Last year, we had a bit of a holiday haul. This year, while some new rolling material arrived over the holiday period, there have also been quite a few additions throughout the rest of the year. So it figures to do a year-in-review style post this time around.
One of the new acquisitions last year was a Mitropa restaurant car made by PIKO precursor Schicht in the GDR. I liked that one so much that I started to build a train around it. Throughout the year, I managed to acquire several matching cars. One batch contained a first class express train car, a second class express train car, and a mail car, all in Deutsche Reichsbahn livery. Since all the passenger cars have a route sign ‘Berlin – Prague’, this train is simply the Berlin-Prague express.
At a later stage, I acquired another DR express car, a mixed class one. And lastly, I added two sleeping cars in ČSD livery (Czechoslovakian State Railways). Since the trains often had mixed rolling stock from different operators in real life, I thought it fitting to mix up things in the layout a bit as well.
The condition of these cars is a bit mixed. Some of the are missing small parts, such as buffers and steps. For models that may well be over forty years old, that’s not too bad. At least the buffers should be easily replaceable. The ČSD cars however were in surprisingly good condition – clean, no breakage, no scratches. Most of the Schicht cars, which were manufactured within built in lights, don’t have light bulbs any more, but since I plan on adding LED lighting, that doesn’t matter much.
DR First Class coach 
DR mixed class coach 
DR Second Class coach 
ČSD First Class sleeping car. 
ČSD Second Class couchette car 
East German postal car
On the passenger car front, another acquisition was made that is still waiting for a suitable locomotive. Australia has some fairly well known tourist trains like the Ghan or the Indian Pacific. A less well known train that only operates around Christmas is the Great Southern, which runs between Adelaide and Brisbane. A local manufacturer has announced locos in Great Southern livery, we decided to get one of them, and are waiting for them to arrive. However, the ‘real’ models for the passenger cars are rare and expensive. A set for the Great Southern was announced as a surprise release by local manufacturer Auscision, and was sold out in no time. But there are approximations of the rolling stock available from Lima, which are of basic detail and build quality, but nonetheless quite sought after in Australia. I managed to secure three of these cars in very good condition as a starting point for such a train. They will need some work, like a change of couplers and maybe some decals, but they’ll do.
More passenger cars were acquired to build a train around the set of West German express cars I acquired last year. One addition is a regular 2nd Class express car, which will line up just fine in that train. The other is a half-dining car, a car with both regular seating areas, and a dining compartment. These cars were quite common in West Germany in the 70s and 80s. Due to their colour scheme, which could be red/blue as well as red/green, they were known as ‘Kakadu’ (cockatoo) – which is a bit odd, because most cockatoos don’t sport those colours.
The 2nd class express car of type Bm232. The route sign is unfortunately not appropriate, since this car would not have travelled in a Trans Europe Express. 
The Kakadu, with the blue section being regular (1st Class) seating, and red being a dining area
Lastly on the rolling stock front, a collection of beer reefers was started.
There have also been additions to our motive power. The first addition was this BR753 diesel locomotive. The intended purpose for this one is to pull the West German express cars. The 753 is a bit of a unique model, in that there were only two of them in real life, which were prototypes to the 217 class locos. These two were re-numbered and reassigned to internal duties in 1989, but they have had a brief history in passenger traffic.
This is a pretty model, but it needed a bit of work. One of the cab windows had come loose in transport, and due to the construction of the shell, there wasn’t an obvious fix. The manufacturer wasn’t able to help. In the end I was able to get information from other owners of the same model, and fixed the window. Also, the loco had some capacitors in it which served to suppress RF interference, but caused the loco to run badly with a digital decoder. Removal of those capacitors solved the issue 1.
Another new loco is the BR232 in Erfurter Bahn Service livery. This one is a relative to our Ludmilla, which I chose purely because I really liked the paint job, and I needed a new service loco, since Ludmilla will be dedicated to passenger service now. The private operator has acquired a number of former East German locos and is operating them in both freight and passenger service. While some of them operate in their historic liveries, others have been given the operator’s own paint job.
Lastly, I managed to fulfil a long standing wish. With an unexpected windfall, I acquired the BR175 diesel railcar of Deutsche Reichsbahn. These railcars, known in their first incarnation as VT18.16, and colloquially called ‘Görlitzer’ after their place of manufacture, were the prestige train of the East German railway operator until the late 70s. Capable of speeds up to 160km/h, they were used on high profile international routes such as Berlin – Prague – Vienna, or Berlin -Malmö. This model was last produced in 2018, and it appeared to have been sold out, but I found a few at a UK dealer and promptly secured one. The plan is for this train to be fully equipped with sound and interior lighting, which will require some work (and saving up). This train has not yet been removed from its box, except for a quick function test. What’s nice about it is that this four piece unit is a complete train – in its minimum configuration the BR175 had two motor cars and two middle cars, with a maximum of four middle cars.
What else has happened this year? A new train room was built, but progress on the next steps is slower than I hoped. We managed to get electricity connected to the shed, and the painting has begun, so it will be a bit longer before I can start building the bench work. The old layout that can still be seen in some of the above photos has been dismantled, but before that happened, I managed to experiment with feedback and play with interior lighting for buildings. All in all, not a bad year. So I am going to close this post with a bit of a sneak peek of what the next year will hopefully bring.
This is a render of what the new layout may look like. It will be quite a bit of work, and it will have to happen in stages, but we’ll get there one day. 
And when we get there, this little guy will live somewhere on the layout. Can’t have German trains without German sausages…
