Reinhold Braun and his son, Wolfgang, 14 Depesche 2/ TOP LAYOUT

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1 14 Depesche 2/ TOP LAYOUT Almost like the Wild West Amid the hills of Geislingen an der Steige, Germany, Reinhold and Wolfgang Braun gave their LGB layout a freestyle US theme. The meticulous level of detail they achieved is rarely seen on outdoor layouts. Reinhold Braun and his son, Wolfgang, are fans of US locomotives. It all started with a Toy Train starter set for Wolfgang. It led him to a toy store where he discovered the LGB Western style locos and cars. He was particularly impressed by the rolling stock of the fictitious US Lake George & Boulder Railroad. This soon came to determine the flavor of his train collection which is exclusively US themed. So it was hardly surprising that when he be- gan construction of the garden layout back in 2001 he based it on the American West and called it the Lake George & Boulder German Division. And just as those who built the railroads out west in the USA had to overcome challenging terrain, Braun Senior also had difficult topographical conditions to contend with. The available outdoor area, situated in Geislingen an der Steige, near the town of Göppingen in Germany, was on a hillside with a height difference of some fifty feet from one end to the other. Taking up this challenge, Reinhold Braun planned his layout to lie across the slope of the land. On a narrow area measuring just over 16 feet wide by 98 feet the western themed layout gradually started to take shape. Between them, father and son heaved over 27 tons of rocks up to the layout area in order to stabilize it on the slope and to ensure a maximum grade of 4 percent anywhere on the 262 feet of layout trackage.

2 Today the tuff stone and dwarf conifers at east end of the long and narrow garden layout give it a Rocky Mountain flavor. At the western end of the LG & B track layout, nearly 100 feet away, limestone cliffs, deciduous trees and a curved trestle some 11 and a half feet long offer a strong scenic contrast. Topak City continues the western theme and its train station, Topak Junction, is at the center of the layout which covers over 1,600 square feet and along whose There are five trestles on the railroad tracks native warriors and trappers provide much to keep an eye out for. Five bridges and two tunnels were built in order to overcome geological obstacles in the area covered by the Brauns layout. One of the highlights is the curved wooden trestle, built to R5 radius. Some eleven and a half feet long, it stands over 31 inches high. Reinhold Braun based his design for it on American practice and used thin pine wood strip to construct it. It took him a whole winter to complete it, using several hundred feet of wood strip and 900 screws to hold it firmly and solidly together. He built it on a foundation of gravel, allowing rainwater to run off easily. PHOTOS: N. SCHARF, TEXT: ARNULF SCHÄFER TOP LAYOUT 15

3 16 Depesche 2/2016 Wild West: Passengers at the Topak Junction station wait patiently for the local train on the Lake George & Boulder Railroad. Long view: The Lake George & Boulder German Division layout stretches 98 feet along the 16 and a half feet wide hillside layout area. Topak City: The small western town of Topak City makes a peaceful impression from this perspective as it nestles alongside the railroad. Liquid provisions approaching. Before the train reaches the western town with its high-alcohol content cargo it must first traverse the rugged country to the east of the layout. The bridge was finished in The layout also features two more trestles of appreciable length, one of nearly four feet in length, as well as three smaller bridges, all of which were constructed the same way and are on straight alignments. Two of the smaller bridges lead into the basement of the house where the staging yard is situated. Six trains are easily accommodated there, and in addition, the basement location facilitates placing the locomotives and cars on the track or removing them from it. The staging yard was incorporated into the design of the Brauns western themed layout right from the start. In line with its narrow configuration, the LG & B is mainly single track. A train moving through the hilly east end of the layout crosses three trestles before plunging into the 4 foot long tunnel under the tuff stone blocks and then heading into open country. Approaching the small station in Topak City the tracks spread out into three through lines allowing trains to pass each other. The Brauns were generous with the space they allocated to the passenger depot area giving the longest train operated, a 23-foot Santa Fe streamliner, ample length to stop at this typical western town. The town itself is hidden away in a narrow valley along by the train tracks. Five stub end tracks spread around the spacious yard facilitate the handling of the town s freight business. They also enable watering and coaling of the engines, as well as access to an XXL size engine house which Reinhold Braun kitbashed from two Pola loco sheds so that a high-stack mogul with its tender full of logs easily fits inside.

