Pretty pictures...

Was playing around with the camera recently and took these shots...

This shows my Classic brass 3324 drifting through the station after her recent 'tone up' to the weathering. Originally painted in the mid-1980s, the paint had become a little 'tired' and faded over the years (there is a 'before' picture in an earlier post) so I gave her a touch up. After a good wash (being very careful not to get the DCC chip and speaker in the tender wet!) I touched up the areas where the paint had worn off the brass with a spray of SEM self-etch black, let down with a little SEM grey. When that had dried  I reweathered the loco with Tamiya and Badger acrylics, diluted in Isocol alcohol.

Here is another shot of her, which also includes part of a recently 'backdated' On Track Models LLV. The backdating consisted of moving the outer lamp irons to the high position they occupied before the late 1970s, plus adding the end handrails removed when the lamp irons were lowered. Buffers and AR Kits 'Andrews' bogies have also been added.

Here is close up view of the LLV.

It was weathered by 'washing' a little dilute in Isocol alochol Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown into the wheel discs, the bogie springs, the door hinges and the door catches. Then a light spray of very dilute in Isocol Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth all over to give that typical 'dusty' look. 

 

I've also managed to finish off the 53 class, it has had the paint damage (mostly!) touched up, glass fitted to the headlight, a rolled up canvas weathershield added behind the cab and a new fireman recruited.

Well, I thought it was finished until I read Ray Pilgrim's recent post on the easy way to add a 'chuff' cam...

Last, but not least, a 'what used to be', or perhaps a 'what will be again', once I get a DCC chip fitted.

My dear old Trax brass 1248 standing at the station with a typical 1950s branchline passenger train, two 'dogboxes' and a van. This scene may soon be able to be recreated again, now that Ian Phemister has shown me the way to get a Tsunami into the 'small engines'... 

Found on Youtube...

A link was posted in one of the Facebook groups to which I belong to this fantastic 'from the cab' video of a trip from Acacia Ridge to Taree in the NSW North Coast line.

There is quite a lot of stuff on Youtube that is entertaining, but this video is also very useful to anyone attempting to model the NSW North coast line, particularly in the modern era. Thanks to 'v6hilux' for putting it up.

To good not to share...

Mike McCormac came over a couple of days ago with an (almost ;o) completed sample of one of the variations of his HO scale NSWGR LFX 'dogbox' kits for photographing for the 'Recent Releases' section of the December issue of AMRM.

It really is a mouthwateringly good model and I could not resist posting one of the photos that didn't get used in AMRM!

This is one of the first batch of high elliptical roofed cars which were fitted with the 'old' type underframe and short wheelbase bogies. Later batches had a redesigned underframe with longer wheelbase bogies in an attempt to improve the ride. Click on the image to see a much bigger image to truely appreciate the detail, which includes compartment interiors.

Models don't come much better than this!

She's baaacckkk...

After some 15 years 'out of service' with a crook chassis, 5303 re-entered service on Lambing Flat this evening, after I finished fitting a Tsunami DCC chip. She runs like a dream, thanks to the excellent chassis constructed for me by Hollywood Foundry.

Here she is entering the loop with a wheat train.

A closer look at the Wampu tender and the cab detail.

I still have a few things to repair and refit (like employing another fireman, her old fireman appears to left the service sometime in the last 15 years!), plus a little 'touching up' to the paint and weathering. However, Lambing Flat is once more host to a 53 class Standard Goods, a very appropriate locomotive type for the setting.

Btw, you can click on the images to see it at a much larger size.

The (almost) return of 5303

Some months ago I finally got tired of having my favourite locomotive not working, (see previous post (5303, a frail favourite... ) and sent it off the Geoff Baxter at Hollywood Foundry for a new chassis. His custom mechanisms have a justifiable reputation for excellence, and though he doesn't normally do steam locomotives, he made an exception in this case!

This morning a very welcome package arrived and as soon as I finished work for the day I fitted the new chassis to 5303.

This is the magnificently designed and built chassis that arrived in the mail. It runs very smoothly and I am looking forward to having the loco back in service.

(Photo by Geoff Baxter)

She is running under DC control, but there are a few things that need attention before she will be back in service, such as fitting a DCC sound chip and speaker, repairing the cosmetic damage that has occurred during her long period out of service and painting the chassis and 'touching up' the rest of the loco.

Hopefully it won't be too long before a 53 class Standard Goods is once more treading the rails at Lambing Flat.

Progress on the Rurr Valley

Progress on the Rurr Valley continues.

Not only have I been clearing the layout and making it trafficable again, I have also revived a locomotive construction project that has sat on the workbench, untouched, since late 2005. Here is a photo of showing progress to date on RVR (new) No.2.

It is a 'near enough' model based on the three Baldwin-built 0-6-0T locomotives used by the Mt Lyell Railway for shunting and local work. A photo of the prototype loco appears below.

Mt Lyell No.5 poses at the works some time in the early years of the 20th century.

This is my second attempt at a 'near enough' model based on these locos. The earlier was the first No.2, based on a Bachmann 'Lyn' 2-4-2T.



I was quite happy with the appearance of the loco, but its chassis and motor design was not up to the rigors of running smoothly on the RVR's 'hill', it would 'hunt' alarmingly coming down the hill, due to the 'slop' in the drivetrain. I purchased the LGB 0-6-2T shown below with the idea of combining the cab and boiler of (old) No.2 with the 0-6-0 chassis of the LGB loco, which would give me closer version of the 'inspiration' loco, which would also be a much better runner with a high quality LGB chassis.

