British Army Berlin Military Train

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Smudge617

Smudge617

Well-Known Member
I've found this interesting train depicting the British Military Train which ran between West Germany and West Berlin from 1945 till Feb. 1991.

As this was a Train that I not only travelled on it also was run by the Transport Corps that I was a member of for 12 years, so it has nostalgic memories for me.

1720890339962.png



But I have a problem, this is N gauge, I contacted Arnold to see if there were or had plans for either an HO or an OO scale set, they passed my query onto Hornby/Rivarossi and the reply was No, no plans to upscale these to either scale, bummer.

So I'm (stupidly) going to try my hand at replicating this so I'm asking anyone who may know about this train, I need initially two items of information.

1) I know that they used DB Express coaches and it had a dining car, but which ones ? I'm ignorant of the DB and its rolling stock, the period I'm looking for is the late 60s early to middle 70s

2) The type of locomotive used for this kind of work at around the same period.

Thanks.
 
Smudge617 said:
I've found this interesting train depicting the British Military Train which ran between West Germany and West Berlin from 1945 till Feb. 1991.

As this was a Train that I not only travelled on it also was run by the Transport Corps that I was a member of for 12 years, so it has nostalgic memories for me.

View attachment 194044


But I have a problem, this is N gauge, I contacted Arnold to see if there were or had plans for either an HO or an OO scale set, they passed my query onto Hornby/Rivarossi and the reply was No, no plans to upscale these to either scale, bummer.

So I'm (stupidly) going to try my hand at replicating this so I'm asking anyone who may know about this train, I need initially two items of information.

1) I know that they used DB Express coaches and it had a dining car, but which ones ? I'm ignorant of the DB and its rolling stock, the period I'm looking for is the late 60s early to middle 70s

2) The type of locomotive used for this kind of work at around the same period.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Quite a project, should keep you busy for a while. Curious about the Locomotive, I suppose Kreigs would have the answer there
 
I did ask Kriegs, he'd never heard of it.

As all the cars are from the DB I can't find any in HO or OO here, so my army buddy in Germany will get them for me, Brawa is doing a new run of the passenger cars due end of the year, but I know exactly which cars made up the train (even the car numbers) and how many as they were dedicated to the run between Helmstadt and Berlin.

The locos, strangely, are easy to find they used one of the variants of the DB BR 216 like the one below.

1721073096213.png


There's a member on another forum who was the Duty Officer for the BMT on more than one occasion who's given me a lot of information and links to research the train, actually quite interesting.

Military Histories - How the Allies Travelled to Berlin by Rail

www.militaryhistories.co.uk www.militaryhistories.co.uk

www.british-berliner.org

History - Rolling Stock

www.british-berliner.org

Although the decals could be a problem.

1721073955562.png
 
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I've heard back about having the decals made for the Berlin Train.

The plan (in my head) is for 4 DB Cream/Beige & Blue Passenger cars

The decals I would need are

12 British Flags, I would only need 8 (but it's always handy to have extra)

This squadron logo, (minus the black background and the car No. X8 (4 extra))

1721991602002.png


The Royal Corps of Transport logo X8 (4 spares)

1721991854231.png


The RCT Emblem that goes above the RCT logo X12 (4 spares as they're small and fiddly)

1721992034238.png

So now I must make a decision.

The cost for the decals will be between £200 and £300 (they'll give me a more accurate quote if I go forward), but I'm assuming nearer the top end.

Cars are (£220+-) If I buy new, which would all be from the same manufacturer and run, that would give me a consistent match, in the year, colour, roofs, windows and doors, underbody details, car numbers etc.

I can get 2nd hand cars, but as you know, you can never be certain of their exact condition till you get it, I could end up with dings and scratches that aren't visible in a photo as well as variations in actual colour between the cars (especially if produced in different runs), so a respray would likely be needed, which A) means more decals for the car numbers to be made and B) I'm still a long long way from having the expertise to paint to that degree. The CN cars look ok in the photos, but in real life, not so much.

The Loco is another £170 DCC ready, £250 with sound, regardless of my decision.

So I can either go ahead with this project, which would give me a set of unique cars, or buy the Green Lilliput 1940s cars, I know which is simpler to do, but that doesn't really help.

what to do ?
 
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Smudge: Geesh. Decals for upwards of $350? You might google 'ghost white toner' and see if you can get a cartridge for your printer. I would stick with laser printers as the bubble/ink jets force you to add an additional step of sealing the things be for applying. 50/100 sheets of decal paper is pretty reasonable for per sheet $$$. I guess that if this set is the only one you ever do, pay the freight. OTOH - having something local you can deal with would be the way to go. The actual graphics of them look to be pretty straight forward - so that is just something new for you to learn. Ahhh, makes life interesting doesn't it?

