Progress report

Schöntal is the working title for my N scale (1:160) model railway layout, the town/village on the layout may eventually be called something else.

Work began in winter 2005, and is now well progressed. The target date for "completion" was originally February 2009, that has obviously passed and realistically we are probably looking February 2010. It will be available for a limited number of exhibitons per year.

• Background
• Design
• Progress report
• Auf Deutsch - im Bau / under construction
• Links

April 2009

Spring has arrived in the UK and with it better weather. This has meant I have been able to work outside or in the shed, and my loyalties have moved from my American HOn30 module to Schöntal. Progress has been made with adding legs to three of the four boards, with more buildings and rolling stock.

The rolling stock will largley be made up of train "sets", so I have started to remove the couplers from the driving trailers and one end of the locos and replace these with dummy screw link couplers and assorted hoses. The passenger stock will all recieve Flieschmann Profi couplers for closer coupling. I originally intended to install function only decoders in the driving trailers, but have discovered that the Digitrax TF4 is not capable of directional lighting control, so I will be forced to use budget loco decoders.

August 2008

All 4 baseboards are constructed and all the track laid and tested. There is still a small amount of wiring to do on one portion of hidden staging on the left hand scenic module, and some additional check rails to add at the board joint at this end.

The left hand module has all track, most of the hardboard scenery formers and road base. It hasn't had the chicken wire or hard shell scenery added. This end will have a small town/village. So far we have built to virtual completion a station, church, Gasthof (pub), shops, and several houses from various kits. There are still quite a lot of buildings needed for this area, several of which are likely to have to be scratch built or severely kit-bashed.

The right hand scenic module is much more advanced and has hard-shell scenery, bridges, retaining walls and roads. Two of the four buildings for this module are complete and ready to install. The wharf scene "river" just needs a top coat of smooth plaster before installation of the wharf pilings and painting. I also need to build a Rhine barge at some stage.

The main road is "cabled" for Faller Road System vehicles. The road is a hardboard base overlain with smooth plaster. This has been sanded smooth and painted with a sealing coat of paint. It has been tested to prove operation with vehicles. The Feldwege (vineyard tracks) are also created this way, but without Road System cables; on these the plaster surface has been carved to give the idea of patched asphalt and concrete typical of these country lanes.