Voie Libre international

Discover every three months in this international issue of Voie Libre in english, new products reviews, layout descriptions, model building, historical information on secondary lines and prototypes...

Voie Libre international

Editorial #119

BACHMANN THE QUARRY HUNSLETS IN 0-16.5

ATELIER DU TACOT A PLYMOUTH LOCOTRACTOR

TRAINS DE RÊVE A WAGON ON FELDBAHN TRUCKS

SMOKY BOTTOM LUMBER C° A FREESTYLE LOCOTRACTOR

MANO POLISH 60CM GAUGE WAGONS

KATO A NEW RANGE OF TRACK

BOIS MODÉLISME A STATION BUILDING WITH SEMI-DETACHED GOODS SHED

RÉGIONS & COMPAGNIES LIVE SCENERY: BRINGING LAYOUTS TO LIFE!

A STATUS REPORT ON MINITRAINS

TECHNIQUE DCC SOUND FOR YOUR NARROW GAUGE ENGINES

BEMO A LARGE LOADING GAUGE WAGON

LOCO-REVUE LES DOSSIERS THÉMATIQUES 05 («THEMATIC FILES 05»)

GATHERINGS

PRESS REVIEW

H0-9/009 CHALLENGE: 2 FOOT GAUGE IN COLORADO • A show whose name is both promising and original will take place on 11th and 12th October 2025, at Le Cendre, near Clermont-Ferrand in the Puy-de-Dôme département: «Trains d’ici et d’ailleurs» («Trains from here and elsewhere»). Voie Libre is partnering with the highly vernacular local association, «The Froggy Model Railroader’s Bunch», to organize an enjoyable, funny and very unbridled challenge: 2 foot gauge in Colorado.

From Rhaetia with love • The real thing is an impressive network! The third in terms of mileage and volumes carried, but the first on metre gauge. This famous Swiss railway surely deserved a fine layout in 0 scale. We discovered it in Marc Antiglio’s study; read on…

THE KAESERBERG RAILWAY

Bachmann Europe, AN ULTRA-MODERN BAGULEY-DREWRY IN 009 • The British branch of the group has just released a small diesel tractor, distinctly modern in terms of both the prototype appearance and the model’s design.

Blow-up project! • To operate the delightful little Baguley-Drewry tractors, why not imagine an ordnance store by the riverside.

A Réseau Breton ABDCf12 composite carriage in 1/22.5 scale • Gérard Bedon builds his llm scale rolling stock with the same materials used for the prototypes. Therefore, a wooden carriage is built out of… wood! Planing, cutting, milling, mortising, pegging, it’s just like the real stuff!

FITTING A DECODER into a MinitrainS DECAUVILLE 0-6-0 T • This is something of a jeweller’s job, but the result is so pleasing that we asked Christophe Menier to show us how he did it. With him, it all seems so simple!

THE ANVIN-CALAIS Attractive metre gauge carriages • Let’s take a trip down memory lane with Vincent Lepais, to discover the very fine passenger consists that ran on this metre gauge railway in northern France.

At Parthenay, gyro gearloose and friends • The département of Deux-Sèvres offers nothing remarkable from a railway standpoint. However, a closer look reveals a few oddities that can delight the modeller. Let’s take the case of Parthenay.

At Parthenouÿ, pasta hits the turntable • Having described the historical background, the time has come to conjure up a modelling project in 1/87 scale. Or how to convert these “dead flat and dead straight” facilities (to quote the Editor) into an attractive layout.

Houses for SWEETHEAVEN • In the previous issue of Voie Libre, we reviewed Fred Mazza’s Sweetheaven layout. This time, we asked him how he set out to create his buildings, simply based on photographs.

A PEAT WAGON • Vincent Lepais has drawn on a variety of materials to ship peat. All this in 1/35 scale. Let’s follow him, step by step.

SCULPTURE BLOCK How to easily engrave and sculpt volumes • As announced in Issue 118 of Voie Libre, Éric Fresné has taken some time to study the features of the Sculpture...