North of Narrabri

Dreamtime Downunder. . .

2012-01-03T18:09:00.000-08:00

There isn't a lot of freight traffic remaining on Victoria's vast Broad-Gauge network, but what there is. . well, it's quite photogenic: A fine Jamie Fisher snap of Pacific National up Tocumwal-Melbourne service let by A78-P22-A81, Mooroopna, Victoria, 19 December, 2011. For us Yanks, the thought of a double-ended turbo-charged F-unit blows our minds!

It's been FAR too long since my last posts--just over THREE months! And, sad to say, apart from a few quick efforts at weathering the new Columbia Models BCW wagons, I've done little if any modeling in that period. Jeez, the workbench hasn't even been cleaned up from the last bit of modeling I engaged in.

I guess lots of that time has been daydreaming about a place where the Bulldogs still roam free. And in doing a little extra work on the side to pay for the opportunity to bring those dreams to realilty.

And the time before we leave on the big 747 with the Kangaroo on the tail for the 20 hour flight is coming up quicker than I can imagine. It was just coincidence that last Friday, while I drove Mary and the boys to visit family east of us, we passed the north end of Dallas-Fort Worth airport at ten minutes to 3p.m.--the exact instant the daily Qantas non-stop from Sydney swooped right over our heads, flaps down and fuel nearly spent. A flight we'd be on in nine weeks to the day returning from Australia. Six weeks to the day until we leave.

My fellow down under gunzel work-mate Lance Lassen and I bought the tickets in the first quarter of 2011, when Qantas was running a sale that got us round-trip for less than we paid for the same flight in 2009. This time, we're spending three weeks in Oz, a week more than in 2009. We're still expecting to keep way more than busy railfanning, taking in a footy game in Melbourne, visiting hobby shops, museums, bookstores, model railroads and, best of all, friends. This time, though, we're going to pay a bit more attention OUTSIDE New South Wales.

Okay, then how about a single-ended Victorian bulldog? In this case, Victorian S-class S313 leading a pair of blue-and-gold T-class, all leased from railway museums, on the pointy end of Up-bound El Zorro Delinquin-Melbourne train 9072, a Monday-Friday schedule, seen at Moama on 22 December, 2011. Again, Jamie Fisher nails it!

What could be better than NSW railways? With a record wheat-harvest expected in Victoria and South Australia, the railways there are quite busy for the first time in many years. While the 2009 trip to NSW concentrated on Alco-powered relics, we're starting off this trip in "Mexico," hoping to get a good amount of piccies of glorious Bulldog locomotives employed hauling wheat on both the broad gauge and standard gauge.

Operators P&O Trans-Australian (POTA), ElZorro, Pacific National, and Genesee & Wyoming Australia are scrambling to find power to keep the empty grain wagons rolling to port, and in Victoria and South Australia, as in New South Wales, you'll never know what you'll find. There's lots of new high-tech power on Hunter Valley coal trains and on cross-continent intermodal trains, but CWA's beautiful orange and black CLF/CLP and GM's are busy on the grain haul in and out of Adeliade. Next state over, former Victorian Railway B and S class EMD's are on home rails, some still in heritage paint and leased out by preservation groups, teamed with other former Victorian locomotives--X and C and G and strings of little T class. It's a great show!

Of course, our appetites have been justly whetted with regular dispatches through e-mail of photographs of these tasty photographic subjects. How can we resist? We're still hoping during the other two weeks of our holiday to see 48 class on rural branchlines in NSW and 44 class on trip trains and the odd standard-gauge bulldog as well running around. And it'll be hard to pass up at least a cursory look at all the colorful new paint schemes adorning cookie-cutter (ugly) new locomotives hauling coal in the Hunter Valley to and from The North West, where Lance and I will try again to at least tear ourselves away from the gunzeling long enough to take some "infrastructure photos" of the locations we're modeling in HO scale, the Narrabri and Gunnedah areas.

In the meantime, until we climb on the big 'roo February 17th, I've got a few more slides to sell, got a new camera to learn how to operate, and we've got timetables and Google Earth to peruse. And dreams of Bulldogs in the Malee and Rivernia country.

It won't be long now!

Lastly, but certainly not least, GWA GM38, still in Australian National paint, paired with an ex-NSW 422 class trailing the tail-end of train 1341S on the Loxton branch at Veitch, South Australia, 7 October, 2011--another fine photo by Jamie Fisher.

All Jamie Fisher photographs, Copyright 2011, and used with permission of the photographer.

A few more from Shane's. . .

2011-09-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

623/723 rail motor on a very un-NSWGR-like bridge. .

A few more photographs of my rolling stock on Shane Murphy's M-K-T/T&P-based layout in North Texas, taken during a running night last week.

Going-away view of "North-West Mail". . . .

Broad-side view of North-West Mail. . .

The 620/720 rail motor set. . .

Vertical view of 4716 leading North-West Mail. . .

The Freight Wagon Roster

2011-09-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

4716 hauls the North-West Mail --a pair of RACE vans, an MLV and a TRC ahead of the passenger equipment--on Shane Murphy's US-prototype layout in Argyle, Texas. Shane's a great guy, and doesn't mind the invasion of Australian equipment on some running nights.

How many pieces of rolling stock does it take to operate your layout? How many do you have, and how many more do you need? Are the types needed adequately represented?

These are all questions the prototype-based modeler hasto ask themselves. Ultimately, I'm guessing around 170 freight wagons will be needed (not all on the layout at the same time, mind you) to fully operate a full timetable of trains. I try to keep a spreadsheet of what I have on hand, what I have completed to operating condition, and how many more I need of the major car types.

Here's my roster, broken down by major car types. The first number is the actual number of completed cars or as-yet-unbuilt kits in my possession; the second number how many I've yet to acquire; the third number is the total number of cars of each type ultimately needed.

