Last weekend, I created one of my 'semi-digital' pictures using some rolling stock models I made more than 30 years ago.
In the 1980s, when still being a university student, I was an active scratchbuilder of railway models. At the time, while living in East Germany, there were not so many TT scale models available. So, scratchbuilding was a popular craft among model railroaders. I made a series of German hopper cars from the 1920s and 1930s. With these hoppers, former German state railways started the development of the saddle-type design, which became the standard design for hopper cars everywhere across Europe.
So, these early hoppers are the grandfathers of the modern European hopper cars, which are today known as the Fal type. However, on my later layouts, I could hardly use these cars, since they wouldn't fit to the rather rural settings. So, they spent most of their time in boxes and vitrines.
As I learned later, many of these early hoppers were not scrapped after being retired from the state railways but sold to industrial railways for internal use. In steel mills and related industries, some of these pre-war era vehicles are still in daily use today. So, I got the idea to set up a photo scene in an industrial environment playing in the years after the war when steam locotives were still frequently using on industrial railways. The cars wear large four-digit ID numbers as it is typical practice on many industrial railways in Germany, as you can also see on the scrap metal gondolas in this picture from 2009:
The steam locomotive is also a scratchbuilt model I made in the 1980s. The prototype is a standard type made by Borsig in the 1930s and 1940s for industrial railways.
Some copies were also sold to private railways. I built this particular engine for my former layouts Braunesumpf ( http://www.joernpachl.de/model_rr_old.htm#Braunesumpf) and Drei Annen Hohne ( http://www.joernpachl.de/model_rr_old.htm#HBE) which had their prototype on the Halberstadt-Blankenburg Railway (HBE) in the Harz Mountains. In the 1930s, the HBE aquired two engines of this type. Since originally designed for industrial use, the locomotive fits very well into my temporary diorama setting. Of course, both the hopper cars and the locomotive do no longer meet current modeling standards. So, I wouldn't use them on a layout today. Their main value is to remember me what I did in my youth. On such a photo scene, where some tricks will prevent you from looking too hard at the details, they still look quite nice, however.
The photo for the background, I took in March 2017 in 751D-Park in Beijing, China. As a regular visitor of Beijing, I used photos of this former industrial area for the background of several of my pictures. 751 D-Park is a former industrial district with steel mills and related industries. After closing all the factories, it was not torn down but transformed into a fancy art district with exhibition sites, event halls, cafes, restaurants, etc. There is also a place called 'locomotive square' where a class SY steam engine is on display.
On my last visit, I noticed some track construction work. Maybe, we will see some more railroad exhibits there in the future.
Joern
Homepage: http://www.joernpachl.de/model_rr.htm
Blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/40591