Later
 
ctclibby said:
Smudge: Geesh. Decals for upwards of $350? You might google 'ghost white toner' and see if you can get a cartridge for your printer. I would stick with laser printers as the bubble/ink jets force you to add an additional step of sealing the things be for applying. 50/100 sheets of decal paper is pretty reasonable for per sheet $$$. I guess that if this set is the only one you ever do, pay the freight. OTOH - having something local you can deal with would be the way to go. The actual graphics of them look to be pretty straight forward - so that is just something new for you to learn. Ahhh, makes life interesting doesn't it?

Later
Click to expand...
I have made decals before for the GP35 and a few other freight cars, but I only have an ink jet printer which can't print in white, replacing it with a laser printer would cost me around £450 with a white cartridge for a one off job.

The company I've found is Fox Transfers, about 40 miles away.
 
Smudge: Don't know your printer manufacture - Amazon has white inkjet cartridges for many printers. I only checked there but should be more companies that offer white. That could keep stuff cheaper?

Later
 
ctclibby said:
Smudge: Don't know your printer manufacture - Amazon has white inkjet cartridges for many printers. I only checked there but should be more companies that offer white. That could keep stuff cheaper?

Later
Click to expand...
Standard Laserjet and inkjet printers can't print white, you need a specialised printer which are in £2500 to £3000 range.

White Toner Printers | Printerland

Find a printer that can print in white. White toner printers are the perfect choice if you want printed media that will stand out among the competition.
www.printerland.co.uk www.printerland.co.uk
 
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Smudge617 said:
I have made decals before for the GP35 and a few other freight cars, but I only have an ink jet printer which can't print in white, replacing it with a laser printer would cost me around £450 with a white cartridge for a one off job.

The company I've found is Fox Transfers, about 40 miles away.
Click to expand...
I had custom decals made for $80 from my submitted artwork. They are the Crex Meadows ones. It went by the full page plus a setup charge. If you are interested let me know and I will find the vendor, it is on my layout thread (Daves Layout 4.0) last year some time.

The decals were professional and worked great.

Dave LASM
 
logandsawman said:
I had custom decals made for $80 from my submitted artwork. They are the Crex Meadows ones. It went by the full page plus a setup charge. If you are interested let me know and I will find the vendor, it is on my layout thread (Daves Layout 4.0) last year some time.

The decals were professional and worked great.

Dave LASM
Click to expand...
Thanks Dave, one of the reasons the quote is so high is that they are doing all the artwork for me, I have no idea how to even start something like that, I have, unlike yourself, about as much artistic talent as a brick at the bottom of the Mariana trench.
 
Talking to my sister yesterday, who came up with a brilliant but very simple solution to my dilemma (don't use white). I may have solved the decal problem.

These I've enlarged so you can see them, they still need to be scaled done to the correct size, so this morning I bought a cheap ROCO DB passenger car so I can play around to get them correct.

1722186248364.jpeg
 
Old 97 said:
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There are some around made by the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) we actually had our own Radio and TV station as even American or British TV series and Films are dubbed into German, which was too fast for the common squaddie to understand.

The exception is an 18-minute film called "Dinner for One" with Freddie Frinton, first broadcast in 1963, and still is, every year, on New Year Eve it's turned into a German tradition.

 
Smudge617 said:
Thanks Dave, one of the reasons the quote is so high is that they are doing all the artwork for me, I have no idea how to even start something like that, I have, unlike yourself, about as much artistic talent as a brick at the bottom of the Mariana trench.
Click to expand...
I sent them my photocopies and old images of the original, and they did the rest, pretty much what you showed in your post. They took all the work out.

If you are not happy with your results...

Dave
 
My sister has sorted out my background colour problem, and I can alter the background colour to suit the actual colour of the car.
Now just waiting on the seller to post the flipping car so I can size them correctly.:(

1722277109879.jpeg
 
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logandsawman said:
I sent them my photocopies and old images of the original, and they did the rest, pretty much what you showed in your post. They took all the work out.

If you are not happy with your results...

Dave
Click to expand...
I think I've sussed it now, my sister helped out with the colour background that has been giving me a headache for the last week or so, and there's a member on another forum who will print them for me, so as I said I'm waiting on the car so I can size them correctly, total cost, about $25 :)
 


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