SCR

2012-01-29T20:33:00.000+11:00

Jump for Joy.....

I recently needed to go to the local hardware store and outside amongst the stuff they put there to try and trip you over was this unusual plant that caught my eye. Luckily it wasn't a rose bush or it could have done damage. There were two things that I noticed about it, the first was the price of $13 and the second was that it was the 'Autumn Joy' plant sedum.
Now this is a plant I have read about that can be turned into reasonable looking trees. I have seen the excellent tutorial done by Dan Pickard on how to turn these plants into respectable looking gum trees.
Many times I had considered in getting a packet of these seeds and starting from scratch so to speak. But it hasn't happened yet.
I returned from the store and carried it into the house. I put it down in front of my wife and said to her "look at this beautiful plant I just got for $13" It was then at this stage that I had to explain that it would one day be covered in red flowers and then explained there would be another life for the expired flowers. She had caught on by this stage and realised there must have been a "model railway agenda" in it somewhere. I told her to enjoy the beauty of the flowers and I would look after the afterlife of the plant.

When we go for a walk I'm often accused of always looking down on the ground instead of ahead and the excuse I use of "In case I tread in dog poo" doesn't cut the mustard any longer. I have found many items for the layout at ground level.

Anyhow the plant is on its way and if its true to its name and flowers in "Autumn" I shall post some pictures on some later blogs, hoping eventually to get a few trees out of the plant.
I have just done what many other Aussies may have done and had a four day bludge courtesy of Australia Day falling on a Thursday and taking a roster day on the Friday. If nothing else it eased me back into work mode after having four weeks off. I don't know how I am going to handle this five day week!!.
Managed to do a little more scenery work around what I term the gully area. This involved in making a large tree and on Thursday I ran out of foilage for it. A trip to a local hobby shop on Friday morning fixed this problem. I thought before I left I should ring in case they decided to go for a four day break as well. When the phone answered I decreed he must be open.

I must admit scenery is slow work, it seems to take hours to get anywhere but the end result is worth it all. The corner I was concentrating on was greened up on my first work in this area. The shrubbery looked a bit ratty by now, some trees had fallen over and it needed updating.

The photo above shows the large tree that I made using the Woodland Scenics foilage. Directly above the 421 is the area I had been working on. There is still a small section requiring attention just to the right.

A wide shot of the 421 on the top bridge over the gully. The picture on the left was from an old calendar and works in very well at this spot. It is still held in place with a thumb tack but I try and omit it from shots. I'm not sure how I will blend it in yet as the photo has clouds on it but it doesn't blend directly with the wall. Will think of something to do with it one day.

2012-01-17T17:18:00.000+11:00

Back on the rails......

Well after the last post which could have seen SCR ripped apart, I have come back to my senses and after a session down the shed I decided to get back into finishing off some scenery along the back wall. These photos are taken where the header photo with the garrat was taken.

It was only a small section but after a few hours later it was nearly complete. In the above photo it was the small section on the right hand side near the to be enclosed bridge pylon support. A new code 75 point had been laid but not yet ballasted, this was also completed.

The things you notice in photos, I notice that the rear left hand porthole has gone missing, hopefully it is still inside the body.

I have included some more photos for my benefit to make me feel better about not abandoning SCR.

There was a box cab on E bay but they wanted $100 and $40 postage. Thanks but no thanks.

2012-01-09T23:08:00.002+11:00

Forgive me I am off the Rails...

This post has got very little to do with South Coast Rail but more with the brain spasm I got from the layout room the other day when visitng the shed.
I went into the shed not knowing what project to tackle next (as I always seem to do when I go there). I hardly ever run the layout mainly just build it. Its only when someone wants to come for a run that a loco is sent around to clear the cobwebs from the tunnels and dust off the track. This particular day nothing seemed to be working out OK and this set off the thought juices to maybe something else.
This something else was really 'bad thoughts' something like abandoning all I have done on South Coast Rail, selling the lot off and restarting off with a 6' x 4' board with the ability to actually complete a layout. (Something I've yet to do from over fifty years of modelling). Maybe if I put all the energy into a small area it would be done and finished quicker.
As some of the older members would relate to I started off with Hornby clockwork, moving on to Tri-ang trains. With a slight gap after I had left school I moved on to the Shinohara track with different locos that took my fancy at the time.

Then for a period in time I got into trams and traction modelling for a period. I joined the Sydney Tram Museum, went to Bendigo and Ballarat taking pictures of their systems. This also included trips to Brisbane taking some movie of their last year of trams in 1969?. Traction modelling was started by obtaining a seconds door (the back had a hole in it) and I commenced to get into tramway modelling in a big way. After a few years with this, I felt I had conquered all there was to do modelling a tramway. I had hand laid all the track and installed working overhead as well. You soon get tired of watching the tram do 384 laps in a session and I started looking around for an alternative distraction.
Next on the list (any guesses?) was 009 Narrow gauge modelling utilising EggerBahn and Lilliput models. I think this had the shortest span of attention and in the early 70's N scale was starting to become popular.
So the narrow gauge was sold off and N scale started to replace it. This choice was made easier owing to the fact that I had acceess to a small shed which suited N scale well. The shed had all the extremities filled with track and you had to duck under to get into the middle for operation. This shed must have frustrated my then girlfriend (now wife) who when she found me missing from the house knew where I was.
The N scale managed to stay intact even till we got married and moved to a new house. She still reckons we chose the second house we saw because I happened to mention that if we dug out under the house I could make a layout room. I will concede this is partly true.
Into the early eighties and they started to make better HO NSW models so again I bit the bullet and changed scales.
To get rid of a lot of the N scale equipment I remember one year when I went to the Liverpool Model exhibition. I happended to mention to some of the guys on an N trak layout brought down from Brisbane that I had some equipment to sell. They said can we come up after the exhibition that night.
Later that night a kombi van full of guys piled out into the layout room. Wow that was a successful night. Eventually it all went.
Just after this we were comtemplating moving to a house with no stairs and this was the golden opportunity to start again.
The new house had a back 20' x 12' garage and this is where SCR started back in 1989.
So if you are still with me after that model rail history lesson back to the bit where I went off the rails.
I had a link sent to me http://www.markusworldwide.ch/Railways/Chile/Tocopilla/SQM_Tocopilla.htm of this electric railway down in Chile. I had never seen it before and thought it was unique and still operating.

Photo from web site used without permission but quite happy to publicise.

At the moment this would make a great line to model. The Woodland Scenic factory fire would have no effect on its construction as you will notice if you look at the photos not a friggin tree or touch of green to be seen. As can be seen a had an earlier fondness for overhead traction and considered the making of catenary overhead to be another challenge.
The next step was to find a suitable loco that looked like these locos. The only ones that I could think of were made a long time ago by Model Die Casting / Roundhouse as Box cab locos.

The only trouble is that they are scarcer than the stuff that comes out of rocking horses to find. I also researched on the internet and found that they were poor runners. I was going to try an modify them and add pantographs as well. Has anyone out there got any they no longer need?
I also thought I could make a layout based on the Chile electric locos and also add a few shays and climaxs to the mix. Again more research on the Bachmann shays found that they were prone to plastic gear cracking, rendering the units useless. Apparently the company was aware of this issue and offered replacement gears. This problem with the plastic gears is also an issue with many of the brass models. Locos with split gears just now sit around unable to move. Hundreds of dollars tied up from a lousy plastic few cent cost plastic gear. You would have thought Bachmann would have been aware of this problem before chosing plastic gearing.
So unable to get any Box cab locos and being wary of the shays I didn't have full confidence of making the switch and flogging off SCR.
To make myself feel better I decided to draw up a plan of what I might have built. It was to be a mixture of motive power both electric and non electric. On the plan the red is diesel and steam track and the blue represents electric operation. There are ore, coal and log traffic just to keep it busy. The plan below covers 10' x 12' (One foot squares)

I will now admit to having my plans complex like the proverbial spaghetti bowl as the following plan will attest. Once a layout is built I like to focus on operation, not just watch a train go back and forwards on a straight bit of track or a circle with two sets of points. Achieve layout construction, scenery making and then operation.
The layout was designed for two stages, the left hand terminus and the bottom board, then the top right hand board. Unlike the Chile photos this layout would be rivers, hills and plenty of greenery.
The track shown in red are the unwired ones meaning steam lococ would travel over the whole layout for shunting. I like the idea of interchange between the steam/diesel and electric. This provides more interesting operation. A few crossing loops as well helps the operation side of things. The layout would be built to standard gauge as some of the material was to be salvaged from SCR. I was looking on the internet for layouts of this style but the closest you get is by going to the narrow gauge style layouts. The curves are mainly 18" radius with a few 15" radius to fit it all in.

To to make operation not so straight forward I devised the following trackage between the two major boards.
A train come in from town A, six cars and a loco long. It then goes into Town B. Loco runs around and take three cars into the switchback, it then propels them to track 2. Loco returns back to Town B for the remaining three cars which it then propels into 3. It then reverses onto track 4, then back to track 2 to pick up the first three cars. All 6 cars and the loco head off towards Town C.
A similar process is done but track 1 and 4 are used when going from Town C to Town B. These switching problems are what makes layout operation more interesting to me.
Well no cause for panic as I went down the shed again today and ran a few trains and got the "short line" out of my system.
I shall put this track plan on the back burner, maybe one day I will get to build it. Sorry for the long winded blog today. SCR rules.

2011-12-29T23:22:00.000+11:00

Santa delivers

Santas been
Well this is what the man in the red suit left. It wasn't exactly left under the tree but carefully positioned on the layout just prior to the big day.
The model is an Ian Lindsay kit that was assembled and painted by renown modeller Howard Smith. It was one of two locos assembled for David Anderson from Mansfield Hobbies. The other 70 class was weathered but I ended up with the clean one. I will have to see about getting it 'dirtied' up a little.
I would rather get this loco than a 73 class for a shunter as they were an earlier model. They spent most of their life around the Port Kembla area in real life shunting usually with two coupled together.
As South Coast Rail is situated a little further south on the same Illawarra line I was able to convince the local DLE to release one for shunting down Bega way.

7002 shunts the meat siding at Narooma

The model is very light and would benefit with some weight stuffing. It made its way up to Candelo with plans to make it the coal mine shunter. This was soon cancelled when load trials found out that it could only take two empty BCH's there at a time. There is a short sharp grade as the line leaves Candelo and this is where it failed. A 44 class will take up 9 BCH's and a van in one go. Hopefully if the 48's ever get here, it might become a shunter for Candelo and the mine branch.
One minor problem with the 70 class is that it has a low slung open gearbox. Twice it has stalled due to it running over some small pieces of foam it ran over between the tracks and were sucked into the gearbox and it stopped. I will either have to try and cover it up or make sure there are no stray bits of foam in the four foot.
As most of the yards on SCR are level, shunting trains of reasonable length shouldn't be a problem.

7002 shunts the yard at Bega

This will be my last posting for 2011 and I look forward to 2012 as hopefully the models I have been waiting for such a long time might appear. My second sound loco, a 40 class and eventually some 48 class and the 422. Throw in some bogie tank cars, BSV's and it should be a good year.
I am on a short break at the moment and hope to be able to visit the 'shed' more often.
Roll on 2012

2011-11-27T17:52:00.000+11:00

Rolling in dough

This Saturday I attended a sale day presented by the Epping Model Railway club. They were most considerate by having it start at 10.0am, as both Saturday and Sunday are currently my favourite sleep in days.

It was a lousy week for weather and I spent the fifteen minutes up to opening time sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop.

At 10.0am right on the dot they threw open the doors and welcomed us to market day. There are two large rooms with private buyers having tables with their goods to sell. Most seemed to be private set ups, but Austrains were also there. I guess their motive was to save you postage. They didn't get a visit from me.

Past visits to these sales have been good for me. In the past I purchased a completed Hanovale weathered bogie ballast plough (BBP) for $25. I also acquired an Ian Lindsay bogie van (MCV?), last year I purchased some oil tanks.

This year I was lucky to pick up two Ian Lindsay Models that had been assembled but at this stage unpainted and decalled.

One of the kits was an EHO brakevan (commonly referred to as 'a loaf of bread' - hence the title of this thread) This is listed on the ILM website as $93 as a kit.

Also with the EHO was an assembled kit for another Ian Lindsay model being the KB mail van. (Listed for $77)

When I asked how much they were I quickly snapped them up at a bargain $30 each. Now I'm not sure how long they will stay unpainted like this, maybe when I get sick of doing scenery and have a break and finish off a few kits etc.

A quick trip round the rest of the tables didn't reveal much more. True there was plenty I could have got but having these two models in the bag so early made me more choosy regarding the rest.

The day is also enhanced by the club providing a sausage sizzle on all day. It was also interesting to see some well known modellers present with bags of 'leftovers' being flogged off. You know a few decals, plus a few other bits and pieces in a plastic bag for $20 or so. Kits they no longer wanted or could be bothered to put together.

After an hour or so I decided to leave, the rain had stopped by then and with my bag of goodies I headed home.

2011-11-20T15:31:00.001+11:00

Fotopic has got the Flick (r)

I must have been one of thousands around the world that had photos lost when Fotopic suddenly shut up shop. I was posting photos there long before I had started this blog.

The story of how I also lost many photos when the hard drive crashed and was rescued by 'Albert' who had downloaded some of my photos was recorded on this blog recently.

In looking for another web hoster for some South Coast Rail I reckoned that Flickr was as good as any other, so I have recently uploaded some of my favourite shots onto this site. All seems well so far. A lot of the shots have already been on either fotopic or on this blog over time, but it groups them all together without the need to read all of my crap writings in between.

This weekend in the shed was a poor effort, only managing a few more shrubs outside the tunnel that supports Kameruka. So no need to show any of that effort.

The year has gone extremely fast again (Anyone else notice?) and I am looking forward to another break off in the new year.

The manufacturers should be a lot kinder to us NSW modellers with three locos I am waiting for will hopefully get delivered (48 + 40 + 422) and a few freight wagons as well.

Anyhow to get to the Flickr site just hit the link under "links in the right hand column "More South Coast Rail photos" and I hope you enjoy them the second time around.

2011-11-12T17:03:00.000+11:00

Bonding Session

Well last night was another train night get together between our group. Most of the group are known together because of the school link.

This link must be nearly rusted through as we go back to the mid to late 1960's. As I was not as smart as the other guys I left school earlier. I can see that the extra two years of schooling paid off for them as they have all done well in their careers and we are all approaching that magic thing called retirement. I was out already earning an income on the New South Wales Government Railways. Starting at Darling Harbour Goods Yard I only had the site and smell of 19 class shunting during lunch breaks while they were enjoying the smell of the hot asphalt in the school yard.
We met up again years later and begun having our irregular train nights. We get in about three to four a year which pales compared to some groups who seem to see each other each week. One of our group was the late Ken Bowen, always the character and ready to show off his large under house 'O' gauge model railway

Last night was Phils turn again and we were keen to see his progress from our last visit on Friday the 13th February, 2010. If you go back to my blog on that date you will see his initial work and now the progress he has made.


Phil makes and adjustment to the draw slider. On the left hand side is where the branch to Newcastle station will eventually be.

Although rain was predicted, it didn't compare with the deluge we had at Phils previous visit.
The layout room scores a 10 out of 10 for design and comfort. Tons of fluro's, light blue coloured walls.
The layout design is a double track folded 8 with dogbone returns at each end. There is a branch into Newcastle and off that there will be a small shelf shunting section based on the Wickham Branch. Off the lower layout section there will be another branch station he will be calling Swansea. In the photo above is what he calls Broadfields (based on Broadmeadow). In the centre of one dogbone he is incorporating his 'Broadfield' turntable and loco depot. On the other dogbone will be a coal mine.

Early days on the Wickham Branch where the tracks and structures are laid out to see how they work. The gold top bottle is not expected to be a future structure.

Looking the opposite direction the curse of Newcastle another level crossing takes shape.

As there is a large amount of rolling stock on the layout Phil has incorporated a clever draw system as seen below for storing train consists in between runs. I have seen these used before on other layouts (Brad - Armchair Modeller). In this example the drawer cleverly slides under Broadfields above making the most of the room. On the far right of the layout Phil has used the conventional points into parallel sidings.

The multiple storage roads on the drawer slide. At least they are away from the dust when its slid in.


The future Broadfield Loco depot and mine on the right hand side

Close up of the future mine. Note the very solid baseboard construction

There is not a lot of area on the layout that can support scenery. I thought that his previous layout had more than this one will. I don't suppose that's a bad thing as he will get his layout finished sooner.
So we ran a few consists around and Ross gave his set of 4 new Trainorama BCW's a run. I noticed he was quick enough to get them off the train consist that was sitting on the draw slide before Phil could shut them away on him.
We later adjourned upstairs to partake in some tea, coffee, cake and scones and enjoyed an old black and white dvd on Steam on Hawkmount. It was a great way to finish off the night. Thanks Phil we will look forward to more progress in another year or so.

2011-11-05T22:01:00.000+11:00

All in all its just another bit near the wall....

Close enough to that famous Pink Floyd song The Wall. Close enough indeed.Todays effort was to finish some scenery from the gully corner up to Kameruka. Having only a centimetre or so between the track and the wall it seemed the best finish would be to put a photo landscape scene there. As luck would have it, I had a photo scene taken from the platform at Tarago a few years ago when on a tour taking two 49's to Goulburn, then swapping a 49 for a 48 class. It was a perfect day there and I just took about three panorama shots.After some manipulating and cropping on the computer, mainly to delete the foreground tracks in the yard, I printed and glued them together. I was quite happy with the end result . This photo image has been sitting around in the shed for a few years now waiting a final resting place on the wall. It is not completely successful in that it is not very high in parts. I could have enlarged it on the computer but it will do for now. Maybe a replacement when the other two hundred and seventy five jobs are done.
The sheet had clouds present which didn't match the blue wall of the shed. So I got to work with the craft knife and cut away all the clouds and it now blends in quite well.There was only a gap of a centimetre or two to fill in between the track and the wall. I used some cleaning cloth 'grass' and a few other bits and pieces. The colouring matches fairly well and the blend line is not really obvious in the photo.

2011-10-12T22:15:00.000+11:00

Oils Well at Kameruka
Well the Liverpool exhibition has come and gone for another year. I went on the Sunday and remember it was a similar day to the 2010 exhibition in that it poured down rain going from the car to the entrance. Arriving around 9.15am there was no queue, straight up to the ticket office and then inside. This is certainly the opposite for the Saturday attendees judging from the forum reports. (and then crowded when you got inside) I was only looking for the bogie oil tankers to take home. Reckoning on three manufacturers I thought one lot might jump the gun and have some. Looks like 2012 is going to be a big year. Two layouts stood out that impressed me. On was the new O scale layout and the other was a small layout based on Tasmanian practice, very nicely done and up for sale as well. My purchases were minimal but costly. I headed for the Orient model stand and bought some of the MiniNatur scenic products. At around $30 each lot, they are amongst the best scenic representations for grass you can get. I like to support this stand as I reckon if they can come over all the way from Adelaide they've earnt my money. I also got a pack of stone wall there for $4.90 for two strips. I had plans to use it for a wall at the rear of the oil siding. More on this later. I also bought two buffer stop kits from Joe Casula. There is a picture of one on the previous blog entry. Joe deserves support for his contribution to the hobby. I could have scratch built some buffer stops but if we don't support the manufacturers they might shut up shop. So after around three hours I headed for home wondering if they might do something special for the 50th exhibition next year??

