So its a bit of 1:1 scale and 1:87 / My Layout scale stuff.

Having grown up in a military family on the US Army side where we were stationed in Germany many times in the 70's, 80's, and 90's I've been around armor rolling around towns much of my youth.
So after resisting the urge to buy some old KFOR and MFOR stuff due to cost for so long the new Märklin train kit: 26606 with a ludmilla locomotive, a troop passengers silberling car, and six Leopard 2 tanks of the Bundeswehr, just finally broke me.. I had to order it. Order placed.



Ok, but now what. How do I integrate that train into a planned layout that was centered around passenger traffic with some freight between some industrial sites?
Well, the route already passed by sites that had military bases nearby (Mannheim, Bebra, Hanover) and a scenario of moving the materiel to Hamburg (already planned as an end station).. for transfer to ships to deploy overseas... ok that could work. But what to build. Its me, so of course, I need to overdo it to some extent.

So off to Google Image Search to see what other vehicles I might want, and eBay to see if I can get them and soon I've got an order for some MB Unimog trucks, VW Golf and T3 busses, as well as a host of Schuco made 1:87 scale models of Marder, Dingo, Boxer, and Fennek vehicles. That should stock a motor pool nicely and may allow for modifying the things I have on the transport train.

First, find out what building kits and landscape kits exist. Luckily Faller Military has the solutions for perimeter walls/fences, entry gates buildings, motor pool facilities, and with others additional motor pool facilities, loading ramps, concrete plate road surfaces I had the key elements to build a small and simple facility that would house armor type materiel and troops.



Now how to know what else might be there or how to interface with the rail system? OK, google search time...
Bundeswehr locations... the German army page has a nice map of where units are deployed SVG of locations German military bases. Seeing a big armor presence near Hanover at the General Field-marshal Rommel barracks in Augustdorf I go and find that on Google Maps to get some hints. The usual overheads of a military installation, barracks, admin buildings, motor pools.

But I'm wondering, how do columns of tanks get from that major armor facility onto the rail lines they surely use to move the armor to the eventual ships/planes for transport to deployment theater or other training sites? YouTube search found a video of unloading in Gütersloh station:



But that seems odd, given that is a looong drive on surface streets from Rommel facility to the freight loading yard.

https://goo.gl/maps/TRRf9WNBt8n



Indeed there was a news paper article where the issue of the column of tanks going to/from the station damaged some curbing on a section of road, where the military spokesman talks about that not being the typical place to transfer the tanks to the rail. Whew.. and here I was worried about having to put a trans-loading freight facility in a city. Nope, they normally load up the tanks in Bahnhof Sennelager. A quick check of Google Maps shows this is right next to the Rommel facility - down at the southern end (may still have British forces there as well).

https://goo.gl/maps/xaH2wAf6DBk




Now its just a question of how the tanks get from the huge training ground into the trains station. YouTube to the rescue... so on a simple morning your standing at the freight loading area of the small Sennelager station and suddenly a bunch of tanks roll around the corner....



So now I know they come down the Sennebahnhof Strasse.... one can then guess they just come across the Bielerfelder Strasse from the Küglerweg on the site, but thats not critical.

Still, for space reasons I may just put the loading ramp side of things in or just outside of the modeled armor barracks I'll build, and make it a stop along the run where I can fit it in. Hannover would be nice but thats just one short stretch to Hamburg on my planed layhout.. so maybe I'll move the armor to south of Mannheim... will see.

Edited by user 04 October 2017 16:52:19(UTC)  | Reason: Corrected name of tank to Leopard

That is strange, as Marklin have a six axle wagon in their range, and I am sure it was used in some of the 4MOR range with tanks on them, but I would have to go and look at the catalogue to check.

looks like the Bean Counters got at that set.

Cool. Thanks. That then shows that 2+2 is also a valid way of transporting the Leopard tanks and thats good enough I suppose.

Actually Leopard 2A6 MBT.
:o)

However, the above maximum loads are only possible on the best roadbed category. Thus, roadbed weight limits might command the usage of six-axle to reduce axle load. For example. the maximum load of a DB Cargo flat car Rns-z 643 flat car ranges from 40 to 66 tons depending on the roadbed class - see screenshot from DB cargo price list: gueterwagenkatalog_v2011.pdf (4,927kb) downloaded 20 time(s).

Good catch. Hunting down all the vehicles which are all animal names I got confused. Should have been more careful in the post. Will fix it in the post.


I asked Märklin customer service about the 2 axels vs 3 axels in some prototypes and their response is
"das stimmt. Unsere Modelle entsprechen nicht dem Vorbild."
In English "correct, our model is not prototypical"

In light of our discussion here it's clear the customer support at Märklin isn't able to asnwer the actual question but just look at superficial data. Had they been as geeky as we are they would have been able to come up with the justification from reality that does exist.

Edited by moderator 09 October 2017 20:39:07(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

You should add some ME262 as well, given its historical significance just for the cool/story telling factor.




For cammo netting (tarnnetz) I could find 1:35 scale - maybe that will work for you.

Made by Tetra Model Works in Korea and resold by various shops.

Or this 1:87 stuff:

http://www.diorama-shop....-x-29-cm-1-87::1052.html

TO keep things here as well, here are the two additional 2018 vehicle flatcars I put picked up.

48794 Fuchs 1 (TPz1)


48797 MAN 10t GL truck


And the separate motor pool vehicles I can swap in place of the Leopard tanks.



Which includes the following vehicles.

26239 Bundeswehr vehicle Boxer, 8 wheel armored vehicle
26243 Bundeswehr vehicle Dingo I, 4 wheel armored personel car.
26243 Bundeswehr vehicle Dingo I, 4 wheel armored personel car.
26248 Bundeswehr vehicle Fennek, 4 wheel armored intel car
26250 Bundeswehr vehicle Unimog S 404, 4 wheel truck
26424 Bundeswehr vehicle Marder, panzergrenadier armored cav

Edited by user 10 September 2018 20:24:40(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified