What scale for 28mm east german Africa railway ?

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi, sorry for the late reply; while visiting my parents, I lifted some images from "Die Deutschen Kolonialbahnen" concerning German colonial railway locos and stock.

You can find them in my Photobucket gallery, following >>>this link<<<. Unfortunately, there weren't as many useful pictures in the book as I thought there would be, and sorry for the sometimes poor quality - had to use my camera instead of a scanner.

[Michi]

You can find them in my Photobucket gallery, following >>>this link<<<.

Very good that, many thanks! I conclude that conversions can be done from usual Saxonian/Prussian/Bavarian rolling stock by adding grilles to the windows and tropical roofs on top of the wagons an coaches. The engines look like their European counterparts, apart from being more like standard gauge in appearance than the tank engines used on European narrow gauge lines.

[David]

Thanks
this should get me going on the this project, not sure where to get everything.
But there are a few good model railways shows in scotland, and they are very helpfull.
David

[Estorff]

"Anyone has any record of such action ? Charge with bayonets on horseback ?"

The image of a mounted Schutztruppe bayonet charge referenced above (several years ago) is by Carl Becker and was included in Deutsche Reiter in Südwest :Selbsterlebnisse aus den Kämpfen in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (1907), a compilation of participant accounts from the Herero and Nama Wars which began in DSWA in 1904.  The action depicted is a rather fanciful rendering of a skirmish that took place in the first weeks of the Herero uprising near Uitkomst, a boer farm 18 km SW of Grootfontein in the north of the colony.  I have posted extensively about Uitkomst at my blog (Cornflower Blue & Corduroy)  and am in the final stages of developing a skirmish scenario with Roy Jones for use with his new Herero Wars Rules, a variant of TSATF.

More germain to this thread, the narrow gauge railway between Windhuk and Swakopmund was the setting for some of the first fighting during the Herero war and armored trains were used as cover for repair parties and relief forces.  There is another Becker painting in Deutsche Reiter that shows one such train in the right panel of a two page spread. 

[former user]

apology for wiseassing, but I believe Herero genocide or rebellion is favoured by the people without the horses and bayonets  

as fancy as the painting looks like (I'll admit that), as much it turns my stomach inside out.
it need not worry us, but this particular episode in Namibian history was still an issue in 2004
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothar_von_Trotha#Legacy
and today as well. I would advise sensitive treatment of the topic

back to OT, I read somewhere that the germans even had some armoured train in SW, at least in WW1, but I don't remember the source, sorry. How was it in Tanganyka?

[Estorff]

The narrow gauge railway used by the "Swakopmund-Windhuk Staatsbahn", and later extended to other parts of DSWA, was serviced by Krauss-built Zwillinge twin tank steam engines with wheels that were configured 0-6-0.  The engines were coupled back to back so a single cab crew could operate them in either direction.  There is one surviving engine of the 50 pairs that were once in service, displayed on a plinth outside the Windhoek train station in Namibia.  The first truck behind the engines was a water tender, and there is a surviving example in Rehoboth, Namibia.

For my thoughts on the German-Herero and Nama wars, how they should be remembered, and the morality of wargaming them, see the first post disclaimer at my blog. http://omaheke.blogspot.com/2013/10/disclaimer.html

Cheers,

[former user]

like this


I can hardly imagine a wargaming railway more consistent than Michi's



@Estorff, I know Your disclaimer and couldn't agree more

For my thoughts on the German-Herero and Nama wars, how they should be remembered, and the morality of wargaming them, see the first post disclaimer at my blog. http://omaheke.blogspot.com/2013/10/disclaimer.html

the "Reiterdenkmal" after the independance comemmorated the colonial oppression, and it has been removed and put in storage in 2013

hell, I just realised what threadomancers we are, sorry....

[Michi]

I can hardly imagine a wargaming railway more consistent than Michi's

Thank you! 

[former user]

Ehre wem Ehre gebührt 

[Plynkes]

How was it in Tanganyka?

Unfortunately as far as I'm aware (though I would be happy to be proven wrong), the armoured train action was mostly across the border in British East. The Brits had armoured trains on the Uganda railway. And as that railway ran close to the border in places the Germans made quite a habit of giving them the "Lawrence" treatment, before the war moved on far from those parts.

[former user]

I am surprised there was any....

THX a lot

[Michi]

the Germans made quite a habit of giving them the "Lawrence" treatment, before the war moved on far from those parts.

 

[FramFramson]

Mein Gott it's so beautiful.