What a great deal....

I was down the local shops recently and slipped into one of those so called "two dollar" shops and had a quick look around. Well they got that wrong with many items now over the magic "two dollars"

I was up aisle two and while I was breathing in so another person could squeeze past I noticed this package on the shelf. It was a small packet with the title "Deckakard" and referred to a "universal levelling system. There were two in a box for $3.99. After I thought about it for a moment I realised that some legs on the layout were not as level as they could be and for a lousy $4, I grabbed them, took them to the cash register and went on my way home.

When I got home and opened the pack there were a total of 54 card like pieces. They measured 90mm by 60mm. Strangely there were no instructions in the pack. I assume they thought that they were self explanatory on how to use them. So with 54 cards you can to pack up gaps under legs from 0.05mm (1 card) to 13mm (The full deck).

I was disappointed when I opened the second pack to actually find a card missing. I felt like I was a few cards short of a deck. I was always told that when the chips are down to pick yourself up again.

So I turned up again at the shop and explained about being short decked. The shop assistant  told me to wait at the counter and went off to a back room. After a while waiting my patience was wearing thin. An old maid wandered down from the back room and after smelling gin and rummy on her I was ready to poker. I reached into my bag and put my cards on the table.

I always call a spade a spade and I knew I held all the trumps with the Fair Trading laws on my side. I said to her " I am not playing with a full deck of cards and have been dealt a bad deal and would like an exchange please."

Now as strange as it may seem she had an ace up her sleeve. She showed this  ace of spades to me and then I said yes that's the one missing. I now felt that I held all the aces and left the shop with no spite or malice and went home to try out the system.

As soon as I got home it was time to try out the Deckakard system under our outdoor furniture. You may think the ground is level  but as can be seen this chair required quite a few cards to stop the rocking. 

It was also put under a table. Being of plastic nature it will only have the four legs grounded when heavy items are placed on it.  The gap was large and took up nearly half of the first pack. The beauty of this system with the thin cards is the ability to get a precise level. You don't really need to measure the gap, just keep putting them under the leg until the rockin is a stoppin.

Down in the layout room one of the stools was particularly bad and uneven so two legs had to be packed.  Now it is very stable and you don't feel like you are about to fall. Notice how the closest leg  has more under it.

 

 You can take a chance that you have bought enough packs home to fix all the levelling problems. But if the occasion arises that you have only one card left you have to "know when to hold them and know when to fold them" It is not recommended to go above two pack high as this would either indicate poor carpentry  or a big hole in the floor.

And lastly two of the cards in the pack have these words on them:

I told you I wasn't making it up...

Eden (borrowed from the www)

 If every concept drawing for new railways in Australia had ever been carried out and built, then the place would have been crowded with tracks. Planning a new railway in pencil is very cheap, getting them built is another matter.
One of the good things about model railways as a hobby is to be able to build what ever we choose. We can strictly follow the prototype with every nut and bolt, selectively compress to fit in stations or go down the road many have chosen by going completely fictional.
I originally chose to model the South Coast railway because I liked the green scenery preferably over the dry western style. A majority of scenic materials are green. I also have a fondness of rain forest type scenery. Having said that modelling a dry style layout is so easy. Just open your bag of tanny coloured foam, wack it down over a bit of glue, chuck in a few brown weeds and its done. Maybe a token gumtree in for good measure. On the other hand the greenery scenery is a lot harder to get right but when its done right it looks magic. I am still striving to obtain the look.
So I pretended my system would be an extension of the current Illawarra line that terminates at Bomaderry, but head much further down the coast.
Stations so far modelled are Bega, Bodalla, Narooma, and branch stations of Kameruka and Candelo the terminus. They have been modelled how I like them and a name tag applied to the stations.
At this stage I was not aware of any plans to actually build a line down the South coast into Victoria.
Recently I came across a Victorian map which actually had this proposed line dashed on it. And some of my stations were actually proposed. So mine has been built, the real thing is yet to come.

So to fit into my imaginary world I have proposed that this line down to Orbost was actually an extension of the standard gauge. What the Victorians did was to standardise some of their rolling stock and locomotives so they could travel right up into NSW. This also allowed the NSW stock the chance to head down to Orbost all the way from Sydney.
You never know that in the future I might get the chance to actually cross the border and model some more stations.

