3 is GFB no.8

An action shot of GFB no.2 with freight train Gt5676 from Grimstad.

A short break between sessions. Coffee, icecream and blueberries :)

 

Halvor and Styrkar trying to figure out what goes where at Rykene.

 

GFB borrowed this Skd214 for the occation as I needed a switcher for Grimstad.

Styrkar sorting car cards at Grimstad. I need to do something about that hideous background wallpaper...

A small sidestep

As many of you probably know, we model railroaders tend to have a lot of different plans and dreams. Sometimes these dreams doesn't match with the current projects we are working on. Nevertheless I think following your dreams is important - hence this little building above here.

For some time now I've been really fascinated by the beautiful models in H0n3 by Blackstone Models, so I thought I'd build a little show-layout in H0n3, just for fun. The station above is built from a laser cut wood kit which I painted and weathered with powdered pastels. The figures are Preiser and the bicycle is from Artitec. I completed this kit rather quickly, and it was a lot of fun making something completely different from what I normally do.

Let's see how far I get with this project :)

A danish reefer

This rather nice danish refrigerated wagon turned up at Grimstad at it's last internation outing (Zuidbroek, Netherlands in 2010). It's always exciting to see different types of cars turning up when I attend international FREMO-meetings with Grimstad.

It's all in the details

This is a small detail I've been wanting to make for some time now. The track that went through the freight shed in Grimstad had a nice buffer stop with a flower box on top of it. The flowers are from Mininatur, the flower box is made from two matches glued together and the buffer stop is a modified kit from a swedish manufacturer I can't remember the name of.

The model

Real life version

New and professional trackplan!

Here's a new and revised trackplan for my layout. The trackplan is made by Henning Larsen of the magazine "MJ-Bladet". Isn't it nice? :)

Warning - centerfold picture!

Well, here's the centerfold picture from my before mentioned magazine article. Click on the picture to get a big 1200 pixel version of it.

Railcar BM87.71 on it's way from Rise to Rykene.