Industrial Nature at the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

Industrial Nature is a concept that originated in Germany – particularly with the deindustrialisation of the Ruhr (Zollverein for example is a good example of such a site). The term refers to three things – the revegetation of industrial sites by native species, the colonisation of industrial sites (working or abandoned) by species adapted to the new environment created by industry and the deliberate plantings on industrialised sites.

The Deutsches Technikmuseum (German Technical Museum) at the former locomotive workshops and goods yard (Anhalter Güterbahnhof) of Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company. The workshops were closed in 1952 but it is not clear when the goods yard was closed. The Museum began using the site in 1987 – naturally it houses a display of railway locomotives and associated items.

There are two roundhouses around two turntables and if you look at Google Maps you can see gaps in one of the roundhouses which are described as follows

“A group of three overgrown tracks in the first engine shed provide a reminder that the site lay abandoned for thirty years. The plants growing here include the Mahaleb cherry (normally a Mediterranean plant), giant knotweed (a native of Siberia) and the medicinal herbs evening primrose and lady’s mantle.”

This is what they were talking about - the abandoned tracks have been colonised.

Below is another example of a ruined building next to the roundhouse simply being left for nature to colonise.

This is a interesting management technique one that could meet both industrial and nature conservation goals without the “prettying up” of sites that often occurs.

The Museum also preserves trains – this is an example of the V-200 class of diesel hydraulic locomotives in service from 1957 to 1984 and cosmetically restored.

Germany’s Industrial Heritage

One of the advantages of my work is that I get to go to some interesting places. This time Jane and I are going to the TICCHI conference in Freiberg and we have spend the last three days in the Ruhr Valley looking at some industrial sites and museums.

This is a view along one side of a truly huge bank of coke ovens at the Coke works which is part of the Zollverein Word Heritage Site near Essen. The coke works are relatively modern (1958 & 1961)but their size and scale is huge – quite different from the ones I worked on at Bowen.

The view is taken from the cafe where a nice meal and a beef can be had – imagine that on an Australian site.

Zollverein itself consists of the Coke works and two colliery shafts. The main shaft Shaft 12 was constructed between 1928 and 1932 to consolidate a number of other coal pits. The headframe and colliery buildings were designed by some famous architects and so the interpretation has tended to focus on the colliery design rather than anything else. Curiously for a World Heritage site the interpretation is mostly in German. I wouldn't have an issue with this except this is a world heritage site and presumably the visitors might come from the world.

This is the headframe and shaft buildings which are quite stark. I am not sure whether they were always that way or whether this is a result of conservation management.

This is the headframe of Shaft 1/2/8 taken from an elevated conveyor (now a a walkway) over railway sidings. Thee green are trees planted or self sown since the site stopped working. This is a modern headframe on a site that was operating from (supposedly)the 1840’s.

Ballast Point- Interpreting Industrial Heritage

In the wonderful world of heritage there often seems to be two options when it comes to managing an industrial site with heritage values – adaptive use as some form of community building like a museum or gallery or demolition. There are limitations to both approaches demolition is forever and with museums and galleries often sites are transformed so that their heritage disappears or the sites gradually fall into disrepair as profits seem never to be directed into maintenance.

Ballast Point in Birchgrove is the site of the former Caltex Depot. Purchased in 1928, by Texaco (later Caltex) who demolished a large house, Menevia, which was on the site to construct a fuel depot, manufacturing and packaging facility. Ballast Point formed Texaco’s and later Caltex’s major distribution point in Sydney and continued in use until the late 1990s.

Ballast Point in 1943

In September 2002, the derelict site was returned to public ownership after compulsory purchase for A$24m by the NSW Government. Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority worked with McGregor + Coxall Landscape Architects to design the park and Landscape Solutions for construction. The site as opened on the 11th July 2009.

Jane, Alistair and I have been there twice. It is really great. it is not a sanitised landscape but one that actively engages with the industrial remains there to provide a rich experience for dogs and people.

Here is Alistair exploring some sort of structure. He has has a great time climbing in and out of things and generally being “Action Dachshund”. For the rest of us the park offers fabulous views of the Harbour, well designed and interesting walks, great toilets and interesting archaeology.

