Lummerland and Jamballa
After building my Faller station building, it needs a name – and I don’t like Talheim (Faller’s orginal name) too much. But actually, I need three names: One for the main station, one for the small station on the hill and one for the goods terminal.
After a trip to my parents – and having had a chance to visit the huge railway model Miniaturwunderland (miniature wonder land) in Hamburg – I somehow remembered a German children’s TV show called Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (literally “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver”, written by the same guy who also wrote the Momo and the Never-ending Story: Michael Ende). And the name of the station where he used to live: Lummerland.
And, as everyone knows(!) Lummerland is a small mountain on a far bigger island called Jamballa.
Beyond Lummerland and Jamballa
Jamballa is located at the point where the loop line between the market towns of Buddendorf to Holzmoor narrows from two tracks (towards Buddendorf) to one track (towards Holzmoor). A couple of miles towards Buddendorf, the line branches out to a third neighbouring town, Karlsburg.
The stations between Holzmoor, Buddendorf and Karlsburg are usually served by local trains pulled by a BR 24, BR 64 or BR 74 steam engine. Of course trains from Buddendorf to Karlsburg will need to be shunted to keep the engine in the front of the train.
Thanks to the beautiful hinterland of Jamballa and its neighbouring towns, the Lummerland mountain range, some of the main line services pass through Jamballa (the actual main line lies around 50 km to the west) to ferry day-trippers in and out. These are usually pulled by a V200.
Passengers to Lummerland will have to change to take a “shuttle” operated usually by a BR 89 steam locomotive.
The diagram on the left shows this situation (what’s green is modelled, what’s grey isn’t).
Besides these passenger services, the loop lines around Jamballa have quite some freight traffic. This is because of two reasons: Firstly, farmers from the foothills of the Lummerland mountains need to get their produce to the market (usually Buddendorf) and, secondly, traffic to/from the factories in Lummerland (the industrial estate has been recently established by the mayor of Lummerland – albeit no factory has moved in yet…).
Nevertheless, the Deutsche Bundesbahn has already built a small shunting yard – including a coaling/refuelling area – near Jamballa station (a yard is necessary for passenger trains from Buddendorf for Karlsburg, anyhow). The yard is home to a V60 diesel shunter that operates on the yard.
The goods trains to/from the yard are usually pulled a BR 86 steamer. Goods traffic to Lummerland is typically done by one of the versatile BR 89s. Finally, Lummerland is home to a Köf II midget diesel shunter.