BAHNHOF BREITENFURT OST is currently not booked for any exhibitions due to proposed dates clashing with other activities. However, it is still available for exhibitions anywhere in Scotland and northern England north of a line joining Blackpool to York and Scarborough. .

---

Further info for Exhibition Managers is available here or on UKMS directory of exhibition layouts.

Located on a fairly busy mainline in a fictional location in northern Bavaria some time between 1904 and 1914, 'Bahnhof Breitenfurt – Ost' is situated on the edge of a medium sized town. The station serves both long distance and stopping traffic and is the terminus for a small branch line that heads into the hills. Primarily a passenger facility, only occasional freight traffic is handled with remaining sidings used variously to store excess rolling stock and to act as temporary home to a small railway museum with replicas of some early German trains. The small (static) locomotive servicing yard is also used as a museum housing several early Bavarian locomotives as well as turning the occasional loco.
Although the layout represents the pre WW1 era (as far as possible), the trains themselves also cover the inter war years and are generally of particular historic or technical interest.
To reach its full potential the layout really requires two operators. However, for exhibition purposes it is usually controlled by a single operator (me) which limits its versatility. Depending on their lengths, up to ten trains can be accommodated though only eight are usually available.

October 4th – Attended Oxford and District MRC's ZEDEX Convention in Didcot. 1100 mile round trip so this is for the second and last time. Apart from the fact that I arrived later than expected so didn't get to lay out all the trains, everything went well. Just one loco overheated so had to be stopped. Plenty of interest and positive comments. A report on the event will follow.
Image 1) The Up end of Breitenfurt Ost station. On one of the sidings behind the signal box can be seen the loco 'Saxonia' and a typical coach set.
Image 2) The down end. On the relief road, a Henschel-Wegmann express, powered by a class 61 tank engine, speeds past the Rheingold express picking up passengers on the down main. In the background a freight waits on the down relief as a V32 diesel-pneumatic hauled passenger train enters track 2 from the right.
Image 3) A detail from 2) showing mid 19th century Bavarian and other locomotives in the museum yard.

/ September 24 – RED LETTER DAY! Bahnhof Breitenfurt Ost is featured in an eight page article the October issue of Continental Modeller, see pp. 642 to 649. Brilliant pictures by the editor, Andrew Burnham, and a rather lacklustre article ("warts and all" as someone said) by me. Loads of other articles make it well worthwhile buying a copy.

September – With Oxford and District MRC's Zedex Convention coming up next month, it was essential to sort out the route selection logic for the right hand end of the hidden sidings. So, it was out with CorelDraw and draw up the amendments. Surprisingly, all went well and all the wiring worked first time, with the number of required tracks on the matrix board drastically reduced.


April – I really must apologise for the total lack of updates. Due to other interests, I have, apart from ripping up some track in the hidden sidings, not worked on the layout since the Elgin exhibitions, 2013, and am feeling a bit guilty about it as there are several outstanding jobs to be completed before Breitenfurt – Ost is finished. I am planning on returning to it after the end of April. In the meantime there no exhibitions planned until Zedex on 5th October, though I am happy to take Breitenfurt – Ost to exhibitions from mid-May onwards.
Later this year I will be starting on a small, and much simpler, Z scale layout. More later. [This didn't happen.]

---

 

---

2013

October 6th – At long last, an update!
As I cannot operate Breitenfurt as a home layout, there is very little incentive to use or work on it unless there is an exhibition in the offing. So it has been since November last year. However, as you can see above, Breitenfurt – Ost will be at the Elgin MRC's Modelfair next month.
Those of you who have been following my diary notes will be aware that I decided to rework the layout of the hidden sidings in order to remove conflicting routes. The left (as I look at it) end of the sidings was completed last year and now it was the turn of the right end. I ripped out the trackwork several months ago and during the last couple of weeks installed the new exit (anti-clockwise) trackwork. In theory, as all the turnouts are trailing, that's it all finished and ready to go. (In fact, I did one exhibition with the old track plan and unpowered with very little trouble – as long as I didn't try reversing back into the sidings.) However, I would rather have the turnouts set correctly when exit routes are set up.