Guard Van:10-0-10
Bogey Wheat Wagons:FWH & BWH: 21-0-21
Bogey Wheat Wagon/WTY: 12-4-16
Bogey Wheat Wagon:WHX: 17-0-17
Four Wheel Wheat Wagon:RU: 17-0-17
Bogey Fertilizer wagons: NPBF, NPLF: 4-0-4
Steel S-truck: 12-8-20
Steel K-truck: 2-0-2
KF flat: 3-0-3
Bogie Open Wagon:BDX/ELX: 7-0-7
Bogie Louvre Vans: LLV/GLX/MLV/VLCX: 16-0-16
Bogie Cattle Wagon: BCW: 8-8-16
Bogie Flat Wagons: 4-6-10
Bogie refrigerated wagon/ TRC: 2-0-2
Bogie Water Gin: 1-0-1
Cement wagons: 2-0-2
Fuel pots: 0-8-8

I'd be curious to see the ratios of cars other layout owners have.

Another 47 class on the empty stock train, also on Shane's layout.

BCW (1959) fleet takes shape

2011-09-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

It was just coincidence that Trainorama announced the imminent arrival of a ready-to-run model of the NSWGR 1971-version BCW cattle wagon the same time I finally got around to building the Minimodels version of the 1959 wagons.

I ended up with seven of these kits through ebay and trades. They mostly sat unbuilt in the "to-do" box, their spot on the workbench delayed until such time that I decided to scratchbuild a new underframe for the cars. Thankfully, a resin casting from IDR became available, making it much easier to correctly model the low slung appearance of these wagons.

I'm guessing I'll need 12-15 BCW's for Narrabri North. The working timetable for the main north shows a Monday-Saturday Stock & Goods train from Moree, stopping each evening but Tuesday to pick up cars from Narrabri's saleyards for movement to market in Sydney. The branchline trains from Pokatatroo and Walgett are also scheduled to connect with these high-priority trains, so in the operating scheme of things it's important to have enough rolling stock to protect these assignments.

I followed much of Stephen Ottaway's article on modifying the Minimodels BCW that appeared in issue 9 of Australian Journal of Railway Modelling, with a few important short-cuts--Stephen's models are truly outstanding, but I had seven of these to build. The first major shortcut was the use of the IDR underframe. Stephen also used his skill in working with brass to fabricate outside braces and turnbuckles for the carbody using brass strip and brass wire. I instead used styrene in lieu of brass. Thirdly, Stephen used thin strips of copier paper glued and lightly sanded atop a new styrene roof to simulate aged Malthoid (tarpaper) roofing; I simulated this with paint instead.

The IDR underframes were a Godsend, but not without a couple of caveats. Apparently, these were intended to use with a pair of Casula CW carbodies combined to create the taller 1974 version of the BCW. The Minimodels carbodies of the 1959 cars are approximately 6" too wide. One could deal with this two ways: narrow the ends of Minimodels cars accordingly, or laminate thin styrene strips to the solebars of the IDR casting, adding "U" channel supports for the carbody to rest on. I did both, and visually, you can't really tell the difference.

Above the solebars, very little of these cars is metal, the wood weathering in the sun a lighter shade than the original gunmetal grey. I mixed a little Floquil "Weathered Black" in with Floquil "Primer" to simulate the faded paint, going back later with mostly primer paint "stippled" onto the carsides for further depth. The metal braces were dry-brushed with a rusty color (in this case, Tamiya XF-52 "Flat Earth"). The Malthoid on the roof was simulated with Polly-S "Engine Black", which looks fine when toned down with dullcoat.

So, with seven 1959 BCW, I'm now waiting for one or two four-packs of the 1971 BCW's from Train-O. I'd like to add a few kitbashed 1974 cars in PTC blue, also, built up from still more IDR underframes and Casula CW's.

I'm just about ready for train #694, the up stock train from Moree, to make its pick-up at Narrabri!

. . .and one MLV. . . .

Purchased an AR Kits MLV kit to join the already-assembled IDR version and the still-under-construction Minimodels aluminum MLV (another Minimodels offering requiring a modified or replacement underframe!). It only got a little more detailing than the basic kit: lamp brackets, side hand-railings, and a bit more underframe brake detailing. But it builds into a nice-looking kit despite its age and will look right at home on the head-end of the North-West Mail.

Newcastle Flyer!

2011-09-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a gem a friend stateside alerted me to. Enjoy!

In the meantime, the BCW project nears completion. Photos soon.

Railways at Work

2011-09-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool little vintage movie 1964 John Gillies tipped me off to. Reminds me of something I'd have watched while a schoolboy! So, while I'm cleaning off the workbench to get back finishing a small fleet of BCW, enjoy railways in the golden age!

Another One Bites the Dust!

2011-08-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

Union Pacific's Moscow Local switches the seed warehouses on Harry Bilger's Moscow UP/NP layout.

What is it with the layouts coming down? Seems I know of more being dismantled than abuildin' these days. . . while Dallas/Fort Worth was never a bit hotbed of prototype-based operating layouts, we're losing another great one with the imminent demise of Harry Bilger's very cool railway depicting the small town of Moscow, Idaho circa 1965.

You might remember this one from the 2009 Model Railroad Planning magazine. Harry, who grew up near the Red River in Sherman, Texas, memorialized the northern Idaho farm/college town of Moscow in an 11 X 22' layout in a separate building outside his Whitesboro, Texas home. Harry's been retired a few years, and he's making the wise choice to sell his home and nice wooded property and move with his wife into a senior's townhome down the road in Denton. Better to make the move now, while they still have their health, than when it becomes a real issue.

Harry made a career on the Milwaukee Road railroad in Chicago, but he chose not to model this great railroad, nor his childhood Texas lines, but Moscow, where he spent less than two years while attending University of Idaho. But what a railroad town! Moscow was served by branchlines of three railroads of the northwest, Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Great Northern. Harry's layout features the first two; his next, somewhat smaller layout in the new townhome will depict the GN in Moscow.