4 TOP LAYOUT 17 Main freight depot: New provisions for Topak City are stored in the freight shed near the passenger depot. Life on the Lake George & Boulder: Service on the Lake George & Boulder Railroad is assured by a well-stocked rolling stock roster on Reinhold Braun s layout. Long engine house: The XXL dimensions of the expanded Pola Silverton engine shed in the foreground can be clearly seen. Train or covered wagon? Both forms of transportation operate on the Brauns western layout. Five trestles, no less: Reinhold Braun built all five trestles on his western themed layout. Topak Junction can handle 23-foot long trains curves of R3 radius. On the curved trestle the more generous R5 radius is used. Screw-fixed rail joiners are used in order to secure good electrical connection on the layout, which sees trains operated digitally. Trains run on a 12-amp supply which feeds into the track in a short tunnel right next to the house. Switch operation is manual Every loco on this western themed layout is operated digitally, by handheld controller, but switches are all manually operated. All 16 switches on the layout therefore have an operating lever. If you re outdoors you need to move around!, quips Reinhold Braun, adding When building the layout there would have been too much wiring involved PHOTOS: KÖTZLE, TEXT: ARNULF SCHÄFER Between Topak Junction and the large, sweeping trestle at the west end of the layout is a turnout leading on to a reversing loop, which can be accessed by trains coming the other way. This diagonal connection between the upper and lower parts of the mainline is nearly ten feet long; it acts as a balloon track, allowing trains to change direction along the single track route. Track is laid unfixed on stone chippings. It is only secured by nails where it is subject to displacement by treading. Reinhold Braun uses switches and

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6 TOP LAYOUT 19 LAYOUT IMPRESSIONS With both father and son sharing a passion and an eye for detail, Reinhold Braun s US-themed outdoor layout was destined to become a trans-generation project. The strong point: German thoroughness is what makes this layout unique. 1 Tunnel construction detail: The tunnel portals and retaining walls were made from wood strip and the portal area covered with rocks. The convincing detail on both tunnels will stand close scrutiny. 4 2 Plenty of space at this station: Long trains are not a problem for dreamy western Topak Junction, including the Santa Fe streamliner which requires around 23 feet of track when it pulls up at the station. Three parallel tracks through the yard area facilitate train meets on the otherwise single track railroad. 3 Impressive landscapes: The outdoor layout features tuff rocks, miniature conifers and chippings at the eastern end. The chunky piled up rocks emphasize the elevation difference which characterizes the terrain. 4 Formidable climbs: At the western end of the layout a curved viaduct over 11 and a half feet long links the upper and lower parts of the layout. The lower part of the viaduct is some 31 inches above the ground. Reinhold Braun used limestone from the Swabian Alb region of Germany to create a robust climb up to the finely detailed curved bridge. 5 Always building: Construction work has been going on for years on this western railroad. Another delivery of crates of materials. A Western-Stainz with wood burner tender of the LG & B has eased the crane car into position. Reinhold Braun has modified all three. For example, he gave the former Toy Train crane car a makeover by giving it a 4-axle chassis and additional windows, as well as installing a figure. He also added 2.2 lbs of lead weighting each to the Western Stainz and its tender to give it more traction on the grades. 6 Two into one: The Pola Silverton engine shed served as the basis for the large engine house on Reinhold s layout. The original model was too short and the door was not high enough to permit the mogul with its tall stack to enter, so Reinhold got to work on it. He converted two small Pola loco sheds into one long one. He also raised the complete building and laid the track lower, creating enough clearance for the mogul to move inside. FOTOS: KÖTZLE, TEXT: ARNULF SCHÄFER

