Screenshots of European Trains

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Train from Raciborz to Raclawice Slaskie terminates at platform 3.

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Local passanger train from Baborow to Kedzierzyn
 
Hello guys. I am in the planning stages of making a freelance German route, circa 1960s. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone could give me any tips for modeling Europe, specifically Germany, since I have only ever modeled North American stuff, and I have yet to visit Europe.

Also, if anyone could point me to where you guys are getting all of these amazing buildings, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Hello guys. I am in the planning stages of making a freelance German route, circa 1960s. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone could give me any tips for modeling Europe, specifically Germany, since I have only ever modeled North American stuff, and I have yet to visit Europe.

Well, certainly our German friends on the forum can provide lots of insight into what Germany looks/looked like, but let me as a non-German, also trying to model 1960-70s Germany, tell how I go about it. (And I confess I have cheated a little by actually visiting Germany. :hehe:)

To get a feeling for what the landscape and nature looks like in a specific region, I find Google Earth quite useful. Zooming in to the landscape reveals proportions between forests, farmland, lakes, sizes of and distances between cities, etc, also what colors different areas have. Look at the photos taken at places of interest. Searching for images of specific cities and regions on the Internet is of course very useful. The same goes for finding out styles of buildings etc.

Then there are many differences between the US and Germany/Europe when it comes to the looks of roads, signs, pavements, clothing styles, use of the national flag, and a thousand more details. And for Germany specifically, there were differences between West and East Germany. Search the Internet and ask specific questions on this forum!

For information on the German railway system, a lot can be found on the Internet. A lot of it in German, of course. Some links I have found useful:
http://www.bahnbilder.de/ -- Photos of German railways
http://www.sh1.org/eisenbahn/s.htm -- German signals (in English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_railway_signalling -- Ditto
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ebo/ -- Construction and operating rules for the German railways (if you really want to make sure you build prototypical)
http://www.drahtkupplung.de/ -- Details about switch geometries, freight cars, and other stuff
http://www.worldrailfans.info/Articles/Europe/Ger-EngDictionary.shtml -- German-English dictionary of railway terms

A listing of German electrical and diesel locomotives is found here: http://www.lokomotive-online.de/.

Otherwise Wikipedia has articles in English about many German locomotives. Search for DRG Class 01 or DB Class 150, for instance. More extensive articles are found on the German Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org. Search for Baureihe 150, etc.

There are a lot of German items on DLS - locomotives, railway cars, buildings, scenery items. Many of them have German titles. For instance, searching for haus (house) gives me 789 hits. More German rolling stock and scenery items can be found on these sites:
http://trainzdepot.net/
http://www.trainzitalia.com/index.php
http://www.trainzonline.nl
http://trainz.luvr.net
http://trainworks.eu

Some of them require registration (at no cost).

Besides Internet, there are printed sources. One is the German Eisenbahn Journal (Railway Journal), a monthly magazine about German railways. Their special number 2/2009 entitled DB in den 60ern (German Federal Railways in the 60s) may still be possible to obtain. Have a look at https://shop.vgbahn.info/eisenbahn-journal.

Have fun! :wave:
 
Hi Alex,

a few things have been named already, let me put my 2 ct's to it:

If you talk 1960's, first thing to consider is where your map is located. There have been already lot's of differences between East and West in rolling stock, signalling and environment at this time. If you want both, place your map near or across the iron curtain with a border station. East German locos made their way into the West regularly. Berlin would be very special - the Western sectors have been operated by the East German Reichsbahn all the time. For Berlin you will find some nice buildings and stuff on the DLS.
The Polish content by samplaire, drstrach, kilanziom - just to name a few - can be found on DLS, too - at least most of it. It mostly fits to the German regions, especially former Prussia dominated areas. They also made some impressive works for industrial plants like coal mines and similar.
All kinds of East German cars can be found at http://www.trsbingen-nahverkehr.de/ , some also on DLS.

Hint: If you want a bunch of this nice content, just get the maps from 'spikerod' (e.g. Mark Brandenburg, Frankenberg, Kohlenpott, Muldental or the 750mm series - just amazing) and 'ulme' (Berlin), all on DLS.

To get some ideas how it looked like, may try these sources where fans open up their photo archives:
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/cat/14007/display/29128145 -> East Germany
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/cat/15361/display/29127010 -> West Germany (w/a little mess)
http://www.drehscheibe-foren.de/foren/list.php?17,page=1 -> Forum for historic topics, also lots (!) of pictures from all times East and West

In between you also find some movie clips on Youtube, may search for Reichsbahn, Bundesbahn, DDR or so.

When it comes to signalling, consider these English sites in addition to the above:
http://www.joernpachl.de/German_principles.htm (he's a German signalling engineer and professor)
http://www.sh1.org/eisenbahn/ (points to the index of the EN section)
http://www.stellwerke.de/index_e.html

Last but not least a sources for lots of German track plans:
http://sporenplan.nl/html_de/sporenplan/db/start.html

Hope it's useful, if you have questions, just drop a line via email.

Regards - Dirk
 
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Wow, thanks for all of the help so far. I am planning on just doing a freelance route, but I was thinking of having it based on Northern Germany and have it span the Iron Curtain, since border inspection stops, and the different atmosphere of the two halves seems interesting. (Plus I like history, and this gives me an excuse to learn more.)
 
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