Nice layout and most trains are great runners. Did you get inspired by the Dampf und Diesel layout? The trackplan seems similar: Matt
Matt, that's me! I just reached successful the first milestone of the digitalization and automation of my gauge. Now it runs without any fault. The upper layer of the layout is not yet connected. This comes in step 2. Cheers Georg
64 - Two Gates to the World The Anhalter Bahnhof is certainly so popular with model railroaders because, on the one hand, it is a legendary location and, on the other, because it is rather small. The Anhalter Bahnhof was the place where state visits were received and it was the place from which people traveled on vacation to Italy. However, its station hall only has a manageable six tracks because, unlike Frankfurt, Leipzig, or other large cities, Berlin never built a central station. The city and ring lines still connect the individual stations, from which journeys lead in specific directions: the Stettin Bahnhof in the north, the Hamburg and Lehrter Bahnhof in the west, the Potsdam and Anhalter Bahnhof in the south, and the Görlitz, Schlesischer, and Frankfurt Bahnhof in the west. After replacing 14 switches, three crossings, and a simple cross switch in one year, the entire system of my Anhalter Bahnhof is beginning to function more comprehensively and reliably. The many breakdowns that still accompany more extensive operations are not intended to play a role here. The example of two trains that didn't actually depart from Anhalter Bahnhof, but instead traveled to other gateways to the world, should serve as a starting point. First, there's an express train to Bremerhaven. Intercontinental air travel was barely a thing at the time, even though zeppelins and Dornier flying boats already existed. But the carriages on this train only carry the then-extended first and second class carriages, which were built specifically for these trains: the Hapag-Lloyd carriages, so named because they served as feeder trains for the ocean liners that could take you to - for example - New York. And then there's the Flying Hamburger. The first train to arrive in the video is often confused with it. We only see it at the end here. It was built in 1933 as part of a long-distance express railcar network that was intended to reach other major cities in a star pattern from Berlin at 160 km/h. Only with the then-higher second class carriage, in the cool, modern Bauhaus look that also characterized the zeppelins. The first Hamburg-type train to arrive was created two years later as a further development of the Flying Hamburger.
The new urban speed trains trains from Noba have just arrived. It will take some time until I have them painted, fitted with windows and decals, and I still have to think about the full drive, i.e. the coupling. As a preview, you can see the trains here unpainted. Ready to run, each with two Shorty drives and magnetic couplings. I've already ordered six decoders. Someone has equipped the ET25 of the Atlas Zackenbahn with a drive. And something else for entertainment: The two class 44s are coming out of the incline around the curve. You can see that the two eafish wagons I added are a bit too much, even for the two Maxon motors in the locomotives. After all, 16 of the 27 cars are from Freudenreich and made entirely or partially of metal, and two more are own built models, also made entirely of metal. The locomotives skid at this point, but they manage the spiral from the shadow yard and the entire double loop with all the curves and ramps. It works! Even in Z gauge!
65 - In the Kaiser's Time Once again, we look back to the era of the Royal Prussian Railway. The colorful and well-maintained locomotives pull the trains in Berlin after the turn of the last century. The Friedrichstraße station still looks as it did when it was built in the nineteenth century, in the style of the Hackescher Markt station. We see a P8 and a T12 with their thousand-door trains.
