Railway Wargaming board

[Prof.Witchheimer]

All aboard the latest addition to the LAF – the “Railway Wargaming” board:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?board=46.0

Now, you may be wondering “Railway? Why that? And why add a special board?” You´re right: this topic isn´t really commonplace to many wargamers. Apart from that, it´s hard to find suitable train models in our beloved 28mm scale. Furthermore, it takes up a lot of space, it´s expensive, and that scares off many potential customers. Nonetheless, I decided to go with it and create a new board. You´ll still ask, however: why exactly?

First, I like trains. I´ve always liked them and years ago, I almost started building an HO railway display. Maybe one day, I´ll be able to follow this dream of mine through, but I´m afraid that one´s for retirement.

Second, many of us like to game conflicts and scenarios set in the 19th and 20th centuries. Railways were the dominant mode of land transport for most of that era. Choose any major war: ACW, RCW, WW1, WW2, and our much-esteemed “Pulp Era” – you name it; the railways were part of it. And, blatantly put, it´s a shame that railway scenery doesn´t feature more often on our gaming tables.

Third, our hobby owes so much to railway modelling (landscaping/terrain building especially!), so there´s pretty much a railway modeller in every wargamer, waiting to be let out and put on his track.

It was former user who brought up the idea for a railway subcategory. At first glance I thought that there wouldn´t be enough interest, so it actually seemed to be a bad idea. After reconsidering and thinking about it, though, I changed my stance. It is an enticing and exciting genre, some people already do it, and with LAF, the probability is good it will come to fruition.

To conclude, I´m convinced “railway wargaming” (or a blending of wargaming and railway modelling, if you like) has a great future ahead and that´s why I wanted to embark upon a new adventure on the LAF. I hope that many of you will find it interesting. Let´s talk about trains, no matter historical or fantasy, Old West or RCW. Just trains. Trains that ride on tracks, that's what matters most. As said, all aboard, and have a pleasant journey!

P.S: and thanks to Westfalia Chris for correcting my english spelling in this text, I'm not really able to write so good 

[Lowtardog]

Now my Dad buiolt me a big railway set up wioth all the terrain, buildings landscaping etc, this finally turned me to proper wargaming with my airfix figures with rules for partisans blowing up the train etc so I can understand where the idea comes from.

However I didnt really use it as a train set whihc became incidental in the end

[gamer Mac]

I tried this when I was a kid.
My friend had a Dad who built a stunning railway layout for my friend (Himself). Electric lights, points etc. All the houses were lovingly built out of Linka. I always used to bring my Airfix soldiers and tanks along to play with it but after crashing one train to many I got banned and it was back to the dirt in the garden for my armies.
It has always been a dream to try it again. My only problem with it is that once it is built you can only play that battle that the table has been built for.
Also with a railway layout it needs to be permanently set up. And I have never have had or will have the space.

[answer_is_42]

When I was younger I was obsessed with trains. Completely. How many eight year olds can state their favourite TV program is a steam train documentary? 'cos mine was...

Come to think of it, one of my favourite places in the world at this moment is Paddington Station. Great, now I'm going to have to buy a bloody model train, aren't I? Damn it!
 

Oh, jolly good idea for a board, although I would've thought it fits better as a childboard in 'Other Adventures'. But it doesn't really matter.

[former user]

thank You very much Prof.
You are my personal god
I missed this one - funny
and you took the chore on Yourself to collect all the railway threads in the forum.....

Chapeau, as the russian says
as soon as I check out how this photobucket thing works, I'll start posting my project

[gamer Mac]

If you like steam trains, you might have enjoyed the view from my office window a couple of weeks ago.

We had three of these stabled here overnight because we are the only place left that had the space and other requirements that a steam engine needs. Part of the GB 3000 Tour I think.

[former user]

indeed man
that's a beauty
you working near a train depot?
that would be pretty distracting for me....

[gamer Mac]

I work for a Heavy Railway engineering company. We overhaul trains and fix crash damaged ones.

[former user]

interesting
I would guess that working in that field would be enough ?
or do you own a model layout?

now, since I have the specialist here, let me ask pleas:
I read about modern steamtrains being used again, especially in Britain
can You tell something about that?
I am a real steamhead and I really believe that steam locomotion can be a serious alternative nowadays
would you agree?

[gamer Mac]

No I don't have a layout
Sorry not a specialist it's just a job.
I don't really know anything about older steam trains a bit before my time.
I do know quite a bit about newer trains but again only because I work on them not as a hobby. The hobby I do have (Wargaming) takes up enough of my spare time, to much if you ask my wife.
I can see the attraction of old steam trains but I must admit that I don’t see the attraction of diesel and electric trains.
As for re-introducing them I have never heard anything about that. There are various places around the country that still run steam trains but it is usually for tourism or heritage museums.
The steam engines at my work were the first ones I had seen here in the twenty odd years I have worked here. They were part of a tour that was travelling around the country doing various shows. The next couple of days they were at the Summerlee Heritage museum, out where I stay.

[Westfalia Chris]

I think former user is referring to the various AT (advanced technology, 5AT and 8AT/ATT) steam locomotive concepts.

The last thing I heard about those was that it was more of a "pet project" of some industry and engineer splinter groups, and frankly speaking, since the almost the whole of the British rail network has been electrified by now (easier since the Beaching Axe reduced it considerably), I do not see any possibility how they could compete against electric locomotives, which are far more power-efficient, since they do not have to carry their fuel around.

Additionally, I think that funds for such things would be better appropriated to repairing the damage done to the rail network during the years of privatisation, so that the trains can actually achieve their possible voyage speeds without fear of the rails disintegrating.

[voltan]

they have put a steamer back on the British mainline is a new build of an A1 class

http://www.a1steam.com/

[Dan]

This board will be useful to me as I bought a Schiffer book of , German Armoured Trains in World War II about a week ago and have some toy trains to convert to an Armoured configuration .

[former user]

small advice from me after working on my project for over a year:
if you are going to have fully armoured versions, use only the undercarriage and keep the civilian upper construction, this way you will be able to switch from military to civilian
the stuff is expensive enough

I even can use the boxcars and some gondolas as flatcars after removing the upper construction

[Hauptgefreiter]

interesting
I would guess that working in that field would be enough ?
or do you own a model layout?

now, since I have the specialist here, let me ask pleas:
I read about modern steamtrains being used again, especially in Britain
can You tell something about that?
I am a real steamhead and I really believe that steam locomotion can be a serious alternative nowadays
would you agree?

Remembering that I read something about that, I did a little research and came up with this link (only in german, sorry):
http://www.3sat.de/dynamic/sitegen/bin/sitegen.php?tab=2&source=/nano/cstuecke/19905/index.html
This is about modern steam engines, their efficiency and a company in Switzerland building them. Here it is said, that they're fully occupied with modernizing old or building new engines, because of high demand.
So you're not off with your believe at all