Platinate Overland Trolleys

[Waldbahner]

Hello guys,

after finishing my N-scale Southern layout, I steped right into the the next adventure, dedicated to an old trolley line at my home area.

First : A brief history

The “Pfälzer Oberlandbahn”, or as the native called her “the snail”, was a 14 miles long trolley line between Landau and Neustadt in the southwest of Germany. It was build in 1912 and the full line opened service in January 1913.



The railroad was constructed as an overland trolley line with meter gauge and connects the small villages along the palatinate mountains with the bigger cities of Landau and Neustadt. In the other direction, she brought citizens out into the nature for relaxing. As the railroad was build, there was no major traffic on the streets and you had to walk or use an horse cart to travel to another village near by.

The trolleys were a big and important step into future for the people in that time and for the region as well.



Starting at the state railroads main station in Landau, the trolleys run through the city up to the north. Between the villages along the line, the rails were laid into the rural streets except for some short sections, where the trains had their own RoW. Passing through Nußdorf, Böchingen, Flemlingen, Hainfeld and Rhodt, the train arrvied at Edenkoben, midpoint of the line and home of the main facilities. The 5 track car shed is still in place and is used for buses today. All trains started from here in the good old days. The line continues over Maikammer, Diedesfeld and Hambach until she ends at the state railroads main station in Neustadt.

For these 14 miles long trip, the train tooks 1h45 at a top speed of 18 miles per hour. So you can imagine why the native called her “the snail”. But it was better than taking a walk and the whole trip costs 15 cents when the line was opened.



After WW2, the railroad was in a bad condition but she was back in service very quick when the war was over. Anyway, the material of the line was well done. Through the years of WW2, there was no chance to replace rails, overhead wires or to do major maintainance at all. So in the 1950th, the railroad was in a very poor condition. So the company decided to replace the trolleys with buses and the line between Landau and Edenkoben was switched to bus service in 1952. Three years later, on 30th of January 1955, the last “snail” runs between Edenkoben and Neustadt. The next day, the whole line was served by buses and the “Palatinate Overland Trolley” becomes another fallen flag in Germany narrow gauge history.



But the company itself survied until today and is an important bus service in this region and by old people, the bus line 501 is still called “snail” or “electric tram” in memory of the old days. The company still uses the old tram shed as mentioned above to store the busses at night.

In 2013, the railroad would be 100 years old and that’s the reason why I started a model building project with this therm. Another point is, that I live in Böchingen and the railroad runs direct in front of my house. There’s even a photo of the opening with my house in place (see red arrow). Not much has changed in the past 100 years. The house in front of mine is gone and at least the railroad.....



If there weren't the books written by a railroad historican, I guess the railroad would be forgotten for ever. Since non of the prototype cars survied and there's no memorial to the old trolley line, I decided to make my own ones in H0 scale.

Ant that's what I'll show you in the next posts.

Cheers, Gerd

[Waldbahner]

Second : The rolling stock

The railroads trolley cars where build by Herbrand Co. in Cologne in 1912. Non of the original cars has survived. There are just some similar looking cars from another railroadline, but with different end walls. The next problem is, that there are no RTR models of this prototype avaiable. I had to scratchbuild them. I used rare and pure drawings together with photos to bring these railcars back in 1:87 scale.



I spend several weeks to design 3D models on my computer. I started with an ordinary coach car and changed it into a motorcar during the next step. There are 2 different kinds of motorcars and 2 kinds of coach cars, while each motorcar has two different versions. At the end, I had a total of 6 different 3D models, based on the prototype cars.





To make the models become real, I used the great 3d-printservice from Shapeways and I ordered the first models printed in FUD. They are designed to take 12mm wheelsets to represent the narrow gauge in H0m scale. There are RTR drive mechanism aviable from Halling.at and the panthographs are made by Sommerfeld. There's still a lot of work to do, but the printed shells and chassis are a good start for my model trains.



After fixing some issues on the 3d-models, I ordered the first bunch of 3 cars to model a train from the 1929th. I had some b/w photos showing the trains with black lining and there's a painting by a regional artist that gives hints for the right colors. This maybe the look of the old trolleys in the 1929th.



With the first train finished, I made some more cars in the look of the 1950th which will be the main ear in my collection. All cars are equipped with DCC. 3 more cars are planed and will be added during the next month.







In the next post, I'll show you my modular layout with prototype scenes of the old railroad. The first two modules are finished and will be shown on the 100th anniversary event at the bus depot on saturday.

Cheers, Gerd

[faraway]

Gerd, that is a great little model!

[Waldbahner]

Thanks Reinhard!

Here's the next post, showing my finished modules so far.

I decided to build small showcase style modules and each show case represents a different section on the line, a different era or even different season. So it's easy to represent totally different scenes beside each other and I can skip sections of the line or maybe add them later step by step. As written in the first post, I live in Böchingen directly at the old railroad line. So I started in this area with two sections on the line between Nußdorf and Böchingen.

