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.