What I’m Thinking: Big Models Of Swiss Narrow Gauge

Big models of metre-gauge Rhätische Bahn (RhB, or Rhaetian Railway) rolling stock have been on my mind of late. 

American and Swiss narrow gauge railways were built around the same time over a hundred years ago, for many of the same reasons. However, for a variety of interesting reasons, Swiss narrow gauge modernized and even electrified, while US narrow gauge mostly skipped dieselization and even forthright embrace of such modern niceties as steel underframes and signals. As a result, RhB and its connecting narrow gauge lines in the south and east of Switzerland not only are still running, but are distinctively modern and modelgenic subjects.

For an idea of what’s been particularly inspiring to me, have a look at this video of Rhätische Bahn‘s own Om (O scale metre gauge) museum layout:

Meanwhile, chunky models of RhB locomotives and cars might have been sighted on my workbench:

What’s not to like? Small electrics pulling short trains through scenery and curves that would make Malcolm Furlow say, “That looks fake.”

Let’s see where this adventure in big ol’ little Swiss trains takes us…

Inspiration for My Next Layout Project?

 Still makes me think of Bob Hegge’s Crooked Mountain Lines, but in the 21st century. Photo by Richard Pryke

Recent ESU ECoS Mugshots

I think we can all see where this is going . . .

Thinkin' Things About Big Ol' Narrow Gauge Diesels

I always wondered if an Atlas C-628 could be used as the basis for an HOn30 DL535E . . . looks short overall, and the trucks are very short in comparison to those lanky Alco C narrow gauge trucks. But still . . .

Modern Narrow Gauge, Another Persistently Obtuse Interest

Modern narrow gauge I have known:
PeruRail GE diesels in Aguas Caliente,
station stop for Macchu Picchu.

 When I was a wee lad reading Model Railroader magazine back in the 70s and 80s, there seemed to be a lot of coverage of narrow gauge modeling. Malcolm Furlow’s various project railroads and photography epitomized this 80s-period narrow gauge mania. Pretty quickly, I kind of lost interest--old Rio Grande steam locomotives, wood rolling stock, and lots of quaint and scenic and rustic things. It wasn’t the big time railroading I was growing up with in Northwestern Indiana, and narrow gauge modeling seemed to be set in cartoony scenery compared to my environs.

Nonetheless, the modeling itself intrigued me, and I especially gobbled up anything on Bob Hayden and Dave Frary’s Carrabasset and Dead River Ry. layout. The C&DR looked interesting while also looking workaday--it was a slice of life in rural New England in days gone by--instead of spectacular Rocky Mountain and Wile E. Coyote vs. Road Runner southwest vistas.

During this same time period, in the March 1979 Model Railroader, a "Trade Topics" review of a brass PSC HOn3 White Pass & Yukon DL535E appeared. Here was a weirdly proportioned, butch-looking Alco, vaguely reminiscent of an Alco C420, and I was intrigued. WP&Y information was hard to come by for this middle-school-aged Hoosier, but over the years I came to know more about this modern narrow gauge line and its second-generation diesel fleet.

A White Pass & Yukon DL535E narrow gauge
road switcher. It’s about the size of an RS3,
but is proportioned more like a C420. Note the
 ‘swole’ radiator and filter protuberances--some-
thing that the Alco/MLW engineers couldn’t
figure out how to shrink down to 3’ gauge
proportions.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia /Yufei Yuan

Even more interesting is discovering that there are even examples of narrow gauge heavy electrics, and one doesn't need to look far to find HOn30 (called HOe in Europe), HOm (HO meter gauge) or even, after a fashion, N scale narrow gauge electric railroad models. (Kato offers 1/150 scale models of modern Swiss meter-gauge Rhaetian Railway models that run on conventional 9 mm N gauge track.) Practically every issue of Continental Modeller covers at least one European or other international narrow gauge layout, and most are 'modern' if not post WW2.

I keep thinking about the possibilities of modern narrow gauge modeling. One obvious approach would be European prototype narrow gauge, of which there is an extensive selection of prototypes, models, and track. Another approach would be straight up modeling the WP&Y. Several key rolling stock items have been offered over the years in several scales.

But I've often thought about splitting the difference: how about a modern, updated C&DR? Turns out I'm not the only one with this idea. Ted Alexander's Norfolk Terminal (NT) layout, featured here on Nick Pautler's To Points East blog, is indeed an updated, modern C&DR. Ted has done an excellent job capturing the look and feel of what a modern Maine two-footer might actually look like. And unlike many model narrow gauge pikes, it has a sparse, industrial look and feel instead of a cute and whimsical fantasy junkyard vibe. Nothing against cute and whimsical fantasy junkyards--I certainly enjoy looking at them, especially those that seem to spring up among On30 model railroaders--but they just aren’t my jam.

Thoughts of a modern passenger and rock hauler, in an interesting, not-often-modeled setting have come back to me repeatedly over the years. That setting might be the Alps, a Caribbean island, a Latin American country, or even rural New England or eastern maritime Canada. Doing so in O, S, or HO would give me the chance to indulge a subsidiary interest in vehicle modeling that my recent N scale modeling doesn’t avail well. And of course, there’s the possibility of wires and pantographs over the weird little trains. Let’s see what turns up . . .