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| Santa delivers |
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.
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| 7002 shunts the meat siding at Narooma |
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.
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| 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
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThe 70 looks great! Howard sure can paint a model! I have one of his 32 's and a CPH. Both amaze me every time I lay eyes on them. Hope your x mas was good and all the best for the new year.
Linton
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteSome info on the 70's (the loco not the era !) I started at PK as a trainee engineman in 1980 and spent way too much time on these things. All of these little treasures were allocated to PK but rarely were all running at the same time. They were used as single units on Nth yard, Sth yard and the Network shunters. When it was busy there were two singles on the Network. Another job called "the transfer shunter" was the only regular double. Loaded steel wagons of all kinds were transferred from Cringila to PK Nth to be made up into trains bound for Enf and Gbn and empties were taken back. Two 70's could pull 1050 ton from Crin to PK Nth, this load was regularly exceeded on the promise of an early mark ! The speed up the hill was about walking pace, you could get off the front engine, take a leak in the cess and step back onto the rear engine !
I brought two of these back from Enf once after a trip to the wheel lathe, it took 9 1/2 hours light engine ! 30 k's flat out and we got put away everywhere! Even saw two on a local passenger train once, only lasted one lap and was replaced because it lost so much time.
Of course I have one of these, you will be able to fit about 8 or 10 lead seals in it and it will make a huge difference! Shunt with pride !
Thanks Gary for that interesting story of the 70's.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly need some weight in them.
Seems like it would have been quicker to have brought the wheel lathe trip back by truck.
Bob
Hey Bob, As we found out those little buggers can pull a load on the flat (7 four-wheelers and 2 bogies) on the flat but setting back into the yard was a different story. Still a fine model and one to use for your trip trains. shame they had a habit of breaking the coupling rod in prototype but I sure this will happen on SCR. Look forward to the next running session.
ReplyDeletePK from Newie