Souffel

Transcription

Welcome to Aiguillages, this week's episode was filmed in Alsace, you will see that trains drive on the right and that models are often very large. Every two years, the OMALT organizes a railway model-making international exhibition, near Strasbourg, in Souffelweyersheim. This year, 28 layouts and 21 exhibitors were distributed over 3 rooms. The reason why trains drive on the right in Alsace is because trains drive on the right in Germany, and Alsace was part of Germany from 1871 to 1918. When the region became French again, it would have been very expensive to modify the whole signalling system to make trains drive on the left as they do in the rest of the country, so Alsace kept this characteristic. In Souffel'Modélisme exhibition, many trains were also driving on the right because several clubs were coming from Germany to exhibit their creations. Jean-Marie Wilhelm is one of the members of the OMALT, the association that organized this exhibition. We're part of the OMALT, which is the municipality's cultural activities office. Our railway modelling section is especially about small trains, making layouts, and host this kind of events. It's the 13th edition, and the next one, in 2 years, will coincide with the club's 30th anniversary. This exhibition is well established and international ... We're very proud to organize an international exhibition, especially with Germans, the Swiss didn't make it here, and for now we haven't convinced anyone else, but there are clubs from the Hockenheim region, about 180 kilometers from Strasbourg, others from Karlsruhe, 80 kilometers away, closer ones from Neustadt ... The layouts are larger or smaller, usually Germans build large models. I can confirm that, and you'll see it in this report. Apart from small or large layouts, Souffel'Modélisme exhibition was also displaying handmade creations. What is particular in our club, and what I think is interesting for visitors, is the work of Daniel Fusilier, who comes from Saint Dié, in Vosges, and who builds locomotives from scratch, with just brass sheets. He buys engines from Germany and from the United States, he has a huge collection. One could not tell by seeing his stand, but he has about 500 machines in total, and he buys wagons, of course. Everything is digitalized with sound, it's very impressive. Another exhibitor that I also really like is Christian Vallée, who's at the back of the room, he builds Ho scaled wagons from Plasticard, he finds information on photos, plans, things like that, he especially makes special-purpose wagons for track and signalling system maintenance, and he has a variety of engines that he brings to life in a beautiful way, they're well weathered, it's great, he really is an artist. Let's put the focus back on Daniel Fusilier : he will be displaying about 50 of his 1:32 scaled locomotives until september 7th 2015, in Colmar's toy museum. They were many things to see in Souffel'Modélisme, and I cannot show you everything in this episode, but in the following months I'll give you a detailed description of some of the displayed layouts. For today, let's focus on this layout from the other side of the Rhine. Klaus, his owner, tells us about it. We're from the Karlsdorf-Neuthard Railway's Friends Club, situated between Karlsruhe and Heigelberg. We started building this layout in 2005, we're 4 members making it. It's my own model, some parts of the scenary were made by other people, but that's what I imagined. When I started model-making, at home, there wasn't enough space to build a large layout, so I decided to use the N scale. At first, I had a 6 meters by 5 meters room, and I wanted to build a model there. But when I started building it, I realized that, if I ever wanted to move, I would not be able to carry it, so I started planning a layout made of modules. I had a problem : I wanted to build a big station, but there was not enough space for that in the room I had. So I thought maybe it would be better to make a large layout composed of several modules, that I would only set up once or twice a year, during exhibitions, and that I would store at home the rest of the time. I don't even know the exact size of the model, I know there are 2 tracks around it, and that each must be about 100 meters long. But I never really tried to find out its exact size. What are you wearing on your wrist ? That's because I've had a problem : when I was able to assemble this layout that I had built at home, thanks to a friend who has a big hall where I can test it from time to time, everything was going quite well, trains were operating without any problem, but during exhibitions, sometimes they were derailing, and I was wondering why. I think that's because they were too long. Normally, there's always someone controlling the operations on the layout by computer, and other people walking around the model. But when those people were reporting a problem, the main operator didn't know what to do, so he used the emergency stop button and everything stopped. But the problem was that when large trains were operating on curves and that they were stopped like that, suddenly, they derailed. So we invented this electronic device. Now when we notice a problem somewhere on the model, we can control and stop every trains on the layout thanks to 2 buttons. We can stop them with this one, and make them operate again with this one. But when we do that, trains don't stop brutally, but progressivly. And same thing when they operate again : they start slowly until they reach their normal speed. You will have realised that the layout is entirely controlled by computer. A luminous device shows where the problem is. It is a code that the association's members know and that allows them to act rapidly, without having to search the location of the problem on the whole layout. This chair is another high-tech gadgetry : it allows one to move under the model easily, to adjust the height of the legs or to intervene when there's a wiring problem, for exemple. Finally, here is the last tip noticed on this model : the trains are stored in those electrical ducts. There were many other interesting layouts in Souffelweyersheim exhibition. I'll tell you about it in the next Aiguillages season. The organizers were expecting about 1,000 visitors, as the exhibition took place during an extended weekend. They finally sold 1,700 entrance tickets, without counting children under 12 who had free entrance. This result is encouraging regarding the next Souffel'Modélisme exhibition, in 2 years, that will coincide with the club's 30th anniversary. Next week in Aiguillages, we'll go to another exhibition that was organized a few weeks ago by the Railway Node 03 Club, situated in Saint-Germain des Fossés in Allier. Aiguillages offers a new report each week, about tourist train or railway model-making. To be sure not to miss any of the next episodes, subscribe to its Youtube channel and to its newsletter, you'll find it on the site : www.aiguillages.eu and you'll receive a mail every Friday, to inform you about the new reports published on the site. Until next week, here is a suggestion of videos to watch for a first or second time.