UP and NP shared a narrow corridor though Moscow, lined with grain elevators, seed warehouses, lumber yards, cement distributors and oil jobbers. It's a great prototype to model--relatively compact, with interesting operations. UP had a local originate here on a turn to Colfax, Washington; NP served Moscow with an out and back local from Pullman and two through freights and an RDC passenger train in each direction also ran thru each day.

I had a second opportunity to operate the layout last week, and it ran flawlessly. Harry's scratchbuilt structure are among the stars of the layout, and he's as interested in digging up a new fact or photo as he is adding another accurate boxcar to the railroad. There's nothing flashy on the railroad in Moscow--it's same old same old GP9's for power, and boxcars, flat cars, tank cars, and cement hoppers between that and the steel cabooses.

For my Aussie modeling friends, the lesson I take away from this American-based railway is this: Harry's layout is another argument for the notion that modeling the "ordinary" often results something that definitely is NOT boring.

It's a shame it's coming down in a few weeks, but I'm sure his next Moscow creation will be just as evocative. And I'll be 30 miles closer to his new place, so I hope to be a frequent visitor!

There's a few more photo's of Harry's layout here.

"back side" of the layout, featuring visible staging and NP's long cement/oil spur track.

Overview of Moscow, NP in the foreground, UP towards the back. The majority of structures are scratchbuilt to match their prototype.

Atmospheric scene of Moscow.

Looking across the NP yard toward the Union Pacific depot.

Alcos in the mail--and they aren't 48 class.

2011-08-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

Modeling NSW doesn't mean I don't have other modeling interests. I'll collect a few locomotives or freight cars of US railroads that might have sentimental or special interests. There's a small fleet of Milwaukee Road boxcars and grain hoppers and a nice Walthers rib side caboose in the closet. I've got a sweet Burlington Northern F45 from Athearn as a memento of seeing these giants in the Pacific Northwest. And I've kept a nice handful of rolling stock and the locomotives used on my Walla Walla Valley layout before my NWSGR modeling adventure: the two HH660 Alcos kit-bashed using Lifelike Alco S-series underframe and cab and a resin long hood--definitely custom, and I'm sure the only HO models out there when built painted for Walla Walla Valley!

That isn't the case anymore, since Atlas just released their own HH660 in WWV paint. Walla Walla Valley modeling has gone main-stream! Factory-equipped with an accurate McIntosh/Seymour 538 straight-six turbocharged sound decoder, how could I resist? The detail and running-qualities are better than my kit-bashed version, and the price was right.

They arrived today, only a few months after the order window closed. And I paid nearly $100 apiece under retail for them--under $180 each. And that's with sound. And I didn't have to pay in advance. Eat your heart out.

Times like these, waiting three years now for a trio of paid-for 48 Class Alcos to show up (late this year? In 2012?) makes me realize how tough you Aussie modelers have it. Small production runs=high prices. Small production runs+few retailers=no discounts. Small production runs=wait at the back of the line for the American manufacturers to finish their Chinese factory runs, then you'll have your turn. Okay, I share your pain. And I've got postage to pay as well.

So when I read whinging Yank modelers on internet discussion boards complaining that Athearn has fallen three months behind on their delivery schedule, how dare those bastards!, I really have to bite my tongue. You have no idea how good you've got it.

Waiting for the Mails.. .

2011-06-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

Oooh! Should be an exciting couple of weeks by the postal box.

Ordered a new Canon 60D body,which should be here by week's end. Will sell the Rebel XTi, still in great condition. Gotta get ready for Oz 2012, ya know. . .
New screen for the netbook. It sorta cracked getting jammed in the overhead bin coming back from Arizona in March;
AR Kits correcting my order for some freight bogies, and adding a few more to boot;
Mess o'fun stuff from IDR: some new underframes for BCW as well as a couple wagons Lance Lassen wanted to include on my order also;
And, finally, a set of Austrains FS/BS. . .and thanks to Eva Wong at Tom's Hobbies for being quick on the mark to send them to me so quickly after a month of inquires to Austrains were either gobbled up by the internets or not yet responded to. Once more, Eva and Tom's come through with exemplary customer service.

Now, I only have to find some time to put this stuff to use!

Lookin' fine for a 53-year-old!

This Budd's for ME!

Speaking of cameras and Australian trains. . .I managed to get out for an afternoon trackside to photograph a new commuter rail operation about 30 minutes north of my house, connecting the mid-sized city of Denton to a light-rail route into downtown Dallas. Eventually, this new operation, called the "A-Train", will be rostered with new, ugly "Diesel Multiple Unit" cars (ugly? Well, I'm just crass enough to say they look like dildos!), but until these are delivered, trains of leased Budd RDC diesel cars are handling the commute.

In the late 1950's it was the "Budd Car" that figured to be the savior of money-losing passenger train operators in the US and Canada. Nearly 400 of the diesel-powered Rail Diesel Cars--in five variations, including an unpowered trailer--were produced, the majority for eastern US carriers New Haven, Boston & Maine,and Canadian Pacific and Canadian National. Many had long careers as commuter carriers; some on medium-haul intercity services replacing more costly to operate locomotive-hauled trains. At one point, New York Central--I shit you not--strapped a pair of surplus turbo jet engines to one in order to set a world's rail speed record. By the 1970s, though, most US operators had retired their fleets, although they proved popular in Canada for nearly two more decades.

Where's the Australian connection? Budd built three for Commonwealth Railways in Australia; some look-alikes were also built down undah for NSWGR.

The cars operating on the "A-Train" --10 cars, in five, two-car sets--are all former CN and CPR cars leased from another North Texas commuter hauler, Trinity Rail Express. TRE has surplused them since acquiring a fleet of locomotives and cars based upon (and in some cases acquired from) GO Transit in Toronto. The "A-Train," then, has become the largest RDC-only passenger operation in the world. Quite a testimony to the self-contained, self-propelled passenger cars, the youngest of which are over 53 years old!

