Intermodellbau Dortmund 2004 !

On a rainy morning, it is Monday, April, 19, 2004, a hired van is picked up and the entire layout stored in the vehicle. I am now on the way to the Dortmund Intermodellbau - 640 km are ahead of me. First stop is at Göppingen, home of Thomas Zeeb. Here further material for the ZClub 92 booth is collected. On the late afternoon the freight arrives at the fair. Quickly everything is unloaded and the vehicle returned to the hire company. In the evening Thomas and me meet with Sieglinde und Siegfried Dinkelacker from IG Spur Z and Dieter Heckl and his wife at a nearby restaurant, called "Trommler".

April 20.2004 is used to assemble our booth. At the beginning there was empty floor -

where 8 hours later Lonesome Dove is arisen:

The 1:1 model of the crossbuck was a surprise from my club collegues for the fair! Also new is the lighting of the layout.

This day was finished again at the Trommler.

The canisters are filled with water and are now supporting the outermost jacks for improved stability. Wednesday morning, the show is open to the public the first day! Am Mittwoch können dann die ersten Messebesucher einen Blick auf Red Rock Country werfen.

Alexander Bückle (www.privat-bahn.de) and Klaus-Peter Franke (MEF Markdorf) are arriving this morning. They came by night train. After a short briefing they get on duty on the Red Rock Railroad. Up to 6 indipendent trains are running over the layout. Alex and Klaus are replacing me for Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon.

Every noon at 1 pm Z scaler meet at the ZClub 92 booth. I had the opportunity to meet many fellow Zheads by person.

I have to leave the fair at 4 pm to catch my train back to Markdorf. A report on the train trips will be published soon in the prototype section.

Thursday and Friday Alex and Klaus are doing a great job on the railroad - they enjoyed these big operating sessions.

On Friday afternoon Mathias Fetscher (president of MEF Markdorf) and I met in Friedrichshafen for our train to Dortmund.

On Saturday April 24.2004 I am back "on duty" at the Red Rock. The public enjoys the show.

With a remote controlled DCC throttle I am able to run my trains within the crowd.

                                                                                                                           Foto: Mathias Fetscher 

An Amtrak Special is pulled by Red Rock 21. This 20 year old engine is still equipped with the original 3 pole motor. This engine has a new Zimo MX62 inside - the slow speed performance is magnificent!

3 AZL engines were used during the 5 operating days, none of them caused any problem. Only at SP 8844 the Uhlenbrock 73500 decoder required a reset after some mix up during consist operation. A service technician from Uhlenbrock could solve this issue directly at the layout. That was excellent customer service - thank you. 

                                                                                                                           Foto: Mathias Fetscher 

The Desert Hog was the star of the children. In the yard you will see the RRR MOW train, still not completely finished.

The layout was really reliable over the 5 days. Only the Märklin turnouts caused electrical shorts in the frog area, especially with the AZL engines. This needs to be evaluated.

On Saturday the UP ABA F7 was in need of the next service and finished the show for the engine shop.

The 4 unit Santa Fe engine was a real runner, every day she ran about 9 hours without stop. This engine has 3 motors and a Digitrax DN142 decoder.

Foto: Mathias Fetscher

                                                                                                                           Foto: Mathias Fetscher
Thomas Zeeb and Nicola Malavesi of Z Club 92 in full operation.

Saturday 6 p.m. the doors were closed for that day and we started a small party. The stereo was blasting country music and a 50 car train was running on the layout. Mathias, Mr. and Mrs. Luft and Nicola enjoying the show. On the attached compressed video you will get an impression:

Real Video, 443 KB         Windows Video, 258 KB

After this happening we all met a a steak house. Two presidents are on the left picture - Nicola Malavesi of Z CLub 92 and Mathias Fetscher of MEF. On the right pic you will see Arnim v. Herff, Thomas Zeeb and Siegfried Dinkelacker.

Dieter Nolte from the Red Rock Canyon Railroad is watching a kitbashed car.

On Sunday I have to leave again at 4 p.m to be back at work on Monday. Mathias and Thomas will store everything in a van on Sunday and drive back on Monday.

97.570 visitors come to the Intermodellbau 2004 - a really great show!

The RRR Crew enjoyed this event - great fun and purely model railroading! Many thank to ZCLub 92 for this invitation and to all Z heads at the show. We are looking forward to meeting you the next time!

Impressions of the other exiting layouts and booth can be seen here!