Most of the basic construction is now complete and now I just have to finish off the detailling, paint it and install the radio and sound gear recovered from the old loco and I will have another 'useful' engine for the line.

I have also completed 'stage 1' of clearing the line. Trains can now run between Possum Point and Devlins, at the top of the old zig zag. (Stage 2 will have to wait till I rebuild the flood damaged bridges.)

This photo, a quick 'snap' taken with my mobile phone back on 19 August 2011, before I started the clearing described in the previous posts, shows the results of a year's neglect (and the five years of abandonment previous to last year's revival attempt).

Compare this photo with the last image, the 'tunnel' can be just made out at bottom right and the site of Devlins is middle left.

The shot below was taken at the completion of work on the evening of 22 September and show the site of Possum Point station.

The next image shows the entire 'zig zag' area of the line cleared and trafficable on the evening of Friday 24 September. I snapped it with my mobile just at dusk and it shows No.1 shunting at Devlins, about to head down the hill to Possum Point in the background with a works train. I'll replace the rotted away culverts and reballast the entire section before I move on to 'stage 2', which is behind the photographer.

Another day workin' on the railway...

Got in an hour or so of track clearance on the garden railway this evening. The line is now open from Devlins all the way down the hill to Bottom Points. The track is in remarkably good condition, considering the neglect the railway has suffered over the last six years. Not so the timber culvert about one third of the way up the middle road, it has disappeared completely! The wood has rotted away and will need to be replaced, but it is cosmetic only, the track is strong enough to span the gap so I can still run trains. (It does serve to allow water to drain under the railway, so it is cosmetic only in the sense that it doesn't support the track!)

When it had got too dark to work I spent a couple of minutes running No.1 and a few wagons up and down the hill. No.1 is running beautifully after her 'overhaul' last week. The old battery pack had deteriorated to the extent that I was lucky to get one trip up the hill out of her, but the new one is very strong, she is still running on the charge she got last weekend!

It was too dark to photograph, so I have used a photo I took at Bottom Points last year to illustrate what the location looks like now.

No.1 and a works train at Bottom Points on 4 July 2010 during last year's attempt to get the RVR operational again.

The Rurr Valley revival - take 2.

Last year I got about half the garden railway operational again after five years of neglect and three floods that damaged the two large bridges, cutting the main line to Underpool. Unfortunately, I did not do any further work between last October and a couple of days ago, for various reasons. However, the dispatch of the October issue of AMRM to the printer at the end of August (and the end of the soccer season!) gave me a little time for modelling. The first thing I did was to get No.1 running again, in order to review a MyLocoSound large scale sound chip (you can read the review in the December issue of AMRM). No.1 needed a new battery pack and speaker, and once I had done that and fitted and tested the new sound card, I decided it was about time I had some railway to run it on!

I started at the top station last week and cleared a short section, but didn't get another chance to get down in the garden till yesterday.

No.1 and the ballast wagon are standing on the section I cleared last week. The other side of the level crossing shows the results of a year's neglect. That is what the rest of the railway looks like!

Half an hour later and the line was clear through the station. There is a lot of 'scouring' of the ballast, so when I get the entire line clear there will be a lot of reballasting!

 No.1 stands at the Devlins platform.

An hour's work saw the track cleared down to through the cutting to the site where 'Top Points' were back in the days of the zig-zag, which is about a third of the way down the hill to Possum Point. Hopefully, trains will be running between Devlins and Possum point before long, but I will have to build two new bridges before trains can run to Underpool again.



The Clever Things You Find on the Internet...

Was reading the Australian_N_Scale Yahoo group when 'Mark' made a post regarding downloadable containers. Now Lambing Flat has no need of containers, and never will have, but I'm a curious sort of fellow, so I went and had a look. What I found was a German language site aimed at ship modellers, but with a page of downloadable containers in various scales (including HO and N scale) to print out on a card, cut out and assemble. Having a couple of pieces of card handy, I printed a couple out and assembled them, which took about five minutes.



They would look pretty effective as 'background' at a container depot and would be a lot cheaper than buying scores of injection moulded containers. They could even be used on wagons, if one was so inclined.

These, (and many others) can be downloaded at: http://www.igshansa.de/igsorg.html (then go to the 'Download/English' page.

Amazing what is available on the net these days...

From the vaults-5: Fruit trains.

It has been a long time since I have posted anything, and with the October issue of AMRM rapidly approaching its print deadline, I doubt I'll be posting anything else for the next month, so here is another 'from the vaults'.

This, taken on 24 December 2005 in pre-DCC days, shows my weathered Trainorama 4429 arriving from Cowra with a Darling Harbour bound fruit train, with a couple of stock wagons, heading for Flemington, attached to build up the load. Once the fruit train has cleared, the goods, headed by 5262, will get the staff for the short section to the junction between the lines from Cowra and Demondrille and proceed towards Demondrille. On Lambing Flat the junction arrangements reflect that found at Binnaway, on the cross-country line from Werris Creek to Dubbo, rather than the 'straight through' arrangements found at Young on the prototype NSWGR. This was done to make the operation of Lambing Flat, which is quite a small layout, more interesting, as every 'through' train has to be reversed.

Back on the model, once the Standard Goods has departed, 4429 will run round its train, attach any loading originating in Lambing Flat and then proceed towards Demondrille, once 5262 has cleared the section to Wombat. Up to the late 1960s, fruit was an important traffic on the railways around Young (where I grew up and the inspiration for Lambing Flat). It was so important that the local radio station 2LF, during the fruit season, would announce the time that the fruit truck arrived at Darling Harbour as part of the morning news!