Dzien dobry!
Yesterday ernst-jan and I went to a friend who has been making all new electrics and a new control panel for the stefanowo-layout, so in Piotrkow it should operate smoothly. The layout was originally built in a great hurry, so I just put the minimal amount of electrical stuff on it (it was possible to operate the switches and run trains but that was it), now the signals are also working and it's only possible to put the signals in "safe" when all switches are in the correct position. When running trains at a show and talking to people at the same time I often forgot to turn a switch or two, so now we should have a lot less derailments
Untill now I have only shown steam traction, but i also have some diesel stuff. I don't have to show my Piko SP42 here i think, everybody already has one, a SN61 is a bit more interesting I guess. It is again made of CNC-milled polystyrene parts, a roof taken from a DB carriage by Roco and it's powered by a very flat motor taken from a CD-ROM-drive, connected to a bogie taken from a Roco locomotive. The bogie was put the other way round, with the motor pointing towards the end of the train, so the motor could be hidden in the toilet area. This very cheap motor runs extremely nice and smooth by the way.
I know very little about the real SN61 actually, I noticed they must have been built as 2 batches, with different front lights and luggage compartment doors, both mostly with 2 but sometimes 3 headlights. (if someone can tell me more it would be really wellcome!) I found a paper model of it which seemed quite good, but later i noticed it had the headlights of one version and the luggage-door of the other. Maybe it is actually correct but I couldn't find any pictures of this version. Lacking any better information I just started designing this model using the paper model and a number of pictures as reference. I like how it turned out, though I probably mixed up some details of different versions but as long as i don't know it it's OK
a nice example of some CNC-made detail, perfect for lazy modellers like me
(although one side of a bogie like this is still made of about 30 pieces...)
By now windscreen wipers have been added, I couldn't find any when I took the pictures... I installed a coupler mechanism on the luggage-and-engine-side so it usually runs hauling one or two ryflak-carriages, though I also found a picture of an SN61 hauling old prussian "boczniak"-carriages, a really cool sight but probably not something that happened everyday.
Then one picture of a test run of my latest project, an SA108. I'm afraid it won't be finished when we are in Piotrkow but it will probably be running anyway!
IMGP2775 by
Floris Dilz, on Flickr
Do widzenia!
Floris