Here it all is you can see the base of a tank, the Bridge and that rotten old Blues Point tower and the foundations of a building underneath where the tank was.

The past is not hidden, it coexists with the present so that a trip to Ballast Point is exciting whether you are an Industrial Archaeologist, landscape designer, 92 year old Mother in Law, excited dog or one of the many kids rolling down a grassy embankment.

Ballast Point is a great example of how industrial heritage can live on.

Broad Gauge Models - models

Broad Gauge Models is well known to modellers of the Victorian Railways for their extensive range of models and RTR Brass locomotives. I am unclear when they started probably some time in 1980 with their first release in late 1980. They continued in business until c1990 when they split into Steam Era Models – who got the plastic kits and bogies, Heritage signals –the brass signals and Broad Gauge Models who kept the name and the locomotives, although under new ownership. The structures seem to have gone to Ian Lindsay Models.

In a misguided fit of enthusiasm I decided to see whether I could garner a list of all the Broad Gauge Models releases from the reviews in AMRM using Magindex. The result is an impressive list although a few items seem not to have been reviewed. I recall the E steam locomotive kit – I know this as I have one, and there was a Y steam locomotive and a SAR 700 class.

Here is the list (comments welcome)

VR standard 4 -door goods shed (HO) AMRM Reviews In the November/December 1980

VR Y class bogie sideframe (HO) AMRM Reviews In the March/April 1981

VR style shunters steps and brakewheels (HO) AMRM Reviews In the March/April 1981

VR G side frame casting AMRM Reviews In the May/June 1981

“Blacken-it” chemical metal blackener AMRM Reviews In the July/August 1981

VR E series and PL series passenger bogies (HO) AMRM Reviews In the July/August 1981

“Weather-it” chemical ageing for wood and cardstock AMRM Reviews In the September/October 1981

VR shunters steps and brake handles (HO) AMRM Reviews December 1981

VR GY open wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews April 1982

VR station building (HO) AMRM Reviews August 1982

VR K class (HO) Samhongsa/Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews August 1982

VR GY brake gear and shunters steps (HO) AMRM Reviews December 1982

VR D3 class 4 -6 -0 steam (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1983

VR A2 class 4 -6 -0 steam (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews December 1983

VR archbar and cast steel bogies (HO) AMRM Reviews December 1983

#2 gauge 3/16in pan head screws AMRM Reviews December 1983

VR U van (HO) AMRM Reviews February 1984

VR UB van (HO) AMRM Reviews April 1984

VR E open wagon (HO) kit bash – not reviewed but released August 1984

VR T van (HO) AMRM Reviews October 1984

VR X class 2 -8 -2 steam (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1985

VR Y class diesel (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1985

VR loco numbers (HO) AMRM Reviews February 1985 issue,

VR I wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews April 1985

VR M cattle wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews August 1985

VR GY brake gear and shunters steps AMRM Reviews October 1985

VR I open wagon and M cattle wagon Decals AMRM Reviews February 1986

VR X class diesel electric (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews April 1986

VR T van (HO) Decals AMRM Reviews October 1986

V/Line G class diesel electric (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1987

AN BL class diesel electric (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1987

Silver and V/Line green/white lines Decals (HO) AMRM Reviews February 1987

VR W series passenger cars (HO) AMRM Reviews June 1987

VR W passenger and Plate frame bogies (HO) AMRM Reviews June 1987 issue,

16 .5mm gauge wheelsets (HO) (16 .5mm) AMRM Reviews June 1987

VR 18ft T van conversion (HO) AMRM Reviews June 1987

VR IY wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews December 1987

VR C class diesel electric (HO) Samhongsa / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1988

VR timber trestle bridge kit(HO) AMRM Reviews June 1988

VR / V/Line FQX (VQCX) container flat wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews October 1988

VR Z van (HO) AMRM Reviews August 1989

VR bogie wagon brake gear (HO) AMRM Reviews February 1990

VR A2 class 4 -6 -0 passenger, Stephenson valve gear, coal fired version (HO) :Kit by DJH / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews February 1990