I won't walk across the street to photograph most of what passes for US railroading these days--but those Budds in Denton? Oh yeah.

Equally at home from Canadian forests to South Australian bush to the suburbs of Dallas. . .

Old-school modeling! It's in the can!

2011-06-17T05:21:00.001-07:00

Sure, the K wagon is $20--but three of these, along with the colorful Kodak film can--make a pretty spiffy oil tanker for less than $99 a three pack! And: bonus! It matches the diecast truck!

Sometimes I think we modelers today have it too easy. There's paint that's mixed to perfection for virtually whatever color your railway used. Detail parts a'plenty. And that fine ready-to-run equipment? It's so good, anymore, that it truly invites the winghers to take broadsides at even the finest efforts, nit-picking, I suppose, for the sake of nit-picking (and let's face it--the Internets give us each a place to be experts).

Something, perhaps, is lost from the old days of modeling. Remember? Well, it was before my time, but I've heard that folks used to whittle locomotives out of left-over pieces of firewood, make turntable pits out of old hubcaps fromVolkswagens, and laid track using old clothespins and stolen chrome trim strip from Chevrolets.

So I'd a bit heartened to see this revival of the resourceful modeler in recent popular modling magazines. In keeping with the reduce-reuse-recycle ethos of the Green Movement, modelers today are using everything they can from the rubbish bin to enhance their modeling. Plastic caps for paint cans? Sure! Bridge abutments! I have a friend who uses his wife's tampon applicators as pipe loads on flat cars (though make sure you ask her at the right time of the month to use them).

I'm inspired, most of all, by the growing movement to feature old film canisters. What could be more old-school than that? It's using remnants of a bygone technology! It's environmental sound! And what nostalgia! I used to have literally dozens of plastic Kodak film canisters rolling around in my car--I couldn't get rid of them fast enough. A few, of course, were kept for storing loose nuts, screws, Kadee couplers and, back in the freewheeling 80s, a bit of herbal relaxation (which could, in a pinch,be used as realistic ground cover, as long as you got rid of the seeds).

Imagine my amazement when I discovered a few of my dad's old Kodachrome canisters from the 1950s--even better than the two-tone grey plastic version, these were in bright Kodak orange and red--what a shame not to use them! And given the recent discussion about the accuracy of the new Austrains four-wheel tank wagons, why not put one to use atop a very nice IDR casting K wagon. The color scheme? Well, I'm sure it's a "what if?", but It almost could pass for Golden Fleece!!

What resourcefulness have you employed lately on your model railway?

A Good Weekend!

2011-05-21T05:16:00.001-07:00

This photo has nothing to do with anything in the below post. . .but is IS of an NSWGR subject, the 5-ton goods crane at Gunning. April, 2009.

I actually accomplished quite a bit this past weekend. Fine-tuned a bunch of hand-built points that were giving me fits (adjustments of point gapping, wing rail/guardrail clearances and gauge issues on the diverging routes, all easily fixed with file and soldering iron). Painted trackage I'd put down last week in Gurley. Added the Blue Point controllers and control knobs. Glued down the ceiling tiles and sculpted them into a loading bank, as well as sculpted the scenery in Gurley, and covered it all with a layer of brownish-earth colored latex paint.

And have removed three of the Fast Tracks "Bullfrog" switch controllers (reviewed here) that had, in the course of a year and a half and with little use, decided to become stubborn or downright inoperative. I'm guessing perhaps it has something to do with being made out of wood, which isn't as stable environmentally as plastic is. In any event, these have been shitcanned and replaced by Blue Points. I've just got one Bullfrog remaining in service, and when this one fails--as I suppose it soon will--I'll be rid of them (I think I've still got a half-dozen unopened somewhere under the layout).

The laundry list of "to-dos" on the layout before setting a running night is down to a precious few, and I'm well ahead of the late-June deadline I set myself.

Hoo-rah!

Lower Level work: Gurley

2011-05-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

With last month’s completion of lower level (Moree) staging, it was time to get serious about the visible lower level scenes. Two country towns, Edgeroi and Gurley, will represent the railway north of Narrabri, similarly featured with 6.5’ crossing loop, station building, grain silo and loading bank/stock race track.

I’ve modified the prototype track arrangement at Gurley somewhat to fit available space while keeping the rural feel of the place. A truly faithful rendition would place the silo and station building along the front edge of the layout. I’d mocked up the scene with the silo in front, and given the 15” height between layout levels, felt that a silo of nearly that height would visually break the scene in half. Instead, I moved the silo to the rear. I also moved the station building to along the backdrop for two reasons: in most cases, I find it more interesting to look at the platform side of a train station than I do its backside; and its narrow depth (scale 15 feet) made it a better fit along the backdrop than the load bank and stock race. At Gurley, at least, moving these to the front of the layout provides more modeling, detailing and photographic opportunities than it does jammed in against the backdrop. The scenery will be very North-West: flat, wide expanses of farmlands and golden grasses between the Right of Way fences; the “hole in the wall” leading to Moree will be obscured somewhat by a cluster of trees bounded with a bitumen level crossing.

CAPTION: Sketch of track arrangement at Gurley. The prototype is at the top, my version below.

I’ve yet to sculpt the ceiling tile scenery/roadbed base at Gurley, but this past weekend completed the track work, wiring, and installation of Blue Point controls. I’ve included a short video testing the concept, depicting a 44 Class-powered wheat train crossing a 620/720 rail motor set at Gurley. Painting track, adding ballast, and more scenery work is next—not to mention adding the load bank, building the grain silos and construction the station building-- but in its present form, Gurley is ready for operations!

The First Time. . . and The Last Time

2011-05-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

The first chance to really operate a large model railway is an exciting moment. All the anticipation built up from planning to construction to testing and acquiring the equipment finally comes to a head.

