Guimaëc

Transcription

Welcome to Aiguillages, this week, a first episode in this season 7, about II scale (metric II to be precise). We're going to talk about garden trains today. Warning : if you're sensitive to the wind, put on a striped jersey, we're in Bretagne, it is going to blow ! At the boudary between Côtes d'Armor and Finistère, the small village of Guimaëc, and at the very top of a road along the sea coast, there's Bernard Guerlesquin's house. A retired sailor who, despite years spent in the French Navy, never forgot his passion for trains. Here we are in his garden where some of his home made Swiss self-propelled trains are operating. Bernard Guerlesquin's garden is the summary of a lifelong passion. I've always been a train enthusiast. When I was little, my parents used to buy me small trains we had to wind like a clock, with a key, and then I was still passionate, so I bought equipment, little by little. For the layout here, I bought rails, it took about 30 years to lay them. My first model trains date 1960's-1970's, little by little I bought others, and once I retired and arrived in Bretagne, I thought of building a layout and I did without too much difficulty but there was still hard work to be done. The structural works to build the layout's platform, were a lot of wheelbarrows full of ground and stones to move, and then I had to install the track's platform and all the diverse automatisms. Did the ground lend itself to it ? No, it did not lend itself to it at all, I started by building the viaduct that is behind me I didn't make any plan, I built it little by little, according to my inspiration, while respecting the slopes, so as the trains can climb it without too much problems. And when the differences in level become too important, one can still use the cable car, or the funicular, 2 of the numerous attractions created in parallel by Bernard to enliven his layout and that, for most of them, were inspired by real places, like Montmartre's funicular. In another corner of the garden, at the other end of the house, a tourist train is leaving. It's taking its passengers, using an elevated passage to cross the main track. This track is entirely automated, and trains' departures are delayed at regular intervals. A fire started in one of the houses of the layout. Fortunately, the firemen arrived quickly, and the fire hose is going to rapidly overcome the disaster. The traffic starts to move again in the garden. On the main track, this Mallet locomotive leaves one of the 3 stations of the layout and goes into a narrow way, then in a tunnel which ends on another metal bridge. The buildings were made either in cement or in plexiglas. With a big difficulty : everything has to resist bad weather. Last winter in Bretagne, there were 5 big storms, with winds gusting to 130 km/h. It was howling and it was even difficult to stand outside. Such conditions necessarly cause damages on the layout. This time, the signals were particularly damaged, but finally, the damages were limited. When the wind is too strong, the machines are heavy enough to resist and stay on the rails, however it is not rare to see cars flip over, and when it happens on the big viaduct, Bernard has to put on his boots and go fishing in his pond. A local regulation suspends the traffic on the layout when the wind exceeds 50 km/h. The viaduct surely is the centrepiece of the layout. 9 m long, 1.15 m high. It is made of brass for the metal part, the pillars are made of cement. Inside the structure, a service gallery was built to allow workers to ensure the viaduct's maintenance. Bernard Guerlesquin's layout is supplied in 6 different spots : the catenary is really extended and functional, but it's also possible to make trains with on-board power supply operate, and to control them by radio. The layout is II metric-scaled. It has 230 m of tracks. As for maintenance, because of the rain, the roofs are to be repainted every 2 years. The frontages are to be remade every 5 years. Small amounts of work, but that are added to the garden's maintenance, and that end up taking a lot of time ; pulling out weeds, pruning the trees to keep them at the trains' scale : 1000 meters square that need to be maintained. The main layout's tracks are made of stainless steel from the wire works of Vosges. The team tracks are made of brass. The disadvantage is they darken while oxidizing, and they have to be rubbed so that the power passes through. The layout reproduces some well-known sites, as Joséphine Baker's Château des Milandes. A third layout, Breton this time, weaves through the garden. And every time a train arrives, we can hear Notre-Dame des trains' verger making the bells ring with content. Bernard Guerlesquin's layout is well-known in the region, every local school visited it at least once, otherwise, the majority of visitors are retiree clubs from the 4 Breton departments. Next week, Aiguillages will be at the other end of France, we will talk about Nouvion sur Meuse exhibition that took place last spring in Ardennes. To be kept informed of what is going on in Aiguillages, of new reports' publication, and to know the program for the following weeks, subscribe to the site : www.aiguillages.eu. And if you're new here, know that Aiguillages offers a new report very week, about railway model making the first 3 weeks of the month, and about tourist trains on the last Friday. Until next week, here are some suggestions of previous episodes to watch for a first or second time...