Liquid modelling water AMRM Reviews August 1990

VR / V/Line SFX (VFLX) bogie flat wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews April 1991

Colonial cottage: Kit (HO) AMRM Reviews June 1991

VR N class 2 -8 -2 steam locomotive kit (HO) Kit by DJH / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews August 1995

VR D3 class 4 -6 -0 steam locomotive kit(HO) Kit by DJH / Broad Gauge Models AMRM Reviews October 2000

National Rail RQZY 5 -pack container wagon (HO) AMRM Reviews June 2004

Bowen Creek (Epping 2009)

I am a perennial visitor to model railway exhibitions – sometimes I am there for only a few minutes and leave depressed by the overall amateurish modelling or the evident lack of interest the exhibitors have towards the public. But every so often comes a model that is so impressing that it just blows me away. From my past I remember Woodend, Crafton, Boliva, Sunset Siding, Time and Patience …

At Epping was another, possibly the greatest - Bowen Creek .

Bowen Creek represents a unattended crossing loop on an imaginary line in Central West NSW. The layout is built to Proto:87 standards but with skill and subtlety that is rarely seen in modelling.

The strength is two areas – the landscape and in the display. The landscape is constructed so that the railway sits in the landscape as in real life.

Look at this section for example the track is almost invisible.

yet there is incredible detail in the track and with the shunter’s shed. There is a point rod to the lever and wire to the signal. The inside of the shed has internal bracing

visible. Look at the landscaping around the short siding and the S truck.

Then look at the wider shot I took (above) and you can see how it all works together.

The other matter is the display. The model is constructed from steel tube with a high density polystyrene foam as the base. The module encloses the scenes and lights them with lights from the front. This allows the modeller to control the light and the view of the scene. It is also raised fairly high again to control viewing. Unfortunately at Epping, Bowen Creek caught the afternoon sun and this made photography a bit tricky.

The other layouts on show such as Palden Hill and Brunswick Park probably had similar quality modelling but because of their standard design they had no control of the light and they looked fairly gloomy.

Being P-87 all the rolling stock had to be converted but some old RTR favourites were there such as a 620/720 rail car, the C30 and this 47. They tended to be a few derailments which I put down to this being the layouts first show, others might reflect unkindly on those finescale flanges.

Bowen Creek is a credit to all involved in particular its owners Ian Millard and Andrew Campbell.

TW Bogie Tanks Wagons

After some head scratching and discussion on Railpage – one of the internet discussion groups Australian modellers regularly use to nut things out I have begun.

Progress is at a measured pace largely due to the need to Araldite the brass to the underlying plastic frame. Tonight I have added the headstocks using “Slow Zap” CA which is a slower acting cousin of the dangerous “Zap a Gap” which could be relied to stick anything just where you don’t want it (such as another finger).

The headstocks needed some serious holding in place but there was no space to clamp so CA was the way to go and it seems to have worked.

Cement and Railways – SCMRA Seminar

The Southern Cross Model Railway Association runs an annual thematic seminar on matters relating to modelling the railways of NSW. It is usually held in a community centre in Epping with a spit roast provided. I have been to a few – notably one with a just broken foot.

The topic for this year was Cement and the running order was:

Modern Day Cement Trains - Alex Nadalini

Cement Wagons -John Beckhaus

Portland Cement works -Howard Armstrong

Cement plants and their railways - Trevor Moore

Kitbashing a limestone wagon - Alec Warner

Weathering your Cement Wagons - Mike Crompton

Models for Cement - Trevor Moore

Modelling a Cement Batching Plant -Marcus Ammann

Smaldon the layout -Geoff & Ben Small

Closing Discussion -John Parker

It was a well run event and for me very useful in giving me lots of ideas about modelling approaches and techniques.

Here is Marcus Ammann’s presentation –this view unfortunately shows off the bald pates of the audience!

A sample of the model rolling stock is below.

I am not sure who is doing this but a cement works is under construction in HO and it looks pretty good.

Below is one of the curves on Smaldon Curve.

This model shows what you can achieve with a simple concept. Better still it was completed one of a number of models Geoff Small has completed to exhibition standard(roughly 1 every 2 years).