Prototype A few photos from otherwhere

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
If I am allowed a second guess I suggest Bergamo. Partly because it might be on your route to Modena, and partly because photos show some paved track and arch-shaped tunnels and bridges. But very much a guess and I appreciate I may only qualify for a cigarillo.

I know it's not Bridgenorth because I have been there and it doesn't have fancy pointwork, just two straight tracks.
 

daifly

Western Thunderer
The laser-cut Grand Prix car is available for a modest sum here in the UK too.
I have a half-built one. It requires a fair amount of fettling as the parts are supplied on laser cut frets. It also moves using a ‘rubber band’ motor.
Dave
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Somewhere I have some other photos from that trip, which include a laser cut temple of astonishing complexity, meanwhile a lovely bit of 1926 style technology AD2C95EA-B846-41DB-8438-DE2670FEB6CA.jpegEE921525-5C85-4271-9D49-BBE3E63EFBD3.jpeg2888C0B1-DA42-46DE-8442-02DC8DA6D356.jpeg

(Sorry about the last one, it’s a still from the video)

And something maybe half a century more modern

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No cigars on offer here, too simple!
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Mulhouse.

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well, en route to Mulhouse, anyway. This is a really simple idea - a tank full of compressed air to check your tyres, it hangs on and is topped up by, the pipe fixed to the support thing. Rather than queue for the airline, there were a couple in the motorway service station. Neat, I thought.


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one of the many Bugattis in the Sclumpf collection

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who says electric vehicles are new fangled? 1899, world speed record holder, with “accumulators Fulmen”.

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V12 power in a railcar - now we’re in La Cite du Train

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more soon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
mildly irritatingly, these have uploaded in a weird order. Hopefully anyone who wants a caption can work out which loco it belongs to.

the museum has a huge collection, along with various sectioned locos, etc, and is certainly worth seeing if you’re a fan of the French railways, or are passing the area. Mulhouse was a convenient stop for us and gave the opportunity to see the cars and train collections (and the Musee Electropolis, of which more later), but I think Colmar is a prettier city to visit.

Unfortunately, the first hall is very dark and “atmospheric” with sound effects and other nonsense which for me detracts rather than enhances the display, but I guess the target audience is more likely French families, rather than English motorcyclists…

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simond

Western Thunderer
A few things of interest here. Parts of the museum, particularly outdoors, have the air of a holiday resort at the end of the season, a bit runndown, needing a bit of love, which given the extent and quality of what is there, is a shame. Also, the doors are locked on the signal cabin, you can’t go in the cabs of locos, I guess some of that is necessary, but it felt a bit ott to me.

anyway, the TGV was the first to break 500kph. I rather think they’re a bit beyond that now (575??) and I was most surprised to see the hook of a 3-link coupling at the back of it, I assumed they had something more sophisticated within the rakes.

and the Lion on the crane is a bit of a giggle, dates from the 1880’s IIRC. Stylish.F02CBD97-14B9-49C3-AACA-B4BE6FD035C9.jpegBC239F36-7A1E-4FE5-A59D-69A3574BE375.jpeg1E921049-1D74-48C7-A174-3ADF7E1472A0.jpeg5E14AC0D-8C0A-4872-AADC-93F3F553FC80.jpeg087BB85C-3A31-42DC-B500-19870165FA05.jpegCBDCFB93-85E6-4765-97AD-322B30CC8CAD.jpeg4C18B67E-E7E1-4BD5-AA20-64653A1F8757.jpeg326AA02A-2713-459E-94AF-9136C83C50F4.jpeg76CD6826-316B-41DE-8BBC-E7F5EA20C4D6.jpeg34E8E933-3042-41D1-A1DD-4B1365D411C6.jpegB9FDD58B-1A8B-44D2-8820-FEC98819CEC3.jpeg
 

simond

Western Thunderer
And more!

the models were rather nice, though difficult to photograph due to reflections on their show cases, so I apologise for the images. I rather like the idea of wine by the wagon full.

