Photos by jw/W.I. The drawings and trackplan by Pitpeg published in Miba, issues 7/81 and 8/81

Trackplan and schetches. MIBA The German Miba magazine ran a pair of articles in their July and august issues from 1981, included in the July issue was also review on Liliputs model of the Br 95 in H0 scale. The size prospected for the layout-plan measured 5,60 meters in length for H0-scale. But in my opinion the layout could use a size to 6 meters so you can use more generous sized turnouts. the geographical location is of steep hills which gives the proposed layout a beautiful prototypic setting. Pig-Peg an artist and railfan/modeler drew a track plan of Lauscha and a pair of scetches from the proposed finished layout. Here we see the approach to the yard with the line to Probstzella in the foreground and the line to Sonneberg in the background. also seen on the scetch is the freight yard and the stone viaduct of the Protzella line. The single stalled engine house was razed in 1950. But including this with water column and a small coalbunker gives the area mote character but in the later days of operation with steam all the engines were oil fired. At the front end of the area is a teamtrack with fairly generous loading area. Keeping this rather uncluttered with maybe some loading palettes or tucked away barrels that someone forgot, and some clutter you can give the site relaxed feeling of a branchline. To the right is included is a old castle which is not prototypical, but adds interest to the scene. Prototype track enters after a short stretch of track a tunnel makes a 180 degrees turn to right in grade and enters daylight to top of the bluff which seen from the yard area and continues its way to Probstzella. Noteworthy here is the pedestrian tunnel and the stairways to the opposite side of the yard, next to the control tower built in to the retaining wall. The area closest to the town is predominated of the former depot turned to freighthouse, the platform tracks and the depot. Note the those houses that clings on the steep hillsides behind the yard. The typical houses with a slate exteriors dominate the town. The street front of the station is a dead end alley located higher than the road paralleling the yard. For the super detailers the backyards of the houses will give a opportunities to a number of mini-scenes. Here we see details on the stairways and the pedestrian tunnel next to the main road.

..And the operation. To run the layout you need a pair of passangertrains and a pair of peddler freights. All powered by Br 95.s which enters the yard running front ended to the yard from both directions, after run around, leaves the station by backing from the yard. This means that the staging tracks need to be given provision to let the engine run around the track to enter the yard in a prototypical way. So you need a pair of double ended stagingsyards. The passangertrains after entering the stubb ended platformtracks, after entering backed the consist to the runaround tracks close to the control tower and backed the consist platforms before leaving town. This form of jig-jaw movements adds a little more action. Before the 50.es the the trains were hauled by smaller Mikado tanks of Br 93 and Br93,5 classes. A model of Br 93 was offered by ROCO and the BR 93.5 is offered today by the same firm. For Switching and light road duties a Mogul of Br 74 class was used. A Model is offered by ROCO and a old and less detailed by MÄRKLIN. The Br95.s were replaced by Rumanian built Br119/219 class diesels that was troublesome and during the 1990.es the merged German Railways (DBAG) had a number of them have rebuilt or withdrawn from the service. Today many of the unrebuilt engines are scrapped. BRAWA offers a model of both unrebuilt and rebuilt versions of these engines. Previously the passenger trains were of 4-wheeled prussian cars, many of these cars are offered by FLEISCHMANN. Later on rebuilt cars were used, these are offered by Piko. In laterdays, Halberstädter cars were also seen on traffic offered by SACHSENMODELLE with unmodified fasttrain cars orginated from DR and DB.