The siren call of other railways

Originallay posted 24/11/2009


Before I went on holiday, my ideas for Bad Horn were pretty firm. It was going to be set in Nordrhein-Westfalen, the terminus of a branch line from Paderborn. A Teutoburg Forest setting would allow a hilly landscape and a tunnel as scenic break, yet close enough to conurbations to have a busy commuter service. There is a real town called Horn in the area, so the slight change to Bad Horn kept the local flavour and implied a tourist destination as well. Plus it's just a little rude, in a Derek and Clive sense. Still, it's not as bad as my Austrian narrow gauge, which is now called Fucking in honour of the grief it has given me, and the fact that I already reffered to it as the "fucking HOe".

I think my discipline began to wane early on the morning of 29th October. Pixie's birthday, fact fans. I was riding IC 2072 "Sylter Strand" from Dresden to Berlin, and idly picked up the timetable leaflet. The cogs of recollection whirred. "IC 2072 / neg 13. NEG? Aren't they the company that haul the through coaches to Dägebull with railcars?" I slipped the leaflet into my bag, to check up on later, and went for breakfast.

 

Eggs and sausage and bread, oh my!

Well, check up I did, but only after a week or so when I finally unpacked my hand luggage. It didn't honk like my laundry from a week chasing round Germany, so hadn't been a pressing need. And there, a little creased, was the timetable leaftlet, reminding me to check up on a random bit of trivia. It was easy to find on bahnbilder.de and railfaneurope, and indeed it was the line which uses railcars to haul IC coaches- including an IC driving trailer. The formation of a single railcar with two trailers of its own and two further IC coaches has an undeniable appeal. They also use a 628, and I had just bought a 628. Plus plandampfs on summer weekends, and the backdrop of a ferry. All in all, I find the idea very alluring. Of course, I could create my own kleinbahn to allow me to make best use of models I already own- in present day Germany, modelling a kleinbahn, I could even use my Schienenbus. If following this route I'd be tempted to change the scenic style to north German, creating a similar setting to the NEG's line.

Then, as seen in my previous post, I plonked some ex-DR stock on the layout. Well crikey, but didn't that look nice too. I've got plenty, and the local service has a choice of 628, Halberstadts and double deck coaches, with 202, 219 and 232 for traction, plus the odd through coach off an IR or IC service. For good measure, here's another image, this time a 202 running round its Halberstadts.

I don't just have the temptation to change the era and railway company. For some reason, a windswept seaside locale is growing on me, rather than hills and trees. A good scenic break is more of a problem, but a footbridge might do. Of course, I could create a private railway which serves my original location, something like the "Westfälische Lokalbahnen AG". Anonymising the signage could allow me to run whatever I liked on it, but I don't think I'd be satisfied with the end result (like I ever am, anyway...). My other temptation is to liberally apply DBAG logos to my Epoch IV DB stock, so that I can model a DBAG station and have the location flexible as Westphalia or Saxony.

Trying to give myself some focus, here's a gratuitous shot of a 364 running around its short freight. Yes, there is that poor an alignment on the platform at the baseboard join.