1. home and garden

N
EW
€ 7.50 (D), € 7.50 (A), CHF 13.50 (CH), $ 15.00 (US) | E 254267
Depesche
www.lgb.com
The magazine for LGB enthusiasts
Issue 1/2015
The digital starter set
Perfect start into a new garden railroad dimension
Dream layout
138 meters of track and 600 bonsai plants
“Harz bull”
The Top Model for the 60th anniversary of the new locos
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Messe für Modellbau und Modellsport
15. -19. April 2015
www.intermodellbau.de
editorial
Dear readers,
Your contacts at LGB: Silvia Römpp (LGB Club) and
Andreas Schumann (Product
Manager LGB).
A
fter over five years, you again have an LGB-Depesche in your hands. With the
reintroduction of the LGB cult brand, it is our aim to link up again with the
LGB tradition. LGB has always been known as a solid, down-to-earth company
managed in a friendly manner. These are all values found in Märklin’s new shareholder
structure and are a yardstick for the future course of success for LGB. So this past
year, we have sought contact and exchange of views with as many LGB enthusiasts
as possible, and have been present at a great number of more local events. Apart from
ideas on new products and improvements, one more oft-expressed wish was to see
the Depesche as a technically profound source of information reintroduced. This is
a wish we are happy to fulfill.
Open for new ideas and bound by tradition: these are the guidelines we aim to follow
in furthering the development of the garden railroad. In addition to interesting models
– and we will be releasing many of these this year – this means digital technology.
There are several articles in this issue on Central Station 2. First applications have
already demonstrated that this proven control technology brings with it a whole new
variety of functions and simplifies many running operations for garden railroaders.
We hope you enjoy reading your new Depesche, in which we have put together a great
package of fascinating layouts, building projects, technical tips and extremely interesting new items for 2015. And naturally we look forward to your feedback.
Silvia Römpp
Andreas Schumann
A dream of a model:
The LGB ‘Harz bull’ for
the 60th anniversary of
the new-design locos
by LKM Babelsberg
carries the road number 99 7238-1 and is an
outstanding example of
prototype model production.
3 4 Contents
14 One of the
most beautiful
steam locos of the
year: The ‘Harz
bull’ in its new
design is produced
as a model with
two Bühler motors
and a DCC interface.
Models and layouts
New products 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Top layout (above) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Loco rarities and a mass of new cars will polish up
the garden railroad year 2015 a real treat.
Sven Hoffmann’s rail dream shows off with 138 m
(452‘) of track, loving, painstaking design and 600
Bonsai trees.
LGB digital: Starter set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Top-Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Central Station 2, one loco with mfx decoder and
two cars lay the foundations for the most convenient
digital operation of all time.
Sixty years of new-design locos from Babelsberg!
LGB celebrates too with a model of 99 7238-1 of the
Harz Narrow-Gauge Railways.
Tips and know-how
Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Are 5 amps enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Alpine Classic Pullman Express runs as a railroad jewel on the Rhaetian Railway. There are now
two more of the four saloon cars and baggage car in
the train from LGB.
In his column, Stefan Kühnlein comments on the
discussion about desired and necessary power levels.
Club News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Club models, readers’ trip, exhibitions.
Contents
5
36 A new era in digital controls is upon
us with the Central Station 2 and locos
with mfx decoders.
24 GB founder loco, Allegra in blue, DR
steam loco 99 6001 and much more too:
the new products year 2015.
48 If you want to experience your garden railroad from the engineer’s perspective, you need to do it like Wolfgang
Wildner.
LGB digital part 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Setting up locos on the CS 2: Expert Frank Mayer
explains what to do.
LGB World
New at the retailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Readers ask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
From “Franzburg” to Wernigerode equipment cars:
the new products in January.
LGBer of the month. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Cab ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
IYour garden railroad seen from the loco: Reader
Wolfgang Wildner shows you how.
Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Wonderful and practical ‘oddments’ from the world
of the garden railroad.
Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
LGB – the new generation. . . . . . 59
Retailers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Masthead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9 Watch this:
Building mountains on the garden railroad.
6
6 Depesche 1/2015
Top layout
Sven’s show layout
Sven Hoffmann’s LGB layout is a perfectly-designed layout
created with loving care down to the last detail. Not only that,
it is a masterpiece of craftsmanship and gardening skills too.
S
ven’s garden trains and his layout
are fascinating. With his family’s
help, Sven Hoffmann has created
an imposing landscape in the front garden of his house – managed perfectly
right down to the very last detail. There
is something to discover everywhere, so
a second, third and fourth look is always
repaid. There are many spectators at the
garden fence of this detached house not
far from Ludwigsburg when Sven Hoffmann and his family rail the LGB trains
on a Sunday and set them off exploring
the railroad landscape.
One of the eye-catchers in the front
garden is a massive, two-meter (6’6”) high
mountain, with rack-railroad station,
inns, dairy, mountaineers and lots of hik-
ers. The 13-meter (over 42’) long viaduct
is another. This takes the trains around
the mountain to a long lattice-girder
bridge and to an impressive mountain
range with a deep canyon and mountain
spring. This supplies the garden pond, almost two meters (6’6”) across with fresh
water.
The layout fills the entire front gar-
den and continues around the corner, in
the garden along the side street. Twenty
tonnes of chippings, 50 natural stones
and 600 Bonsai trees and ground-cover
plants together with 138 meters (452’)
of track, four stations, four bridges, 30
houses and way over 500 figures create
a varied and harmonious whole. It is a
perfectly-arranged model railroad in the
garden – and it has its surprises.