Lights, Camera Action.

I purchased one of those twin 500 watt halogen lights on a tripod for photography. Recently one of the lights went out. So OK I will get another bulb. Opens it up to replace, put the new one in and nothing happened. Jiggled the light bulb and still nothing. Bugger must be stuffed somehow. Knowing very little about electricity (Other than the high bill I keep getting) I thought I would have to survive on one light and cut my photography down in half. By chance I mentioned this to a visitor to the railway and he said " You never touch the bulb with your fingers, its stuffs them" So after they went I grabbed the other spare bulb with some paper towelling and placed it in. Again nothing. But after a small jiggle it came on again. You beauty back to full power. I then took the CPH onto the gully bridge and took the following two shots.
I also managed to do some work on the oil siding at Kameruka. As you can see from the photo, the siding is minimal. Just long enough for around two bogie tankers or three four wheelers. There is also not much room to put all the hardware in between the window and the track.
The first photo shows the window sill, so I used the stone wall I purchased at the Liverpool exhibition, cut and painted it up with a capping and used this to cover the sill of the window.

Along the top of the window sill I placed some green florist foam. This is easily pushed into shape with the fingers and makes it easy to push the scenic bushes into and hold in place. Cheap and effective.

The last photo shows some of the greenery in place to help hide the sill and a few tanks and other bits being positioned for the removal and storage of the petrol from the tankers. I'm not decided at this stage whether to put up a wire mesh fencing. This I might do at a later stage.

2011-09-26T23:29:00.000+10:00

More Kameruka Progress
It is that time of the year again where I take a two week break from the grindstone. The weather is usually not too hot or cold and today no rain like we had yesterday on Sunday.
I have a yearly booking for the Sydney Model Railway exhibition where ever it may be held. I have attended most of them since the lower Sydney Town Hall days. Sunday is my chosen day to attend mainly due to less crowds (bargain hunters). I hope a least one of the groups promising oil tankers has them there on the weekend.
And what a great day this Sunday will be, exhibition in the morning and getting home to see my team win the grand final in the afternoon.
This morning I washed down the house ends ready for painting, then after a cuppa dissapeared into the shed for some modelling.
Made it up to the house for lunch and then returned for more in the afternoon. Today I arranged to put the base down around where the goods shed will be. A lot more detailing to go on there and a yard crane to be assembled.

As mentioned before Kameruka is overshadowed by an in window air-conditioner. It would have fitted into the scenery better if I had made it into a tunnel but too late now to alter. It certainly provides some relief down there on the stinking hot days.

As may be noticed (the driver in the last picture certainly did) the headlight hasn't yet been fitted, so restricted to daytime running for the time being. It is in the workshop waiting for a fitting.

2011-09-08T20:47:00.000+10:00

Smile - say Cheese
Well just a day after posting about the new dairy at Kameruka, I was reading todays local paper the Daily Telegraph.
Not a lot happens down Bega way and on turning a page I saw the name "Bega". What was it all about?
Well it happens that Coles supermarkets reckon they are going to source all their cheese from Australia instead of New Zealand. Very patriotic of them.
News of this soon got to the spokesman for the NZ Cheese Industry Mr Rick Cotta. He was decidely upset and blue a vien and then calmed down. At this moment they were undecided if they should challenge this in court or just whey the odds and see if its coon forgotten. He labelled the Aussies "Krafty" and wanted to know if their cheese wasn't gouda nuff.
So what does this mean for South Coast Rail? Obviously a rise in milk traffic mainly coming off the branch from the dairies at Candelo and Kameruka.
This gets railed down to Bega and after reading the news cutting I have decided to end up building a cheese factory down near the flour mill. This siding is currently an oil siding but I can move this to another site at Bega.
Then it occurred to me that I can now create another movement of traffic i.e. milk in and cheese out in refrigerator wagons up to Sydney.
So I had better hurry up and get the Kameruka dairy siding finished so the milk can start flowing.

2011-09-07T21:45:00.000+10:00

Vents are here!The last post dealt with the ordering of some roof vents for the dairy roof. They turned up yesterday in a bigger cardboard box than I had expected. I thought they might have started dealing with shoes, it certainly could have fitted a pair in there. (Well maybe thongs)
When I searched the Walthers cattle dog using the key word 'vent' It came up with two items that looked promising.
One was from JL Innovative Design containing about 16 various vents and a few chimneys. These are described as 'unfinished cast details' I am a bit hesitant to open the package with the word "unfinished" stated thereon. I wonder which bit they left out.
The other bag of parts was from Rix and are termed 'multi scale' The bag is specific in saying "Ages 14 and up". It would be sad to be 12 only to be told you would have to wait another 2 years before opening the bag. And the other words at the other end of that statement " ...and up" goes up until you can't see or feel anymore to put the darn things together. And then make sure your grandson is over fourteen before he can help you.
The order was made on line on the 18th August and turned up here on the 6th of September.
The JL vents were $9.98, Rix vents $7.95, Mail order handling $6.25 and Air freight $3.58 for a total of $27.77.
As usual I will probably wait till the weekend to have a go at getting the vents on. Saturday looks like its a dead horse for the shed as I will be going to the model exhibition at Broadmeadow, along with hopefully viewing the double headed steam heading for Newcastle on the same day. Then Saturday night the footy finals are on. So maybe Sunday.

2011-08-28T19:54:00.000+10:00

Dairy ProgressSlowly but surely the dairy situated at the back of Kameruka platform is taking place. The bulk of the building is built, the roof is on and there are now actually three posts to support it.
To the casual visitor who doesn't know what the building is for, the cream colour of the building, three milk churns and a guy dressed in white overalls should help. (He would certainly not work at the oil siding next door in white clothing) All that is missing from the building are some roof vents which are on their way from Walthers in the USA. At least Hurricane Irene is blowing the plane in the right direction so it might get here quicker. As soon as the vents are placed on the roof I will do another report on the building rather than this skimmed down version.

2011-08-06T16:45:00.000+10:00

Kameruka Happenings
Just a quick update on the layout. I have been concentrating on Kameruka lately. The last post showed the platform extensions in place and the green 'undercoat' has now dissapeared under a layer of platform limestone.
Having the platform finished the ballast has now been laid past the platform and on the loop line beside it. With the rain a week or so ago its also magic how quick the weeds will grow.
With the platform extension I also extended the fencing. It seemed to take ages to find that extra bit of fencing in the shed as I am not very organised. Then when it was in position I must of run out of the original paint colour, so then I had to repaint the new and existing again to match it up.
The next item I am planning to finish off is the dairy building. One part will be some of an old kit and the rest is slowly being made up as I go along. The siding comes in at an angle which means that the roof has also been cut similarly. The roof will cover the track and be above the edge of the platform. One of the supports will be on the edge of the platform.Its almost impossible to get shots of how the milk was loaded into the wagons. I would imagine there would be a pipe coming out of the building and then into a hose which would be placed inside the wagon to fill it. I think as long as there are pipes, valves and a few other bits and pieces then it should come out OK.
I will keep working on the dairy and then move onto the oil siding. Hopefully some of the bogie oil tankers should be available by the end of the year.

2011-07-10T20:28:00.000+10:00

A Diversion
Last Saturday my son, knowing how I had a faint interest in trains drew my attention to a movie I was unaware of.
I will go to the movies to see features not available at home such as a way bigger screen and 3D.
This movie must have snuck past but when he said it had trains from the beginning to end I said lets go.
The movie is called "Unstoppable" starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine and a few diesels who didn't even rate a mention in the end credits. Its a non stop action typical runaway train movie with some great angle shots.Don't be to picky or critical when you watch it, just enjoy it for what it is. If you want to find out more check out the trailer for Unstoppable here.

Shed Duty
After many weeks of working on the Garbage Protection Unit (sounds like a new government department) and getting some landscaping done on Saturday morning I decided I would actually get into the shed and do some work on the layout. This was able to be done during the day when the weather wasn't so cold. The weather has been freezing lately and going down there at night comes second to a night at the computer.
I decided to concentrate on Kameruka for the time being. One of the projects is to lengthen the platform from a 2 FS to 4FS platform. Originally this platform use to grace the old layout and suited its location. The only reason it got as advanced as it did was the fact that I took it to a Branchline Modelers Convention at the Macquarie Uni when they were on many moons ago.
The original platform was formed from a piece of pineboard and has so far been ok, so I hunted around the shed for another two pieces, one for each end of the platform.
I already had cut out a styrene platform front which had a ramp down at the end. I eventually got the piece of pine filed down to match the profile. That was OK for the Candelo end. The other end was just a straight cut.
As can be seen from the photos the track through the platform is not yet ballasted, so that made getting the platforms completed the first priority.The concrete facing was made from a piece of 40 thou styrene with a few horizontal scribed lines to represent the layers. Then another piece is glued onto the front to provide the vertical support pieces.
You might note the horrible green paint I used to seal the timber with. I could tell you that this was the only can colour I could find, but a better answer would be it was my contribution to greening up Kameruka. Co-incidently it was the day young Julie - argh was going to tell us how the carbon tax is going to save us. Just a thought is she going to put a carbon tax on carbon brushes for locomotives? I might just get a few in.

Well I didn't get much more done today than what you can see as all of a sudden bang the lights and power went out. Stuff it, I'll go in and have a cup of tea - doh no power. It was getting around critical crunch time for the Sunday arvo footy as well. Half an hour later still no power and the game had already kicked off. So I did the next best thing, I went and had a soak in the bath and listened to the game on radio (battery). The game had finished, Manly had won and still no power and was I going to see the replay on telly? Eventually power returned around 5.15p so I went in an watched the second half of the footy.

Maybe next weekend I can get down and do some more work on the platforms so that ballasting can be undertaken.

2011-06-13T20:39:00.000+10:00

Yeah for Liz
You must be someone important to give everyone in the state a day off for your birthday and thats just what Her Maj Liz has done. And what better reason would you want to hold a model railway exhibition. This was the second year the Epping Model Railway club had held their exhibition at the Thornleigh Brickpits. The venue is great, its just that its not set up for parking and the swarms of modellers that throng there first thing on a Saturday morning. I heard one guy was queued up at 7.0am obviously keen to get to the second hand stall first. I reckon he would have frozen his nuts off at that time. Me I was tucked up in a warm bed enjoying my first sleep in of the long weekend. I have decided not to attend the exhibitions on the first day due to the large crowds on Saturdays. Was told by the Bowen Creek boys (whose layout stood between the entrance and the second stall) that when the gates opened on Saturday it was like a stampede from Rawhide, yes cattle heading for that elusive bargain. While I was working in the garden on Saturday trying to finish the GPU ( garbo protection unit) in between showers I got a phone call from Mr Jim Kamilaroi saying that he was going to the exhibition on Sunday with a few friends from the Port Macquarie region and wondered if it was ok to drop in to check out the layout. OK by me so it was arranged. Sunday came around and the weather was as miserable as Saturday - raining and cold. Having left in the dark around 6.0am they reached my place around 9.40am and we headed straight to the show.
During the short journey to the show I felt the great social side of the hobby coming out. They were just a bunch of nice guys with plenty of joking and laughter going on. Arriving just after opening at 10 we headed into the show. Jim took me along to meet Andrew Campbell from Bowen Creek. Andrew comes from the Port Macquarie area as well. I was trying to match up his profile picture on his blog with what I saw in the flesh. I'm still not sure it was him as he had a beanie on. Due to the ambient temperature in the hall the beads of moisture on his forehead would not have been sweat but probably condensation from the cold.
I also met Ian Millard and if you have never met Ian and Andrew you will understand why their layout is set so high. In the hobby this setting of layout heights must reflect the standards to which they are built. Bowen Creek high set layout = high standard. The U - Drive layout set low = low standard. This is really design by accident as the little kiddies while standing in front of Bowen Creek will never be able to see the layout. They could never build to that standard so come back when you are taller. I couldn't see the back as well and are quite ready to admit I haven't reached their level either. A beautiful layout guys.
Bumped into Stephen Ottaway who must be congratulated in getting his eleventh child out into the world. The Australian Journal of Railway Modelling is a great wall to wall magazine of modelling. May there be many more.
I worked out that I had met (or spotted) throughout the day six bloggers - Ian Millard from - Liverpool Range, Andrew Campbell from Bowen Creek, Gary Laker from Lakers Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Workshops, James McInerny from Lambing Flat, Jim Harris from The Kamilaroi Railway and Brad Hinton from Armchair Modeller DownUnder. Why Brad would want to model armchairs is beyond me. Get yourself a layout and some trains Brad. I did a tour of the layouts and noticed only two new ones I hadn't seen before. Having got a ride there with the guys from Port Mac I thought I had better get around the commercial stands before we had to leave.
My first port of call was the Austrains stand as I was interested in their 4 wheel tankers. I thought with only 4 wheels per wagon they had got to be cheaper than a bogie version. Yes one dollar change out of one hundred. Then the next problem which pack to pick? He had five choices and I wasn't sure what one to get. The blue one looked odd and the one with the typo on it (Pur Pull - John its spelt Purple). I ended up with the pack with the Golden Fleece (sunnies on for viewing), the C.O.R. and the Atlantic. (odd for South Coast Rail as it shares the coast line with the Pacific!)
I then saw the carriage packs. As much as they are very nice I am going to stick with my Powerline ones and hopefully get them detailed up. To make myself feel better I also bought a Sydney Hobbies FS interior to ease the pain of not getting the Austrain ones. Hey go tell your wife you have just spent $300 on three carriages. Did a quick trip into the second hand stall to see if my Atlas 40 class with Main West cab conversion kit had gone. I couldn't see it there so hopefully it was sold. Might put the money towards a 422 class which I believe will be my wifes Christmas present to me. I find the day is a great social day as well catching up with people you only get to see at exhibitions. And there are some you also have to dodge if you don't want to meet up with them. I remember David Anderson from Mansfield Hobbies saying the everytime he went to Liverpool he would spend 90% of the time talking and the other 10% to see the layouts.
Eventually caught up with the group and after a quick sausage sandwich we set sail for home, a cuppa and a quick look at South Coast Rail.
They left around two ish and headed for Port Mac. On a confirming email later that night they had pouring rain all the way and got home around 6.0pm. I think they all enjoyed the day out.

OIL TANKERS ARRIVE SOUTH COAST RAIL

I got the tankers out of the box today and was surprised with their weight. I think they are actually full of oil and petrol. I couldn't imagine ten of these behind a 32 class on a grade. Did a start on the weathering to tone them down a bit. Think they look better.

CANNISTA:
What is it you say? Well if a barista does things to coffee, then a Cannista does things to cannisters, or more importantly ex film cannisters.
There seems to be a recent interest in the use of old film cannisters for model railway purposes.
This to me has become a sieze the moment event. I like most others have gone digital photography and the humble film cannister has gone the way of the VHS tape.
I could see the potential of these items and their size really suited them for HO scale. Too big for N scale and too small for O scale they were just right.
My next dilemma was - Did I have any?. I thought I had left my run too late, my old 35mm camera was given away a few years ago, so why would I have any cannisters?
Taking a chance I went to my wardrobe where the last known said cannisters were know to have lurked. But alas none. I then went to the next cupboard and bingo I discovered two cannisters (complete with film and no camera to take it with).
Anyhow I took them down to the layout and put one each way up between the oil siding and the to be milk factory. So this is where they remain.
I'm not sure how I am going to use them but are open to suggestions. The could either be a milk vat or for oil storage? What do you reckon??

2011-05-21T21:16:00.000+10:00

Time Flys
I saw the news tonight and listened to the ratbags in the US of A who were dead set certain that the world was going to end on the 21st of May. I am typing this with mild panic as although it is dark the blinds are open with one eye looking out for the asteroid or what ever it is approaches. It is already the 21st here in Aus so maybe it was American time that it was to happen. And to think I replaced two light bulbs tonight. What a waste of time.
Looking at other blogs I follow, and if they follow SCR the list tells you how long since your blog has been updated. Crikey I didn't know four weeks can go that fast. Well I must admit I have'nt spent much time in the shed lately having been busy with yard projects and other computer assignments that have deadlines to be met.
After my recent 'loss of data' fortunately I found on a second computer many photos of SCR dating from early 2002 up to late 2009.
I went through some shots of August 2002 that were taken mainly of Bega, the main station that runs down the centre of the shed. This is where the main action takes place. The main platform has three platform faces and two docks. There are carriage sidings, goods yard, a few private sidings and a yet to be developed loco area.
There are two frightening things about these shots. (other than being crappy low res shots)

It was taken nearly nine years ago when we were all much younger. How time flys.

Not much has changed at Bega after looking at the shots.

But the good news is when I look at the layout in the background I can see how much progress has been made from chicken wire hill.

This shot shows the main platforms and goods roads
The loco area is down the far end. Taken in August 2002

This shot is taken from the opposite direction with the
passenger carriage sidings in the centre.The unfinished scenery
in the background is now completed.

A small goods yard is situated in the loop at the end
of Bega Yard. A cement plant is now where the RU's are.
Loco depot to be built to the right hand side.

The last shot looking over the platforms and goods yard.

Well if the world ends tomorrow in America, I hope I will be sound asleep in bed and know nothing about it.

2011-04-17T20:27:00.000+10:00

Coal her up....
There is never enough time on weekends to get all things done. Since the arrival of 3827 to the south coast fleet two weeks ago I have only had time to coal up the 38.
Baseboards generally serve two purposes. One to hold a layout up from the ground and to provide a cover for all the junk that hides underneath.
I can self assess myself and admit it don't fall into the real neat freak category. I have most of the rail related books sitting on a book shelf and even have the books on locomotives arranged in numerical order, the rest fall into a fit by size category.
Then down the far end is all the scenery bits and pieces. Bags of foam, coloured plaster, dry branches hanging out for the day when they will be instructed to look like a tree. There are even paper bags full of strange looking items that needs a look in every now and then find out what it is.
One such item is some lichen that I have had from way back in 1976 when me and my then girlfriend (now mrs) went to New Zealand for a tour. I collected it from fences stuffed it into a paper bag then it came back home with me. I'm glad Border Security is a recent tv show as it has allowed me to get away a fine or gaol sentence for smuggling in plant products. The exercise actually futile as I discovered the same product was available on our own trees up in the New England area. It will eventually get used.
Another item associated with under baseboard 'cupboards' is the cloth draped down in front of the layout in an attempt to not only to hide the junk but to make it all look more attractive. It does both jobs well. To well some times when I start looking for something and can't remember where its hiding. Maybe I should put post-it notes on the cloth 'Ballast behind here'.
It was this cloth yesterday that had me looking for at least twenty minutes for a tin that held my real coal supply for filling tenders. Eventually it was found hiding behind some gyprock saved from a rainy day project for the next rainy day project.
The DJH 38 has a shallow area thankfully for the coal bunker so it was an easy job to just pile in the coal until it was heaped and looked right as regards to size. Once the profile was looking right I sprayed it with water mixed with some detergent then some diluted white glue to fix it together. I made sure there was some spilled coal towards the back of the tender forward of the water hatch.
So tonight I took a dozen shots of the coal in the tender. I must admit only one reasonable shot turned out and have included it.

So the next project now is to get the headlight put in. As they say watch this space.

2011-04-10T19:20:00.000+10:00

We havvada gooda news and de badder news.

First off the good news.....
The 38 class locomotive must sit close to the top of peoples list of locos. I remember when the first brass 38 was brought out by the Model Dock Yard in Melbourne all those years ago. I don't think I was even earning a wage at the time to even contemplate buying one.
In the later years I succombed to the Lima effort? for a 38 class. They were on the noisy side and just didn't look as good as they should. So when it went for a run on the layout I figured once it got about four or five metres away from the panel I was driving from I could no longer see it and even better couldn't hear it. Unfortunately having a circular route layout it eventually returned and I saw and heard it again. Another good reason not to have very solid baseboards is that when the loco didn't move you could bang the layout side and off it would go. (Along not off).
Things got a lot better when eventually DJH added the 38 class to their range of models. Again I was reluctant to purchase a model as I already had a DJH 30T (which got assembled by someone else), a 36 class (which I sold when the Austrains model came out) a 32 class (which I sold when the Trainorama 32 came out) and a 50 class which I now regret selling as no replacements have come out.
Then next to arrive was the Eureka 38 class. I'm not sure why I didn't get one of these. Could have been the plastic boilers or did 38's really run down the coast as far as Bega??. What I liked though about the 38 was that sound was an option and if I had bought one this would have been the version.
I also missed out on the later brass 38's namely those built by Mansfield. These were certainly a vast improvement on the Dockyard models in every regard. Again I don't think a painted option was available, you just got the goldfinger model and had to go find someone to paint it up for you. I wasn't going to practice my first effort at spraypainting and lining on a 38 class.
Then it so happened that one of our group had decided to change scales from HO to O and had a partly completed DJH 38 class. Having no further need for it, I purchased it with having a kit builder finish it off for me in mind.
I contacted a few contacts (thanks Brad) and he suggested I contact an assembler on the Central coast. He was OK to do it and the model was dropped off in January. Not only could he finish assembly but was OK to paint and line.
Following on from 3801, 3813 and 3830 the fourth most popular 38 surely must be 3827. I'm not sure why this loco was better than all the others but legend says so. The previous owner John had this number picked out, so as I knew I wasn't supposed to use the numbers 3801 to 3805(inclusive) (That wouldn't have stopped Bob Cooke) I went with the flow and picked 3827 as well. Does this make you sad in a way for all the other numbers that don't get picked? Who out there has picked 3829 or 3816?
Anyhow, I got a call last Sunday that the loco was ready and so it was delivered as a selection of photos below will show.

So when I finally got it on the track and kicked in the throttle away she went. I felt that I was actually excited to finally have a decent 38 class added to the South Coast roster. I reckon only having one 38 class on the roster books is a great idea. All the love can now be concentrated into the one engine. Those of you readers out there with one of every number of every class of loco that comes out. How can you share the love between them all. Reminds me of people with say 15 kids. What was you name again young man?

Its not only me that appreciates the new addition but I believe the loco crews at Bega are now trying to swap rosters for a drive on her.

I am also at a dilemma at the moment as apparently the kit doesn't come with a suitable headlight insert. (dumb as eh) So at the moment it is only rostered onto daylight runs. Anyone out there got any suggestions for a suitable headlight?
Another thing I need to add is a tender full of coal. Not a problem as I have a supply of real coal at hand. The load trials have yet to be completed and I'm sure of plenty of volunteer Bega crew who will do the job. Just putting this metal boilered loco on the track deems it to be a better hauler than the Eureka model. Time and tests will tell.

And the bad news..........
Well it has been quite a few weeks since the fotopic site has gone off the air, possibly for good. I used this site (along with many hundreds of others I suspect) for many photos on South Coast Rail. How time flies when I last noticed that I first used this site from August 2006 to post photos on.
This site was also the birthplace of the "other side of the tracks" where a more risque style of cartoon was able to be presented. (including cruelty to animals -giraffes and tunnel mouths).
I think there were a few hundred varied layout shots taken. So now move onto the badder news..........
And the badder news............
So when the fotopic site had gone down, I thought I still had the shots on the hard drive or so I thought until I got home from work one day.
My IT man (son) had told me there was a burning smell coming from the computer. Not knowing much about the insides of a computer, the only thing I know about burning chips is in the kitchen when the oil is too hot and they come out crunchy. No the bad news was that the hard drive was gone to God.
So you are all saying out there "SO you have a backup right?" Yes I was going to get one next week (but never did). So I have paid the ultimate sacrifice. I have lost a lot of files I was working on.
As luck would have it though, through the constant swapping and updating of computers I found a lot of photos I have been taking of South Coast Rail back to 2002 but there seems to be a gap in some of the recent year or so.
The folder with the "Other Side of the Tracks" was nearly complete. I was hoping to bring out a CD of them in the future when I got to 100 of them. Nearly up to 50 at the moment.
So I hope this hasn't happened to you out there. The hard drive has been replaced with two one teradactyl bite drives that means an exact duplicate copy is saved to each hard drive. So hopefully I have learnt the hard way and hope this dosen't happen again.
I might start up a hard drive backup company for railway people.
How about I call it "The Three Toots - Back Up Company"?

2011-04-01T19:37:00.000+11:00

Can Do Wonders.

Well finally it has happened. Possibly the greatest thing to happen in the model railway arena since the invention of sliced bread has arrived.

I was trolling on the Walters web site the other day looking for building products for a model loco shed and I came across this new product. One wonders why this product took so long to develop. It will be the saviour of many modellers, not only as a great time saver but also for the people who are new to the hobby.

So what is this new product? It is ‘SCENERY IN A CAN’. I could hardly believe that it was possible to achieve such a product given the well over hundred years that model railways have been around. Why wasn’t it invented years ago?

I was lucky enough to have a friend who was recently returning from the US on a holiday. He is not into model railways but was quite keen to help in the purchase of one can for me to try out.

Currently the can is only available in one type that being ‘ Mountain Stream’.

Their web site has announced that if this venture is successful then other types will follow such as “Western Plains”, “Hillside Scenery” and “ Coastal Dunes” the latter I suppose would give a sandy texture that would be good for creating beach scenes such as one of Bombo beach I had in mind.

I was a bit sceptical in this product but after receiving this can from my friend, I took it down to the shed to try it out. With such a new product I took the time to read the instructions on the can not wanting to wreck a scene in the usual fashion of ‘if all else fails read the instructions’. It recommended shaking the can for a good three minutes to ensure all the contents were thoroughly distributed within the can. The usual ball bearing was in there and after shaking for around two and a half minutes you could hear the mixture thickening up and I knew it was nearly ready to spray.

I have a corner on the layout where this can of ‘Mountain Stream” would come in handy. So with some trepidation and my finger on the trigger, I pushed down on the cap and out came a stream of stream. Strange words but true. The instructions also stated that the angle of spray and distance from the point of application would vary the result coming from the nozzle. Understandably the further away you are the more time the product has to dry before reaching its intended target. I have enclosed a shot of a portion of the stream to let you decide if “SCENERY IN A CAN” is for you.

Its fairly expensive (around $40.00 a can) but with all new products this is expected to allow companies to recoup the money spent on R & D. Maybe you want to wait a while for the price to fall. Like most electronic products they get cheaper the longer they have been around.

It will possibly be a good idea to wait till perhaps Model Railroader gets hold of the product and reviews it. They seem to be able to praise or bag a product given the resources a big organisation such as they have for testing.

In closing I must say I was privileged to be able to be among the first in Australia to try this exciting new product. I haven’t got a lot more scenery to finish off but I’m looking forward to be able to speed up this work and get on with some building of structures.

Now wouldn’t it be great if they can get “STRUCTURES IN A CAN”.

For further particulars try Walters.com

2011-03-20T15:52:00.000+11:00

Kamilaroi Railway
I am pleased to see that my ex work collegue and still good friend Jim has re-instated his blogspot for his north west railway. Unfortunatelty it seems all his earlier posts are gone and he will have to start again.
You will find it at :http://www.thekamilaroirailway.blogspot.com/
Seems like he has bumped into another blogspotter Brad for a milkshake down the southern highlands.

2011-03-19T22:08:00.000+11:00

Kameruka Progress
I have finally got around to spreading some dirt around the yard at Kameruka and cultivating some weeds and grass.
After attending the Forestville Exhibition and visiting the Uneek stand I purchased a weighbridge that had already been assembled for $10 more than the kit price. It came complete with weathering and was mounted on a small piece of timber. A bargain. A spot was found for it near the goods siding. I tried to removed the weighbridge hut and weighbridge from the timber to set it lower in the yard. The hut came away quite readily but the weighbridge part was etched and glued directly to the timber and it started bending when I tried to prise it away from the timber. Back to plan two = just leave it there. So it was glued down to the base board and I mounded the dirt up around it.
I have only done some ballasting around the fruit loading siding so far to see how it looked. At this stage I was scraping the bottom of the barrel and ran out of dirt for the siding. So I grabbed the empty ice cream container and a sieve and headed out into the street. Once upon a time I only had to go out the front to rake up dirt from the verge but with unexpected council progress in providing guttering I now have to walk around the corner to get a new supply.

As can be seen in the photo above the platform road hasn't been ballasted yet as I need to provide platform extensions on each end, then the ballast will be laid between the edge and track. There won't be as many weeds growing in the main line and loop as the sidings.
The word was out also that the MHG and PHG brakevans were ready down at West Ryde. A call from a friend said he was going down there on Saturday morning to collect a bulk lot for a group of modellers based around Taree, so I tagged along to get my pack of each type. The trip wasn't wasted as I was able get get the April AMRM magazine and also spotted hanging on the wall a rivetting tool that came with four different spaced wheels of rivets. I am hoping to use it in the future to provide rivets for a 75' turntable to be built one year. So watch out now I can be a true rivet counter.

Arriving back home we went to the shed to show him the progress on SCR. Although we didn't have time to run any trains the shed and layout were reasonably 'cleaner' after having our regular group over on the Friday night for a running night and catch a dvd. I will now spend the next few weeks looking for everything that I have just tidied up and put away some where.
On one of the brakevans I found out that it had a shonky wheel, so bad it would have shaken the snag of the guards plate. It must have been a 'made on Monday' model. I will have to return it for an exchange wheel.
I also gave the vans a quick weathering using Tamiya Khaki drab thinned down with isopryl alchocol, but after looking at the results in the photos it needs a bit more work on them.
So I congratulate Toms Hobbies for getting these two vans out. I can now tick off two more boxes on the "Models to Collect before I Die" list.

How time flys! I have just checked my blog listings and it is just over two years ago since I posted the first one. It seems a bit embarrasing that the track that shows up for Narooma still hasn't been ballasted. But I shouldn't worry as they say 'Its on the list!"

2011-02-20T14:33:00.000+11:00

Kameruka - Name change?

Well I have chosen to update the blog instead of my other project allocated today which was to get the remaining section of guttering painted. It is stinking hot and humid outside so it can wait till better weather.
Kameruka - name change? I had thought for a fleeting moment to change to name the name to Coolum. Yes it would be more appropriate to call it this. Unfortunately the station location is right under a window. And stuck in the window is and air conditioner. But after the last blogs effort on trying to justify why Kameruka needed at station, it will remain so named. Anyhow Coolum is up there in Queensland.
So you get good and bad with the air conditioner. It was purchased many years ago at a garage sale for the great price of $20. For this price I didn't want to cart home some one elses scrap metal, so I asked at the time if it could be plugged in and tested. Sure can do said the man. But stupid me fell for it. As garage sales usually start early and it was a cold August morning when the unit was turned on it was a matter of cold air in through the back and the same cold air out of the front. Doh!
Another thing about the controls on the air conditioner. For temperature you get a choice from 1 to 10. So if ten is the coolest when would ever use numbers one to nine? I'm bloody hot, give me the max man. And the function control is just as stupid. Fan and Lo Cool options. Get real. I'm still hot, the knob is set on Hi Cool and probably rusted in to that spot. The only other knob is sensible one. Its the timer, and graduated in hours. Exactly thats a good measure of time down in the shed - hours.

I bought it anyway. My salvation came when a friend saw it and identified the something inside wasn't right. He took it away fixed it and bingo I then got the bargain. It wasn't until the shed had been extended until it was placed into the window and there it remains. The bad bit is it infringes over the Candelo end of Kameruka and the track passes under it. Glad there will be no double stacking going on South Coast Rail. It will be hard to get reasonable photos without it showing up. At least this model is called the G.E. Skinny. Imagine how much larger a G.E. Fatty model would be in photos. I must say this model is a try hard unit. It certainly wasn't designed for this size shed but is better than nothing. At least I can work down one end and be reasonably cooler.

The code 100 track from the Candelo end has been removed and the code 75 track and points laid in. The oil and milk sidings can be seen in the photo and the fruit loading siding in the foreground. If you thought the good shed looks familiar your'e right. It had been borrowed from Bodalla which was previously borrowed from Candelo. I have similar good sheds waiting for assembly for both locations, another job for the future.

I am going to extend the platform at either end to cater for longer passenger trains. The station was built a long time ago as part of the conditions for attending the Branchline Modellers Convention that used to be held at Macquarie University. It was a great day out and this requirement to bring along something you are working on was a good incentive to get a project up and finished. This convention operated long enough for me to have completed this station and also build a sand bin based on the ones located at Eveleigh, Taree and Cootamundra. I also managed to finish a yard lamp that is now residing in Bega loco. There was so much talent out there all on display. Sad its not around anymore.
Kameruka sits above a tunnel where two tracks crossover each other. To gain access to the tracks underneath a section of panelling has had magnetic catches installed as shown in the photo. It is a simple removal to gain access to the area underneath. And also my crook carpentry can be hidden.

Kamilaroi Railway
For those of you who have a link to the Kamilaroi Railway blog and find its no longer there, Jim has deleted the blog for the time being as his computer was infected with a virus and worm and he removed the blog in case of cross infection (can you get that off a blog?). Anyway he will be back to continue on his interesting journey of North West modelling. Will keep you informed.

2011-01-30T14:34:00.000+11:00

The Candelo Branch
I suppose model railways can fall into two main categories: Prototype or freelance.
When we choose 'prototype' we then endeavour to model that locality or location as close to the real thing as possible. This doesn't always work out as sometimes (usually) the space available does not allow a true to scale model to be built. This goes under the heading of selective compression. To model say Goulburn, Cootamundra or Junee to their full scale length would need a very large shed.
So to get around this we can reduce the length of yards, reduce the number of sidings and even leave some features out but the model bears some resemblance of its intended location.
This can be another reason why modelling branch lines can make a better choice as they can make a 'better fit' model.
Another enjoyable part of the hobby picking a real place is the background research required to make the model as close to the original as can be. This then requires further research depending on the era you are modelling. If I was modelling Orange as it now stands, I certainly would not need as much track and points if I was modelling it back around the 1950's. Darren from Gunnedah and Beyond has touched on this issue on some of his earlier blog pages.

The second category 'freelance' is where South Coast Rail fits in. I think in my first ever blog post I may of mentioned that the Illawarra section of the line down towards Bomaderry appealed to me. I have always thought a layout based on Bombo, Kiama, Gerringong, Berry and Bomaderry would be ideal. My shed was large enough to fit it all in but I didn't want to be restricted in being chained to operating like the prototype and I also preferred the continuous style of layout.

So keeping in the South Coast region, the next best thing was to pull out a road map of New South Wales and pick out a few towns that were recognisable. This lead to me saying Bodalla, Batemans Bay, Narooma and Bega yes you'll do. It was that simple. I now had complete flexibility in station and yard design as we all know there ain't no railway there now and never will be. I now have a justification in running the Bega Mail and operating my sleeping cars. Something I would have felt guilty doing if I modelled north of Bomaderry.

Another famous ficticional line amongst bloggers is Bylong Ray has also chosen to be completely free of prototype design. (Although I believe now there is an actual Bylong crossing loop been built on the Ulan line.)

South Coast Rail is a single line layout with four crossing loop stations. A fifth crossing loop station at Kameruka can be brought into use when a lifting flap is raised to join the track at Bega with the branch.

I also wanted a branch line as I enjoy this type of operation knowing I can only go to the end and then have to come back to the junction. (Many happy returns!) This was also a good place to put a coal mine as it would mean more operation/shunting. Again the road map came out and as this branch was to come off at Bega, a quick look found the towns of Kameruka and Candelo as suitable branch stations. One thing that wasn't available when I originally developed the stations for the layout in 1999 was Google Earth. From 2005 we were able to fly over landscapes and get a first hand look at what was down there. This is also a great tool for modellers of any location.

Another great app that is provided on Google Earth is the 'street view' option. Using this I was able to tour up and down the streets of Candelo without travelling the 485 kilometres to see it in the flesh. There are many old buildings typical of country towns that would look great on the layout, but the lack of room at Candelo on my layout will prevent this from happening.

Having picked out the two stations of Candelo and Kameruka, I rather belated decided to check the internet to get some background on these places.

KAMERUKA

Bugger all there. A fly over on Google Earth shows a few houses. Although the internet calls it a village nothing was recognisable from the air.
The only mentionables are the Kameruka Homestead and the Holy Trinity Church. It can't be a village if it hasn't got a pub there.
On a gallery for one web site out of 36 photos there is only one of cows that made the area famous. At least they are all looking at the camera. (Did the photographer say 'Cheese'?
The residents should think themselves lucky as I will be providing them with a station and a yard. It will also have an oil siding, milk and fruit packing shed. (An industry introduced by me.)
The name Kameruka in Aboriginal speak means 'wait until I return' This name probably originated when in the early days a train from Candelo heading for the Bega show was full and the guard was heard yelling out 'Kameruka, Kameruka' (Yes they were picked up later by a return special and got there for the second race)

CANDELO

There were two theories on how Candelo got its name (1) Candelo was a staging post for wagons and many drivers would arrive at Candelo after dark. As the river crossing was dangerous they would call for a light to show them the best place to cross the river. The common call was "candle o!" and (2) It was named after a town called Candelo in Northern Italy.

I chose Candelo as opposed to Tantawangalo as I felt it would fit on the station nameboard better and is easier to pronounce.
It is actually a town with shops (and a hotel).
One web site shows agriculture, forestry and fishing as local industries. Not sure about the fishing bit.

So that's a bit of background on the two stations currently on the Candelo branch. I found that I could sneek another small platform in on the line. So I went back to Google Earth and there were two contenders between Kameruka and Bega. One is a locality called Kingswood and the other Black Range. I have chosen Black Range as I don't want a phone call from Ted Bullpit saying " Your'e not modelling the Kingswood, its mine I have already taken it" So Black Range it will be.

So thats a bit of the background to the Candelo branch. Sorry for the lack of photos. I don't have any cow photos to support my modelling.

Don't you think picking Bodalla, Kameruka and Bega for station names is a bit Krafty?

