Moin, moin - hello And again some pics FREMO-Meet in Cloppenburg - The USA-H0 layout http://www.williwinsen.de/album/2008_05_01-Cloppenburg-USA-H0/html/default.html Pics of the much larger european layout will follow- Samples of the US-pics Tschüß Harald
Some pics of the European H0-Layout in Cloppenburg Details http://www.williwinsen.de/album/2008_05_02-Cloppenburg-H0RE/html/default-1.html Overview http://www.williwinsen.de/album/2008_05_03-Cloppenburg-Luftbilder/html/default.html
Wonderful pictures. Looks like everyone had a good time. I can see from the photos that there was some kind of operations (timetable and train order?) going on with the American themed layout. What kind of traffic was running on the European layout?
>>Wonderful pictures. Looks like everyone had a good time. << Thanks - and Yes .-) >>I can see from the photos that there was some kind of operations (timetable and train order?) going on with the American themed layout.<< Timetable and waybills - no trainorders this time, but a dispatcher - all players radio equipped The Dispatcher at work >>What kind of traffic was running on the European layout?<< Timetables - signals - and much more The Layout http://www.thwoditsch.de/fremo/clp08/Halle95.pdf Some 12 time tables for differentb branches - all working together FREMO Himmelfahrtstreffen Cloppenburg 01.-04.05.2008 Yellow pages for freight http://www.thwoditsch.de/fremo/clp08/FREMO_yellow_pages_CLP08_2.pdf The Seehafen (harbour) is radio-equipped - the other stations are connected via wire and phones. Maybe Wolfgang Dudler can explain it a little better - his English is better than mine. Wolfgang - liest Du mit? Tschuess Harald
Well, as much as I know - I've not been there - the US style layout is operated something like Track Warrant I guess. It's a more modern style. The European railroaders have a timetable. Stations have station masters / yard masters who switches signals and turnouts. He reports the train via telephone to the next station, and - according to the timetable - this station master gives his approval of the train run to his station. The train crew looks mostly only for the signals, like CTC. But there're a few guy who build their stations rural. They operate the turnouts manually. AND the uses keys. You have to take the key with you to throw the turnouts. And you must bring the turnouts in normal to unplug your key! Wolfgang
I took a look at the train movement diagrams and the whole operations plan (FREMO Himmelfahrtstreffen Cloppenburg 01.-04.05.2008) and all I can say is that this level of organization is simply astounding. I am sure that it must have been fun to see it all operating. I have seen a number of model train clubs here in the US with large permanent layouts but even those clubs don't sustain this level of traffic on their layouts. On the other hand, the modular layouts here in the US don't seem to run complex traffic patterns (feel free to correct me if I am wrong). Incidentally, I was wondering: How do freight trains operate? Are they given slots in the timetable?
The 25 anniversary in Alsfeld was even bigger. There were about 1000 meter modules, European style. They needed about 80 persons to operate, station masters, switchman, engineers. For freight, here in Germany have freight trains a schedule like other trains. One example, at the European style meeting in Februar in Krefeld we had a small layout. I was there with my "Naumburg". http://www.crefeld.de/pdf/Helau-2008.pdf This is the layout (1.6MB) and this is a graphic schedule for this layout: http://www.crefeld.de/pdf/245-k-2008.pdf This is called "Bildfahrplan", you see all trains. You see at the top all towns from this layout. Black lines are passenger, blue lines are freight. The line to Naumburg was a branch line, to Heinsberg main line. Staging was Lindern. Wolfgang