The last time to operate a model railway before its dismantling is more a time of reflecting on all that came before it. . .the good times shared with friends operating it, and taking stock of what the ‘next’ layout will be like—how to correct the deficiencies of the prior layout, maybe, and how to avoid similar mistakes the next go-round. And imagining how to make the next layout that much better.

These two experiences—the first time and the last time—were rolled into one the other afternoon when a few of us gathered at Lance Lassen’s house for the first and last operating session of his Ardglen Bank model railway.

Lance and his wife have been planning to downsize to a smaller home (an on-going process, given the lethargic US housing and mortgage market), and that means his good-sized layout based on the Ardglen grade in NSW will be coming down. Unfortunately, it’ll be coming down before it really got a chance to come into its own. Those who follow Lance’s blog will note it’s been curiously quiet for the past X months, time spent working on fixing up the house to put it on the market instead of working on the layout.

The layout would probably have come down without a chance to fully operate had I not shamed him into running it ‘just once.’ So for the better part of a weekend, Lance staged trains, cleaned track, and put together a scenario that would keep four operators busy running grain shuttles in and out of Werris Creek yard, banking coal and grain trains over the hill at Ardglen, and moving container trains of cotton out of the North-West. Lance models the early 2000’s, so the mix of motive power is certainly interesting: Silverton C’s and 442’s; GWA’s orange CLF/CLP and 22 class; Freight Corp/Pac National 80/81 class; CFCLA 44’s and bulldogs and EL’s; and a mix of LVRF 44 class in Red Terror, Blood & Custer and Heritage tuscan paint. There’s even a pair of Freight Australia X class as well as a lone interloper green A class bulldog that somehow strayed from the broad gauge and strapped on 4’ 8 ½” gauge trucks.( I won’t tell if you won’t.)

PARENTAL ADVISORY: R-rated language! First and Last Operating at Lance Lassen's Liverpool Range layout: 1)Freight Australia A Class on "Tamworth Fuel Train"; 2) Sound-equipped 4483 on Narrabri cotton train; 3) Spot-hired CFCLA EL class on PN grain load, 2X80 class bankers on rear; 4) same train cutting off bankers on the fly at Ardglen; 5) PN grain empty led by Ghan-painted NR passes waiting bank engines at Willow Tree; 6) 18-wagon coal train 2X80 class front and rear approach Ardglen; 7) 2 X 80 bank engines downgrade lite; 8) 28 grain wagons on the s-curve below Ardglen, 2 X CLF up front, 2 X 80 class banking.

If planning and good intention would guarantee a smooth running session, Lance’s layout would have shined like a Supernova during its brief life. Unfortunately, model railroading is a complex undertaking, made even more daunting by a layout his size—probably 30’ X 25’ and triple-decked in places. Such an investment in time, space and money requires vigilance and maintenance to keep it in running order, and unfortunately the gremlins were out in force. We found out the hard way when reversing some points that not every turnout had the necessary electrical gaps cut in them. Scenery in places intruded where it shouldn’t, inhibiting points from fully throwing. Random nail heads were discovered in rather jarring fashion to be protruding above rail level. But the biggest bugaboos were related to wireless throttles: while the layout ran flawlessly while Lance staged the trains with a single throttle the night before, his CVP “Easy DCC” was unable to handle four wireless throttles sending signals through stud walls. Consisted locomotives unconsisted themselves. And signals to and from locomotives were slow in processing, creating the uneasy situation of trains not stopping when they needed to. At frustrating times like these, it’s always good to mock the old slogan of Model Railroader magazine: “Model Railroading Is Fun.”

Lance was understandably upset when a gathering meant to celebrate a newly operating layout became largely a trouble-shooting session. But we reminded him that no layout operates flawlessly without many uncomfortable shake-down sessions first. It’s easy to operate your railway alone with a single throttle at three in the morning; quite another thing to have a roomful of guests all running trains. The session wasn’t a total washout: we found that with three throttles, the layout still operated quite well, so we were able to bring a few big trains up the hill out of Willow Tree, a pair of 80 Class Alcos pushing on the rear. For a moment, it was possible to see the potential this layout had, if only it would have survived a few more years.

Not to worry. A St. Kilda-Geelong AFL match played in the background on the telly, and after operating we watched a DVD of prototype operations over Ardglen (i.e. “Aussie Train Porn”); Emily, meanwhile, had been busy on the Barbie grilling sausages, chicken and pork ribs.

While it wasn’t the operating session Lance had imagined it would be, well. . .few sessions really live up to our expectations. Model railways aren’t a turnkey proposition. Smoothness in operation is only achieved by constant running, tweaking, and correcting. Eventually, you get to a point of reasonable reliability, But at best, model railroading is a social hobby, and despite the problems and frustrations, it was still a good afternoon spent with friends sharing a common passion for our model railways.

As you read this, Lance is probably tearing down this railway putting behind the frustrations of this first and last running session and no doubt dreaming of the next layout. Enjoy this video for what it is: a model railway as a work in progress. Don't mind the profanity and inane banter. It's what we yanks call "reality teevee."

MLV and KHG from IDR

2011-04-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

IDR's most-excellent MLV.

Gary Laker's excellent blog this week featured a review of the 36' MLV van produced by Ian Ratcliffe and sold through Hobbyland in Hornsby. I'd mostly finished with working on the kit a few weeks ago, waiting for a set of 2AE bogies to arrive in an order from AR Kits (my kit shipped with 2BR bogies; I'm sure these were right for some of the cars, but the photos I've seen of them sported 2AE's). I installed the new bogies, but have yet to paint them nor weather the rest of the car; I've got a set of corner shunting grabs and steps to install as well, but you get the basic idea from the accompanying photograph. I'm on a bit of an MLV kick right now. In addition to the single 36' MLV, I'm working on one of the MiniModel's aluminum MLV's as well as an ARKits version as well.

IDR's KHG, sans end ladder.

