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Home Swedish Models Steninge Links Sweden Below is a revised copy of the article about the layout that appeared in the October 2003 issue on Continental Modeller: The layout was designed to be a model of a typical 1960’s Swedish Station and to promote both the railways of Sweden and the Scandinavian Railways Society ( www.scanrailsoc.org.uk ). The layout’s location was decided on because I had a copy of Tåg with a 1950’s track plan and a copy of the summer 1965 timetable. A Little History Strömstad lies at the Northern end of the Swedish West Coast, just south of the Norwegian border and is a busy summer resort. The line from Gothenburg was completed in 1903, with the intention of continuing on to Norway. However the coastal terrain was such that the idea was abandoned. Strömstad thus became the northern terminus of Bohusbanan, the line through the province of Bohuslän. The line was electrified during the 1950’s and later reduced at the northern end to a basic railway operated by suburban EMU’s of class X10 from Gothenburg. Currently there are proposals to close the northern end completely. The line comes along the coast and swings into the town centre. Original facilities included a two-road shed, turntable and a harbour branch. Local bus services to outlying villages and islands terminate in front of the station. There were also a number of ferry services to local islands and Norway from the harbour adjacent to the station. Changes to the prototype 1. The loco shed and carriage sidings changed ends to enable them to fit 2. The station building was moved to the country end of the platform 3. The buildings on the layout are not exact copies of the centre of Strömstad but represent typical Swedish architecture. 4. The line is not electrified on grounds of cost, the layout is being currently fitted with Jeco masts. Construction The layout is not especially unusual in construction methods. The front consists of 3” x 1” timber frames with 2” square legs, while the rear of the layout is made from 19 mm x 38 mm timber. The baseboard tops and back scene are of 6mm ply. Track is Peco code 100 and the turntable is from Kibri and is non-working. The electrical system is as simple as possible, Hornby point motors were used as I can get them in town during my lunch hour! they didn’t work too reliably and have had to be replaced by SMP motors. The control panel is screwed to the back of one of the boards when in use and is linked to the rest of the layout via 25 way “D” sockets. Power is provided via a Gaugemaster handheld controller plugged into the control panel. The layout lighting is a simple rig using Woodfit slide connectors to attach it to the layout. The lights themselves are cheap spotlights from Ikea. Scenery Scenery is made from expanded polystyrene covered in finishing plaster mixed with PVA and then painted and flocked. The roads were made from commercial “bendy” roadway which works OK if you stick it down with suitable glue. The trees are all commercial products; signage, the phone boxes and the water crane are from Modell Mekanik in Sweden. The buildings are a mixture of what I could find here in the UK and vary from the scratch built loco shed to the Hornby petrol station. Most are by Heljan; their Åmål station kit was repainted to represent the actual building in Strömstad. Three of the houses are from Euromod and the churchyard wall is made from Linka. The remaining scenic items came from a variety of sources over a period of time. Stock and Services The backbone of the loco fleet is a number of diesel locomotives. The largest group are 3 Lima T43 class locos which are only really suitable for passenger haulage, and then only if they are heavily weighted. One of the T43’s has is being repowered with the mechanism from a Proto 2000 SW1200 which should help. The other locos are two Piko 0-8-0’s a Fratschi T42 and a Modellproduktion T44. The local loco hauled train is bolstered with a pair of UGJ class Ybo6 railbusses. With electrification the diesels will become reserve locos, a variety of electric units of classes Da, Ra, Rc, Hc and X16. Coaching stock is a mixture of Lima and UGJ products, while freight stock is a mixture of anything suitable that comes to hand when getting ready for an exhibition. Services are based on the summer 1965 timetable and include a sleeping car from Stockholm and a day coach to Stockholm, in total 11 passenger trains per day, (the odd working is as a result of working the twin Ybo6 set back as single cars). Freight services are fictional and assume one freight per day from Gothenburg. A trip working is also operated to the harbour, using the resident shunter. Conclusion A number of ideas for improvements and changes to the layout as first completed have been implemented as a result of exhibition experience. The second goods shed on the former carriage siding is the latest change. Future ideas that I am mulling over include;
Thanks must go to Adrian Allum, Paul Evans and various members of the AJK, Colchester & District MRC and of the Scandinavian Railways Society for their help during construction and in operating the layout at exhibitions. Finally thanks must go to my mother for allowing me to use her garage during construction. |