2011-01-21T16:41:00.000+11:00

Kameruka
Lately I've been hanging around Bodalla too long doing work on the cliff behind the station and goods yard. There is only so much scenery work you can do before boredom sets in.
I needed a new challenge. Where can I go next in the room? I weakened on my resolve to finish an area before moving on to another.
The next challenge was going to be an area that wouldn't take forever to finish (famous last words).
So it was that I decided to concentrate on Kameruka. It is a crossing loop station on the branch to the terminus at Candelo and also represents the highest point on the layout. I figured it would give short visitors an eyeballs view of the wheels of the trains. This height was not scientifically devised but the need to fall slightly below a window set its height. Once the track leaves here towards Candelo there is a down grade. None of my grades on the entire layout are steep due to the fact I have plenty of length to make them gradual. Even the grade down to Candelo is only slight. In fact a Trainorama 49 class can haul 16 loaded BCH hoppers + Brakevan out of Candelo to Kameruka. From Kameruka to Bega it is all down hill.
This is where operation working can rule over reality. Bank engine working can be introduced between the two stations there by making for more interesting operation.
Kameruka has been laid with code 100 track. It has been my intention to replace the code 100 with code 75 when ever I do a relay at major stations. Much of the initial track was second hand and has served well. I find the code 75 track is a close to real track I need to go without taking the next step which is hand laying track.
Back yonks ago when I was modelling N scale I was making a layout with handlaid track. It had code 55 rail imported from the US. This layout had well over 40 handlaid points including a single slip and a few diamond crossings. It was at the time when I decided to change scales from N to HO as there were improved NSW type models coming onto the market. All this track was built when I didn't have space for a layout but had plenty of time to construct the track. Now it is the opposite. I don't have the time to build the track but enough spondooly to buy the points.
The next issue was to work out the track layout for the revised Kameruka. Originally this station was the only crossing loop on the branch and the loop was of sufficient length to take branch length trains. (even to restricting the coal train lengths). Some time ago I found that I could make better use of this line by installing a lifting track between the branch and Bega which luckily were on a similar level. The only other issue with the loop was to lengthen it as longer trains from the main line were now crossing there.

The opportunity to dig up the track gave me a chance to review the current set out of sidings. I wanted enough industries there to allow shunting in both directions. The current set up had the goods shed on a dead end siding of which I cannot relate to any examples on the NSWR system. This was resolved by continuing the track on as a loop to reconnect with the branch. This means the goods siding can now be shunted in each direction. Unfortunately the sheep/cattle race has got the flick. Two good reasons. (1) I would have to build them and (2) I had a building that can be made up to represent a packing house.
With the extension of the goods siding this meant the oil siding had to go from its current location and I found I could shoehorn it in over near the milk siding. The milk and oil siding trail from Bega, that is they are a straight shunt in the Down direction, so in the reverse there is more shunting required to return them towards Bega. The beauty of oil sidings is that they only need to be a bit more than two tankers in length. I was originally going to have the oil siding come off the milk siding but the clearances were too tight. Shunting would also be complicated by needing to move the milk wagons prior to shunting in the oil tankers. Something I'm sure the milk depot would get the shits with quick (But interesting for the operator). By regigging (wow 4 G's in that word) it I was now able to fit in three oil tankers.
So after settling on the final layout and checking out the stock of track and points on hand I found out I needed another three long right hand Peco points. I tried the closest hobby shop on the phone and they did not stock them but were willing to order them in. I thanked them, said no and then remembered I had gotten some previous supplies from the Model Craftsman at Blacktown and had good service. It was Wednesday around 2pm and I rang the shop. Gary answered, had what I wanted and put it in an overnight delivery bag. And on Thursday morning I had my points ready to continue work on the layout. So for $9, much cheaper than the petrol I would have used and about three hours saved by not going there. The only real loser would have been Gary in the fact I probably would have bought other stuff there as well. Well recommended.
So at this stage the branch is out of service until the new track is laid in.
...........To be continued when more track is laid in.

2010-12-31T22:49:00.000+11:00

The Last Post(For this year that is). How slack. I haven't had a December post and now with about one hour to go I will try and squeeze this one in before I sit down in front of the telly and watch Sydneys famous midnight fireworks.
I am on leave for the moment and have already started on getting some projects crossed off the list. Starting with putting new tiles on the bathroom floor. The old ones have gone and the 'easy lay' tiles are down. Tomorrow comes the hard one, that is all the tiles that need cutting to finish off the job. Not looking forward to cutting the ones around the floor drain.
So in between running out of glue for the tiles, I thought I had better de-stress down the shed.
Work has been going on at Bodalla at the moment. I usually do a bit here and move onto there for more but have decided to just get one area fully finished, so you will have to get bored for a while until Bodalla is complete.
I 'borrowed' the goods shed from the branch at Candelo which actually sits directly above Bodalla. It might end up staying there and I'll build another one when I get around to revisiting Candelo to finish it off.
Yesterday I laid down the goods yard at Bodalla and started putting in weeds, grass etc to make it looked finished.

So it also turned out a good night after checking tonights $31 mill lotto. (Not so good when it has to be divided by 21 shares. And it wasn't first prize unfortunately) But still way in front. Ah well back into consolidated revenue it goes.
I'll finish off the year hoping you all had a good modelling year. Next year will hopefully be the year of the 40 class and the 48's. I reckon the Viccies have had a recent glut of locos and models so back to getting out a few more NSW models.
Hope next year is a good year for you all and looking forward to seeing progress on your blogs.
I will leave you with a few shots taken around Bodalla today.

2010-11-20T22:36:00.000+11:00

Vertical as opposed to horizontal
I may have said this before but because of my design of layout I do not have many areas that lend themselves to modelling sweeping plains and fields. So my scenery mainly goes up and down as opposed to across. If I had only wanted to go around the shed once then this type of scenery would have been possible. Hopefully my final design of the layout with two laps of the shed has allowed extra crossing stations with still a fair bit of running in between.
We always seem to set ourselves impossible timetables. I had thought that by the end of last year I would have had all the scenery finished and would be onto the building construction stage. Ahead I have to build a station building, roundhouse and a coal stage based on Armidale. These will all take many hours.
Any how I spent a few hours tonight down the shed attacking the cliffs of Bodalla. This is by no means fast work. You sort of put a bit of green 'stuff' on and then stand back to see if it works and looks okay. What would speed things up a bit more would be to actually sort my scenery material into some sort of order. Unfortunately I am not that organised, but at least its all down one end of the shed.
Tomorrow I don't think I will see the shed again as I will be tackling the front down pipe from the gutter which I found was well and truly rooted. I have managed to get most if it out and hope to have fun with a rubber O ring and marry some pvc and clay pipe together.
Anyhow I will post some of tonights effort on line of the vertical type of scenery. The following shots were taken at Bodalla

2010-11-08T21:58:00.000+11:00

Still raining
Well its another stormy night in Sydney, so I hope I will get this blog posted before the lightning cuts power. Good news the trains seem to operate OK today and I got home at the normal time.
Besides lightning knocking out the power for the trains and signals I still have two other reasons to dislike the rain. One is the poor old shed is vunerable to leaks (but when I checked tonight none so far) and the other is that I have discovered that my down pipe from the roof guttering to the street seems to be blocked somewhere and is overflowing. So I guess this weekend will be taken up digging up the pipe and try and get to the root of the problem.
Managed to get a small amount of scenery done on the weekend. A few inches for so many minutes.
I also had a visit from Dr. Marcus Ammann recently and he brought along his bag of tricks. He was a long time gunner come and have a look at the layout, but when my garratt had decided to lay down with a short, he found the sweet spot with the wand and got it going again. Thanks Marcus.

I was recently talking with an ex work mate Jim Harris who had built a layout based on Yass Town and Yass Junction. This layout operated in a shed until recently being sold to a guy up Mudgee way. Jim is now planning a new layout based up the North West of the state namely Boggabri and Moree. So I suggested to Jim why doesn't he make a blog for the layout and share with all. He has started one called the Kamilaroi Railway. I am not sure what the attraction of the North West is but Jim now makes at least 4 modellers I know modelling this area. We have Darren with Gunnedah and Beyond and Blair and Lance from Texas all doing the same.
I have included the link for Jims layout here. He is relating currently to his Yass layout and I'm sure in time will start posting about his new layout.

2010-10-23T14:44:00.000+11:00

Missing in Action.
Model railways is a great hobby. If you have been in the game as long as I have every time you see the familiar bods at exhibitions, their faces are getting more wrinklier, head hairs are missing, and they have to ask you your name.
A group of some ex school mates from yonks ago meet a few times a year at each others place to catch up on their layout and watch a few dvd's etc.
Last Friday was one of those nights. And I did't get there. But I remembered in the shower this morning and promptly fired off the following email as an excuse. (One reply likens it to a book)
To explain what the email is about there was a storm in Sydney Friday afternoon and lightning knocked out signals between work and home. It is not about modelling as such, has trains in it, so be fore warned.

Let me draw out the saga leading up to the alzhiemer moment.

Friday around 4.15pm. Watch alarm rings,then sorry boys have to go home. Computer shuts down ( hurry up windows). Out the door into the lift and the fellow passenger mentions amongst other things that a lightning strike had hit at Thornleigh. Bugger that’s on the way home. Should I go via the Shore line?

Over at Central the delay board shows all line ‘Normal service’ except North line as ‘Minor delays’ Yeah I can live with that. If there’s a problem they should have fixed it by the time I get there.

So I board the 4.30pm North, settle into my normal seat with the latest edition of MX. All well as far as Strathfield, Eastwood then the rot set in. We sit in between Eastwood and Epping (thank goodness it was air con and our carriage had a dunny in it). After 15 minutes or so the guard announces due to “infrastructure problems’ there will be a slight delay. Yeah right slight my arse. He said there was a queue of train heading towards Hornsby, we were on it and would slowly progress. (Right he was).

So apparently the signals were OK up to Epping and trains were frustratingly going past our window as we were on the second north bound track. So each time one would go past us, the passengers would say “there goes another one why aren’t we moving? (swear, swear etc etc)

Eventually after an hour or so we moved up to Epping platform and dumped off the Eppingites and any one else that were willing to walk home to Beecroft (etc etc –yeah it would have been quicker). Now the guard announces we will be here for a while longer and if we want to get out and stretch your legs do so. He was a good PR man for Railcorp as he also said that he wouldn’t leave anybody behind (how nice). The smokers also took advantage for a quick polluting puff outside, then come back in and smell the carriage out. There were some people who went out onto the platform just for the fresh air and there was this one guy who couldn’t keep still. He kept walking up and down the platform for about two carriage lengths. Down to the end, reverse back up the platform and then used a tall box to go around and do another lap. Poor bugger must have done about thirty laps. Any longer and he would have needed a new pair of shoes. Well at least he wouldn’t have needed to go to the gym when he got home.

The trains that come across from the City to Chatswood and over to Epping were also being turned back, so these passengers were also invited to squeeze aboard our train. They were also invited by the guard to move up the front of our train. So after about another 40 minutes at downtown Epping we got on board the smokers, walkers, passengers any stray dogs and any one else that wanted to go north for the night. The guard also reminded us (about the 10^th time) that we will be proceeding ‘slowly’ north. And just to make everybody unhappier he announced we would be all stations to Hornsby, Berowra then all stations to Gosford. Stuff them I reckoned. Why would they miss out on Asquith, Mt Colah and Mt Kuring-gai. Let make it all stations and be done with it.

As we leave Epping going north there is a signal gantry with four sets of signals, one for each track. So out of the eight red lights normally lit, I spot one green and hope that was ours. Yes it was. Just out of Epping the line passes over the M2 motorway on which the cars in the morning and afternoon peaks are usually going at a crawl to which I have an internal mind thought (“suckers”). But not tonight. We were going slow enough to probably get their number plates if you wanted to.

Cheltenham and Beecroft we dumped off passengers and slowly kept getting closer to home. Trains were going past us from Hornsby so why weren’t we going faster? Being up towards the front of the train I could see the signals, most of them had a red colour, then turned my favourite colour (at that time) green. So Pennant Hills Accept Signal was two reds, we stop, one green, we go, and then we stop again.

Bugger whats wrong now?. I previously mentioned that our carriage had a dunny. Good news if you need to use it but bad news because cronic smokers think they can hide in there and get away with having a quick puff. As this train was an Oscar set it was equipped with the latest gear including CCTV cameras. No gangways between sets that the older and V sets provided for a quick nicotine fix.

So the Driver then comes bursting into our carriage armed with a fire extinguisher and yells out “Righto who was the bright person who decided to smoke in the toilet? You have set off the fire alarm and the OH and S declares that I have to check every thing out. Who was that person?. Silence for a while, then a guy points to the next carriage and the driver storms off there. (He was going to be late home for his dinner as well)

We heard no more for a while, then we started moving off. Then a voice from the Guard was heard “ The guy in the green flouro jacket has been caught on CCTV camera smoking in the toilet of this train. The police have been notified and will be meeting this train on arrival. It is an offence to smoke in toilets and there are smoke detectors fitted in there” Well the Guard didn’t say what station the police would turn up at. And surprise surprise, when we pulled up at Pennant Hills the guy in the green flouro jacket shoots past the window. 100 to1 on that guy didn’t live there but as there is a pub near the station I reckon that’s where he went to cool his heels for a while. Can you BYO to a pub? I reckon he had a slab under his arm. He looked the type.

But what were the chances of this happening again. As the first flouro guy whizzes past the window, there is a second guy in the same green flouro clobber gets onto the train. My first thought was your’re gone mate when you get off at Hornsby, you’ll have some explaining to do to the cops. But I was ready to step into the fray with my Railcorp badge and say ‘It wasn’t him constable, the guy you want is at the bar down at Pennant Hills.

Ah I forgot to mention I have an at least ten year old mobile phone that I use only for emergencies. So when I tried to use it said “You don’t have enough credit to make this call’ So the only time I needed to use it I couldn’t.

As we went past Thornleigh there were some Railcorp guys in their vests that looked like they were doing/had been doing something. Our guard announced that the signals have all been fixed and after Hornsby the driver will be going as fast as possible to make up time. Nice thought.

Yee haa. We eventually made Hornsby. Thank goodness it was daylight saving time as it was still light. So what is normally a 45 minute trip was over two and a half so far. Then the Hornsby shuffle begins. Likened to the Bermuda triangle this is the place where if it can go wrong this is it. The indicator optimistically showed my train in 15 minutes. Ah not enough time to whip over to the shops. I knew it was getting late because I heard a short freight train heading towards Sydney go past on the only track available (the Down Main).

The station staff were kept a little busy tonight. With wheelchair people nearly ending up in the car sheds, trains cancelled and confusion reigning supreme. The crews didn’t know what was going on and neither did anyone else.

Eventually a train turned up at Platform two it now being well after 7 pm and my stomach starting to say ‘when am I going to get something?’ The indicator showed it all stations to Berowra. I jumped aboard at the last minute as sometimes these indicators had a mind of their own. Yes they could change direction and send you the other way. Taking a chance as well as a seat, I heard the Guard say “All stations to Berowra” Still being a non believer, the sight of the Asquith BP service station had me at rest. I could now relax knowing I would be home soon before it was dark.

Eventually home was reached, the security light started burning for me as soon as I was within range. After the doorbell was rung I was then greeted by my family of two (three if you include Rusty the rabbit) and started telling them what you have just read.

So did you make it to the end? Promise the next post will be on a model theme.

2010-09-28T17:34:00.000+10:00

I'm Off
Meaning I'm off on a short break from work. Its around this time of the year when the weather is nice and a good chance to have a break before the end of the year. And right in the middle is the Liverpool Exhibition to get all inspired again and make a few purchases.
Bodalla station has aquired a small car park just in front of the signal box and opposite the local store. So it becomes a rush when a trains in and when some of the locals want to park there to get a carton of milk. There is fat chance of getting any extra car spaces there as all the available space is now taken up.A bit more greenery has sprouted up and a pedestrian walkway across the track is nearly complete.
The signal box is nearly finished. A signal box name board will help the signalman know where he's working and a down pipe into the water tank will stop the ground from getting boggy. I haven't bothered putting a frame inside the box as the door doesn't open anyway and he can't get in.When the superb Trainorama BCH hoppers had come out I was very slow on the uptake and only managed to get a four pack. I figured that this would be sufficient for photography purposes in that if the first four were visible they would show up well in the pictures. I had already about 15 AR BCH's and as usual for me, completed but no decals and detailing on. This was going to be applied 'later', but never did happen. I was also able to build up the fleet with 15 modified cut down Athearn hoppers. These at least were painted and lettered. They made up into a nice long train and when down the other end of the shed I couldn't see that they had no decals etc on anyway.
I was hoping that Trainorama would rerun the hoppers one day and sure enough last week BBB came on the forum and announced they were available once again. So I hot footed it down to West Ryde last Saturday and secured another two packs to now have 12 BCH's for the train. I will get another 4 pack later and make a total of 16 for the train.
The coal mine at Candelo comes off the branch line terminus and means that two return runs have to be made to the mine to load the whole train. This enforced shunting makes for an interesting half hour or so on the branch to achieve. The run round at the mine takes eight hoppers and a brakevan. It is shoe horned onto a small shelf suitably scenicked off from the lower branch. It has a siding which can eventually take a dedicated shunting engine for the mine working.
When I got the hoppers home they were only in their virgin black for no more than ten minutes when I weathered them with Tamiya Khaki Drab and diluted isopryl alcohol. They certainly look better.
I assembled them on the track under the coal loader and they looked good. So I went and got the video camera and tried to put together another video clip. The finished result South Coast Rail 2 doesn't have sound only the wheel sounds and stuff me when my digital watch decided to go off. Also a blackened out section where I deleted an out of focus piece. (Just pretend its in a tunnel). I am still learning the software and it takes ages to render and more ages to upload to Youtube.
Anyway enjoy the clip warts and all. You will find it here if you have ten minutes spare.

2010-08-27T22:38:00.000+10:00

Thanks Budd
The last blog showed the very early days of the conversion of the Athearn Budd cars to something that will hopefully run better and look closer to its New South Wales counterpart.It wasn't long after the blog had internetted that I had an email from a former work collegue Jim Harris who sent down some of his collection of Budd photos. He has given the Ok to share them with the world.The first photo is the Down South Coast Daylight express taken near Erskineville Junction. I believe the ESR hadn't been built at this stage and the tracks to the left were from the Alexandria Goods Yard.
The next photo I'm not sure where it was taken. Any guesses out there? It looks like a delivery/test run. Look how clean the pilot is, no grime as yet.
The next photo was taken near Waterfall obviously before electrification had reached there.The last shot of Jims was taken just north of Kiama with the Budd set headed for Bombo which shows up in the last photo. This shot clearly shows the 'weathering' on the roof.
The last shot by an unknown photographer (I think it was off a calendar) typifies what I love about the South Coast scenery. This is as close as the lines in NSW gets to the surf and certainly would make a good modelling challenge. Also located at Bombo is a blue metal gravel quarry which would add operating interest.
The photo also shows the South Coast Daylight Express in its final form as a loco hauled train. Included in the consist are some of the 1200 class Tulloch cars originally utilised on the Riverina Express.
The site of the first photo at Erskineville is where a derailment occured and a descision was made after this not to repair the cars but convert them to a loco hauled set.
RIP Budd cars.