I also (nearly) finished IDR's excellent KHG brakevan. Amid the nearly-dozen Trainorama GJG, MHG and JHG on the layout, the KHG is a nice bit of variety. It went together quite well, the basic kit being a roof, an underframe, and a single piece with sides and ends. A fair amount of flashing was removed, primarily around the windows and on the bottom of the solebar on the car. The model includes etched brass stiles for the end ladder (which I stuffed up assembling; I'll have to give it another go), molded clear plastic window inserts, as well as lost wax brass castings for side steps--a pair were provided, but it'd be nice if three for each side for the goods compartment steps could be included as well; I ended up bending and soldering my own wire to make the rest. I used Railey's Tuscan paint (please don't tell the custom's officers how I managed to get a bottle of that home), which provides a nice contrast with the Indian Red found on the Trainorama vans. An excellent set of decals accompanies the kits. The car was weathered with an indian ink/isopropyl alchohol wash.

I'm also working on a pair of KF flats; more on those when I get them done.

Lower staging!

2011-04-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Four track staging in place. Capacity, 40 cars.

The sounds of power screwdrivers and saber saws were heard for the first time in months as Narrabri North finally got the lower staging yard that had been planned since day one.

Staging yards are about the least-sexiest part of building a model railway. Even moreso than bus wires and power drops! But for a fully realized and operating layout, they're among the most important.

After the helix was installed well over a year ago (or was it two years ago? Time flies!), I'd planned to put the lower staging yard representing Moree directly below the upper yard--right on top of the work bench. Lower staging would hover only six inches above the work bench, and take up 2/3rd the depth of the bench, requiring it to be removable to allow full use of the area.

But with the addition of the 15" deep Wee Waa layout section on the adjacent wall in the office/workshop, it seemed wiser to free up the workbench space permanently and place the lower staging yard beneath Wee Waa. All it would really require is one more hole in the drywall!

I've finally gotten off my ass, and now I've got the much-needed lower staging installed. All that's needed now is to hook up the electricals and connect it to the lower level on the other side of the wall in Gurley. Now running nights will have the benefit of a full staging yard top and bottom, and this will be further motivation to finally build permanent lower level trackwork.

It won't be long until I can start really thinking of putting together an operating session that takes advantage of the entire layout.

A Website for my Photographs. . .

I've made a lot of photographs over the past 35-plus years. And it seems a shame not to share them with folks. The question usually, though, is "where should I upload them?" I finally opened up a pBase account, and am slowly uploading piccies to my new site, here:

http://www.pbase.com/bkooistra/root

Right now, there's a few photos from my 2009 trip to New South Wales, a couple dozen from the Arizona rail photo trip last month, and just a couple from pre-adult photography of The Milwaukee Road. There certainly will be more to come, and among all the rail photos will likely be examples of my photojournalism work for newspapers in my "previous lifetime" as well as some favorite family and travel photographs. Likely I'll add some photos taken by my dad from 1939 into the 1970s.

Feel free to check it out, and don't be afraid to let me know what you think.

Austrains WHX's losing their shine. . .

2011-04-08T08:24:00.001-07:00

Before and after grain wagons. . .

Moved three of the Austrains WHXs out of the paint shop after appropriately weathering them and taking off that Fresh-from-Tulloch's gleam. This is all acrylics, with varied washes of india ink and alcohol. You'll notice I snipped the brake hangers off the bogies; perhaps the more accurate option would be replacement of the bogies all together, but I couldn't justify another $10/car when the modified bogey is "close enough." I understand many of these cars kept their modified trucks.

So, here's a group of "before" and "after" WHX's. The grain car fleet is getting prettybig these days!

If you're observant, you'll see a "Red Box/White R" logo on the car in the left background, an attempt at a bit of variety. I haven't seen any real pattern to which of these cars got the red box vs. the more prevalent white box.

Playing around with Video

2011-04-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

There's a dozen other things I should be doing this evening, but thought I'd try my hand at uploading a little video to YouTube and sharing it here.

While on my Arizona trip I made a little impulse purchase and bought a FlipVideo camera, which really makes shooting and sharing video a breeze--certainly better than my present video camera which records to a mini-DVD (which my iMac can't even ingest). . and then you have to jump through hoops to convert to a format to upload it and yadaydayda. . .

I'm sure the quality isn't the greatest here, though it looks fine on the telly, and the modeling certainly has some rough edges--but this is an experiment, not a finely-rehearsed and photographed Ray Pilgrim extravaganza. So, excuse all that, and excuse the cheesy canned music.

In any event, these are rail motors 723/623 departing Wee Waa for Narrabri while Freight & Stock schedule 696 awaits the road an hour behind the passenger.

Rejuvenated in Arizona!

2011-04-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

Sounding--and looking--great: Apache Railway, all-Alco power, southbound at Milepost 24.

I don't get out and photograph trains as much as I'd like--or, to be honest, as much as I should. Frankly, most of the modern stuff here in the United States leaves me absolutely bored. You Aussies might complain about all those 81 Class and NR's running around as being dull, but let me tell you, after over 1,000 Union Pacific SD70M's and even more BNSF C44/AC44/Gevo-whatevers, well, the old saying "if you've seen one train, you've seen them all" pretty much applies here.

But I didn't want to wait another year and a trip back to Australia to get trackside again, so I cajoled a few workmates to join me on a short trip during our late-March "spring break" period to fly to Phoenix, AZ and head into the mountains to photograph a couple of shortline railroads with interesting power and operations. The only stipulation I made on the trip was that I didn't want to waste my time along either the UP or BNSF mainlines photographing those Goddamn modern locomotives!

So, you'll have to excuse this diversion from modeling for a bit.

Our targets were the Copper Basin Railway, which hauls copper ore from a mine to a smelter amid the stark desert mountains along the Gila River. Trains are powered by EMD: GP39-2's and GP9s. Management is notoriously friendly about visitors--sign a release and you can head out to door and photograph to your heart's content, as long as you can get away from President Jake Jacobsen and his gregarious personality and deep well of railroading stories. Cab ride? No problem! They'll even call you on your mobile phone when you're out on line and see if you'd like to ride along!