That starts with the train movements. Almost as soon as a train leaves
the four-track station Hessigheim to
enter the tunnel at the foot of the mountain, it reappears from a slightly higher-level tunnel exit behind the station
to disappear once more into a further
mountain tunnel. Minutes later it leaves
the mountain again, this time half-way
up, to continue its journey on the gigantic viaduct.
A glance at the track plan clarifies
the refined alignment. The layout consists of visible tracks above ground,
which spread over several levels, and
unseen underground lines. These run
through the mountain and alongside
the house in a concealed light-well. The
underground lines are laid with several
tracks and several follow an interesting
course. Thus a helix in the mountain
takes the trains from the plateau to the
level of the viaduct, where the trains
leave the mountain again.
A lot of planning has gone into this
layout, as well as very careful realization
of the construction plans. The first building phase alone lasted almost nine years.
7
It all began in 2002. Sven Hoffmann cast
the first five-cm (2”) thick track beds using cement and quartz sand. The earth
was dug out of the front garden, the concrete plinth for the mountain cast. Little
by little, further track beds were made.
The first viaduct arches were cast – also
in concrete. The light-shaft tunnel and
the tracks in the mountain began to take
shape. The mountain and the viaduct
grew, and a pond and several bridges were added. Later came the lengthy
polystyrene mountain massif, now extending into the garden bordering on
the side road.
Building and extending the 2-meter
(6’6”) high mountain took some years.
The mountain is a major attraction today – externally and internally. A small ∑
Photos: Kötzle
Top layout
8
Depesche 1/2015
A lattice girder bridge takes trains safely over the ravine, at the foot of which there is a generously-sized water feed to supply the
lake, in which there are goldfish and koi carp, and which is almost two meters (6‘6“) across, with fresh water.
room in it has three tracks and a switch
cupboard housing the electrics for the
entire layout, which relies on analogue
control of solenoid-operated accessories
and has quantities of cabling to match.
Planting: bonsai trees, groundcover plants in a bed of chippings
Year by year the layout grew by further
details and many plants, which livened
up the white-beige chippings bed in the
garden more and more. Many plants
were set but later removed. Bonsai trees
and ground-cover plants proved to be
ideal for greening the Hoffmann garden.
The dainty trees with root-balls including earth and pots are planted around
the layout in chippings which are up to
20 cm (8”) deep. Branches and roots as
well are regularly pruned and in this
way many of them have been scale decorations for the lineside for up to nine
years.
In the second building phase the
plateau level was extended behind Hessigheim station. Home-made wire nets
in terraced form (gabions) were added
to prevent the stones slipping onto the ∑
Plenty of trains on several levels: On
the Hoffmann railroad, up to six trains
run at the same time on tracks at
different levels and partly concealed
underground.
Top layout 9
Building a group of mountains
The group of hills by the lake has
three functions for the Hoffmann
railroad: it covers part of the light
shaft with its concealed tracks, it is
the transition to the viaduct and finally houses a ravine through which
the lake is supplied with fresh water.
The three functions determined the
shape of the group. Basic material
for it was two large blocks of highstrength polystyrene, weighing 20
to 30 kg (44 to 66 pounds) per cubic meter.
One block was 5 x 1 meters (16‘6“ x
3‘3“), the other 2 x 1 meters (6‘6“ x
3‘3“), and each block was 1.25 meters (4‘1“) high. The long block was
already pre-cut by the supplier, with
a V cut for the ravine and a curved
finish. Coarse and fine finishing touches for the hills were applied by
Hoffmann by hand with a cutting
knife. He even used it to finish the
track beds, but he stresses this does
need practice. He advises against
the use of a plane, as polystyrene
particles become statically charged
when worked and stick to body, clothes and tools.
After the first cuts, Hoffmann checked the mountain blank repeatedly against the layout components
and decided on the next steps. This
process was repeated innumerable
times. After cutting out the details
of the mountain, he covered the polystyrene surface with sandstone
paste. This makes the polystyrene
weatherproof; available in various
colors, it is easy to mix and is applied with a broad-bladed spatula.
The walls at the rear of the mountain
and some places at the front were
made of sandstone. The material
came from various sandstone mats
out of which Sven Hoffmann cut
stones and assembled them in an irregular stone sequence. The stones
were glued with Pattex to the polystyrene treated with solvent blocker.
Then he weatherproofed the small
sandstone blocks with a special impregnating agent.
The mountain group is not anchored
down. It owes its stability to the concrete track beds lying on it. Construction time for the entire group was
around six months. The mountains
have now been in the Hoffmanns’
garden for over five years, and are
still in perfect condition.
First, Hoffmann drew
the outline of the
planned mountain
group on the large
polystyrene blocks.
Then he used a handsaw to cut out the
rough shapes, but this
didn’t work too well.
It’s problematic to use
a hand-plane too. It
worked far better with
the cutter knife, and
he used that for all the
subsequent cutting-out
work.
After the rough cut,
Hoffmann offered up
the mountain blank
repeatedly in the layout to check for fit and
to mark as necessary
for the next fine cuts.
Marking, fine cutting
and checking was
repeated many times
until it all fitted.
The mountain surfaces are treated with
sandstone paste. This
special paste renders
the polystyrene weatherproof for use out
of doors. The paste is
sold in several colors,
so that when applied
to the group with the
spatula, it is colored at
the same time. Around
300 grams of sandstone paste per square
meter were needed.
To build the walls, Hoffmann first traced the
shape of the planned
wallaareas onto paper.
He drew the stones on
a sheet of paper and
then cut them out of
various stone mats. Following the pattern, he
then glued the brickwork with Pattex, having
treated the polystyrene
with solvent blocker for
covering plastic panels.
The stones were then
grouted and weatherproofed with an impregnating agent.
PHotos: Kötzle, Sven Hoffmann, Text: Arnulf Schäfer
BUILDING TIP