2010-08-14T21:08:00.000+10:00

Hey Budd can you spare me a dime...
A line probably often said in the U S of A. My main emphasis of attack on the layout has been to get the scenery done and worry about structures and assembling unbuilt kits at a later time.Well I decided to have a change of direction and finally have a go at getting a set of Budd cars modified to work on South Coast Rail. Those of you familiar with these cars will know that they spent most of their lives on the South Coast trundling back and forth between Sydney and Bomaderry. Towards the end of their service they spent time working between Junee and Griffith. Not so long ago when the Aussie manufacturers were sprouting all the models they were going to manufacture, Eureka announced they were going to produce the Budd cars. Beauty I said I'll get a set of those. But despite all good intentions these models seem to be way in the future.
So for the last twenty years or so I have been collecting the Athearn Budd cars. One that I had purchased twenty years ago and recently at a second hand stall at a model exhibition I cracked the jackpot - a rubber band driven Athearn Budd car. Cutting edge technology when they were introduced, but wouldn't cut the mustard today.
When I got the power car home I put it on the layout for a test run. Plenty of noise but no movement. So when I got the body off there were no rubber bands- perish the thought. So I was getting nowhere, and neither was the Budd car.I was about to throw the remotoring question to the forum floor, when I happened to mention about the remotoring problem to a good friend Bruce at work. He has a fantastic memory of articles and also a collection of bits and pieces that I'm sure would put a hobby shop to shame.
A few days later he came in to work with a regearing kit for the Athearn Budd cars. So today I commenced to have a go at kit bashing, a little bit out of my comfort zone of scenery.
At this stage I have managed to get the horse shoe shaped gear train into place and a new mashima motor into place. All thats needed at this stage is to connect up the motor with the gear train, wire up and we might have movement.
Now as luck would have it when Athearn made these cars they were not made to the full length which makes a NSWGR representation more acceptable. Proto 1000 have made full length cars and these would be okay to represent the Commonwealth Railways Budd cars which were longer than NSW. I found a good coloured Budd picture today in the "Remember When" book on page 44. It has good front on detail and also shows how the front pilot/cowcatcher was painted a red colour.
Comparing the model with the photo some of the cosmetic changes needed are to replace the single horn with two single ones, fit some jewels into the lights and fit a diafram (I know thats the wrong spelling but thats how it should be spelt). I might consider fitting a new wrap around pilot. The Athearn model has recessed steps under the front door and the NSW model has cut outs. The front windows could also be filed longer. Yeah if I run a four car set I might be able to get away with just doing the end car windows.An instant improvement was to paint the bogies and undergear flat black and run over with a wash of Tamiya Khaki drab to give that weathered look. You can see this in some of the photos.
Anyhow when the four car set gets into service on South Coast Rail, that fact that it will be a near enough model won't faze me. Well I can always say this was a second modified set that was purchased to operate way down to Bega. There you are justification. I'm felling better already.

2010-07-24T21:11:00.000+10:00

All about NSW
Well maybe thats an alternate title to the 'Modelling the Railways of New South Wales' gathering that I went to at Loftus today.
Trying to do my best for the environment I picked up an local attendee not long after the chooks had stopped crowing. A little bit further on and more carbon points saved I picked up another precious cargo, one of the presenters Mr Bob Taaffe (Mr Signals). He was to give three lectures so it seems there were a few interested in signalling. It was a case of delivering one Taaffe to another TAFE. A bit over an hour or so later we arrived at the Loftus TAFE. I was asked some time ago whether I could do some sort of scenery display and eventually agreed when I worked out I could take a lift out section of scenery of the layout, so that any time worked on it would end up for the good of the layout. Unfortunately the organiser who talked me into doing it was a no show. Did he get the call? to work??. But I was greeted by his work buddy and taken to my spot for the day.
Around 9.0am (my normal raise head time for a Saturday) we were given the rundown for the day and around 9.30am the first round of talks was underway.
I was in a room with some commercial stands such as Casula Hobbies, Bergs Hobbies, Uneek, Kerroby and the AMRM stand. It would have been a bit daggy if I only took the slice of scenery so I got a board and glued on a few samples of the scenery bits that all come eventually together. Chuck in a laptop with a scenery powerpoint presentation I had made some time ago, a few folders with SCR photos and off we went.
I did not go to any of the lectures but stood by the stand in case any one had any questions like 'How did you do that?' Scenery work is just one facet of the hobby. Some people are just not interested in it, possibly because they can't do it. Some are just content to collect trains and run them around plywood central. Each to their own.
To me scenery work is the aspect I enjoy doing. Not being a DCC man, wiring must be done but it has been. It made the day seem worthwhile when you get some modellers drop off and have more than a thirty second conversation. I spent some time talking to Allan and his son David and also Wayne.
I decided to go up to the canteen with Bob T for some sustinence. I had a cup of chino and some toasted blueberry bread with melted butter. (So yum went back for more later).
Well the day went quickly, I made a few purchases at Uneek and promised to put them into my box of rainy day items at home. So I can't tell you how the lectures went. And as we all notice at exhibitions the ratio of people with grey hair (and none) to those with any other hair colour and no wrinkles seems to be getting bigger.
I'd like to give a personal thanks to the guys who spent their valuable modelling time throughout the year to put on this event for our pleasure. I suppose its all part of life, there are always people who will volunteer and help others out and those who just go along with the flow and expect others to do it all. Around 1630 it was time to pack up and head for the road. An hour and a bit later after dropping of the two passengers I was safely in the driveway at home.
The bit of SCR is till in the back of the car waiting to be rejoined with the rest of the scenery down at Bodalla.
Thats a job for tomorrow.

2010-07-13T20:50:00.000+10:00

Getting there slowly
Well a week has gone by and I have had a chance to fiddle with the video editing programme and tried to make some sense of all the multiple drop downs and learn a new lingo.
I not sure whether being an older fart has any thing to do with the ability to be able to turn on and use a computer, programme a VCR or set an alarm clock and understand what you are doing. It seems if you were born in the nineties that a recent addition to the gene pool is an ability to turn on electronic components and immediately be able to know what you are doing.
Kids of today are educated in the use of buttons the minute they are born. So rocking up to kindergarten and being given a laptop is no big deal.
I studied the manual that came with the video camera and although giving me the basics, still didn't give me answers to questions I had like what format will will it end up in?. Thank goodness for Youtube and its many tutorials people have kindly made for dumfclots to learn by.
After watching one usefull Youtube on editing I managed to put something together. So at the end I needed to save all my work. Now all my life I have been told to "save as" when I've finished a file. Did this work? No. I looked for and "export' option and couldn't see that either. What I was supposed to do was to 'Render' a term I had only heard used previously with the word 'cement' put in front of it.
Anyhow I tried that and in the list of dropdown of option formats noticed the word 'pal' and chose that. This is the area where I think a clearer explanation could be given. Maybe they could be arranged in pecking order from best quality to lousy at the end.
One of the formats I has chosen and finally offered to Youtube to upload had a massive file size of 1.15gb. After nearly choking the Youtube server, it got revenge and invited me back after 658 minutes to see my results.
After another visit to my resident IT guy, we worked out a smaller file size and I have uploaded it tonight.
Go easy on me, its my first attempt at editing and trying out the camera. And I know you might get sick of seeing 6039 starring but at this stage its the only sound loco I have until Uncle Rons 40 class turns up. If I use other non sound locos then I will have to scrounge around and chase up sound clips to use.
So any way see what you think, here is the first 'edited' clip of South Coast Rail.

2010-07-04T20:38:00.000+10:00

Sunday Night AgainToo soon Sunday night has come again and that means getting on the computer and doing the rounds of the blogs, going onto forums and checking emails.
Once again Sunday night you seem to be able to rely on Craig from 'Craigs Shed' to have updated his blog and let us know what styrene he will need for the next weeks project. He has certainly got a job on his hands to finish his layout. It certainly covers one of the most scenic parts of New South Wales. He is modelling the far North Coast and I'm modelling the far South Coast.
I don't actually like Sunday nights as I know its up for work on Monday morning and its usually into bed round half ten for an early rise the next morning. Friday and Saturday nights are completely different, I stay up till when ever and rise the next morning when ever. (Unless there is something going on). Last weekend I flew to the Sunshine Coast to celebrate my brothers 50th birthday. I had the easy part, he had to come from Perth. Was a great weeeknd away and needless to say not much railroading was done last weekend.
I had actually downloaded my video editing programme during the week and decided to try and understand how it all works on Saturday night. Well Youtube got a bit of a bashing with tutorials and Google put me onto a few other programmes. It was all going well until the dreaded virus has raised its ugly head.
If my car breaks down I call for a mechanic, this time I yelled out for my son who luckily has a nack for fixing these problems. Son, has my machine got a virus protecter on it? Well I thought I had put one on it! So after a lot of fidelling I'm back on track, virus protection now in place and I'm still to get to the video editing programme. Another days adventure. I will be practicing on layout footage rather than the birthday bash footage in case I mess it up.
So not much was achieved on the layout this weekend, but feeling in a photo mood I went down and shot off a few pics. The lightings not what you'd call really bright but sufficient. The down side of this is when I come inside and review the shots on the monitor. Two hiccups. On one shot of a 49 class coming over the gully bridge looked great through the viewfinder, but on screen there were some fine cobwebs hanging off the handrails. No scrap that one. And on another shot of the 44 class coming around a cutting, on the monitor I noticed a black shape besides the track. A quick zoom showed it to be a cooka racha, dead on his back and eyes fixated towards the ceiling. Normally I couldn't see him but on the angle it was taken, he showed up. So thats the second shot you won't be seeing.
Any how a couple of others turned out so I'll put them on.

2010-06-21T09:59:00.000+10:00

LCA
That stands for Lights, Camera, Action. I received a call on Friday saying that my camcorder was ready to collect. It was picked up after work and it was hard to resist getting it out of the box on the train home and having a good look.That was done after dinner and the battery was put on the charger. I re-read the manual and like any good product there is a certain amount you can nut out yourself.
The model camcorder is a Sony HDR - XR550V and seems to be top of the range for their range of hand held cam corders. It has a 240G hard drive, 12mp still photo shots, 5.1 sound and the capability of filming in very low light. Its only maybe drawback is the 10x optical zoom. This shouldn't be any problem videoing the layout though. It has a digital zoom though, but this aspect hasn't been tested yet.
Saturday morning saw the camera see daylight again. I took it for a walk to the local station to try it out on some moving trains. What I also forgot to mention earlier was that it is also equipped with a GPS tagging system. The manual on this item is full of techno babble but all you had to do was switch the GPS on and open a top flap so your camera can talk to the satelites. Of course this is no good using indoors unless you have a hole in the roof.
I only managed to film a few suburbans and intercity trains. I was hoping for a GM led freighter to test the sound but none came. Thats for another day.
I was able to view the results on the 3.5" camera screen and they looked OK. At home I plugged it into the computer widescreen monitor and enjoyed the takings. I also tested the GPS facility and when I looked at the result it correctly had me positioned north of the station where I took the video from.
Another good reason for getting the camera sooner than later was that Sony was offering a free version of Movie Studio 9 (a video editing programme) when certain HD camcorders were bought but only till the 12th July.
I am mailing off today for my free copy and it won't be until I can download the programme will I be able to put some sort of movie together. In the meantime I can look ahead on Youtube at the many tutorials on this subject.
Saturday night saw me and the camera head off to the shed to take some footage of the layout. Again I must confess the star of the clips was the only sound loco I possess - the Garratt. (Hurry up with the 40 class will ya Ron). At least filming a sound loco you can readily identify its position on the layout. I concentrated on one end of the layout, namely around the gully area as this is the most complete in regards to scenery.
Another feature of the camera and only on this model as far as I can see is that it has a rear viewfinder that can be used without having the side viewfinder flipped out. What this means is that it should be narrow enough to be placed on a flat wagon and propelled along for that on train view.
Lastly I checked out the low light capabilities. With all the shed lights off I was able to film the garratts progress along the line with just the headlight showing the way. It was clear enough to be able to discern the scenery as it passed by. Very impressive. And so far I can recommend this camcorder.
I have included a clip here of the garratt heading down the valley.
Also a few shots from the vault from around the layout

2010-06-15T21:53:00.000+10:00

This weekend was Sydneys second major model railway exhibition (after Forestville) even closer to home when it was held at the Brickpit Stadium at Thornleigh.
My major intent was to clear the decks of surplus items and create a cashflow for some of the new products coming onto the market. Its surprising how it all adds up. The Friday night drop off came as a bit of a surprise. I regularly pass the outside of the Brickpit to and from work each day and thought they would be doing well to fill this one.
But on Friday night I realised that the exhibition was held on a single basketball court and the other three courts were busy with the sound of bouncing balls. The place is much larger when viewed from inside. The floor area was much better than the Epping Boys High School and from talking to people and feedback from forums it seems all are happy with new venue. It looks at this stage that it will be there for at least another two years (and many more I hope).
There was a good mix of layouts and trade stands and I was able to get some more MiniNature products for the layout. I also purchased some single lamps for Bodalla platform so the passengers can see where the edge of the platform is.
I had a visit on Sunday afternoon from Ray Pilgrim who has the Bylong layout. I had the pleasure of visiting Bylong last year when Blair and Lance from Texas visited. It was a very enjoyable night. I did my best to run a train but when the train reached Bega station it was uncoupled on the water effected baseboard. Oh well that can be another future Blog topic to bore you with. Ray's layout has at least some flat areas that doesn't require cliff edges. Maybe the next layout.
Hope to be taking delivery soon of a Sony camcorder and after the learning curve will post some more video clips on the blog. It will be a few years away but I would like to do a complete film of South Coast Rail, at least if I'm sent to the nursing home I can sit back and enjoy the memories.
I happened to be trackside this arvo and got a few shots of 42110 cruising around the layout. I hope you appreciate the last shot as I had to climb a tall tree to get it.

2010-06-06T20:07:00.000+10:00

Here we go again
Well I'd like to start tonights blog off with a photo of the gully region. If you are a person that only likes good news, have a look at the photo and then close off. The photo is one taken a while ago as I didn't get any work done on the layout this weekend.
Saturday morning comes and I got a visit from Brad from Canberra (http://armchairmodellerdownunder.blogspot.com) to see the progress on SCR. Brad used to live at an adjoining suburb, but has recently moved to Canberra where he can now enjoy the extremes of weather. So until he can get his mans shed fixed up for his layout and insulated he will either get dressed up as an eskimo in winter or strip off in the heat of summer.
Due to the heavy rain during the week this was the first time I had entered the shed. All looked well as I was confident the grand I had spent on the roof was the end of my leak problems. Wrong. Looking at the end of the platforms the ballast looked noticeably darker and on closer inspection there was swelling from the old pineboard.
The last time this section copped a hiding from the weather was back in October 2007 when the Pasha Bulka was washed a shore in Newcastle. I replaced the affected section with ply (what I should have used from the start) and there was still a small strip of pyneboard between the two sections still remaining. I was reluctant to replace this bit as it had a few points on it and it will be hard to rematch up the ballast work. Well this was the section that had been water affected and now looks like will need a rebuild soon.
So much for my recent 'Last post' and the reroof. I think the problem lies with the lower roof where it butts up against the front shed. I reckon the water was flowing up hill. Any way it remains a future subject to bore you with.
I got together the last bits for the upcoming second hand stall to raise funds for new purchases for SCR. I came across a pile of old code 100 track that was from the layout and had now been replaced by code 75 track. I had offered it free to anyone that wanted it but no one wanted it. So taking advantage of the local council clean up this weekend I wrapped a pile of wire around it and placed it out on the street on our contribution to land fill. I am pleased to say that after being there for a few hours it was gone. No I'm not sure if it was taken by a guy who wanted the copper wire holding the bundle together or a nickel silver merchant, but I hope it went to a local model railway enthusiast.

2010-05-23T19:01:00.000+10:00

I've got piles.
Sorry don't want to alarm you and no I'm not referring to any medical condition. I was doing a bit of a scratch around of the shed today looking for items that are no longer wanted and fit for an upcoming second hand stall to raise some cash for all the new products flooding the market.
It surprising how much stuff you have that is no longer needed. I will be putting a few wagons in that have been replaced with superior models.
Like most of us out there we all have boxes of kits that have been put aside for the rainy day with all good intentions that one day we will find the time to put them together.
This must be at least the second sweep through my unbuilt collection of kits. Our most precious commodity especially the older you get is time. A great example of this was the DJH 32 class kit that resided in a dark box for over 12 years. The statement that if you wait long enough a RTR will come along held true with the 32. Trainorama had announced they were doing the 32 class and thats when the fate of the blue box of bits and pieces met its end with me. The kit was sold at the Epping Model Rail exhibition second hand stall and although I had to make up the difference in cost, I was handed over a very nice model that ran as soon as the juice was turned on. The 32 was going to be my first white metal kit to be assembled.
Following the 32 class I also purchased the DJH 36 and 50 class kits. These kits met a similar fate. When the Austrains 36 came along the 36 was similiarly despatched the same way as the 32 class. The 50 class was onsold to a guy from work. I was a bit premature with the 50 class as all the forums were saying a local hobby shop were going to do the standard goods range. I now regret this descision as it seems they will be years away and it would have made up into a nice kit.
A DJH 30T kit I had was assembled by a friend ( he wanted practice - go for it I said) and the kit made up into a nice model. The only trouble is that is has not yet been painted. But a few more years of grime fallout onto the loco should see it blackened all over. This loco with regards to painting it has fallen into the same situation as assembling white metal kits. I think its the learning curve that maybe scaring me off. I can imagine soldering the steam dome and missing (Bugger just put a great dent in it with the hot soldering iron). Ah well maybe my answer is to go all diesel fleet or wait till we get ready to run steam models.Pictured above is a box of bits and pieces and kits waiting their turn to be dragged out of the darkness, be painted up and placed onto the layout. Don't we all say "I had better get one of those because they might not be around much longer." This is quite true in many cases. But imagine if we didn't do this how many kits less manufacturers would need to make. This box contains kits such as goods sheds, weighbridges and heaps of the fantastic Uneek range that have been earmarked for places on the layout.
I think when the scenery is suitably advanced and near finished, I will dig out this box again and make a start on some of the fine aspects of detailing the layout.
But for now the box is back under the layout awaiting the call.

2010-05-09T21:47:00.000+10:00

Was there an April?
Looking at my last post it was dated March. Seems so long ago. April was a busy month not so much modelling but other things that keep you away from the shed.
Much of the time has been taken up around Bodalla, mainly getting rid of the white cliffs at the back of the platform. Its a long slow process initially to get the plaster down and then to get the colouring right.
After all thats done then comes the slow process of putting up the greenery to make the cliffs realistic.
The platform has recently started receiving the 'tarred' surface courtesy of some 400 wet and dry sandpaper.This will be mainly be at the exit end of the platform and the far end will just have a narrow strip near the edge and the classic crushed limestone courtesy of Chucks Ballast to finish off towards the cliff edge and add some variety on the platform surfaces.
The SM at Bodalla is a keen gardener and he plans to eventually have a garden good enough to enter into the annual gardening competitions.It will be a while before the platform is finished. I will be adding station nameboards, seats, Uneek station lights and station weighing scales as it progresses.The last shot shows a 49 class arriving at Bodalla with the afternoon passenger to Bega. The 44 class is a light engine movement heading for Narooma where it will bed down for the night being rostered for a livestock special the next day.
Sometimes I wonder if I will ever finish the layout, but I only have to look back on the computer at the photos taken in the same spot five years ago, and then I think 'Nah we're getting there!

2010-03-28T22:26:00.000+11:00

White Cliffs of Bodalla
I don't need to go to England to see the White Cliffs of Dover when I can now go down to the shed and see the White Cliffs of Bodalla.
I don't know how much longer I will be able to use 'Its too hot to paint" excuse but this weekend allowed a few hours to get plastered and commence on the cliff behind Bodalla. I crunched up bits of foam , dipped them into the plaster mix and then set them against the chicken wire. I find to get the effect I am looking for is not to have the plaster too wet, other wise it comes out too smooth.
I work with three spraycan lids worth of plaster at a time, some water and a dash of vinegar, and a dash to the worksite and into action.
I didn't take any photos of white plaster, I'm sure you all know what it looks like. With a few days off over Easter I'm sure a bit of colouring to the plaster will appear. Once the cliff behind Bodalla station is complete then I can commence on doing the platform up.
Some time ago I made up a board for a local friend as the start of his Victorian branch line. It was portable enough to take outside and work on it in the sun. (Nice in winter) One of the side benefits of working in the sun is the great light it provides for photos. I've included a few on here as being stuck on a hard drive they will never see the light of day.

