Goodbyes

It’s cold: that special early morning you-should-be-in-bed cold that starts somewhere in the bone marrow and works its way out. Mum and Dad are sorting out passports and tickets, checking how much time they have to change trains in Paris, and sorting out luggage. I’m already starting to think about the day ahead: getting the [...]

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Quality Time

It’s been much longer than I’d like since I posted here. Of course a job interview and cycling back from Amsterdam on a cargo bike didn’t help this. It’s hard to build models when you’re nowhere near your modelmaking bench. (The story of getting the bike home is gradually unfolding here).  I also want [...]

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What Narrow Gauge could be -4

The last films on this theme were in Switzerland or east Germany: finally I’ve found a very brief glimpse of a freight carrying line in the ‘Old’ Federal Republic, today, and not far from one Bonn. No-one on the Brockenbahn seems to think narrow gauge is just for tourist railways as [...]

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What narrow gauge could be -3

As you read this I’ll be in a cramped sardine can with little legroom and less air, trying to keep the boys occupied and waiting for the next installment of plastic food to break the monotony. Such is modern air transport. I’ll be posting from Japan as soon as I’ve recovered [...]

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To change a light bulb

Germany may be missing basic elements of civilisation (Marmite for example), but it does seem to retain a sense of proportion. A week or two ago I was in Vaihingen, and while waiting for my tram I saw these gentlemen squeeze through a gap in the hedge, call the control box on a cell phone, [...]

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So here’s why I’ve been quiet for a while…

We were suddenly told last week that an apartment was up for rent on a quiet road in the village, so we went along to have a look, more to eliminate it from the list than anything as we thought it would be way over our budget. This one had all the signs of [...]

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Best laid plans…

The cunning plan for the weekend was to get something built and then write about it today, but but unfortunately Beautiful Wife had flu over the weekend and between looking after her and The Boys I didn’t have time to even get the modelling board out, so being British, I’m going to talk about the [...]

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Travelling Tip: BW Ticket.

In Baden Württemberg we have a ticket valid (Unsuprisingly called the “Baden Württemberg Ticket” from 0900 on weekdays, for all local trains (trains run by DB Regio: S, RB and RE) in the State, and a lot of bus and city transit services. you can get a €19 version for yourself, or a €28 version [...]

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MAN Railbus in Eyach

Long-term readers may recognise this location (Image from the ‘Roter brummer‘ site) as the ‘Mystery Station‘ at Eyach that I blogged about in summer. A bit of research has shown that the station is a meeting point of the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn AG (HzL) and Deutsche Bahn. The HzL line from here is usually freight [...]

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St. Nikolaus

This post may be a bit late. If so, it’s all the fault of St. Nikolaus.
St. Nikolaus is patron saint of Sailors, children, pawnbrokers, and several cities, ans he is celebrated today in Germany. I can’t help feel sorry for him being saddled with pawnbrokers, but there we go. He’s also the real figure behind [...]

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