Voie Libre international APRIL 2016 - 85

Voie Libre turns 20! For two decades, we have been promoting a different approach to railway modelling, another way of building layouts, an offbeat look at things! From the outset, Voie Libre campaigned for a shackle-free kind of modelling. Voie Libre fights for creative modelling! To better emphasize our dynamics and originality, we have given our graphic design a facelift, and spruced up the editorial line. More than ever, we take responsibility and claim our active commitment to “practicing railway modeling differently”. And as we are in the field of activism, Voie Libre, with full support from the LR Presse group, has boldly stepped into the production of rolling stock. The P’Tits Kits Voie Libre are born! New and original models, produced using the latest technologies, which, we hope, will meet…

BEMO: AN MK 45 LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE PIONEER’S TRAIN Bemo has released a version of the Mk 45-2001 locomotive of the Budapest Kindereisenbahn, formerly part of the roster of the Hungarian MAV railways. This new livery has required making a new bonnet on the roof. This is a very fine reproduction of the original livery of this engine from the well-known former pioneer’s railway. Another version, Mk 45-2002, is announced as a 2016 new release. And Schmalspurbedarf Tummeler foresees yet another version in PKP livery. The models are fitted with the digital NeXt 18 interface. Price observed is around 240 euros. Jacques Royan BEMO / H09 / REF. 1020 991 / PRICE OBSERVED: €240 PMT : A FOUR-WHEELER 500301 RAILCAR PMT produces a charming DR VT 133 526 railcar. Ex-Prenzlauer Kreisbahn from the Land of…

After a mild winter and an early spring, let’s begin with some (a lot of?) snow. The January issue of Chemins de Fer Régionaux et Tramways focusses on snow-clearing on the upper reaches of the Chemins de fer de Provence. There was probably never much snow on the Suffolk coast, but there used to be the Southwold Railway. And better still, Peter Kazer shows us his model of this railway in the Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review. As is customary with Peter, the atmosphere of the layout is truly magical! Turning to a type of practice that seemed to have been fairly common in Central Europe, issue 4/2015 of Schmale Spuren looks at a tram line that still runs a few goods wagons, in the present case some…

THE MODEL AT A GLANCE Manufacturer: Peco Scale: 009 (1/76, 9mm gauge track) Prototype: Glyn Valley Tramway Weight: 6 g Construction: injected plastic Price observed: ca. €28 While Peco has had in its range for a good 30 years a whitemetal kit reproducing the bodies of the adorable Beyer Peacock 0-4-2 T locomotives, designed to fit over a commercial N scale chassis, the small four-wheeler carriages were lagging far behind. Well, our patience is now rewarded, they are available! INJECTED PLASTIC The Glyn Valley Tramway carriages are supplied in pleasing individual clear plastic boxes, and held in place with a quarter-turn pin. These new models are made out of injected plastic, and comprise several parts: two step and brake shoe brackets, the chassis, the body, the roof, the air-vent, the flush glazing and the brakeman’s cab. Not forgetting the axles…

This used to be a small 2 ft 41/2’ gauge line that connected a large granite quarry and many slate quarries first to a canal, and then later to a standard gauge line. Originally opened in 1873, the line followed the Ceiriog valley upstream over a length of 10.5km from the canal at Chirk Bank to the Cambrian slate quarries at Glyn Ceiriog. In 1885, the line was extended over 2.8km, bringing total mileage to 13.3km, to serve large granite quarries and other slate quarries. There were passenger services right from the start. Such operations ended in 1932, and the quarry traffic stopped in 1935. By the following year, all the engines had vanished! Two passenger carriages have been preserved on the Talyllyn Railway.…

THE MODELS AT A GLANCE Scale: H09 / 009 compatible with available motive power Inspiration: wood or metal Aubineau open wagon and Decauville van. Period: 1890s to nowadays. Weight: ca. 6g Price: €139.90 per set containing three open wagons and one van Available from the LR Modélisme shop: http://www.lrmodelisme.com/ H0 scale narrow gauge enthusiasts are not really short of motive power these days! Ever-more interesting new releases keep popping up. So many that we’ll soon be unable to buy them all… who could have guessed? On the other hand, we are not quite so lucky when it comes to carriages and wagons to make up realistic consists. QUITE A TEAM However, Voie Libre is here! Under the aegis of the magazine, several creators got together, pooled their talent, shared their research, combined their experiences. This is how prototypes were…