7 20 Depesche 2/2016 THE LAKE GEORGE & BOULDER RAILROAD BY REINHOLD BRAUN Away from the mainline: A view towards the station and Topak City (top), the small hut behind the town (center) and the tracks leading to the staging yard (bottom). This is located in the basement. with electrically operated turnouts, so I decided to go for hand operation. However, I do use wireless digital control for the six switches located in the staging yard, which is in the basement. Despite the manual switches, two trains can nevertheless simultaneously be operated on the layout. With added concentration and more moving around this can be increased to three trains running at the same time. To enhance their climbing ability upgrade while working on the German Division of the LG & B Reinhold Braun has added lead weight to many of his locos, such as the Western Stainz. Modifying his rolling stock is one of garden railroader Braun s interests. I ve modified half my Lake George & Boulder locos and cars. One look at the layout and the rolling stock on it is enough to confirm how well that has been done. The 2015 toy fair announcement by Märklin of a caboose lettered for the LG & B RR the Lake George & Boulder Railroad (item 45651) prompts a brief look back at the story of this subject of affection among LGB fans. If you look inside old copies of LGB-Depesche you ll find many instances of pioneer outdoor railroad modelers who variously named their layouts in such a way that they abbreviated into L-G-B. This happened in Germany, but it also happened across the Atlantic. This is where the Lake George & Boulder RR was born. It originated with model railroad author Charles S. Small from Connecticut, whose G-gauge layout was featured in the Railway Modeller Magazine of August His neat idea was adopted by the Richter brothers and from then on the acronym LG & B appeared on thousands of American themed rolling stock starter sets around the world. The first sets, marketed from around 1989 in the USA, contained a Stainz-based western style loco in classy metallic blue as well as two standard LGB passenger cars, or a gondola and a 4065 caboose. At the same time motorized tenders 2116/7 entered the range, matching the style of the locos. Adjustments to color and contents of the LG & B starter sets followed, which were soon to become available in Europe. The contents of the freight set consisted of a caboose matched in color to the loco and a 2-axle tank car (without ladder) initially with the blue legend LAKE GEORGE & BOULDER RR and later with the yellow, newly introduced slogan Route of the Beavers. This beaver and gnawed tree emblem appeared in a large version on the yellow caboose, the 1990 version 4065-L01 later carrying the mountain-and-seascape logo. The more recent starter pack variant saw Lehmann returning to a red basic livery, now with yellow markings and a change of design to the bobber caboose with the cupola moved to the end. The tenders also changed in appearance and latterly even had digital steam sound, together with magnetically operated whistle and bell. Finally, LGB gave the passenger cars a realistic western style clerestory roof. A baggage car in red and yellow also appeared (item 30040). As well as the items in the starter sets separately available freight cars such as the attractive 4472 reefer lettered for LG & Beer appeared in the range, with an emblem showing a beer bottle bobbing in the water, or various American boxcars in striking colors such as the aubergine-red colored boxcar with diesel sound (item 4267S) or as yellow boxcar catalog no with steam sound. It took a while to get used to the boxcar in pink with silver roof and beaver emblem when it appeared, together with changes to the steel end walls. There was even a mogul for the Lake George & Boulder RR (catalog no. 2119D) it was in yellow and without logo in bumble bee style. Production was limited to 2,000 just as with most of the individually produced rolling stock for the LG & B. In 1995 an loco numbered 25 with the LG & B RR appeared as the first Forney with digital steam sound (catalog no in yellow). When the Toy Train model range was introduced the theme saw a renaissance. We can recall the first Porter locos Rusty and Casey in green and red, lettered for the Lake George & Boulder RR accompanied of course by appropriately liveried cars. Special editions such as the celebratory barrel car (item no ), lettered 15 Jahre LGB Model Railroad Club 1993 (15 years of the LGB Model railroad Club) also kept up the LG & B theme. The most recent addition to the almost immortal railroad at the heart of the LGB range is the American style flatcar, in dark red livery with gold lettering and loaded with three barrels, naturally for the Boulder Bottling Company (item 41693). It is noteworthy that the Route of the Beavers once was the subject of persiflage: The US American model railroad dealer Al Kramer once had freight cars produced which looked very similar, for instance in the same previously mentioned pink and silver, and carrying a caricature of the beaver logo accompanied by the ironic message Save a tree, eat a beaver. If that is not a real compliment! The models of the fictitious but very successful Lake George & Boulder Railroad were subject right from the beginning to a continuous process of development to update them both technically and aesthetically. It is therefore more than logical that the logo appears in adapted form on the newly released caboose (item no ) and on further cars for release in 2016 just as on the full size railroads.

8 TOP LAYOUT 21 TRACK PLAN Layout description PHOTOS: KÖTZLE, TEXT: ARNULF SCHÄFER Personal data: Dr. Reinhold Braun Dr. Reinhold Braun, 54 and a medical professional, first became introduced to LGB and the US locos of the fictitious Lake George & Boulder RR back in Since then, outdoor model railroading and US locos have had him in their grip. In 2001 he began building an outdoor layout together with his son based on a freelance US theme. It was largely completed in Reinhold Braun is not simply an enthusiastic outdoor model railroader, he also enjoys working on and modifying his existing rolling stock The locos and cars look too similar, he says, so I customize them. He alters body details, color, lettering and his modifications also extend to inclusion of figures. On his roster the emphasis is on rolling stock in the Lake George & Boulder range to which he applies a wide variety of rebuilding skills. Trains of the Santa Fe are a further specialty of his. Construction time: 2001 through 2014 Track length: 262 ft 6 in Layout area: 98 ft 5 in x 16 ft 5 in (approx.) Running operations: digital, handheld controller Traction current: 12 amps Turnout control: Digital, partially radio controlled Turnouts: 22 (of which 6 in staging yard) Turnout controls: manual, switch lever (outside), wireless digital (staging yard) Bridges: 5 Longest bridge: curved trestle, R5 radius, max. height: 31.5 in length: 11 ft 6 in Tunnels: 2 Longest tunnel: 9 ft 10 in (approx.) Stations: 1 Special features: Layout built on hillside slope, own build curved trestle, modified engine house.