Railway to Tibet

I am currently reading this book on the building of the Railway to Tibet. Unfortunately written from a Western viewpoint, it is nevertheless an interesting account of the tremendous effort needed for such a great venture. This is one train I am going to ride one of these days.

Refurbishing Maryville Haupbahnhof

Maryville Haupbahnhof, the Central Railway Station of SurinBahn, was recently refurbished. The entire lighting system was re-soldered. Previously the 6 x 12V bulbs were (in part) in series - this was deemed unacceptable as the light level was quite dim. All the lights are now in parallel.
Look at the roof, it shows only the Swiss flag. On most railway station in Switzerland, the cantonal flag is also shown. There is no cantonal flag right now as I have not decided yet which Canton, Surinbahn is in.

Hurray my Railbus is coming!!!

Peter Bemer told me that my Piko Railbus has arrived in Singapore. This model is a Dieseltriebwagen (Railcar) "Desiro" VT 642 with the livery of Connex GmbH. Desiro is the brand name for a design of modular train manufactured by Siemens of Germany.
The Desiro can be built as a diesel or electric multiple unit (DMU or EMU). It is normally configured as two- and three-car trainsets. Although there are various differences between individual trains, the basic body design is the same. These trains are mostly used for regional services, and belong to a new generation of light, modular trains which have become common in many European countries; they are sometimes referred to as light regional railcars. They are relatively cheap to build and operate. Their quick acceleration makes them suitable for services with short intervals between stations.

My model is Wechselstromausführung (meant for Märklin) and comes with a Digital decoder. I am ordering a sound add-on to put in this model.

everyone needs protection

Saturday Jan 23, 2010
I have a section on the layout where the trains rapidly descend and then make a 180 degrees turn (on a R2 curve). In the past, I was always concerned that the trains will crash to the floor. Winston gave me strips of clear flexible acrylic and these affixed to the base with angle brackets, give great protection to the trains when they rush down the slope and round the curve. These photos don't quite show how great the acrylic strips look. I hasten to add, I have never had any trains crash at this particular spot before but then protection and prevention are important.

My Central Station is dead

Sunday January 17 2010
It is miserable finding that your CS is dead. Well it is not technically dead as all the functions seem to be there except that there is no output to the tracks. I have tried everything but no trains will move. So I have now hooked on my good old 6021 and trains are running but I do want my CS to work. I wonder whether Märklin will do the repair or should I send to ESU? After all, ESU has declared that they will continue supporting the CS (which is CS1 by the way Version 2,03)