WTH is he digging for?

This scene shows a railroad employee ready digging a hole.
But its not obvious to find some treasure in plywood. ;-)








Also some delicate horse shit is spotted on the grazing land.

DE-1 in action

The Artitec DE 1 in action:

Plan-F Scenery progress

Some ballast and grass is added to the Plan-F module 6.
I forgot to paint the plywood green before I 'planted' the grass, but its OK from some distance. ;-)
More time for getting the optical details better is needed. But so far I like the job.

New 'Think' Bike

Maybe a little bit of topic, but biking brings me lot of good ideas for Rocrail. Even many programming issues are thought over and come out in a better way.

Yes, I already had a new bike in 2009, but I was very disappointed by its quality.

DE 1

Finally, after three years of waiting, the Dutch DE 1 arrived at Plan-F.
The Dutch manufacturer, Artitec, decided to let it produce in China but they experienced a lot of difficulties on this cheap and pollution way.
Many of the delivered DE 1 have some optical errors, but I got one in good condition.

Two years ago I proposed to Artitec to pay at least 100 Euro more for a European manufactured product, but they were sure it would have cost more than 100 Euro more.

In the weekend I will try to let it run and hope to experience a good ride...

Drawing makes fun.

The first pencil art made on the "old" drawing table is the Plan-F module connections for double and single track.
I have saved over the many year a lot of tools for drawing, and they are still operating as expected. It is a real pity that all drawing 'art' is now days done with clinical computer programs without any emotion on the plot.

But I hope some will like my hand drawn publishing at Rocrail.net.

Drawing table

Today I collected a drawing table, Nestler "Ingenieur" A1, in Dortmund.
Jean-Michel was so kind to give me company and a hand to get this object in my van.
After a lot of cleaning and testing I am happy to have it for brain storming and designing.
But... I need a high chair for this table. Its OK to work standing, but not for hours. :-)

There are CAD programs now days, but I started my career as architectural draftsman with pencil and ink. This old fashion way shows the drawing style which CAD does not.

Drawing track plans, and other sketches, I always us a pencil and paper which gives me more freedom of expression as a computer program.

New station for Plan-F module 6.

The Faller 110120 station is currently under construction for the Plan-F 6 module.
This modules was originally targeted to hold the "Neustadt" Station but is rejected because its too big for just a few tracks and it would not allow to see the trains running in and out.

Piko NS 6495

In my holidays I found this loco in Goes(NL) for just 85 Euro.

After coming home I plugged in a cheap Lenz Decoder and it runs very smooth.
The front and rear lights are small LEDs.

But compared with the NS 2400 series of Roco, also to have for less then 100 Euro, it has a small motor, plastic look, and less details.