Rod’s been back in touch with his HO scale electric trains off the coast of the med:
“Hi Alastair,
My wife reminded me recently that the new ipad she gave me for my birthday has a decent camera on it so I had to try it out on the layout, which is otherwise unchanged.
The bulk of the ipad limits the range of views you can get compared to my little digital camera, which can get under and between things, but the depth of field is amazing.
Here are a few pictures:
A push-pull diretto hauled by an E646 3kV electric train passes through the headland tunnel at Cervo St Bartolomeo and heads west along the coast of the Med (first picture).
Then runs into Diano Marina station passing the buffet bar with the Hotel Torino in the background and the OHL maintenance depot in the foreground (second picture)…
…and finally leaves town under the Via Aurelia bridge (third picture) en route towards Ventimiglia.
Finally, going the other way, an E444 hauling the ‘Riviera dei Fiori’ through service from Nizza to Zurich via Milano, leaves the station past the 3kV substation while a family from the old crossing cottage tend their vegetable patch.
Hope you like them.
Rod”
You can see more of Rod’s HO scale layout here
A big thanks to Rod. I don’t think there are many ‘electric trains’ on the site.
Now on to Peter:
“Hi Al
A small interim update as I still have lots to do with the mountains and other scenery but I think the bones are stating to look interesting.
Peter”
I do love an update. It’s great to see a layout emerging from the choas of the first few steps.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to get going just like Peter did.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
Rod,
Amazing shots! The first one especially looks like it’s 1:1 scale.
Thanks for sharing.
Bob in NJ
Oops, computers always seem to think they know best, photos one and three seem to have reversed their positions somehow in transit, compared to the captions. Via Aurelia bridge is the first photo, the station second, Cervo third, and the one of the ‘Riviera’ departing is still last. Apologies for any confusion.
Rod
amazingly clear photos. Looks great !
Amazing pix. Are the locos actually powered through the overhead ines?
Great layout,very detailed.
Looks great.!!!!!
Rod: Viva Italia! – Un svizzero tedesco ora vivere in CA US. – Ambience reflects Italian Med coast places to the tee. Excellent catenary work. – markus
Jim Sterling, no I’m afraid the overhead is not live, although the pantographs do run against the contact wire, apart from the odd one with a rather wobbly single arm pan. There are ten sidings in the offstage storage yard which would have been very costly and a lot of work to equip with overhead, and it would have made it very difficult to put stock on and off the tracks in a hurry at an exhibition. The overhead is by Sommerfeldt and all metal so it would have been possible to have it live. I used to operate a model tramway on our club OO layout and trams with pantographs ran very reliably off single nickel silver trolley wire, so it isn’t a problem.
Markus, thank you for your kind comment, at our first exhibition we had someone walk in and say immediately “I know this town, my parents live just up the coast!” You can imagine how happy I was.
Very nice guys!
Wonderful Mediterranean look Rod – great modelling.
You obviously enjoy running trains Peter – good luck on your scenery.
Brian, Wokingham, UK
To Peter, nice start but how many trains are running at the same time? I tried to count and came up with 6, but I could be wrong.