"The Last Station"

We saw this movie (Wed Feb25-2010) which was a biopic on the last days of Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian writer. The movie centred on the efforts of Chertkov (a disciple of Tolstoy) atttempting to get Tolstoy to change his will to bequeath his works to the Russian people. Of course, Sofya, the wife, resisted this as she wanted to keep the inheritance within the family. Christopher Plummer played Tolstoy and Helen Mirren played Sofya.
What is interesting is the number of times, Russian trains of that period (circa 1910) were depicted in the movie. The 2nd picture in this post shows roughly the type of locomotives that were shown in the movie. They were not huge steamers.
Incidentally, the Last Station is where Tolstoy died. He fled from his estate heading South but became ill at this station and could not travel further. The name of this Russian station is Astapovo.

Heat shrink tubing

Heat shrink tubing is great stuff!

In the past whenever I had to solder two wires together, I would wrap duct tape (sticky, gooey stuff) over the joint in order to prevent accidental 'shorting' when the exposed joint touched the wrong wire.

On my previous layout, ChrislenaBahn, I had a short once which cost me 2 months to isolate and remedy. It was a most frustrating time as I could not run any trains as the safety feature of the system would always kick in and power off the layout. I certainly don't want this sort of situation ever to occur again.

So these days, I heat shrink any joints to avoid accidents.

Book: railway, identity, design and culture

RAILWAY identity, design and culture by Keith Lovegrove
This book is great - it has heaps of pictures and is divided into 3 sections (a) HARDWARE (about industrial and interior design) (b) SERVICE (about cafes, dining cars and provisioning) and (c) IDENTITY (about branding, livery and promotion) Published in 2004, this book has a place in all train lovers' bookshelves.

2.6mm plugs

Because I don't like to solder when I am lying on my back under the layout table with the possibility of hot solder dropping into my eyes, I generally prefer to use these 2.6mm plugs when I need to join wires. I used a lot of these (maybe 250 by now). Märklin has changed to a new type of 2.6mm plugs in order to comply with new safety regulations. But Piko (and some others) still sell the old industry standard plugs. I paid for a package of 32 plugs and 8 sockets the grand sum of US$11. OW PIKO !!!! YOU CHARGED ME US 27 cents FOR ONE OF THESE PLASTIC THINGS ?????? A RIP-OFF!!

China Rail flat car with a "China Post" container

For some strange reason, I really want this item. It is a China Rail flat car model NX17K with a container (China Post) from Wanxuda. It comes with Kadee couplers and there are two versions ie 2 road numbers: 5275391 & 5275392. I don't need two flat cars I just want one. Mun Hon in Hong Kong went to Lee Kwon and found that it was sold out. In December 2009, I walked all the way to the Bachmann China shop in Shanghai to be told the same thing. I guess the reason I want this item is that it fuses two different hobbies of mine - I like philately and I like model railways. Oh well, I could not get it for Christmas and I could not get it for my birthday but Mun Hon promised me that he will keep an eye out for it when it gets reissued.

TRAXX electrical locomotives

The prototypes
The Bombardier TRAXX family of locomotives are a series of mainline locomotives built by Bombardier Transportation in both freight and passenger variants.
The acronym stands for Transnational Railway Applications with eXtreme fleXibility. The earlier classes were DBAG 145 and 146.
The production of 200 units built between 2001 and 2003 for DBAG were classified as DBAG Class 185. A further 57 units were built for various European leasing companies as Class 185.5 For the railways of Switzerland another 35 units were produced for SBB Cargo (Re482), and 20 units for BLS AG (Re485). The Swiss locomotives are identical to the German versions except in details such as pantographs (2 more, with smaller contacts for running in tunnels) and Switzerland specific safety systems in addition to the German systems.
The models
Märklin produced Models 36850, 36851 and 36852 (and others) with the liveries of DBAG, SBS Cargo and BLS respectively. These were relatively cheap models and were designated "Hobby". They had only one function - lights on/off but they had digital decoders. I bought them because I wanted to expand my digital fleet quickly at that time (circa 2005). Nowadays, I want to buy only MFX locomotives.
The problem
I encounter a perplexing problem - on my layout which has a mix of C-tracks and M-tracks, the DBAG model runs happily and without problem. The SBS model always derails at a particular point (M-track turnout) on the top level (L3) and the BLS model always derails at a specific point (M-track turnout) on the bottom level (L2). WHY?? They are IDENTICAL models !!! So why should they behave differently? THIS IS FRUSTRATING - WHO EVER SAY THIS IS A STRESS-FREE HOBBY????

Lausitzbahn - Siemen's "Desiro"

I have been running Piko #56121 the DMU (Diesel Multi-Unit) "Desiro" BR642 for a week since receiving it from Edmund Baker. It carries the livery of Connex subsidiary - LausitzBahn.
I LOVE this model - here are some of the reasons:
(1) it runs beautifully - no jerkiness, no abrupt movement
(2) it takes all my tracks well even though I have a mixture of M-tracks and C-tracks
(3) it has no problem with any of my old M-tracks points (turnouts).
(4) it is beautifully crafted and Piko, unlike Mother Märklin, provides a driver in the front cab
(5) the windows are wide and beautiful (see third photo)- no motor is blocking any windows and I look forward to putting in some passengers
(6) the lights are bright white in front and red behind and there are cabin lights too (although these are more apparent at night)
Edmund has ordered for me a sound module to go with this train and that is the next thing to look forward to.