Way back in 2008, I was invited to the 25th Modelling the Railways of New South Wales to show off some scenery. I was not comfortable being in front of a group but said I was happy to do up a board with some scenery on it and answer any questions on the spot.
The board ended up being about 6 foot by 2 foot and was going to be the entry point to a Victorian branch line terminus and was for Brad Hinton from Arm Chair Modeller blog.
While it was being built I also took many photos and put them together into my first ever Powerpoint presentation. All trial and error.
I recently came across this file on my computer and thought rather than waste it I would put it up on Youtube hoping someone may get something from it??.
I took the music off it rather than go through the copyright garbage that Youtube police. It goes for nearly 40 minutes so if you are interested or suffering from insomnia have a look. Having converted it to Youtube the fast readers of text will just have to be patient as it is designed for slow readers of text.

Enjoy

And Wire not?

I had a long conversation tonight with Jim of The Kamilaroi Model Railway fame http://kamilaroimodelrailway.blogspot.com.au/
We touched on many model railway topics as usual and I rang Jim in response to an email he had sent me regarding overhead wiring for layouts.
Gentleman Jim was actually doing some overhead for a friend on his layout. He is a few steps ahead of me in that my total battle chest is a few bags of various assorted insulators and two Southern Rail overhead staunchions.
Since the staunchions have been put in place, I seem to manage to bump my elbow on them. Pre electrification was never a problem.

Jim mentioned that he had purchased some brass wire off a company at Marrickville - A & E Metal Merchants. https://www.aemetal.com.au/Webstore/default.aspx When trolling through the various products it seems as if they are geared towards the jewellery and craft trade rather than a large metal merchant.

He had ordered some 0.5mm and 0.7mm wire. It comes in 10 metre lengths wrapped in a bag. Their prices seem amazingly cheap. The 10 metres of the 0.5mm wire was only $2.85 and the 0.7mm wire only $3.32.  He intends to use the 0.5mm wire for the contact wire and the 0.7mm for the caternary wire. This is true to prototype as the catenary wire is a thicker diameter than the contact wire.
Trolling through their website there are plenty of other materials suitable for the modeller. In the brass section they have various sizes of brass tubing in 30cm lengths. They also have round, square, half round and brass sheets. The brass sheeting would be good for etching or other model making.

They also sell fine small diameter drills (again aimed at the jewellery trade) and many other tools such as saw blades etc.

Don't worry if you can't make it to their store in Marrickville, their web site is well set out for online ordering. If you are going to visit the web site suggests that you pre-order as they don't have a showroom.

Anyway have a look at this site, it might be another good find for the modeller. Good one Jim.

Sparks will soon be flying...
Well there are only a few weeks left of 2013 to allow Auscision to fulfill their promise of having the 46 class available in 2013. It was the pilot model of the 46 I saw at the 2012 Liverpool exhibition that prevented me going haywire and modelling some obscure South American 80 year old electric box cab locos. When you add up the hours it would take to make a few models, I quickly realised the 46 class would do for what I wanted and still allow me to be modelling the NSW railway system.
Electric modelling has come ahead in leaps and bounds lately and nearly all of NSW locomotives and passenger electric rolling stock has been either made or is in production.
I guess we are all different animals when it comes to running our layouts. Some people are just happy to run trains on a layout without any scenery at all. Just track. Then others have the scenery all completed. But with the "new element" of modelling electric railways comes the "pain"of overhead wiring. Europeans with their prominence of electric railways has made the production of model overhead wiring systems common place. Marklin certainly has produced overhead systems for their model railway systems and other specialist companies such as Sommerfeldt and Veissmann have produced many of the parts required to model overhead with authenticity.
Now one of the issues for model overhead wiring is the compromise between robustness and getting it looking real.
Another aspect is the additional cost of components to produce the overhead. If you commercially source all the overhead unless you are modelling the Carlingford branch be prepared to spend quite a few dollars on your overhead wiring bits and pieces.
Now as an introduction to my electric modelling I recently received the swap part of a deal with one our group member Ross. I swapped an Emu Flats school house kit for some overhead staunchions from Southern rail. He received some as a deal when he purchased some interurban cars. He has decided not to electrify on his layout. I simply drilled two holes into the layout and pushed the legs of the staunchions into them. Straight away it changed the look of Bodalla forever. I will gauge how much they get in the way before I commit to proper overhead throughout. Leaning over the layout will bring new consequences and probably new swear words when the overhead comes down. Further down the track (ah I like that saying) I hope to construct my own overhead to a much finer tolerances than the commercial products. One safeguard for protecting the overhead might be the installation of perspex screens along the edge of the layout, but they will be easily removed with slotted screws to enable photography and other maintenance issues.
 

Electrification is coming!!!!

I wonder if Auscision with their many electric models coming may go into making the overhead components?
The 46 class was chosen to match the era of my modelling which is the 50's to early 70's (need justification for a 422 class). My foray into the Victorian modelling has also got me  collecting similar era locos and rolling stock. How great is it that Auscision has decided to model the Victorian electric "L" class loco. As with the NSW plan for operation, electric locos will run part way and then change over to steam or diesel to finish their journey. And the opposite will apply for the reverse journey.
Today I was lucky enough to photograph a quad header of all the Victorian fleet on a freight. Just something about the blue and yellow. As the B class is sometimes used for passenger services it hasn't yet been weathered.

Well I am not sure if this will be the last blog for 2013 but their will be a major announcement re the layout early next year.

Got another tail to tell ya......
Well I was going past the train shed on the way to the garden shed, when what must have been a strong magnet in the shed pulled me inside.
I often go in for a quick look to see how its all going, where its been and what the future may hold. The shed is long and the lights are in two sections. So I put the light on for the left hand side and just did a bit of looking around. The far end near the roller door is illuminated enough to be able to see whats there. Part of the thinking is that with the high cost of electricity these days, if I don't need to see it, light stays off.
It was after about five minutes of being in there when I heard a scratching noise coming from the "dark end".
Living near the bush, wildlife is prolific in the area. There are plenty of rabbits, wallabys and bandicoots all of which would find it hard to get on my roof and would have no reason to be there.
So the next group I thought of was sulphur crested cockatoos, rats (yes they can climb) and good old possums.
Then I looked upwards towards the sound. Most of my looking is generally in the downward direction, either following a train along or looking on the floor for a part I have dropped. With my gaze up towards the sound in the far corner, I could see a shadow.
In the dark it looked fuzzy and as it seemed to hang down into my "airspace" I needed to find out what it was. So off I went around the layout to the second light switch to see what the protrusion was.
There was a long fluffy bit hanging down and on closer inspection and having had previous experience in dealing with these pests deduced that it was yet another bloody possum.
A previous blog not that long ago had dealt with this same hole that was now secreting a possum.
Now most wildlife when humans approach them do a bolt in the opposite direction. (Not all, bulls in a paddock excepted). I then decided a bit of noise from me might dislodge him/her from the hole and allow me to yet again reseal this hole.
Well some yelling didn't do it either. With the news over the weekend that playing Pavrotti music in the carpark of McDonalds quickly clears the kids away, I remembered none of his music was in my collection. The closest I could get was Demis Roussos. I thought the song "Forever and ever" would match the situation but ended up selecting "Rain and Tears" which summed up the weather of the moment and my emotions.

O No

So I was starting to think that this possum is lifeless. I started to look around the layout to find something to throw at his rear end. Everything was too valuable. The next thing I thought of was to ring "Wires". I am sure they would be able to remove it easily. I started to panic when I saw my 421 class, a 32 class and a loaf of bread EHO parked on the layout just under his arse. What will happen if he suddenly comes awake and drops down onto the layout? He has already dislodged the piece of timber I had temporarily screwed over the hole.
I thought if I rang "Wires" they might come out and be distracted by the layout and want to play trains instead. So I decided to go for the long thin piece of timber trick instead. Outside I found a piece of timber about 4 metres long. Reasoning this would allow me distance between me and the possum when I prodded it to find out if it was dead or not. If he was dead and fell down it would just be the layout that suffered, if he was alive he could only go in two directions. Either up into the hole where he started off or worse drop down onto the layout and end up running who knows where.

