The Kingdom of Ostrovia

[b308]

The time has come to start thinking about the new layout... Over the past few years I've built up a stock of Peco Mainline HOe track and an even bigger stock of HOe locos and coaches... So the new layou will be back in my old scale of HO using 9mm track to represent 760mm gauge, HOe... Not sure what will happen to my TTe stuff but it'll probably get sold...

Now where to base the layout... Although probably 40% of my stock is Czech/Slovak I do have a fair bit of stuff from other countries around that area so I've decided to go Freelance but based in that part of the world so I can use the many building kits made by the small manufacturers from Central Europe...

I did think about several names, including looking at the list of fictional European names on Wikki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_f ... _countries) and flirted for a bit with Ruritania from The Prisoner of Zenda but the trouble was that on the map of Ruritania it was clear that it was German based, though in the right area, and I wanted to use Czech/Slovak based place names... So I started to play with names in that area to see if I could come up with something suitable... As many parts of that area end in -ia I concentrated around that, many good ones have already been used and i didn't really want to have to fend off questions about obscure works of fiction/film/plays so finally ended up with:

The Kingdom or Ostrovia

Now there is a place called Ostrava, a major industrial city in the old Silesian part of the Czech Republic, but I wish to point out that Ostrovia, whilst having a similar name and located in the same area of the World, is not the same place, and any similarity of name be ignored!!

Ostrovia the country is a small country bordering on the Czech/Austrian border in a similar way to the way Ruritania borders on Germany/Czech border. It's about the same size as Slovakia and whilst it has a few smallish mountains most of it is formed of undulating countryside featuring fields with crops and livestock (with no hedges!) and the odd village and a few large towns. The main railways are through trans European lines from the north to the south or east to west connecting the country to it's neighbours. However for local use a 760mm network has been built up similar to the Austrian/German examples, and observers will note the similarities with Austria as the Leaders of Ostrovia in the late 19th century employed engineers from Austria to build the lines, hence the 760mm gauge...

[b308]

Needless to say, with the Austrian engineers having built the railway they also suggested suitable rolling stock manufactures so the lines were given the "stanard" 760mm gauge loco of the time, the U Class 0-6-2T and matching wooden coaches which were followed later by steel sided coaches and standard goods wagons. There's a fair bit of timber on the slopes of the mountains and this required the purchase of suitable log bolster wagons.

Over time it was felt that rather than trans-ship goods from narrow gauge to standard gauge and vice versa it would be better if the standard gauge wagons could be carried on special carriers on the narrow gauge so the railway looked at the various methods of doing this. After some debate they decided on the use of the bogie transporter rather than the rollbock as it was felt that the transporter wagon would be more stable...

The narrow gauge lines were carefully planned by the Authorities to best serve the local communities and so, despite the rise of car ownership and more efficient buses and lorries, the narrow gauge network still provides a vital local service for the transport of people and bulk goods as the road network is still quite underdeveloped in the country areas and the Government see no need to develop them further whilst the railways can still do the job efficiently.

[TimberSurf]

KoO!

Thats a "Knock Out" idea!

Sounds like a nice place to visit! (though it seems Easyjet don't have that route yet)

Best wishes from the Kingdom of Lumsdonia

His Royal Kingship Timbersurf of Lumsdonia

[b308]

Thanks King Timbersurf!

[b308]

Ostrovia managed to keep it's independence in 1919 but kept close ties with the new Czechoslovakia hence in the 1920s it experimented with the M.11 four wheel railcar and in the late 1930s the M.21 bogie railcar. When the M.21 came along one of the young drivers, who had loved driving the M.11 managed to hide one away in a shed on one of the more obscure branches where it was left gathering dust with it's trailer car for many decades...

Unfortunately things were not as good in the late 1930s and the country was over-run twice and ended up as part of the Communist Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s and the young King Charles was exiled to Great Britain where, by fortunate chance, he was given rooms at Powis Castle near Welshpool where he brought up his young family. His son, also Charles, witnessed the birth of the Railway Preservation Movement, starting with the Tallylyn, then the Ffestiniog and then, much to his delight, the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway only a couple of miles from his home in Powis castle. The young lad threw himself into the rescue of his favourite railway and was even more delighted when the preservationists established links with Austria and brought some stock over to run on the line, reminding him of home...

