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!"