A close up of the rear end of a possum

The 'testing stick' was positioned near his tail hoping to reveal whether he was past or present. The first flick of the stick did nothing and probably needed to put poked nearer to a sensitive part of the animal. A second jab closer to the middle section resulted in a wake up call for him. This was good news as a live possum is probably easier to remove than a dead one, its just the flee direction that is the unknown quantity.
I didn't know if he had just been having an afternoon siesta but reflecting on his position there would be no way that I could have a sleep on a sofa with a hole in it and get comfortable.
Well if I had just woken him up, he certainly made up for it by his thrashing around. Luckily for me he decided to move in the direction that his head was situated on his body. He soon was now extracated from the hole in was inside the roof cavity completely. Deciding that the outside of the shed was a better place to be than on the inside I heard him up on the roof.
Now one of my long projects to do is to repaint the shed roof and walls. They are battle scarred from the various sorties with the ferals over the last 13 years. I don't think I can get away with the excuse of "weathering" as a reason for not repainting. Prior to the layout being built, the walls were free from obstructions such as a layout to enable painting to be done quickly.

The bigger hole

As a temporary fix I have reattached the piece of timber that fell down from the hole. And the only answer is to get around to boxing in the eaves. What this will do is allow me never to bore you with future blogs on possums.

NSW Lives on
Some people who have read my recent blogs would think I might have gone Mexican and followed the blue and yellow system. Only partly true.
I now have a small fleet of Victorian locomotives and rolling stock, enough to add more operating interest to the layout.
Recently at the Liverpool exhibition I paid for two of the Auscision 46 class locomotives and like all the other locos just be patient until they turn up.
I also intend to erect some overhead wiring which makes the operation of electric rolling stock more complete. I can't see the point in buying electric rolling stock unless the overhead is present. One thing is for sure that all the trackwork and ballasting should be complete before the overhead as there will only a small opening of a few inches to get your hands under.
I have already ordered some insulators from overseas and collected a few substation/transformer kits. Living near the railway line also makes it easier to get a closeup view of the infrastructure.
I won't be able to start overhead construction until the locos turn up as I am not sure a what height the overhead will be. At least Southern Rail have made a few staunchions available.
A few NSW shots follow:

A major change will be happening to South Coast Rail next year on the layout. What will happen will be outlined on this blog.

Bought some pickles today!!
A kernock on the door today and a courier had delivered a parcel I had been waiting for. It was a flat top T class on the second issue. I was too slow for the first run.
The reference to pickles in the heading title comes from the fact that my T class is numbered T333. Anyone old enough would remember the '333' pickles company. That wasn't the real reason for selecting that number, it was just that it would be an easy number to remember.
This foray into Victorian modelling has given me a lot to learn about the system. At this stage I am quite happy to stick with the alphabet classification and be able to recognise the difference between a T and Y class. I am not interested in delving down to bogie types, exhaust stacks, grills on windows etc. I am basically pleased that Austrains and Auscision have gone to the trouble to make the various variations to keep us modellers happy. Such choices would never have been available not so long ago.
I was a bit reluctant to post this blog as many may have thought that I have deserted the NSW system and gone troppo and started collecting mexican equipment. I said to myself then that the next blog would  have a NSW theme to it. Sorry maybe next one.
So now my Vic loco pool stands at a Y class, B class and a flat top T and a high nose T. Maybe all I need now is to get and S class (Trainorama are doing a rerun) and possibly an X class.
Anyhow I went down the shed tonight and a short empty stock train took advantage of the new loco for a run up to Kameruka.
A few shots follow

He's back
Having more comebacks than Dame Nellie Melba, my good friend Jim has resurrected his Kamilaroi Model Railway site again.
It has been offline for a few months but now under a new blog name its all go again. Having formerly modelled  Yass Junction and the Yass Junction branch his new venture takes him to a layout based on Moree and Boggabri up in the North West. This is the area many modellers have had a crack at. There must be something about this area though as a few blogs for the North West have gone horribly quite of late.
Not much there at the moment but bookmark the blog as Jim has promised to share more of his future modelling on the site.
His site is called : KamilaroiModelRailway. (Note there are no spaces)