The old King died in the 1980s having never seen his homeland again but then came the Velvet Revolution and Ostrovia declared itself independent and held elections for a new government. The new government, recognising that it would have to generate some extra income as there was not much industry, recognised the fact that they had an empty palace in the capital city and came up with the idea to re-instate the king as a figurehead similar to the United Kingdom as a way of boosting tourist income which they saw as the way forward. A referendum was held and an overwhelming majority voted in favour of inviting the king back and so it was that the young King Charles II arrived back in his homeland after an absence of 50 years.

When King Charles arrived back he was delighted to find that the rail network was still in place and was being used as it should. During the past 50 years the lines had been modernised using T.47 diesels and Balm/u coaches and the old U class locos had been plinthed. He set about encouraging tourism from all over Europe and persuaded the Government that running "heritage" trains would boost income and make the small railways pay their way. He encouraged the River Cruise operators to run day trips to the small kingdom including a visit to the Palace (including the Changing of the Guard!) and then a trip behind a steam engine on the narrow gauge railway. During his spare time he also drove the steam locomotives on the specials which made them even more popular with the tourists, after all how many people could say that their train was driven by a king!!

After witnessing, and being involved with, the early preservation movement and seeing the decline in the use of steam and then the early diesels on the lines in Central Europe he then came up with the idea of an "International Museum of 760mm Narrow Gauge Railways" based at the loco sheds in the capital city. There he would collect examples of steam and diesel traction and stock from all over Europe, many countries very generously donating examples of locos and coaches to the collection, also encouraging "visits" by locomotives from similar lines, preserved and private, to help boost tourism and income for his beloved country. At that point an old driver from one of the branches came up to him and whispered in his ear that there was a unique piece of narrow gauge history hidden away in a shed on the branch where he used to work... The King, suitably intrigued travelled with the old driver down the branch and opened the shed door to find the dust covered M.11 railcar and it's trailer, the only one of it's type left in the world. It was then removed from the shed, restored at the railway Workshops and now holds pride of place at the museum, every so often being taken out by an old driver who is enjoying a second lease of life!



Thus we arrive at today and the Railway my model will be based on...

The lines are still run on a day to day basis using T.47 locos and Balm/u coaches, freight being carried in bogie wagons and vans and standard gauge wagons on transporters. They also have a Museum Train of older 4 wheel coaches and wagons hauled by the U class or it's stable mate the Mallet. The museum also has a large range of "foreign" locos from the fairly modern Bulgarian Class 75 and Russian Tu7 to older locos such as the Tu2 and steam engines like the Px48 and Resita. The coaching stock for these locos can reflect the country they come from with suitable stock being put behind them.

[TimberSurf]

Gosh! How well versed you are in history! I would be delighted to arrange a Royal visit in the future (we can debate the pros and cons of std vs NG) with my entourage, as soon as Easyjet offer £21 fairs. Can't wait to see the model in the mean time.

[Bufferstop]

A good back story there, seems to have covered most possibilities in narrow gauge RTR.

[b308]

One of my German friends commented about how it "could have happened" with only a few tweaks to history, TS! I started out looking at old (19thC) maps of central Europe when there were a lot of small kingdoms and duchys and then developed from there bearing in mind what happened in the 20thC.

And scratchbuilt, Bufferstop, well over half my stuff is either scratch or kit built!

[Dad-1]

O.K then b308,

Time for the planning to end and construction begin !!
I do like the unconventional even if NG is not my usual
fodder you make it interesting.

Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

Looking forward to a working transporter wagon for the standard gauge.

[b308]

I see I haven't updated this for a while. Baseboards have been made (though I am using one less board than originally intended, that could change in the future!). Track has been laid and wired. Next I'll have to make the fiddle yard boards.

[Mountain]

Love the point control method. Nice, simple, cheap and effective. An old favourite!

[b308]

Fiddle yards now complete and full testing started. Fiddle yards run ok but section 3 (the goods loop) doesn't! Also got a small dead section on the entrance to the loco shed roads but that's my fault, I can see the hole for the wire... But there's no wire! Doh!





The "control panel"! (And back of!!)




Overall view:

[Hymirl]

What wire did you use for the points? Looks very nice and tidy.

[b308]

I assume you mean the control wire? It's brass wire, not sure of the gauge but it's reasonable stiff, the main section, though, is bullhead rail (code 75) laid in the grooves.