Broadfield Forever

The first thing you will notice about this blog entry is that the subject is not On30. Today was the turn of our host Phil for what our group calls the "Train Day" We have been doing this over the last 50 odd years that is getting together to share our love of all things railway.
We have been adding jaunts to Victoria over the last few years and come this May we will be off again for a four day, men only trip. The main feature of this years event will be to travel by steam train up to Echuca from Bendigo and have lunch on a real steam powered paddle steamer. But that will be for a future update when we get back.
Arriving at Phils around 11.0am today the roller door was opened to reveal one magnificent HO layout. To the outsider the roller door looks like any ordinary garage door but this one is designed for trains and not cars.
The room is beautifully presented and sort of reminded me of a pedigree dog at a dog show. There was nothing out of place, a well lit room, walls a nice shade of sky blue (is there any other colour?) and photos and a few memorabilia on the wall surrounded by a few favourite photos. A slight deviation to the HO scale was noticed on a shelf where a small foray into G scale in the form of a few locos and carriages rested. They haven't progressed beyond the shelf.

Looking out

Looking in

I have featured Phils layout in previous blogs so a progress comparison can be made if you look back on the old posts. One thing that I said to Phil was that I reckon the layout is ripe for an article in the Australian Model Railway Magazine.
I will post some photos taken by phone so some are a little blurry but worth inclusion. I hope when James get there with his equipment he can take some proper photos.

WICKHAM BRANCH

Start of the Wickham Branch

 

HONEYSUCKLE BRANCH

 THE MINE

 

THE LOCO DEPOT

BROADFIELD STATION

OTHER LOCATIONS

Well I hope you enjoyed that selection of photos from Phils great layout, hopefully a full article will be in a magazine one day?

I'll get back to the right scale and prototype in the next blog update.

A zoo?

I was looking out the back window recently and something caught the corner of my eye moving. When I looked up there were two goannas strolling across the back lawn and headed for the side gate.
As usual it was the mild panic in where was my camera or phone? I found the camera and then went to another room adjoining the side gate to take a photo. Well I know I saw two of them but could only find one of them in the garden.

G2 the goanna, not sure where G1 went to?

 

 

Three of the kookies in for a feed

So one headed off somewhere unknown and the second one chucked a 'U'ee and headed to the back yard. Luckily the garage door was closed otherwise I reckoned he would have gone in there. So I allowed a good half hour and decided it would be safe to re-enter the shed. I haven't seen them since.
I really reckon I should have started up a zoo in the backyard. Over time I have seen the goannas, a few snakes, an echidna and the scrub turkeys have taken a liking to the bush/garden and have fun scattering the mulch everywhere. We also have about five kookaburras and many king parrots drop in a few times a day for their feeding. The big trouble is that they are all not together at the one time otherwise I could have got the kindy kids at the school opposite to come over and have a look. Can you pat a goanna?
Well that is the animal side of things over and yes I have still been working on the railroad. I have been concentrating on getting a large section of the layout finished. There were many pockets where I had made a start but not finished one big area.
One of the jobs was to revisit the trestle area. On my previous HO layout the main focus point was down the back corner where I called it the gully area. There were three tracks crossing the gullt at different levels and was probably the most scenic area completed. Eventually the tracks will be run through this area and will need a complete scenic update.

A creek bed with ferns and reeds

Before

After

One of the down sides of completing the scenery is the fact that I have lost another spot to put my junk, mix paints etc. The above scene is a field completed with using some dishwashing cloth available for under $3, so it is very versatile and looks OK in my book. So when you can't think of what to place in an area just put in a field and fence it off and maybe add a horse or cow. Also placing a few white flowers in the field draws the eye to that spot.

Up goods heads over the trestle

A few extra ferns have been added

8A works an Up goods

8A crosses the local road with photographic background

In the last photo I placed a photo that used to reside at the opposite end of the shed. It was surplus now to its previous use and I then thought it would be suitable to place against the wall so that the road appeared to disappear in the distance. After a bit of work on the scanner and photo editing I found that it worked well in the spot especially when viewed from the above angle. I plan to have backdrops all around the layout one day!

Other Side of the Tracks

I have put up the first five of the Other Side pictoons on the link on the top right hand corner of this blog. I plan to post five more each month until they are all published, so enjoy numbers 6 to 10