The History of PILSENWERST (part 2)
In May of 2000 I decided that this project should have a name so I mentioned this to Phil and he scratched his head and said " I'll think about that" and went back to his cork cutting. A few days later he rang to say his son Conor ( age 7) had thought of PILSENWERST ( he probably got it off the beer bottle his dad had in his hand at the time ) after some consideration the railway was named. The country we decided on is Trainsylvainia and the district is Transenberg (which is also the name of the railway operating company) and the main city is Pilsenwerst ( so now we have a name). Also during May the riggers started on the overhead lines ( a long and expensive process). The builders were hard at work on constructing the loco shed's to house some of the newly arriving motive power. We have taken delivery of an ice set from the German railways.
During the month of June 2000 more overhead equipment was ordered from our friends in Germany along with a loco for Ted Smale of SCC for his demo layout ( yes I finally sold him something :) ). More rolling stock and motive power arrived in Pilsenwerst ( a complete motive power and rolling stock inventory is here ) the growing fleet of SBB 460's now totaling 7 locos (with more on order), the riggers continued to work putting up the mast's and lines.
July saw the forestry commission start planting in earnest , I'm told that they planted over 300 trees in the forest they have informed me that there is a lot more to be done and could take them some considerable time to complete and they have requested a larger budget. The construction teams were also hard at work installing tunnel mouths and the builders started construction on several projects including homes, town hall, a fire station and the main station buildings
August has seen the landscapers move in and continue to construct the cliffs and the foreman informs me that if they get time the river should start to flow. The first residents have moved in to the house in the forest. The owners of the farm have just finished converting the house into a modest but comfy "B & B" and say the orchard is a good place to watch the trains go by ( I'll have go and have a look one day) . Construction has been hampered by the delivery of beer from Petra and Tim (hic hic) and its is thought that the river will now be delayed. Work has continued on the mountain but as yet its not at full height and the forestry commission are eagerly awaiting it completion so that they can recommence planting (august pics here). The signal manager has been testing some basic timetables using the winlok system and has managed to get one to set up a rout to the hidden sidings and the drive a loco to the siding and stop on a sensor in the siding but is awaiting delivery of the block detect equipment from SCC but as yet no sign of it or the transponding unit either
Well its now September and the river is still dry unlike the weather here for the last few days Ted from SCC Rang me with an update on the block detect equipment and a new better throttle he hopes to have some by mid sept ( I have my fingers crossed). During September the mountain construction continued and has now been completed as in the height but as yet it has only had a base colour wash , a lot of running has been completed to try and keep the dust off the lines ( who's he trying to kid he wanted to play trains :)) ) a further update on the new throttle has been received from Ted and now looks like Jan before they will be around... and still no news on the block detect modules i have taken some picture's of the mountain area and some more of trains running. Hopefully in October signals will be ordered along with various misc buildings
October has arrived and work on the mountain continues a pace and a large order has been placed for buildings, roadway but as yet not for signals. The programming department has been busy automating the traverser using a winlok ctc board timetable the program and explanation of how it works is available here
November has almost slipped by quite a lot of work has happened in the last weeks of November (nothing happened for the first week as my birthday tends to take over). As usual the pictures are here, the mountain has now been competed and at long last the river has started to flow and a trusting farmer has put their horses in the field. The builders have been busy building houses and shops and even a music school. The signal manager is a happy bunny as the first BDL16 has arrived he has already installed it to detect the hidden sidings and the main line loops also Ted has rushed a bd1 detector for the reverse loop to me (thank you Ted for your fast action). Hopfully the other bdl16's will be arriving soon and also the rx8's too. The programming department has started work on automating the hidden sidings and main lines. Some of the signals were finally ordered also 2 new locos arrived (2 sbb460 in colourful liveries) they await safety checks before being brought into service( decoder fitting to see how its done click here)
26/11/00