North of CBRY two hours and over a mountain range is the Apache Railway, owed by a paper company and largely existing to move traffic between a paper mill near the town of Snowflake and the BNSF mainline at Holbrook. It is a favorite of railfans in the US for it is one of the few railroads left still using Alco locomotives--its entire seven-locomotive roster is gleaming, well-maintained Alco C420's and C424's. Its operations aren't nearly as fan-friendly, but contact with management ahead of time paid great dividends and great access as well.

I've uploaded a selection of photographs from the trip to my pbase account, so feel free to click on this link and look around a bit:

http://www.pbase.com/bkooistra/arizona_rail_trip_march_2011

I hope you enjoy the photographs and the wide-open Western U.S. scenery. It was a great trip, and great to be trackside again!

Wide-open desert scenery, Saguaro Cactus, and the Copper Basin Railway.

Any Wagon Experts Out There?

2011-03-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

I need help from those experts on rolling stock in the audience.

I just picked up a lot of three old Mini-Models MLV louvre van kits on ebay, and am looking for additional information on the prototypes of these cars.

From what I can gather, the models were based on a 25-car order of aluminum bodied 40' wagons constructed sometime in the 1950s. A photograph of one of these cars in new condition, 25693, is displayed in Preston's "Goods Train" and the accompanying caption says these cars were painted in the same maroon of the passenger equipment they often accompanied. There is no mention of these cars (at least explicitly) in Beckhaus' NSWGR 1982 rolling stock book.

A photo of the same car in latter day service is found on Rob O'Reagan's exhaustive photo site, taken in Albury in 1979. It appears by this date that electrical conduits for power to the train's hotel services have been fitted to the solebars of the car, and it now rides on modern roller-bearing trucks. It's tough to say looking at a black and white photograph, but it would appear the car has been repainted in gun-metal grey.

The Mini-Models kit includes a decal for number 25677; given that this car was produced in a 25-car lot, and the O'Reagan photo depicts the 25693, I'm assuming the cars were numbered in the 25675-25699 series.

Does anyone have any further information on this series of cars? Their paint scheme?

I really only need one of these cars for the railroad; I'd be willing to swap my two extra kits for a pair of AR Kits MLV cars, which would give me a good representation of three different styles of cars thus coded.

Off on Holiday!

2011-03-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Putting the modeling efforts to sleep now for the next couple of weeks. This upcoming week the boys are off on spring school holiday, so we're getting out of town to San Antonio for a few days; the following week, I'm meeting some railfan/work mates in Phoenix, AZ and we're headed off into the desert mountains to chase EMD's on copper hauling shortlines (and maybe some Alcos on the Apache Railway as well). That'll take me to the end of the month, and by then spring will be in full swing and I've a feeling the first round of yard work will be calling.

I took a break on the Wee Waa efforts last week to clean the layout room and track prior to having Mr. Brad Hinton over for a look. Brad, of Canberra, was in nearby (320km give or take) Austin for a "work convention" (wink wink, nudge, nudge) and kindly decided to hire a car and come up for a look and a visit, which included a stop by my employer, BNSF Railway, for a peek at our network operations center (mind-boggling, especially if one comes from a land were freight railroading is a marginal proposition at best). Great meeting and visting with you, Brad. We had a few trains ready to operate on the Narrabri layout and we didn't burn up any decoders. Next day I drove him to our local mega-hobby shop where we both helped the U.S. economy with hobby purchases.

Inspired by Ray Pilgrim's video and tales of sound decoder programming a TrainO 44, I picked up a Tsunami* Alco 251 decoder and installed it in the newly-arrived 4483. I'll get to hooking up the headlights and tweaking the programming soon, but the sound decoder was too cool a toy to leave in the package until I could do a "full deal" install. It went in easily and the sound quality is superb (despite the lack of appropriate NSWGR air horn). Once I upgrade the software chips in my Easy DCC system, I'll have more sound functionality.

The stock wagon fleet is growing, following a swap between myself and a fellow in NSW who was looking for Trainorama steel S trucks. I'd purchased 8 of them before realizing they were too "vintage" for my era, so I traded for a couple of custom bogie stock wagons and a couple more wooden S-truck kits from Casula. And right after this, an e-bayer was selling a big lot of both Minimodel BCW's and MLV's, both of which I'm in the mood to add to the roster. Between these (and modifying the BCW's per the AJRM article) and the dozen or so wooden S-trucks kits I have on the shelf, I'll be busy building more wagons for awhile.

Finally, there's the IDR KF, MLV and KGH models nearing completion on the paint bench, and, while the spray gun was out, toyed around with a bit of weathering on the Austrains WHX's, which are turning out very cool indeed. Photos of these and hopefully a lot more in our next installment!

* given the tragic events of the last week in Japan, Soundtraxx may wish to consider renaming its flagship decoder line which offers "a huge wave of sound." Prayers and thoughts to all those dealing with the tragedy.

Bedroom-sized layout, version 2: Walla Walla Valley #1

2011-02-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

WWV Alco heads onto street trackage on Rose Street.

Walla Walla Valley, version 1.0
2002-2004: The more I learned about the Walla Walla Valley railway, the more my modeling shifted towards adopting a stricter prototype adherence. In the short term, that meant rebuilding portions of the WWTCo. to closer emulate the WWV. The layout shifted from a freelance to a "prototype freelance"--the locomotives and some of industry names copied those found on the WWV, but the track plans, rolling stock, and structures still had little basis in reality. But the layout was a blast to operate--and it ended up being featured in Kalmbach's "Great Model Railroads 2005", which was quite an honor. By the time the magazine appeared in print, though, we'd already moved to a bigger house, and a more fully realized prototype-based WWV layout was underway. . .

