Building 'Orkhavnbanen'

Below are the almost monthly reports on building the H0e scale (1:87 scale on 9 mm track). The exact descriptions are currently published in a 5 part series in RailMagazine, a leading Dutch railway magazine. If you want to know more, send us an email !

  
Photo's of 2002
Visit the photo pages from * 2003 * 2004 * 2005 * 2006 * 2007
  December 2001  

The frame is of 'lightweight' construction. We cut numerous holes to reduce weight with the added benefit that we can wire the layout through these holes later on.

 
 
  January/februari 2002  

As we don't like to work with heavy stuff, we'd started with some buildings that will be put up on the layout later. This is the 'Stasjon Orkhavn' (Orkhavn station) yet to be painted.

 
 

MaRCH 2002

 

 

 

    



Finally, laying the first track! After 'thorough' research we settled on Tillig H0e track for this neat little layout. The kits Tillig offers are best suited to fit our trackplan and the look great. Being lazy, we'd also appreciated their 'weathered' appearance out of the box...

  
  		 
 
  April 2002  

Concept of 'Orkhavnbanen' was an electrified narrow gauge railway. To prevent unpleasant surprises later in the build we'd set up the overhead poles early. This is a mast during it's building process.
 
  JunE 2002  

Some sort of landscape, at last! We layered 2 cm thick styrofoam to build up the 'mountains', glued with a gluegun so we could work pretty fast.


This way an 'Icelandic' landscape emerged quickly. Later we cut away the 'sharp edges' with a knife.
 
  July 2002  

We casted several 'rocks' from plaster, using real stones as prototypes. With these we build up rockwalls and the underground for 'ferocious' waterfalls that define the Norwegian landscape.


After a few 'rocksolid' weeks of casting slowly but surely an underground for the waterfall appears.
 
  August 2002  

Days and days of fiddling were necessary to build the Scandinavian fishing-boats. This depicts a test to find the best position for each one.


The mountain from July got some work done too. We used several pounds of plaster here and now it's ready to be painted...
 

September 2002

 

 

 

    



....which we did with a vast array of acrylic paint, pigments and lots of water.

This is the location of the wooden dock, which we'll install later. Of-course we detail the area under the dock too...
  		 
 
  Oktober 2002  

The first public outing of the layout was the 2002 edition of Rail, then a leading exhibition venue for modelrailway fans. Not finished by a long shot, but as a demonstration object interesting for the visitors nonetheless!
 
  December 2002  

A resin cast Volvo cab (right) from the Wiking original (left). The finished model will be a special edition of this typical high-roofed model.


A difficult job is making the water in the waterfall. We use the 'stuff' from Woodland Scenics, using it's clear plastic strips as a base. we're working for weeks now, adding a layer of 'water' at a time...
 
Photo's of 2002
Visit the photo pages from * 2003 * 2004 * 2005 * 2006 * 2007