There were several “model engineering scale” locos around the place too, regrettably I haven’t got any pix of them. They have a ride-on dual gauge outdoor line which wasn’t running, but I noted that they had some kind of live steam Garratt along with a few other locos to haul that too. Couldn’t get near enough to take any photos of that, unfortunately.4007C5C9-CB93-4AB9-AB03-BA7AFBBD7C6B.jpeg7864F943-1B0C-4942-8164-187A309BECE0.jpeg39AC64E2-691A-4DBF-ABB0-08FFDB2CAC59.jpegED283E98-81EC-41A6-855C-8D815CF2F2BB.jpeg3532A1E7-819A-4B3E-9F9F-D10F20447481.jpeg88ACCF3C-2EAC-44CC-9298-0C7645A6FAFC.jpegCC1408D6-F7C1-4B8F-A667-1E340CEC1475.jpegA771E53E-1403-4FEA-ADAD-AE97A18A2437.jpegC0E949C2-B740-4126-BC2F-81AA78209CF2.jpeg90850418-CB66-450F-A2C5-1896E54BA9E4.jpeg

this is an ALCO loco built for export. I note that the steam valves are remote from the water glass. I imagine in the case of a glass failure, that would be very welcome!

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simond

Western Thunderer
And en fin, back pretty much where we began, with a Bugatti…B145A859-358F-4D67-B1F3-618F032A0361.jpeg0F0282CF-0C39-4069-B0BF-09DD262D3612.jpeg

apparently, this railcar had four engines from Bugatti Royals. Must have been a bit noisy for the driver, as he was effectively standing on them!

And then we went across the road to Electropolis, which was very good. Covered the history of electricity, from frog’s legs to Solar Power & Smart Cities.

This was beautifully restored, again, difficult to photograph because it’s huge, and the lighting is “dramatic”, but the accompanying videos which tell its tale were well worth the time they took, and were amusing too.

850kW triple expansion double acting four cylinder generator.

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hope these are of some interest to the WT mob

Verdun tomorrow
Simon
 

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
mildly irritatingly, these have uploaded in a weird order. Hopefully anyone who wants a caption can work out which loco it belongs to.

the museum has a huge collection, along with various sectioned locos, etc, and is certainly worth seeing if you’re a fan of the French railways, or are passing the area. Mulhouse was a convenient stop for us and gave the opportunity to see the cars and train collections (and the Musee Electropolis, of which more later), but I think Colmar is a prettier city to visit.

Unfortunately, the first hall is very dark and “atmospheric” with sound effects and other nonsense which for me detracts rather than enhances the display, but I guess the target audience is more likely French families, rather than English motorcyclists…
. . .

This is exactly the sort of asymetric flangeway I have just gone to some pains to eradicate (on my Heybridge Railway thread). Guess I began with a Continental one. Prototype for everything of course.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
There is a fascinating book on “Wine and War” which relates the extent to which the French resistance prevented wine being taken to Germany by train and beyond (if the Russian soldiers at Stalingrad had known about the stocks of French wine there it is possible the Nazis could have retaken the city).

ISBN 0340766786
 

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
Ok, I’ll put you all out of your misery, it’s Lugano.

(46.0048762, 8.9483344)

no cigars.

more soon, maybe.

We went to Ironbridge for our holiday and visited both of the railways in Bridgenorth. So here are some pics of the Cliff Railway, it really is very different to Lugano!

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We are descending here, so just past the middle (of course).

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The whole of the line here.

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The trams.

Earlier in the day we went to the Gauge 0 show at Highley, which was rather good too. I talked a lot with Jim McGeown (he is wonderful to talk with!), subjects including the possible futures of etched kits. He had two white metal wagon kits on his table, an early 4-plank one with dumb buffers and a later one-plank one. He can produce these entirely in house and he had them on show to gauge interest. I said I could imagine one or two of each on my own layout. These were kits he made many years ago, before he started doing etched brass ones. And when I left, he had one fewer J79 locos :)
 

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
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I think the main difference between the lines is in the civil engineering. The promoters of the Bridgenorth railway could not buy the land they wanted, and ended up putting their railway in a deep cutting in the rock.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Well, here’s the latest puzzle. About 18” gauge, and not used for a while, I think.

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Maybe not a cigar for the winner…
 
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