2010-03-21T21:02:00.000+11:00

Happy Anniversary.
Where has a year gone? Looking back over some old blogs I realised it was now over a year ago since I started this blog. How time flies when your having fun.
As I have always reckoned blogs are a great electronic diary and good to look back on.
I decided to concentrate on finishing the signal box I started last weekend. Saturday and a bit of the night and I had all the posts and railings and steps attached. The posts and railings were cast and even with a fair bit of sanding to finish smooth the end results could have been better. I made the railings out of some North Eastern stripwood and while being a more realistic size than what came with the kit still had wood fuzz thats noticeable close up.
The water tank stand was assembled and a 1000 gallon tank was weathered up and placed on the stand. All that is missing is the water tap at the bottom.
Photos? Yes I took about fifteen but I was not happy with any of them and all are now in the recycle bin. I took some shots on macro and wow you can see how crook I finished the model off.
But if you look at it from the normal viewing distance it looks fine.
So thats another weekend of modelling gone and after around eight hours work I have a signal box for Bodalla.
While I was looking through the photos of the signal box I came across a video I took of some visitors Southern Shorthaul equipmentwhen they came to SCR last October, so I will upload in lieu of the signal box photos.

2010-03-14T21:10:00.000+11:00

Me time
After doing a few jobs before lunch on Saturday, I decided on a bit of me time in the afternoon. Continuing on from last weekend I will be concentrating on Bodalla for a while. The main reason for this is the large amount of complaints I'm getting from passengers regarding the state of the platform.
They complain about "there's no seats to sit on", 'no garden to look at", 'the station building is here one day and gone the next". So to shut the wingers up I will finish Bodalla platform.
I was working on the lift out section of cliff stapling the chicken wire onto the former, and wouldn't you know it my $5 staple gun fired its last staple. Dropping it onto the floor also didn't help. Like all things in this throw away society it ended up in the bin and a promise to get another one on Sunday.
Unable to complete the scenery, I went to the list of things to complete on the layout before I die, and Item 765 was a signal box for Bodalla. Into the box of 284 things I need to construct I found a kit for a fibro (call it asbestos if you want) signal box. It was a Hawksmoor kit my first one to put together. I was a bit hesitant working with asbestos however the instructions told me it was a resin kit so I commenced its construction. By 9.0pm I had the walls, base and roof together waiting for Sunday for more work to be done on it. I can recommend the kit, it is well thought out and the parts go together well and fills in the hole of NSWGR infrastructure.
After rolling out of the cot around 9.0am (my weekend present to myself) it was off to the shops for groceries, back to read the Sunday paper, lunch, Landline, Gardening Australia, then back to me time.
I felt a bit guilty returning to the shed, after all there was a cupboard waiting repainting. But the draw of the signal box was stronger. I grey primed it and after it had dried, I commenced to paint it. Using the coloured picture from Branchline Modeller 3, I started with the base and then the sides and lastly with the roof. The finish is certainly not a pristine new finish but hopefully a reasonable weathered one. Also discovered a bit left over in the bag and when I read the instructions found out that I had forgotten to put the floor in. Oh well I'll have to employ taller signalmen. By next weekend I hope to get the glazing in and the handrails as well. Sitting beside the track now it looks OK.
I also bought another staple gun to complete the scenery work. The staple gun had now increased in price to $8. I had to convince the guy in the hardware shop that I wasn't running an upholstery shop and that I didn't need one of his $44 staple guns. The last one held out for about four years and I hope this one will as well.
I also must admit I like keeping an eye on all the other blogs to follow the progress of other modellers. I always head for Craigs Shed first as his blog list shows when either the blogs have been updated or thats when he must visit them. I'm glad his DCC is working out Ok for him.
Well maybe next blog I will have a photo of the finished signal box.

2010-03-07T21:38:00.000+11:00

Tunnel Vision
Sunday night and I have just come from Craigs Shed (http://ca55ino.blogspot.com/blog) to see what his achievements for the week have been. Craig would have to be one of the most regular bloggers, but when I was reading his post tonight it wasn't until I got to the fifth paragraph before I started to understand what he was on about.
The first four paragraphs were devoted to the ddc-ish language of which I don't speak. I suppose it all makes sense to those that understand dcc. Don't get me wrong its all good but for now I'll stick with the old DC. In the future I'll be like the guy thats still got a computer that can read floppy discs. They'll be saying in future 'Take your old loco over to South Coast Rail, that old fart still has DC and you can get a run there'
Today I started on the cliff that divides Bodalla and Candelo the branch terminus. At well over two metres long, behind it runs a hidden track. So far this is the last section of the layout to see plaster. The reasoning is if a train derails behind the chicken wire I can see it and reach up and rerail it. I laid this section of track as well as I could and it has been reasonably derailment free. With Murphy often visiting the layout i was sure if I sealed the full length of the cliff, derailment would start occuring.
So to get around this, I am making a section of the cliff removable to enable me to fix any derailment problems. It will not be the full length of the cliff, so in true Murphy fashion all my derailments will now occur to the left and right of said removable section.The photo shows the early days for the removable section. Once this section is completed then I can make a start on finishing Bodalla platform.
I am also posting some photos I found in the archives taken around five years ago. How time flies.

2010-02-20T22:25:00.000+11:00

The Last Post.
No don't get excited, this is not the last post ever, but hopefully the 'last post' about the leaky roof.
I received a phone call at work last Thursday from the hardware man, saying that the corrugated roofing has arrived.
Arriving there I saw this long length or corro that need loading onto the roof rack of his four wheel drive. With just a small 'T' piece strapped to the bull bar for support, one by one we loaded these 7.5 metre long sheets on board. A quick tie down to the roof racks and we were on our way.
We headed off down a single lane road doing all of 40 clicks and soon a wagon train of cars grew behind the 4WD.
Eventually we made it to the highway which was at least two lanes wide, allowing cars on their way home to pass.
He backed into the driveway and we then had to unload these sheets one by one again. We found the easiest way to get these to the back yard was to place them on our heads and walk them in.
Six sheets later and they were on the ground waiting for stage 2 today.
There was no rain about today, only the hot boiling sun. I started early getting up on the roof and cutting branches back as well as getting the screws lifted.
My daughter and future son in law arrived and we got straight into it. Off came the first row of iron and I was surprised to discover that every rat in the district had decided to live in my roof.As can be seen from the great hole in the above photo this appears to be the lounge room of one of the residents.
Now can you work this out. Where has all the fibreglass insulation gone to? If us humans go into the roof to install, its wear a long sleeve shirt, long pants, don't forget the gloves and never go up without a face mask and breath in all that dust and fibres which they say can kill.Well apparently the rats must be immune to that sort of thing because there were rooms, passageways and a ton more insulation missing since the day it was put in. Any way I hope these rats were all from the same family that were eliminated on a previous post. I had a few pieces of insulation left over which I managed to put in. Then on the news tonight we find out that Mr 'Midnight Spoil' has cancelled the insulation rebate. Then there were shots of hundreds of rolls of insulation that were going to be laid out on the lawns of Parliament House being loaded into the back of protest vehicles. Gees guys one roll would have done me if you had any spare.After a well deserved break and some lunch we got back into it and eventually the six sheets were laid. I was tired towards the end, and found out there is no such thing as a 'sat on a hot tin roof''. It was boiling.The photo above is the first and last shot of the roof you are likely to see. And I hope to be able to get back into some modelling soon.

2010-02-14T15:43:00.000+11:00

Give it a break
A recent link to a Youtube site showing a clip of Nickel Plate 765 and Pere Marquette 1225 made me want to see more than just the tempting trailer. They recreated the bygone days of a freight train with the relevant era vehicles. Also staged was the placement of old road vehicles at level crossings and around trackside structures.
A chance mention of this clip to a work collegue revealed he had the full dvd and brought it in for me to watch. So I got the chance to view it this morning.He did happen to warn me that there was a bit of whistle blowing. Boy was he not wrong. Amongst some brilliant filming was this incessant need for the driver (and assuming his mate on the other side of the cab) to hang off the whistle cord. I can accept it is mandatory to do this approaching level crossings but not every bloody time the cab crew got the film crew in their sites.
This whistle blowing issue is not just restricted to this dvd. Most others I have viewed suffer the same problem.
Out of the many run pasts, maybe three had no whistle. Maybe the filmcrew were up a tree and remained unspotted. Maybe the safety valves weren't working and the crew were told to reduce pressure this way.
A cab crew member may of had a part time job of a bell ringer at the local church and found the need to play out a tune with the whistle. Just imagine if this dvd had been made in late December, they might have tried to whistle out ' Jingle bells'.
One of the options when commencing the dvd was 'Narration on/Narration off" I went with narration on so as to maybe learn a bit about what I was about to see. I think I should send an email to the producers and suggest that also add a "Whistle off" option.
Anyone else out there noticed this irritation in US productions?

2010-02-13T23:40:00.000+11:00

Yeah Its still raining
Well this post will continue on the rain theme mainly because since the last post thats all we have had.
The decision to reroof the main shed was taken last Sunday night when my previous roof patch was looking a little moist around the gills. Yes I will go and order some more corrugated iron no matter what.
As one of my favourite TV segments recently has been the weather section, I duly noted that showers were predicted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
I had discovered that the black crap of the roof joints that had failed in its duty to keep rain out, and was cracked after drying out yet again. Having found the tin of goop buried in the train shed, I duly climbed up the ladder towards the roof knowing this would be the last time I would be doing this. I was even happy to sacrifice a brush to the cause to apply the goop. With failing light I slapped on the goop and headed down the ladder, cleaned up and headed indoors. Saturday was going to be order new iron day.
Friday night and its home from work, a quick pizza and get ready to head off for our groups regular get together. Tonight was Phils turn and we were eager to see his new layout room that was completely renovated over the past months.
There is one thing that we can almost guarantee on our nights it that storms and rain will happen.
We got to Phils OK and saw this bright light shining down from the garage. Where are my sunnies? Well compared with the previous effort this was one of the best set ups I had seen. A ton of lighting, and painted sky blue walls. Inside was a baseboard and complete with a circuit of track which was identified as the lower staging level of what will be a two level layout.
It is going to be based on the Broadmeadow/Newcastle area and includes a small branch.
It was after a while in the layout room when the heavens opened up and down came the rain.
The problem was all the cakes, tea and coffee were upstairs, but we made it eventually. Refreshments were partaken, and a rail dvd on double header steam and a New Zealand were viewed.
The rain was bucketing down at this stage and looking out of the dining room window towards the rockwall, we now noticed Phil had acquired a waterfall, which wasn't there the previous day.
On our way home, one last check of the train room showed that it had held up to the might of the storm. Lucky Phil. I was hoping my black goop was doing its job back home.
Saturday morning came and two important things were on the agenda. One was to order the corrugated iron and the second was to photograph the restored 4204 heading north to Dungog. It was also supposed to have GM 10 in tow. I was going to go on the trip but decided to divert the funds to the roof appeal.
After a small delay 4204 appeared but not only had GM 10 but also S317 in tow. Well if you like the GM sound, Mt Colah platform was the place to be.
I finally got to see the guy that could put me out of my misery with the roofing. I bit the bullet and decided to get a single lengths for the shed and no joins. It will be colorbond and I picked out a nice light blue color to reflect heat. I haven't got a final price yet but I expect it to be more than a sound garratt. (Ouch I know what I would rather have) Not that I will be able to see the roof from the ground but it should be enjoyable to countless number of traffic helicopters that seem to report on the prangs and peak hour traffic on the local F3 freeway.
A timely visit from my future son in law in the afternoon will hopefully allow reroofing to be carried out soon. He has kindly offered to help.
High winds and rain will not be welcome. Watch the blog soon.

2010-02-07T16:17:00.000+11:00

Go West - Warragamba needs you.
Last night I decided to visit the shed. As those of you who reside on the east coast of Orstralia would know we have had a ton of rain this week.
So as I gingerly opened the door and slowly cast my eyes roofbound it all appeared to be there and no dripping bits. Great, any shed that has come through the last couple of days without a leak is doing well. I kept looking at the two hundred projects that I need to do and couldn't decide on any of them.
Stuff it all I will drive a train round the layout, after all thats what its all about isn't it? In order to do a complete lap involves closing a hinged section and line up two sections of track. Well thanks to the rain we have been getting, the wooden hinged section appears to have swollen and the rails didn't join up. And naturally I didn't get to drive a train last night. So that was the end of that and I came inside and did a bit of computer work.
Sunday and after filling up the green bin with garden refuse, I needed a break and decided to go visit the shed again. And after another night of heavy rain I again checked the roof as I went in. All appeared well until I noticed a pool of water on the floor. I have traced this water to a build up on the outside wall and it has decided to take a shortcut through my shed. Luckily this doesn't affect the baseboard so no real damage was done.
Then aargh! I noticed the ballast looked considerably darker at the end of Bega platform. Yes wet and some pooling on the floor. If you remember a previous thread where the bats and rat poop have crashed down it appears this section was in trouble again.
Out comes the ladder and up onto the roof I go. It appears no matter how much gooey black crap you stick over the joins, it eventually dries out, cracks and back to square one. More rain in. Of course we don't notice leaks when it doesn't rain.
What the problem with the roof is that on the original shed roofing iron only came in certain lengths and this shed roof needed a small section at the end to finish off. So I have decided to only way to completely cure the problem is to order in longer sheets of gal and redo the last section. And then I might be able to stop blogging about bloody leaks in the roof.
Almost as annoying as the leaks is the number daddy long leg spiders that reside in the shed. The smart ones are hidden away under the baseboards and the dumb one are clearly visible ready for the vacuum cleaner. I missed my chance about two weeks ago when I saw a mummy long legs had given birth to about fifty or so kiddy short legs. Last time I looked for them they had left the web. I wouldn't mind them if they would only stay up on the roof but they insist on visiting the layout and making bloody webs all over the scenery and its a pain to remove.
Another spider has decided to build a home in the sliding window and has used the buildings for the Candelo Canning Factory to drape his web over. Maybe if their webs were green, then they would look like vines.
So as you can see this weekend has been a downer. Then as I was looking around the future Bega Loco area I noticed a heap of black dots on a piece of white styrene. So on closer inspection it appeared to be an ant graveyard. I can only guess they have taken up residence in the ceiling above and then when they cark it, they just dump bodies and parts and other rubbish down towards the layout from the flourescent light above. Obviously no dignity in the ant world, just get the parts and chuck them out. Surely if you were married to an ant, just keeping your husbands head to one side wouldn't hurt anybody.A little bit different to the usual model photo with a train in it, I have included a photo of exhibit A showing the above ground cemetery for ants. If they weren't dead when they were chucked out of the crack, they would have been when they hit the styrene. One wonders why all the resident daddy long legs don't wonder over and help themselves to a meal. Maybe if I put up a sign "Hungry Cracks Takeaway" they'd come.
Well sorry I couldn't be more rail oriented this post but I have to tell it as it happens.

2010-01-13T22:23:00.001+11:00

Maiden runs

I guess one of the advantages of having a layout is the ability to host friends models for a run on South Coast Rail.

So although I don’t model the modern era I know that if a train of container wagons gets a run on the layout, at the end of the day it will be packed up and gone home with the owner. Not that I have anything against container trains I prefer the variety of the older trains with their greater selection of wagon types.

Although I don’t possess a 38 class, South Coast Rail has been the test bed for models 3801 and also 3827, both resplendent in green.

Today was 3827’s turn and apart from the vibration noise in the tender performed quite well.

Here is a selection of shots of 3827 on her maiden run on SCR.

2010-01-10T22:01:00.001+11:00

Wascally Wabbit.

Thanks guys for all the rabbit stew recipes sent in. I have decided to include to the blog a picture of 'Rusty'.

Now while this blog is mainly on model railways, the only thing is Rustys defence and stay of the cooker is that he is interested in model railways.

If you look at the picture below you will see that he has picked out his next pile of model railway magazines for reading. As you can see that pile is going to take him ages to get through. The majority of his day is spent eating and generally sitting around looking stupid. So I welcome his new found interest in model railways and hope he doesn't demand the light being left on at night so he can get through reading the mags.

I tried the red eye reduction on his picture but his eye is that freekin big it didn't seem to work. Normally his eyes are blue and only turn red after a heavy night of drinking.

2010-01-09T23:27:00.001+11:00

A New Year

Well its been a while since the last post mainly because there has been nothing doing on the layout to report of.

Christmas and New Year has been and gone and I am two thirds through the holiday break and I have been doing mainly sanding and painting bedrooms. Unfortunately this work has to be done.

I had gone to the paint shop again this morning to get yet another 4 litres of bedroom paint and overheard the man behind the counter telling another customer that today because it was going to be in the high thirties that "It will be too hot to paint today" This was also in response to my statement "Gee this should be a good paint drying day today"

With the "too hot to paint" words still ringing in my ears I met up with my wife in the shopping centre and told her these very words. Being the great wife she is, she had no problems with me having a 'painting' day off.

What to do. I had an idea that I wanted to try and construct some 'blackboys'. If you don't happen to know what they are you can also google 'grasstree'. This is what the thought police want us to call them now so as not to offend?

I eventually got all the ingredients together and have made the first three that have been stuck into a bit of scenery to see how they would go. I am fairly pleased with the first couple but will hopefully improve on the next batch. They come in all shapes and sizes and by the similar sizes of these three I would say they are all related having grown up in the same area.

I have also included two other shots around the tunnel exit, one of a 421 class and the other of a 49 class in the same area

I am not sure how much I will get done in the next week down the shed. I want to tick the boxes with the rooms redone. One room will become a study and will have the computers set up in there. This blog is being typed from the servery with all the components being spread out on the bench top. The new case was left out on the lounge one night by mistake. The next morning there was a pile of cut wires and soon the penny dropped that the house rabbit 'Rusty' had been up to his old tricks and chewed the computer cables and rendered the unit useless.

Does anyone out there have any good rabbit recipes they can send me?

2009-12-05T15:00:00.000+11:00

Picnic Day
Yesterday was the work picnic day. My days of heading out to the area of Sydney that is always hotter than anywhere else at Penrith (west of Sydney) are thankfully over. The kids used to enjoy going there but now I am able to dedicate the day for me.
The past few years I have had Bruce (the plate man from previous thread below) come up and have a running afternoon. He has a huge range of locos to choose from and has chosen Norfolk and Western as his main American interest railroad. I had my first listen of a sound loco when he brought up an N & W 'A' class engine. This was a huge loco and we soon found out my NSWGR tunnel portals were certainly smaller than the locos outline. I am sure with the size and weight of this loco if we had a run up to the tunnel it would have managed to get to the other side and reprofiled the loading gauge at the same time, but i declined the offer. So it was relegated to a long straight stretch all day.
On the day he brought up two Delaware and Hudson RS11's on their maiden runs. After having a few laps aound the layout I suggested we give them a run up to Candelo and then up to the mine for loading.
A coalie with 20 BCH's and a brakevan was already down in Bega yard so the locos backed on and set off for Candelo. They took the branch at Bega South Junction and then started the climb. After taking the loop at Kameruka, controllers were swapped over so it was easier to drive and shunt near Candelo.

