Permanent Miniature Railroad Exhibition at Sinaia Train Station - The Summer Countryside

Previous part: The city

Next part: The winter town

Permanent Miniature Railroad Exhibition at Sinaia Train Station - The City

Previous part: The roundhouse

Next part: The summer countryside

Permanent Miniature Railroad Exhibition at Sinaia Train Station - The Roundhouse

During a recent trip I visited Sinaia, a quiet small town in the center of Romania, located in a spectacular mountain region. It offers a lot to see to its visitors, for example the Peles castle. As a fan of steam locomotives, I went to the train station because I knew that CFR 230.039 is located there and I hoped to take some photos.  But, as I soon found out, this small train station has a great surprise for the railroad modeling fans too: it hosts a permanent miniature (H0) train exhibition. The entrance fee is quite low (somewhat more than 1 Euro) and the featured models and the whole setup is great. I will try to present it in this post and the ones which will follow...

The exhibition is divided into two main themes: the city with the summer countryside and the winter station with its surroundings. The summer and winter parts are cleverly separated by high mountains and tunnels. Both of them contain lots of static models and moving elements, not just trains, but also "animated" figures. For example at the roundhouse there is a guy welding a steam locomotive. Another one in the countryside is cutting the grass.

The first area of the exhibition that caught my attention was the roundhouse and the turntable, with lots of static steam locomotives in it:

Next part: The city

H0 Locomotives in Wooden and Glass Vitrine

I have finally found a solution for storing my H0 locomotives in a way that can protect them from the dust and also let them be admired: in a vitrine especially made for 6 H0 locomotives. The vitrine's frame is built of wood, the back panel is a mirror, and it has a large glass door through which the locos can be seen. The glass door's corners and knob are made of metal covered with chrome. Five glass shelves separate the interior space into 6 compartments, at the bottom of each there is a piece of H0 track, on which the locomotives rest. And the whole cabinet hangs on the wall. Perfect!

I've put in it a 4 German steam locomotives: BR 01, BR 41, BR 43, BR 50, the wreck of a BR 86 (just to occupy the space until I put together my second BR 01 kit) and a class 232 diesel locomotive ("Ludmilla"), all built from Revell kits.

Revell Big Boy Steam Locomotive - Inside the Box

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Revell's item no. 01265, the Big Boy steam locomotive comes in a soft box. The box itself is very nicely designed. Inside it you will find the 87 parts that need to be put together. They are made of good quality black plastic and they are grouped into 4 units: The main part of the locomotive and the main part of the tender are separated from other components, while all the other parts are in a plastic frame from which they need to be removed.

Inside the box there is also an instruction manual and a safety advice document. Everything in the manual is translated into several (many) languages. It contains general assembly instructions and warnings, information about the required paint colors and 41 very detailed drawings that will guide you through the steps of assembling the Big Boy locomotive. One thing that I was not happy about is that on the outside of the box only 5 colors are listed as required paints (8, 9, 91, 99, 330), but the instruction manual lets you know that you will also need colors 75, 86 and 92.

Otherwise the contents of the box is more than satisfactory. It contains everything a modeler would expect, except the accessories, of course: paint, brushes and glue.

Next part ->

A Gift from Santa - Revell Big Boy Steam Locomotive

This year Santa really outdid himself. Well, to be precise, it was actually Rudy, the red nosed reindeer, not Santa ;) Anyway, among the lots of very nice presents under the Christmas tree, I was happy to find a model steam locomotive: Revell's item no. 02165, the Big Boy locomotive. Revell is one of the leading companies in modeling and among planes, ships, submarines, cars, engines and other models, it has some really nice steam locomotives. Revell's item no. 02165 is the American Big Boy locomotive on H0 scale (1:87).

Union Pacific's Big Boys were some of the largest, longest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built. They were capable of pulling over 4000 tons of weight up on steep mountain grades and they were also quite stable at the speed of 130 km/h. Because of their enormous size, the Big Boys were articulated steam locomotives with 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement (no other steamers had this wheel arrangement). They were very reliable and safe. 25 of them have been built between 1941 and 1944, grouped into two classes: class 1 with locomotives X4000 - X4019 and class 2 with locomotives X4020 - X4024.

Assembling Revell's Big Boy requires much time and patience. Rated at difficulty level 3 (out of 5), it is made up of 87 pieces which need to be painted in several colors and glued together. Rudy took care of everything and also brought me the 5 basic paints, two brushes and glue required for assembling the model. Thanks, Rudy!

Next part ->

Links:

Union Pacific's Big Boy collection video

Revell's official site

A Special Birthday Gift - Ceramic Steam Locomotive with Candle

Yepp, I became one year older the other day. Among many other very nice gifts that I have received for this occasion, there is one that I particularly enjoy. Someone dear remembered my hobby and gave me a ceramic steam locomotive. Actually it's Santa's locomotive and yes, he is a proud driver looking out the window. The little loco is painted in dark red, white and gold and has a nice ribbon on the front of the boiler. After all, it's Christmas ;)