I can't believe that it's nearly four years since I posted my last update and as there appears to be renewed modelling interest on the forum at the moment I thought this was as good a time as any to do one.
Progress has been slow but positive and generally speaking I am pleased with the way that the layout has developed. Many trees have been planted, the ballasting has finally been completed but still no overhead catenary.
The main terminus has changed it's name to Schlossfelden but I still can't think of a name for the small mountain station.
I'm sure that many modellers will accuse me of cramming too much into too small a space but that's just the way I tend to do things. I construct a number of individual scenes that are supposed to represent things that I have seen when visiting Switzerland and then join them together to form a layout.
The first two photos show an area used by the P.W. Dept. to store materials and consists of a couple of sidings one of which holds an "Unterkunftswagen" or accommodation coach. These coaches have cooking facilities and until very recently lady cooks were often employed by the railway to conjure up tasty hot meals for the maintenance teams particularly when they were working in remote mountain locations. The first time I came across one of these coaches I just couldn't believe how civilised a Swiss railway lunchbreak could be. Beats eating your butties in a grubby transit van any day.
The next photo shows the goods depot at Schlossfelden. In the foreground I have created part of a lineside allotment. Once common in the UK these are still very common in Switzerland especially in the towns where a surprising number of people live in apartments. In my scene it would appear that the women are doing most of the work.
The fourth photo is the gravel loading facility. I originally intended modelling a quarry but underestimated the amount of space needed so I settled for just the loading facility which is connected by conveyor belt to the conveniently "out of sight" quarry.
The remaining photo is a general shots of the layout and shows just how many trees have sprung up since the last update.