Now just to make things interesting at Candelo there was already a train of 5 BCH's in the siding and 7 BCH's up on the mine branch. This then gave a total of 32 BCH's at Candelo and the mine to be loaded.
When you look at the track design for Candelo it is not a generic NSWGR style. I tried to design a bit of mongrel into it to make it more interesting for the operator. We were lucky this day as there were no passenger trains wanting to interupt our shunting and the goods yard was fairly empty allowing a bit more room to shove loaded coal hoppers.
Well for the next hour or so we went through the motions to get rakes of 9 BCH's and a van at a time to the mine for loading. Three kadee magnets up there allow for the loco to uncouple from the train, then run round. The next magnet at the rear of the train uncouples the brake van which is then placed into the run round road. The loco returns to the train, pushes through the loader and when done shunts the train over to the runround road and reattaches the brakevan. This then taken down to Candelo and then the next chess move takes place. The loaded hoppers are stored 'somewhere' down at Candelo and the sequence is repeated another three times until all hoppers are loaded.

RS11's AT CANDELO MINE LOADING RS'11 ABOUT TO HEAD FOR CANDELO

I won't describe the next 72 odd moves that were needed to get the 32 hoppers, brakevan at the rear and the two locos at the front of the train, but it was an enjoyable waste of time. Run round moves had to be carefully planned to leave a track clear for running around. In the end four portions were on different roads and then combined into the one big train. This is the part of the layout I enjoy.The layout has also been designed for differing aspects of running trains:

Single track so that crosses have to be made at passing loop stations.
The crossing loop stations have a few sidings to enable shunting to take place.
The branch terminus has a combination of few or many shunting moves depending on train length and requirements.

It was a great afternoons running and after a break and a bit of dinner, part two of the day happened when we had another later running session with Bob and Andrew. At least everything seemed to be working OK.

One of the train we ran that night was a pristine 47 class and eight new CH coal hoppers. And again after doing a couple of laps of the layout where else to go but back to the coal mine?
The CH hoppers are really nice models with detailed pipework, their only downside being their cost. The sound of the clickety click of new clean wheels on track joints sounds great.
When the train got to Candelo a decision was made to run the complete train to the mine for loading, but because these hoppers are longer than BCH's the runround couldn't be done.

Not to be outdone Bob brought up his newly assembled and painted NA. This was an On2.5 model so track was carefully selected to allow clearances for overhang. Unfortunatly it didn't go and after removing the top it was discovered a loose contact pickup wire had come adrift. It was decided to fix the problem later and just posed for a few photos. And so ended an enjoyable day.

2009-11-29T19:20:00.000+11:00

Plates and Palms
Todays blog starts with the letter P. P as in in Plates. And to be precise Depot plates.
These were small oval plates attached under the cab windows of steam locos and on them were the name of the depot the loco was assigned to.The plate above was from Bathurst allocated number 4. It is thought that by screwing these plated on the sides of the locos they would never get lost and find there way back to the home depot.
So imagine one dark and rainy night at Bathurst 3626 backs onto the mail and heads off towards Sydney, it gets there the next morning into Central, then out to Eveleigh to rub pistons with all the other locos that have come in off the South Coast, Newcastle and all points south. The Loco Chargeman is confused and doesn't know where they all belong. And thats where the depot plates made the job easier. That night 3626 takes the Western Mail back to Bathurst. Such a simple idea.
I just threw in that bit above on the depot plates as a warm up for the next bit. One day at work unbeknown to me a mate drops a bag on the desk. And inside I found a couple of unique depot plates that could become collectors items in a few years. They were depot plates with names unique to South Coast Rail.I have placed this plate on the layout edge not only to show it off but to readily identify where the place is behind it.
Not to be outdone Candelo the branch terminus and Narooma also scored depot plates. Luckily these have been cast in aluminium so they won't collapse the layout when attached.So thanks guys for these deepoe (american pronunciation) plates. Really appreciated.

Now for the second "P". I received through the post this week three palm trees ordered some time ago. They took over a month to get here though. So next time I order some I will order small palm trees and they should be medium size by the time they get here. They are nice models having the fronds made of brass I think. Some of the plastic ones just don't look fine enough. One has ended up in Bega loco and the two smaller ones will be planted down at Bodalla. I will take photos of the said palms when their surroundings look a bit more presentable. Bega loco is a long way off at this stage.
And just to end the blog off here are two photos taken at Bega recently.

2009-11-15T17:02:00.000+11:00

Mates
Last night was my turn to host a group of mates to our irregular what we call our 'film night'. We call it that because thats how long we have been meeting over the years. Most of the guys in the group were old school mates and that was over forty years ago.
We probably hold the gatherings about every three or four months apart and all but one is a modeller. (Never too late to start Chris).
The usual pattern is meet at the hosts place, go have a look and run on their layouts, then go inside for a cake or two or three and then sit back and watch a dvd, rail based always. Then usually around midnight we head off home. It is decided on the night where the next meeting will be and when it gets closer a few emails and a date is settled on.

I did the usual thing going round the layout moving all the tools and generally tidying up before they got here. On the night one of the guys brought his new model of 3801 and we were anxious to see it operate. It was duly hooked up to a set of passenger cars, controller cracked open and off she went.

3801 in full steam through the valley

I was not over impressed with the whistle, but the sound otherwise was good. Ross had ordered a weathered model and I think is a waste of money. It seems like they just queue the locos up on a track and drive them past the spraygun. Save your money guys and get someone else to do it if you can't do it yourself. I was caught out with the garratt the same way. The cylinders were 'dirtied' up but the rear drivers were still virgin out of the box. I have since had it done by a sprayer at a local hobby shop with a fantastic result. There are other photos of it on this blog.

3801 gets ready to take on water at Bodalla

Another mate Kev on the night had brought along a logging train worked by an articulated loco. All was going well until it came across the first tunnel and the headlight snagged on the portal ending its run for the night. I offered him some pliers to snip off the offending light but he declined.

3229 shares the shed at Bega with a CPH railmotor

2009-11-08T21:50:00.000+11:00

Bodalla more
I have been concentrating on doing more work at Bodalla this weekend. The ballasting has been completed on the main, loop and the three sidings.
In real life usually sidings and the loop tends to have more weeds than the better kept main line. So this means applying more ground foam and other bits and pieces to represent an unkept track.I am fairly happy with the end result and the track and ballast have been suitably weathered to look the part.The picture above shows 3610 on the main line just beyond the level crossing. You can see the loop line on the right how it has more dirt/ballast than the better kept main line. you will just have to put up with the chicken wire a bit longer until I get motivated to do the long rock mountain edge. It is very slow going to get it all right so I can guarantee it will be done by this time next year.
I decided to get the level crossing installed as it intersects the loop and has to be done at the same time. I used cork for the road and matches between the tracks, this then having a layer of grey coloured plaster rubbed over it. Two Uneek level crossing signs were installed. If you want an easy way to paint the words on the 'X' just paint the whole sign with white paint. When dry, sand back with fine sandpaper just exposing the letters and then paint chemical blackener onto the exposed brass. So only the letters will turn black. Sure easier than trying to use a one hair paint brush and going crazy in the process.Also placed some Ratio picket type fencing on either side of the crossing. I have yet to finish the pedestrian walkway slightly away from the road level crossing.I also have a gripe with the Peco code 75 points and the very flimsy throwbar that connects the point blades together. One of the blades has come adrift at Bodalla. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to fix it. I will now need to wet down the point, cut away the rail joiners and replace with a new point. This has also happened to two other friends with the point blades coming adrift. Maybe I should write to Peco and ask them why can't this region of the point be strengthened?In this last shot the Volksvagen is exiting the road that will lead up to the goods shed one day. It comes out beside the milk bar. I had no choice fellas, the area is not large enough to put the Bodalla pub in.

2009-10-31T23:01:00.000+11:00

Running Day
Everynow and then to break the monotony from scenery and layout building comes a time when friends come over for a run on the layout.
This usually involves a last minute scramble to remove all the work tools from their resting spot (see previous notes below) and packing them away in a spot that I can remember where I left them.
I must admit that these days are good to reassure one that the layout still operates. Before each session comes the 'Running of the Locos' (just like the bulls in Pamplona). This is to make sure the loco gets all the way around and hopefully all controllers are working fine.
One of the main crossovers was working fine yesterday, this morning one point motor decided not to work. Now for some reason a wire from the point motor had decided to come adrift, and a quick solder had it working again. These are the sort of things that usually stuff up on the day when visitors arrive.
Then the gremlins struck again. All three tracks through Narooma decided to take a rest. But believe it or not by opening the panel front a short in the wiring dissapeared and the train started running again. But if we closed up the panel gently then it seemed to work again.
These running days are also good when visiting locos get a run. Some that are out of my modelling era but no less fine models. At one stage there were about 4 32 class, 620 class, A class, B class, T class and a fine mix of interstate and a container train.
It surely is a great hobby when we can all get together and share our love of trains. Thanks Mike, Mat and Adam for coming, hope you enjoyed the day.
Here is a selection of the visiting trains that turned up for the day.

2009-10-25T21:38:00.000+11:00

Ballasting at Bodalla
To do further ballasting at Bodalla I needed to build a level crossing there. This gave me a border in which to bring the ballast up to each side of it. I was constructed from a combination of sheet cork and matches to go in between the rails.
This level crossing gives access to the railway station, one solitary shop and also the goods yard. It goes against all design principles as it it placed right in the middle of the loop not to one end. Passenger trains will only obstruct the loop for a short while but when the freighters go in for a cross that is when there is going to be mucha horna honking from the cars held up at the level crossing to get it moving.
Bodalla although quite long is narrow and situated on some real estate just down in front of the branch line terminal of Candelo. It breaks the section between Batemans Bay and Narooma.
In the photo above a 49 class has been working a ballast train between the platform and the level crossing. The chicken wire unfortunately stretches for 2.4 metres along Bodalla's length and will take some serious time to get completely scenicked. In the background is the shops location which will be right up against the side of the hill. Well at least they will get plenty of shade from the afternoon sun. I think they were game setting up shop so early as the station is not open yet.
In the last shot one of those big yellow machines has come to tamp down the freshly laid ballast.
As the layout progresses, I am slowly encountering another problem. Where do I now put all my tools and junk the the baseboard has happily accomodated all this time. When you are laying track, you have drills, hammers, nails, files, pliers, heaps of etceteras and all other sundry pieces laying close to hand. So as each section gets completed, then I have less room to leave the junk. I am certainly not one of those persons who puts all their tools away each night on a shadow board. I guess when the layout is finished I might invest in a tea trolley. (Mum have you still got that one I made in woodworking class 40 years ago?)
On another issue on a slightly similar vein, I recently put a drop curtain along in front of Batemans Bay. Now while it looks rather nice, all it has done is hide all the "stuff" underneath and to find it again I have to keep lifting it up the curtains to find the item I'm looking for. So cure one problem and create another.

2009-10-17T23:20:00.000+11:00

Bodalla
Well thats where all the action has been for the last couple of days. The old code 100 track has been lifted and the code 75 is now in place. Ballasting has been partially done in front of the platform.
The prescence of the track should now set at ease the two gentlemen from the previous post.

During the week I put together a PC3 station building from Casula Hobbies. Let me recommend this kit very highly, it went together perfectly, the file was never used once in anger. I still need to add the watertank and downpipes but as the station is not open yet for passengers (I refuse to use that latest term 'customers') there is no hurry. The roof and walls have been suitably weathered. (aren't we the complete opposite to model car collectors, they want their models to look shiny and new and we just go on and make everything dirty!)
I will return to work next Monday after two weeks off and only achieving a few of the things on the list. Never mind its only about ten weeks till another lot.
Thomas
I was watching on TV today a show called "Worlds greenest Homes" and in the introduction for the show when the family was met, one of the kids was playing with his Thomas the Tank engine push along train on the floor. Its probably been said before but can you relate to how many kids this has brought into the hobby?
Sure it has become a huge commercial venture, but who cares! The TV shows and all the products available in the Thomas range have been a driving force to bring kids into the railway family.
Having said that my daughters Percy engine doesn't see much action on the layout.
Forums
I suppose I am a sucker for the model rail forums and follow a few. I find them sometimes interesting and learn a few things along the way. It's all part of sucking in information from where ever you can get it.
One forum has a thread on the ins and out of the 38 class. It is about to crack the 100 pages of verbal diatribe about the good, bad and anything else you can think of or make up. It seems sometimes people just like a whinge about anything. Look how much we loved our Lima 38's and 44 class. We knew they were wrong but most people had at least one. Something better comes along and so then you can go and drop a brick on your Lima 44's.
What about some of the early sticky resin freight car kits we had and thought were great? I reckon you could you them as a lint remover.
Anyhow I'm over the 38 thread rantings and won't read that one again.

Just another parting shot of the garratt about to take water at Bodalla. The siding to the right will be the new stock siding.

2009-10-07T13:33:00.000+11:00

Liverpool
Well like the majority, I made my way down to Liverpool on the Sunday of the Long weekend.
Arriving there around 9.15am, there were no queues out the front and it was relatively quite inside.
I had studied the layout guide on line before going and other than Wallerawang there did not seem to be many new layouts to be seen. This fact did not worry me as I don't missed any October exhibitions since it has been at the Sydney Town Hall.
The trade stands seemed to be located around the outer walls and then the layouts towards the middle.
Stringybark Creek the O scale layout was a standout to me. I have a friend who has gone to this scale from HO. The comparative higher costs for vehicles and locos is balanced by the fact you can only fit less in the same space. Put me down for this scale if the train shed burns down.
This also a good place to catch up with friends you haven't seen for a while and you should allow time for yackity yak when going.
I only had two major purchases for the day. One was the PC3 building from Casula Hobbies. (Good on you Joe) and the other was some scenic material from Orient Models who had come over from Adelaide. I hope I made their trip worth while as I purchased over $100 of their excellent scenic material. As soon as I got home one package of scenic grass tufts was put into place. At $38 a packet it doesn't go far but looks excellent. I ordered more from them on Tuesday and expect it here this week. You don't mind paying for a product when it is good.
The PC3 building is to go onto Bodalla platform.
I finished off Sunday afternoon a little sadder for Parramatta as they went down to the Melbourne Storm team.

Bodalla
This location is one of a few locations left on the layout that still has the original code 100 rail. One of the purchases from my friend the O gauger was his code 75 track. Narooma has been relaid and now I have lifted the track and started to relay.
Bodalla is not a major town. It has a crossing loop, a goods loop, a private siding and a new stockyard siding that was not there previously. With only room for one small shop this town sits along the edge of a cliff that runs the full length. This fact is not lost on rock climbers who can go from Bodalla to the upper town of Candelo in about ten minutes.As you can see Harry is a bit upset that the track is gone but I told him it is coming back soon.A 44 class tries out the new track. As soon as all the hammering, banging, gauging, wiring, soldering, checking, ballasting, photographing is done then it can run through.

2009-09-27T22:03:00.000+10:00

Still Here

Its a Sunday night and I thought I had better do an update to let you know all's well.

The last blog was nearly four weeks ago and not a lot has happened layout wise in that time. I thought it best to at least put a few recent shots onto the blog maybe just to prove I am alive and kicking.

I follow quite a few Aussie blogs (and at least one American). Some post more often than others and I wonder if they have forgotten the blog sites. There are heaps of people out there hanging on a thread waiting to follow their layout progress. Maybe we should have phone numbers on the blogs and if you haven’t posted for six weeks we can give you a ring and see if all’s well.

My last blog was about the Broadmeadow exhibition and with one week to go, the highlight of the year, the Liverpool exhibition is fast approaching. I intend going on the Sunday mainly to miss the crowds that form a huge queue at the door on Saturday morning and crowd out the layouts for viewing. An if you go Monday some of the things I’m after may be gone.

So Sunday should be a good day, exhibition in the morning and back home for the footy grand final in the afternoon. My team – a -ly (fill in the missing spaces yourself – its the team they all hate) have already started their summer rest period. I have decided to go for my wifes' team Parramatta as the Melbourne team the Storm have knocked out my team already.

October starts a two week break and other than a pile of bedroom painting, landscaping etc I may get a bit of modelling done. I have told God I need to live to be 145 years old to get the layout finished so we will see what the future brings.

Below are three shots taken around Narooma this weekend.

Three private tankers are unloaded at the meat siding. The shop at the level crossing is still to receive windows and stock to sell inside. (Which may explain lack of customers)

44 class doing backstroke arrives at Narooma. The siding to the right will be the oil siding in the future.

44 class arriving Narooma passing the newly installed weed patch. The dairy in the background will be bulldozed one day for a more aussie looking building. As a matter of fact the trains arrive so fast near the dairy they are passed your eyes before you can see them!

2009-08-29T21:44:00.000+10:00

Broadmeadow Exhibition
One of my great enjoyments of a Friday evening is to turn off the alarm ready for a Saturday morning sleep in.
This routine was abandoned Friday night as I had to be up early for the Saturday morning train.
So for the sixth time in a row the alarm went off and after a shower and breakfast my beloved drove me to Hornsby to await the interurban train to Broadmeadow.
The indicator had shown our train as the next on platform 5, but confusion reigned when the Casino XPT turned up instead. With due respect to pensioners a train is a train and as they were about to board the train the loudspeaker roared into action and then explained that this was the Casino XPT, booked seats only.
It looked like there were plenty of seats on board, so quick as a flash we showed out gold passes to the attendent, explained we only wanted to go to Broadmeadow and were summonsed aboard.
We eventually arrived at Broadmeadow and then began the 20 minute walk out to the racecourse.
The show at the Broadmeadow Racecourse is a hobby show i.e. not just model trains. Many moons ago it was purely a model train exhibition, but the wheel must of fallen off some where and now we get a smorgasbord of hobbies.
I intended my first circuit of the area was to check out the model railway items first, then if time permitted check out the rest. Just inside the door I saw a pile of Austrains ELX's. I was using the reverse logic of a Victorian modeller, where I thought a splash of VR red wouldn't go astray and brighten up the sombre blacks and greys of NSW. Maybe they think the same and buy a few black wagons to break up the red? With a pile of these VR wagons so high, that John Eassie was able to hide behind, I thought no rush and I would get a pack on the way out.
Dropped in at the Gwydir Hobbies stand and purchased a nice looking palm tree for Bega Loco. At $34 I'm glad I don't need more than one. It seemed a feature of NSW loco depots to have a palm tree growing.
The great thing about these exhibitions is also the social side where you bump into people you know and then spend then next twenty minutes catching up news. Most of these talkfests seem to take place a the aisles narrowest point. Also known as a choke point and thats what I feel like doing to some inconsiderate morons as well.
I came across one table set out like a village and after looking for the train tracks and finding none, then worked out it was supposed to be all about war gaming. Well I reckon either the war hadn't started or they had called a truce and decided to go home. Nothing was happening. So I moved on.
After working my way around the hall I had found out that only one layout I hadn't seen before. It was Rix's Creek. Had some nice trains running.
Got round to Mr Joe Casula intending to get a PC3 station for Bodalla and found out they had run out of the kits. But Joe said there would be more available at Liverpool. As a consolation prize I purchased two new buffer stop kits. As Joe said if these new items sell well the the money can be ploughed back into new items. Go support guys.
The lunch queue was about forty minutes long so I decided to wait till I got back to the station to replenish the gut.
So with half an hour to go for the train back home, I went over and got a pack of VR ELX's and headed off for the station. An eight car train turned up at 4.45pm and after an uneventfull journey arrived back at Hornsby.
Tonight the ELX"s have already been weathered with Tamiya Khaki drab diluted down with alcohol (not beer) and they now look more respectable.
I probably will not go next year to Broadmeadow as I look upon this exhibition as a good social day out more than seeking new layouts to view.
Roll on the Liverpool exhibition.