"Three stones"

This is the name of a stop at a rural crossroad where passengers for Frankweiler would depart. The village itself is 3.5km to the west and the passengers had to walk from their home to the railroad. BTW: Mr. John Cullmann was born in Frankweiler and emigrate to the United States in 1865. He founded the city of Cullman in Alabahma 1873.

Even today you'll find three large sandstones under some trees at this crossing. That's where the stop got it's name from. Beside the stop, there was a passing siding. The mainline was single track only so the trains had to use the sidings. There where 13 sidings at all.


The real location.

In this photo, you'll see the trees where the stones are placed. The road to the left will lead to Frankweiler, while the road on the right goes down to Böchingen. the railroad came from the lower left corner and run down the road to Böchingen. Left to the tree group was the passing spur located.


A look to the opposite direction shows the road to Nußdorf. The rails where embeted in the right side of the street. The road to the right is the one to Frankweiler. The left one will lead into the upper part of Nußdorf.


The three stones...


And here's what my model is look like.

The scene was modeled in the summer of 1952. The wheat will be harvested soon and the next January, service will abondonned on the south section of the railroad. Today you'll find the three stones under some trees here. It's a nice picnic place. All the fields are planted with grapes today.

First an overview. This module is 110x25cm.


A 2-car train comes up from Nußdorf. Some passengers are waiting at the stop by the stones under the trees. On the backdrop you may imagine Frankweiler in the distance... There was a sandstone quary nearby...


The 3-car train from Edenkoben is waiting in the passing siding for the train from Landau.


After passing the other train, the short one continues down to Böchingen. Sheppard Hubert is on travel with his herd of sheeps...


The next post will show you the second module, dedicated to the fine palatinate wine...

Cheers, Gerd

[shortliner]

Gerd, that is VERY, VERY, good! super modelling - In Enland some places had large, flat stones like those placed at crossroads, and near inns, for dismounting from horses

[teejay]

Truly amazing modeling ......most impressive work .

T

[Waldbahner]

Many thanks !!!

So here's the second finished module. Acutally this one was the first that I build for this project.

"Palatinate vineyard"

We live in a big wine area here and so it's no wounder that the trolley also rumbled through vineyards along the line. In each village, the stop was mostly in front of the tavern. It's told that the last train at night stoped and the condutcor stepped in to pick up the passengers. While they empty their glases, the conductor get's a wine from the bar tender to thank for this service. Once everyone was ready to go, the trolley continued the trip to the next tavern where the same story was repeated....At the end terminus, the train had to make the return trip the same way.....

Anyway, this second module shows vineyards in spring of 1925. The fresh leaves just spring and will grow up to full grape plants for the next seasons wine. In these old days, most rural streets where gravel roads or like in this case cobbled. Traffic on the streets where just some animal drawn carts and pedestrians. So it was no problem to build the railroad right into the street. In the last 5 years of operation, the individual traffic grows up and there wasn't enough room for the trolleys and cars. This also leads into the change for buses in 1955.

Like before, here're a couple of prototype photos.
The modeled area is at the south entrance to Böchingen. The narrow street lies in a small cut and some pathes are leading into the vineyards.


View along the road down south. Half left in the distance, you can see a group of trees. That's where the stop "three stones" was located.


And that's what the trolleys look like today. The railroad ceased railroad operation in 1955 and switched to bus serivce. This bus service is still in place and more or less the same company, now named Palatina Bus.


Let's go for a look of the model scene.




Narrow streets....


The next seasons wine is starting to spring.


To run trains on this layout, I've a ballon track module for the right end of the layout and a fiddle yard module with a 4 track train turntable for the left end. So I can run the trains point-to-loop. The passing siding allows some action with two trains. The ballon track is fully automatically, so one can operate the whole layout from the fiddle yard.

That's all for now. Actually I'm working on plans to build a part of my hometown in the 1930th as third module.
If there's ane progress, I can post it here if you like.

Cheers, Gerd

[ngauger]

Great history lesson and fantastic modeling!!!

[Sumpter250]

The three D printer does a super job ! Great looking models, and really nice scenery.

[faraway]

It is getting better and better!
ps. the long and complicated english word for "Pfalz" is interesting, didn't know that. Sounds like the latin name back from the romans.

[modelsof1900]

Gerd, great modeled scenery and yet better street car models.
Very good idea and excellent realisiation what you have done an base of your 3D-printed models! I'm pleased to see you here with your new project!

[jwb]

I would probably translate "Oberland" as "Highlands".

[Tyson Rayles]

[Waldbahner]

Hello and many thanks for your kind words.

Well, highlands maybe the correct translation for Oberland. In old newspapers, the railroad was often called a mountain railway. The highest hill nearby is 680meters but the railroad never climbed such hills. Palatinate Highland is an old name of our area which is known today as "south wine street" .

And Reinhard is right. Palatinate may be based on the latin word Palatina.

Cheers Gerd

[teejay]

Gerd , for you homework tonight , we'd like you to fully research the word Palatina ....myself , I think it means " friend of Tina "

T