Julen nærmer seg og denne helgen har jeg kost meg med å bygge Pål Osjords byggesett av lokomotivet "No 1 Lillesand" Vi har et barnebarn på tre år, Jonathan, som elsker å trille rundt på gulvet med LGB toget som faren hans fikk av meg en gang på 1980 tallet. Når jeg så trebyggesettet som Pål hadde laget for salg, slo det meg at det ville bli en fin julegave til Jonathan. I høst ankom pakken på døren og jeg fikk ideen at Jonathan skulle være med på å bygge det FØR jul, pakke det inn og pakke det opp igjen på julaften. Nå er første del en gjennomført. Lokomotivet ble veldig fint og Jonathan fikk prøve seg på maling og limimg. Det tok 5-6 timer å bygge loket. Om et par dager skal vi komme sammen igjen og pakke inn loket som julegave. Det skal også Jonathan være med på.

Byggesettet anbefales. Det er lett å bygge og passer som gave til alle som har barn eller barnebarn. Det er trillbart på gulvet og det holder lenge for en treåring. Det er også dekorativt på hylla.  Søsterloket "No 2 Flaksvand" er også å få kjøpt fra Pål

Pål Osjord sier det vil komme vogner etterhvert, alle basert på Lillesand Flaksvandbanens vognpark.

After almost two years, Stein and I was able to visit the Birkenes museum near Lillesand to see the exhibition about Lillesand Flaksvandbanen. Incorporated in the exhibition is the little diorama Stein and I made for the exhibition. We were impressed by the quality of the exhibition. Especially interesting, apart from photos and saved objects, is a map of the entire railwayline, assembled of numerous smaller line drawings overlayed over a modern map.

Here follow a a few pictures from the visit of the exhibit:

 

Her is the map on the wall with relevant pictures above. The dressine on loan from Setesdalsbanen was missing. 

 

Detail of the map at Lillesand

Here is the other side with the little diorama in a black box

 

With steps for the children

 

And finally the diorama with backlight and toplightt

 

And here in daylight

 

Later the same day we were guided by Carl Frederik Thorsager and others associated with the museum to the nearby saved factory for peat (Torvstrø). This is a large barnlike building with belt driven machinery intact and with a restored locomobile in the nearby shed. This provided power for the machinery. Must see if you are nearby!

Then Carl guided us on a footwalk on more than 3 km of the remaining railbed on the abandoned line. We can imagine a beautiful ride along the river in the narrow valley behind a replica of the little steamloco 

"Lillesand" or "Flaksvand"

Lillesand Flaksvandbanen (the Lillesand Flaksvand railway) was a narrow gauge railway in the south of Norway. It was built to the standard narrow gauge in Norway, 1067mm (CAP). It opened in 1896. It had dimunitive locos and wagons. It was never connected to the other railways of Norway. The line was abandoned in 1954. 

Recently a new interest in preserving the history of the line and  exhibit it in a small local museum are fronted by Carl Fredrik Thorsager a well known person from other preserved railway lines etc.  

There is a facebook group about this with a lot of information and pictures here

LILLESAND FLAKSVANDBANEN (LFB)

Carl Fredrik knew that an acomplished model railway builder, Stein Ragnar Pünther, had made some small models of a loco and three wagons from the railway and asked me if  these models still existed. And yes, actually I had them on my shelves, borrowed from Stein some years ago.  They appear in my other blog and can be seen posing here:

Follow this link for more om Rena 1900;

Rena1900 

Carl Fredrik then asked if it was possible to borrow the models to exhibit in the new museum. It so happened that I was going to meet with Stein the same day (5.april 2017). We had the meeting discussing other Narrow gauge modeling ideas/projects.

Tertittkameratene UHB

Stein liked the idea to include his models in the museum 
The models Stein made from LFB and my model of Rena1900 is to the same scale 1:160 and based on the same norwegian narrow gauge of 1067mm. In N scale (1:160) this is 6,65mm gauge. The whole train that Stein made of loco and three wagons is only 13 cm long (about 5 inches). I suggested that Stein and I could ccoperate to make a small diorama to better exhibit the small models. We agreed  to chose a small halt at the line named Storemyr as theme for the diorama. Stein is responsible for making the small building with platform and I for the design of the diorama and for track and terrain. The final detailing is a common effort. The next posts will concentrate on the progress of building the diorama. It will be a static display.

This is the map of the small halt Storemyr. Note stitchdrain  for drainage marked on each side of the crossroad. The diorama will have the road in front

 
 And here is the train leaving the halt just by the crossroad. There is a small stitchdrain visible.
                                                                                                                                                                                

 Here is the Station in its early years with a small plattform and a manual turnout. Small trees are growing on each side of the crossroad.

 And here years after the closure of the line. The trees are big now.

 Here is the idea for a small diorama. We have found a perfect clear acrylic box here:

SHOW ALL

 ..and we build the diorama inside. The box is 40x20x20cm. But we do not want to "SHOW ALL". By reducing the aperture to about 20x15 cm, we will focus on the little train and the building.

 Here is the blueprint...

...and during easter Stein was active and built the little building. Its only about 38mm long

Yesterday the SHOW ALL box arrived and the first test with paper screening could take place.

I have altered the fond into a semicircle. The window will be smaller as in the pic. below

After this was decided upon, I could start the construction of the real model. I made the base of four 5mm layers of foamboard then one layer for the base of the road and the track. Then I made the stiches for drainage with small stones of grey Cernit. Now I  could lay the piece of track I had leftover from my Rena 1900 layout.

Then came the new turnout. Since this is a static diorama, I did not care about electric separation of the rails.

And here is the point finished. The passage through the frog and guardrails are 0,5mm conforming to 2MMFS/Fremo fiNe standard applied to the gauge of 6.65mm. The railprofile is 0.6mm new silver (NS) rod

 Referring to the old picture above of the halt, there were some young trees lining up the crossroad. These came in handy in the model to disguise the road ending abrupt in the fond (backdrop). So after ballasting and spackeling the road, I made a few small trees.

Now its time for the little building and the platform to be placed on the diorama

 ... and finally the shed building on its place on the diorama...




But it need a foundation and a plattform and...

.....here almost ready for the vitrine. The long partly open drainage ditch is a guess on how it might have been. The original map (see above) show a drainage ditch on either side of the sideroad. The entrance to the platform is bridged over the ditch by four large slate plated.

Finished landscaping with the (unpainted) backdrop attached preliminary

 A clouded day in 1935 before the train arrives. But where is the passengers, onlookers, parcels etc?
 (It will be added later)

 Almost from the drivers point of view as the train aproaches

 The backdrop is semitransparent and will be backlighted. Next is to finish the acrylic box, the shelf and the lighting with ledstrips.

Testing lighteffects

Backlighted with two horisontal light blue LED strips

and one warmwhite LED on top in the front

Backlighted with two horisontal red LED strips

and one warmwhite LED on top in the front

Backlighted with two horisontal deep blue LED strips

and warmwhite LED shut off.

If we shall go on with color change it is nesessary to find a device that can control it. We need to be able to choose color, choose intensity. choose timing and sequence..... Any ideas are welcome.