- [I moved from Long Island, NY, to the Boston, MA, area on 15 Jul 2010 - not all geographic references herein have been changed.]

Somewhere, I thought I had the story of how I powered an 8718 Silberling Control Car but I can't locate it.  Suffice it to say that I cut the floor of one in half and thinned out the back half of the body to accomodate a heavily-modified 8874 diesel chassis with only a rear truck.

Actually, you can't thin an 8718 body; all you do is remove the clear window castings and trim out the nibs which hold them and the little roof gussets.  Eventually, I'll cut out the rear windows individually, sand away their inner halves, polish the inner surfaces a bit (don't really want the motor showing), and glue them back in their openings (VERRRRY carefully!).

Innards of the (now) self-propelled 8718 Cab Car showing standard commuter truck at front (right) and 8874 chassis with only rear truck (left) cut into rear of car.  Note Märklin connector to allow the current pickup to pass between the car front chassis and diesel rear chassis:

That single wire and connector shown don't allow for reversing; I will substitute two wires and the mini-connector shown in front to allow reversing the head/tail lights:

By the way, the diesel chassis has dropped down at the chassis front/car center in the lower photo; it stays in place when clicked into the body (how fortuitous!) BUT, if your track undulates in the slightest, the fuel tank can graze the railhead and short because of the extra-long car wheel base.  The proper solution is to have level track; otherwise you may have to grind away a bit of the tank bottom.

This rig pulls two 8716/17 cars and a regular (unpowered) 8718 Cab Car but occasionally gets a wee bit unhappy on tight curves with only one driving truck and a third 8716/17 in the consist.

When I stopped on the previous page, I had written, "Now, all I have to do is lug the digital camera, tripod, AC adaptor, lights, etc., down to the cellar and document the framing and the bare layout before putting all that garbage (I mean all those buildings) back on the Homasote!"

Well, no sooner said than done!  Here it is; this is the underside of the layout with the extension support system in place:

and here are details of the support system; if it seems overdone, there was no way to extend the original framework without completely rebuilding the whole layout:

and here is the whole thing, stripped down to only track, with the extension in place; the yard tracks are not yet fastened down:

You can readily see the raw cut where the "Justice Arthur E. Mayer Flood Control Project" allows a track to run through the "levée" to the new yard.  Flood control gates will follow, as will cuts for Loansum Road and Py Road.

The yard track is not quite down permanently yet (02 Mar 1999), but all those existiing buildings are back in place and all the many (even more, now) vehicles and rolling stock go on and the wiring gets cleaned up next and VOLARE!

Of course, then I'll have to louse up everything by scrapping all the Märklin 7000-series controller boxes and building a reasonably proper control panel with toggles for the track and push buttons for the turnouts!

What happened next is that I had to move (several times) and was (as of April 1999) back in my orignal house with the giant HO Berlinerwerke and the Z Berlinerwerke is still stripped down and not yet reassembled!

I had written here of my discovery that some old 8505 220mm (8¹³/₁₆") track sections have the rails offset; it doesn't belong here and has been moved to Strange 8505 220mm Track Sections on Z-Scale Page 3.

I got (11 Mar 1999, via Walthers) my P&M Bridges & Bents (of Akron, Ohio - formerly Rain Tree) 1050 , 1060, and 1070 N-scale wooden bents (20', 40', and 60'), which scale out to 27½', 55', and 82½' in Z.  These will just barely fit in the Mercerized Bents Fit-Up Yard around the cranes.  Now, does anyone make truly microscopic NBW castings?  I think I'll use shortened Märklin #8999 track nails to fake them (who'll even notice?).

If you look at the photos of the Berliner Bessere Ballast Belastungen und Sams Schöner Schotter und Schlake Zech (the Ballast and Gravel Tipple), you may note that the front bumper of the dump truck with its body upended at the tipple lower dump house is almost at the outer track.  Well, I happened to pick up a copy of the August 1998 "Railway Age" and, on page 91, there's an ad for rental of R. W. Reese, Inc. Hi-Rail Rotary Dump Trucks; the dump body turns 90º and then tilts.  A perfect solution and instantly accomplished; as soon as the digital camera is back on line, I'll show you.

Speaking of the tipple and pictures thereof, I just realized that I have never put up the detailed photos of the Berlinerwerke-Z and their captions; these were made up in an album taken to the first of several Z-scale get-togethers on 28 Jun 1997 and various subsequent model railroad meetings and conventions but no one else has seen them.  Sorry 'bout that!  It has been rectified on Continuation Page 6 (07 Aug 2003).

I got a call from a hobby shop on 02 Jul 00 that my Märklin #2637 had come in.  I didn't recognize the number and had no idea what it was or when I might have ordered it (certainly, not recently).  It turns out to be in the U.S.-made Classic American Series of cast resin buildings, the Country Church.  Don't even ask how long ago I ordered it; it will be a chapel on the BW at the "northeast" corner of the Backhoe Road and Railroad Avenue.  I don't like the proportions of the steeple; I first thought to cut off the steeple and belfry, remove the belfry, and replace the steeple directly in place of the belfry.  Another possibility would be to leave the belfry and put crenelations on it (without a steeple); here are the original and both options; I think I'll go for the first:

            (08 Jul 00 photo and two "doctored" variations by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III.)

The first option has the distinct advantage, that if I have no belfry, I can't be accused of having bats in it!

15 Sep 00 - Here is a weird one [see the following page (full) for it's place in the BW-Z tour sequence]; a homeowner on Long Island, near me, on the south side of Route 25A ("Northern Boulevard"), at 6812 North Hempstead Turnpike in Oyster Bay Cove, just east of East Norwich, has drastically expanded his/her home (actually joined two separate stuctures) across a driveway such that it greatly resembled the Neustadt/Weinstrasse signal tower (or one very similar to it - I found the model I'm looking for, with a large observation bay window in the center of the bridge), but here are the modified Kibri #6730 Z tower, the Faller #124 HO version, and the house (please pardon the roll-off trash container):

(Jun 1997 photos by and © 1997, 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved.)

(14 Sep 2000 right-hand photo by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved.)

Update - 07 Jun 2001 - the walkways have wooden railings, the intermediate supports are gone, and there is a small island under the central pavilion, supporting it on four huge lally columns, and the landscaping is almost done; here's a ca. 01 Jun 2001 photo (the columns are barely visible against the white van):

Further update - I've lost track of just when but that entire odd structure was razed - gone - missing - obliterated some time about six months to a year after the last photo was taken and a new, normal (for an upscale suburb) dwelling replaced it!   (22 Oct 2011)

© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2001, 2011  - all rights reserved.