2009-08-16T00:01:00.001+10:00

Wow check this out

I was cruising the model rail forums the other night, in particular the Model Railroader forums and I came across a thread that had a link to CG Textures.

So after finishing viewing all the forums I trundled over to the textures site and wow what a fantastic find for the modeller railroader.

The site has an incredible collection of images of 35 sub headings. Now some of the headings are completely obscure and useless to the model railroader. The last entry is ‘X rays"’ and this further cascades down another 10 sub headings dealing with all parts of the human body. Now other than maybe having a ghost haunt your layout, this one you can forget.

But get up amongst some of the juicier titles such as ‘Brick/Modern Small/Dirty and then you have over fifty images of various weathered brick just sitting there to be downloaded. Just by simply clicking on the image you want, it then opens a page ready for downloading.

Now when you have all these images, you will need to bring them into a program such as Photoshop or some other image processer. If you are wanting a larger coverage you will need to bring the images together and duplicate.

When you read what the site is all about it seems as if it was just set up for people to freely go in and use what ever’s there. A daily limit of 15MB daily download is also set. When you go into the users gallery you can see how some artistic people have used these images. I can’t imagine any model railroaders submitting much of their work to the gallery.

Now not only is this site set up as a freebie, the site owner has under the heading of ‘Tutorials’ set up heaps of ‘Photoshop’ workshops to help you get better results. I haven’t opened any of these as yet. (I’m not a Photoshop user yet)

One folder I particulary like is the one headed "’Concrete’ Is has 9 sub folders. I have found concrete as one of the hardest colours to replicate. But no need, just download the images and it is already, weathered waiting to be printed out and stuck to your model. Just think how easy it will be do model concrete bridge piers.

Some of the other folders that are useful for the model railroader are: Buildings, Doors, ground, Metal, Roads, Roofing, Rust, Water, Windows and Wood. Most of these have subfolders with some fantastic images.

There are images that while are no good for use being one dimensional such as pipes, they are great reference material for weathering, and knowing how it all fits together.

If you ever wanted to know how to weather timber go to the ‘Wood’ section and under ‘Planks Old’ they have 349 images of old wood. You can use these get an idea on how to weather your own timber or print some off and try gluing it down.

I will be trying some grungy downloaded brick wall to go in front of Bodalla platform when i get around to that area.

I suppose by now you’ve had enough of me raving on about this site so hop over there and spend a day looking and downloading some of the great images.

http://www.cgtextures.com/

So far down the shed today all I have achieved is to saw some timber for the new oil siding at Narooma. Never mind still have all of Sunday to go yet.

2009-08-02T22:04:00.001+10:00

Sunny Sunday

It seems like we need a title for each post, so this one describes the perfect winters day we had here in Sydney. I spent a good part of it away from the shed ‘heavily pruning’ a tree (well it started off as a bush but got away on me). Another day at the end of a shovel getting rid of paving sand in preparation for some Italian grass (concrete). The pavers that once existed have been given away to a local family that seemed to appreciate the freebie. I had grown sick of weeding and repacking every second year where the filled in septic tank area decided to take another dive.

The removal of the paving sand was made a little easier by pretending I was shovelling coal into a steam loco. Worked for a while.

On Saturday I hosted a work collegue, his son and father in law for a visit to South Coast Rail. I hope they were impressed with the layout, I certainly was impressed with the cake they brought along. It was called a bee-sting and was a Bathurst cake shop speciality. The layout worked well and they were impressed with the sound garratt. (I just hope the Eureka sound 40 class gets here soon so I can share the sound running with the 60 class.)

With the garage roller door open I received another burst of that fabulous winters sun that lights up the corner bridge on the branch. It sits just above the town of Narooma and I’ll get into improving the scenery in this corner when Narooma gets finished. You get a burst of natural light from the sun that doesn’t seem to be able to be replicated by artificial light. Any how here is the result:

2009-07-26T21:43:00.001+10:00

Another slow weekend

Well another weekend has come and gone with hardly anything achieved down the shed. If only we had 56 hours in a weekend to achieve it all.

It wasn’t a complete waste. Saturday saw me and two mates head over to the Castle Hill Exhibition arriving there at kickoff time to see if any bargains could be had at the second hand stall. If only I was an American or British modeller I could have done well. There were many magazines to be had for a reasonable price but then you have to find the time to read them.

Time and Patience part 2 was there shrouded in a perspex case to keep the flies off. Just like paintings that you recognise a style, when I first saw the layout there, it was easily recognisable as coming from the T & P stable. The houses and buildings are truly magnificent. Lets hope it is designed to fit into T & P No 1 and make a longer layout.

Only one purchase was made from the Model Craftsman stand. On the back of the stand I spotted a packet of that stretchy elastic stuff that makes power wires and fence wiring. The real bargain side of this product is that you get 100 feet on the roll and they reckon it stretches 700%. So I am getting heaps more for my money. You don’t get that when you buy a yard of Peco track. Stretch it as much as you can and you will still only have one yard. I must get this onto the fences as soon as possible to stop the cows getting onto the line. Imagine then when they charge the fence they will get flung back to the centre of the paddock.

I returned home for lunch and after that settled in to move a ton or so of paving sand. Managed to get to the shed after tea, but when I get inside I see the 729 projects I have to do to get finished and end up doing none of them. I should think of a project for next weekend ahead during the week and just go down there and do it.

So this weekend I shall post another clip of the garratt. I know you will get sick of seeing this loco but it is my one and only sound loco. I await No 2 sound loco which will be a 40 class. As an aside I must thank Mr Eureka for offering sound options with all of his locos. I don’t know why it is so hard for the other manufacturers to do so. Just like buying a car with the steering wheel optional.

Movie clip below (not just a badly taken photo)

2009-07-05T22:16:00.000+10:00

The High's and Low's of the weekend.
Not much was achieved railway wise this weekend. My No. 1 priority was to move the TV aerial higher to finally re-receive channel 7 once again. I did all the preliminary work outside by taking down the aerial from its existing place and trying to balance it 10' up a ladder and then inserting a dynabolt to secure it. After finally getting the first one in and then drilling another hole the second dynabolt was easy to put in. The third dynabolt is for another time as they only came in a two pack.
Then before I squeezed into the manhole entrance I made a final check that I had everything to do the job. Pliers - check, cutting knife - check, torch - check, last will - check. It was such a squeeze getting to the point where I needed to get the new wires joined up that I didn't want to have to come out again. Finally arriving at the worksite when I checked the plug from the aerial it was a boy plug that was supposed to go into a female plug. But no, I had a boy meets boy plug which doesn't go. It was supposed to go into a splitter then one wire to a TV in the family room and the other into the lounge room. I fixed it temporarily by using the front plug holes of the splitter but now I have to get a plug with a girl hole in each end to meet up with the boy plugs. So another trip into the roof in the future. But the good news is all channels are now working and suck eggs to the guy that quoted me $440 to fix it. (thats another loco or so)
I did go into the shed this afternoon for a while and came up for dinner, and forgot to shut the door.
And when I went back down after tea, I heard a noise in the shed. For a fleeting moment I thought the rats were back but when I got inside it was a bandicoot having a stickbeak. I then ducked under the layout and came around from the other side and luckily he shot through out the door. All I need now is the trifecta with a snake turning up in summer time. Don't worry I have already crossed possums off the list as well.
With 700 jobs to do on the list I thought I might as well have a go at making another tree. It took two Moody Blues CD's and when they had finished it was time to pack up for another week.

2009-06-28T20:54:00.000+10:00

A hole lot better
Sorry to say but for the moment it is all about the hole in the roof. So until I get the hole patched up modelling on the layout is a a standstill.
The hole had been cleared of muck and rubbish ready to take the new insulation and gyprock. To get the insulation meant another trip up into the roof of the house. I discovered a leftover pack of batts from yesterday where I had spent an hour or two trying to fix an TV aerial reception problem. (Which I haven't fixed yet).
The batts were poked into place and then the gyprock sheet was cut to my understanding of the measurements required to fill the hole. It was a sizeable piece to get up into position and my helpers? were either glued to the telly or the computer.
Anyhow I had watched plenty of shows from Asia and Africa where huge loads were chucked onto the head and off they would go. It didn't seem hard to do and they always seemed to smile for the camera when photographed.
I had no choice, so I headed for the ladder with this big gyprock hat on my head. Pausing at the foot of the ladder to remember if I had taken my blood pressure tablet that morning, I then proceeded up the ladder. Luckily a piece of quad was still in place to receive one end of the gyprock and another small but critical piece allowed me to rest it up there so I could go down and get the drill.
So after whacking in around 30 odd screws I could then get to work with some gap filler and move a step closer to finishing off the roof. Hopefully soon this blog will have some more interesting things other than roof blogs.
So here the last shot of the roof I will share with you (yeah you say) of the nearly completed roof fix. A bit of paint and back into the layout.

2009-06-21T22:06:00.000+10:00

Slow Progress
Saturday afternoon I decided I had better tackle the mess my pre-resident rat had left me. What I needed to do was to cut away the gyprock and dispose of the rat poop. A stratgically placed plastic xmas table top cover was spread out over the layout to hopefully capture all that would fall from above.
I began slowly breaking bits off hoping not to cause an avalanche of crap raining down on the layout. Try as hard as I could it was inevitable that some rat poo would go not where I wanted it to go. I think some went down the back of my shirt but I went on underturd.
I was feeling guilty about doing this work today as it was an spur of the moment descision and as I hadn't got changed, I wondered as I made my way back inside if the wife would notice odd stains or an unusual smell about me. Fortunately all was well. I finally got to see Slum Dog Millionaire that night as a better choice that removing more poop.

Sunday afternoon and after having lunch, I returned to the shed for more work. (I knew I had till 4.opm to get back to watch Sunday afternoon footy). When I got to the worksite, there it was more bloody water on the ground. This time I could see where it was getting in from and armed with my tin of trusty bitumen sticky stuff I returned to the roof. I reckon you will be able to see the black stuff on my roof from space soon.
The last of the old gyprock was removed and one final avalanche of poop came down. I collected all this crap and took it outside and spread it amongst the garden. I reckon I should get something good out of all this bad. Going up the ladder with my tin of black sticky goo I then commenced to spread it into the interior joins of the roofing. This was all OK until I noticed that the black gooey was then dripping down onto the floor and some on the layout. I'll get back to you on whether this stuff makes good track weathering or not soon. Rubbing it with turps got most of it off the track but the bit on the floor can wait till next weekend.
A few extra bits of timber were nailed up ready to receive the gyprock next weekend. And guess what? I have just heard it will be raining again next weekend...........

2009-06-07T00:06:00.001+10:00

You dirty rat………

Well what started off with a war on the rat in the ceiling some time ago (I eventually won that war with Ratsak) was lost this week when I also had Mother Nature plotting against me.

The rats had decided that between the gyprock and the corrugated iron roof it would be a good place to set up home. Who could blame them, plenty of fiberglass insulation (3.5R at that) and they had a dream home. If they hadn’t been so stupid and scratched around up there when I was down below, I may never known they were there. Thats how dumb they were.

After many packets of Ratsak, I eventually found the dried out remains of a rat some distance from the shed. I suspected it was the ‘railway rat’. Good all gone.

So after many more trains had circled the layout without that annoying scratching sound above I thought “ beauty I’ve beaten you buggers”. But I think they had the last laugh.

After a while slowly at first an amazing fungal growth had appeared on the ceiling where the rats abode was. What the heck I said, stuff it I’ll paint over it and that will be that. But no, the fungal growth grew back and started growing.

It was something David Attenborough could have done a documentary on. It had many colours and different shapes, quite pretty some of it.

Shite, there must be more to this, the rats gone so where was this coming from. And as we all know the east coast has had its good share of rain recently. I alluded to this problem in the last post about the water and after closing the door last Sunday night a small crack had appeared.

Well I opened the door today and was greeted with this:

The water which had found its way in yet again had combined with the previous residents bowel wastes and had come crashing down on the floor and layout. I was most disgusted to find out that rats are too lazy to go and do their toiletries outside. Its not as if they had far to go. No more than a metre and what a nice smelling house they could of had instead of one that smelt like a dunny.

As can be seen from the shot below my favourite seat had copped some of the fallout and thankfully the controller (more importantly the controller knob) was missed completely. I’ll never be the same again on that seat.

Now the real scary bit when I opened the door was when I saw a bit of gyprock dangling down just like a guilloutine blade ready to cut my son’s only loco NR23 in half or worse. It was Murphys law, it just happened to be down at Batemans Bay when it nearly become history.

Well most of the floor mess has been cleaned up and tomorrow I am going to try and clean the rest of the roof up. It will mean cutting it out and replacing with more gyprock, painting and generally wasting more modelling time.

I went up onto the roof also today armed with a tin of black gooey stuff and yet again have gone over all the possible places I can think of that the water is getting in. I’ll need reinforcing up there to carry the weight of it all.

Anyhow thats the bad news for today, the good news is that Manly finally won another football match tonight and Monday I’ll go down to the Epping Model railway exhibition.

I’ll leave the final word for the boys from Bega loco who came across the rubble before I had had a chance to clean it up.

2009-05-23T23:52:00.001+10:00

Rainy day, Sunday afternoon

To quote some of the words from a Moody Blues song an inspection of the shed this afternoon revealed yet again more water getting in.
That was the bad news, the good news is that it chose to fall over the aisle way and no major damage was done.
The water seems to be getting in where the rear shed extension is butted up against the original shed, and seeing as I built it I can only blame myself. Normal rain is not a problem but when there is wind as well, the rain is blown uphill into the join. So it looks like a trip up onto the roof next weekend armed with a tin of sticky stuff and try and seal it up.
Just one photo today of 3229 waiting for the road as double 44 class arrive at Batemans Bay with the Mail.

2009-05-03T21:57:00.000+10:00

Garratt Sunday

A few shots of 6039 working the only Sunday freight on South Coast Rail

2009-05-02T23:08:00.000+10:00

Leftovers

One more shot taken last weekend of 3229 approaching Batemans Bay. I have also added another 7 photos to the fotopic site. There is a link on this Blog.

2009-04-26T22:06:00.000+10:00

A moving moment

A shot of double 49's going past what looks like Bega Junction Signal Box. It is really the location of Bemboka Junction with the box borrowed for the photo. Bemboka Junction Box is still on the gunna do list and will be there one day.

Behind is the Candelo coal branch with the coal loader waiting for another train load of empties,

2009-04-25T22:55:00.000+10:00

My Philosophy for SCR

Today I decided to take some shots of the layout. Many were taken but few were chosen.

My philosophy has been to go around the layout with what I call the first sweep and get most of the scenery in place but not necessarly highly detailed. This will come when I go around the second time. Before this happens I will start on some of the structures that need to be built such as a coal stage (based on Armidale), a turntable, roundhouse, barracks and a station building probably based on Queanbeyan.

If I had worked in one area and fully detailed that section before around the layout, then there would still be many bare areas left to do.

2009-04-23T22:26:00.000+10:00

From the US to see us.

Last Easter Saturday I had the pleasure to meet Blair and Lance from Texas who came out to Australia to get a first hand look at the territory they were modelling which is on the main north of NSW between Muswellbrook and Narrabri.

Thanks to Ray Pilgrim (Mr BYLONG) they had a great introduction for a meet and greet night.

The next day they commenced a crammed week of railroading.

After showing them around a few places at Central on Wednesday they came for a brief visit to South Coast Rail.

Lance Lassen is on the left and Blair Kooistra on the right

They should be well on their way over the Pacific by now. I am sure the guys will let us know how they enjoyed their visit on their blog sites.

It was a pleasure to meet you, come again soon.

2009-04-18T23:21:00.000+10:00

Bankers: Where interest rates high.

Just a shot of a 44 class waiting at Batemans Bay to assist the next freight train to Bega.

I am off to Maitland tomorrow on the triple headed steam train. Should be a good day.

2009-03-29T10:35:00.000+11:00

6039 Garratt
This is one of the first card shots of the garratt lifting a coal train off the branch towards Kameruka, the only crossing station on the branch. It was taken on my Canon digital camera and hand held as you can tell. I will take some steadier shots later and replace this one.

2009-03-28T23:49:00.000+11:00

Distractions

Unfortunately this weekend I have been lumbered with a paint brush and I have been no where near the shed. So to make up for the lack of progress report this weekend I have included a shot of 4429 heading up the Bega Valley.

2009-03-26T21:52:00.000+11:00

Narooma - The Plan

Although I have only been to Narooma about twice in my life from memory my version looks nothing like the real place. But I would like to think that if they ever had a railway there, then my plan could be used.
There are a few private sidings there including the usual dairy, oil, meat and others to provide shunting interest.

Loco consists of two roads, but no turntable ( because there was Norooma for one). But all the essentials for steam working will be provided such as ash pit, coal stage, water columns and a water tank. And diesels will be welcome as well.

Most of the points are worked by brass wire inside tubing which has been set into the baseboard and suitably covered. The wire is bent up at the edge of the layout to form a handle and either a 44 gallon drum or a tree stump will be glued to it to form a 'hidden handle'. Points at the ends of the loops are worked by Peco point motors from the main panel.

The platform has a dock platform provided and a carriage road behind it for storage.

2009-03-21T21:17:00.000+11:00

Meat the new building.

I got this building from the second hand stall at the recent Forestville Model Railway exhibition. It was a Kibri building smothered in german signage which quickly got the flick. This is where some of the weathering came from. When I got it home I then commenced to cut the building in half with the trusty razor saw. One hour later (I think I need a new blade) voila there were now two buildings much to my relief. After gluing all the bits back that fell off in the process, the Narooma Meat siding (known locally as the bullshippers siding) was brought into action. There is a bit more work to be done around this section.

The other identical half will be located at the Candelo Cannery Siding. (known locally as the CC Senor siding as it is managed by a Mexican chap).

This was the first trial shunt into the siding. The unusual lashup of 49/44/49 is called the ham in the sandwich combination. A 44 class waiting for the loco siding to be finished so it can refuel stands idly by.

The ballast is starting to be laid and the weeds have already started to grow. It seems so absurd planting weeds on a layout to make it look real, and outside the shed I'm spending ages trying to get rid of them!

2009-03-13T22:33:00.000+11:00

The town of Narooma has recently undergone track renewals and the work is nearly complete. The main line, loop and relief line have been laid and only the goods yard needs laying.

The code 100 has been replaced with code 75. This station was all that remained of the original layout going back 15 years. No doubt the ballast trains will be in action soon.

2009-03-12T22:01:00.000+11:00

When I finally get the hang of all the boxes and pop ups and downs this will be my blog for my model rail set up.

I decided to call it 'South Coast Rail' as towns like Batemans Bay, Bega and Narooma started appearing on the layout. Had I modelled Orange this name would not have been appropriate.

Freelancing layouts enables you to model a place that no one can say 'XYZ doesn't look like that!'

SCR has been in the making for around 10 years now and still hopefully has plenty more to go. The layout is single track (half the price of double track layouts and more challenging) and has four main crossing locations Bega, Batemans Bay, Narooma and Bodalla. It also includes a branch with a crossing location Kameruka (this layout is big on cheeses) and the branch terminus of Candelo. There is also a coal mine near the branch line terminus.

The layout is protected by a large shed, mainly to protect against possums that seem to enjoy chasing each other across the roof. Mod cons such as an air conditioner, TV, DVD, VHS. (sorry no bar fridge or kettle as yet) help make the stay in there more comfortable. No room as yet for a bed.