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Contents
History
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Burghausen as a layout, was conceived from the pages of an American publication. All I can say is that the plan offered the majority of the operating attributes that I was looking for. I must confess to being heavily influenced by American protocol's (thanks to such publications and magazines as offered by Kalmback Publishing etc.) which are more prevalent in New Zealand than European references.
From its concept, Burghausen was designed with both operation and Digital Command Control (DCC) in mind. Burghausen is loosely based on the area of Southern Germany. Although the location names are real, the layout is totally fictional. My operating era is anywhere between 1930 through to about 1960. That way I can operate K. Bay Sts. B. / Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) / Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) equipment.
The ex-playroom became the basis for one half of the layout room. This room now measures 4500mm by 3600mm (14' 7" x 11' 8"). I could have used all the internal room for the layout but I wanted a maintenance area as well. The layout therefore, consumes an area measuring 3400mm x 3430mm. I guess one would refer to the design of the layout as Walkaround, Point to Point with two Offline Interchanges. All the power and lighting sockets required
were installed as I wanted during building. My only regret is that I didn't put bulb sockets over Burghausen / Kastl stations, a single dual fluorescent lighting system currently illuminates these areas. Its ok, but I don't have the 'dimming control' over the dual fluorescent tubes that I have with the conventional bulbs.
Other than Burghausen, Kastl and Egstadt, everything is supported on wooden risers. I
used domestic linoleum inverted (foam side uppermost) and adhered the lino to 12mm thick custom wood subroadbed throughout as the soundproofing medium. The maximum layout railhead table height is 1193mm at Waldhausen to the minimum at Egstadt of 1022mm. The biggest challenge in construction came from the climb out of Gerten up to Waldhausen. That took me a lot of working out and even to this day I am not one hundred percent satisfied with it. I have suggested that the incline is 2.8%, but in all probability that's over-estimated. From the planning stage the maximum radii of curves was set at 406mm with a minimum of 336.5mm, used. Barring a couple of exceptions Minitrix flex-track and points have been used throughout.
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