There's more than you'd probably ever want to know about the Walla Walla Valley Railway, prototype as well as model, on my website. Lots of historic photographs. A fairly extensive history. Equipment rosters of both the electric and diesel fleet. Recollections of those who worked for the railroad. And tons of stuff about my modeling the WWV, including how the layout was operated and sample paperwork items. . .all right here.

WWV's two HH660 Alcos ready for a day's work at the carbarn.

Leased Northern Pacific Baldwin works the cold storage spur.

WWV leaves Potlatch mill and enters Rose Street, passing the Baer scrap yard.

Side-by-side switching on Rose Street and the cannery lead.

Before I Modeled NSW (part one). . . .

2011-02-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

Union Pacific GP9 interchanges with freelanced Walla Walla Traction Co. SW-1 at the WWTCo's small yard.

A good deal of this blog's readership are modelers from Australia, who likely aren't very familar with my modeling interests prior to taking up NSW outline in 2008. So, here's a bit of a recap of the long-ago modeling days of 2000-2004, back when Mary and I were newlyweds and new parents, and a 10 X 12' bedroom in our old home contained my modeling hobby.

A good narrative of these early small bedroom railroads with lots of illustration are available on my Walla Walla Valley website, so I'll just share a few photos of the earliest layouts.

Walla Walla Traction Company
2000-2002: The original bedroom layout, a freelanced former interurban railroad in eastern Washington, making its trade much like the actual Yakima Valley Transportation (but without the steeplecab electrics) hauling lumber and fruit in the late 1960s. Originally, Bachman 70-Ton GE's were used, supplanted with Walthers SW-1s. The layout occupied three walls, hung from shelving brackets 63" off the floor. On the left wall was the Potlatch lumber mill, with three staging tracks (representing Union Pacific and Northern Pacific) hidden behind the mill. The middle wall featured WWTCo.'s ice house, small yard, and engine house. The right wall portrayed the cold storage and packing sheds which loaded mechanical and ice reefers with apples and varied vegetables. As enjoyable as the freelance concept was, what I came up with was so close to the actual Walla Walla Valley Railway that after a couple years decided to just devote my modeling and research time on a prototype railroad, and converted the WWTCo. to the WWV, rebuilding some of the layout to a still highly freelanced version of the WWV.

Silver-trucks on WWTCo 60 were a short-lived experiment. "Too flashy," declared management.

An overall view of one wall of the WWTCo.

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Snazzy SW-1's purchased to replaced the GE 70-tonners pose for the company photographer.

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WWTCo. interchanged with Union Pacific, which used SW9's like this Life-Like model.

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For a small bedroom layout, there was enough work to keep two two-person operating crews busy for an hour or two.

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The Potlatch Lumber mill was a major customer.

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That Static Cling. . .

2011-02-20T05:17:00.001-08:00

Thanks be to all who pointed me to the directions for the Grassinator or sent me instructions or PDF files of the actual Grassinator website pages. Seems the US supplier of the Ion Generator is selling these no more--no doubt some sort of "homeland security" concern. I'll try to source them from Australia, where apparently they're still available.

One More Photo?

Though during my era 44 Class weren't operated out to Wee Waa, I can't resist messing with reality just this one time to depict 4464 delivering a rake of shiny new WHX aluminum wheat hoppers to town, as the branchline goods waits patiently in the loop. The photographer was apparently riding in one of many colorful balloons in the yearly Wee Waa Hot Air Festival. Don't you believe it!

Wee Waa progress: Dirt and rock

2011-02-18T00:34:00.001-08:00

Rail motor set makes its station stop at Wee Waa; 47 class and guard van for the branchline goods train take refuge on the old stock track.

My guilt is somewhat assuaged. Trackwork and wiring last week at Wee Waa has given way to an initial layer of dirt ground cover and ballast, and by golly, Wee Waa is starting to move beyond the "Plywood Pacific" stage it has languished in for the past couple of years.

The dirt is. . .dirt. It's been sitting in a big bucket in the garage the past couple of years, and while it isn't true Australian dirt, it isn't the usual Texas kaliche. The ballast is Arizona Rock and Mineral Great Northern Basalt ballast, N-scale (the HO stuff looked too coarse). It matches the shade of several photos from the North-West. I'm going to assume it was from the pit in Ardglen? Or possibly from the small ballast quarry near Bellata?

I'd be all hot to get going with static grass and various green shades of weeds and other ground vegetation, but it seems the website that for years had carried instructions for making a cheap static grass applicator--the "Grassinator"--is in "rebuilding" mode. . .which either means it will someday return, or it will be lost to the ether. Hopefully the former, for I didn't bother to download instructions on building the device!

I've shunted the goods train at Wee Waa a couple of times since completing the track and wiring, and it's good fun. Stick a home signal just short of where the tracks disappear through the wall, and it makes the work that much more entertaining not to go beyond the safeworking limits with long pulls or run-arounds.

IDR Delivers. . .

Another fun little box from Australia arrived this week. My order from Hobbyland in Hornsby, specifically several resin kits from Ian Ratcliffe. Beautiful stuff! I purchased a KHG guard van, 1957 fishbelly MLV, and a pair of KF four-wheel flat wagons. The castings are first rate, the instructions clear and well-illustrated. I was quite tempted to put forearm on workbench and with a mighty swipe clear off enough room to get started on them, but I resisted and worked on Wee Waa instead. I'll certainly be a return customer.

Saturday afternoon piccie. . .

2011-02-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

Somewhere north of Narrabri. . . an empty block of grain wagons bound for refilling at Moree wait out a cross with an up load during harvest season in the North-West, circa 1974. Two new WHX aluminum hoppers on the head end compete with the relatively clean 44 Class in reflecting the rising sun. All's quiet except the occasional stirring of the Alco 251 powerplant, the call of birds and the occasional hum of rubber tires on the parallel Newell highway.

Of course, all is not as it seems. It's a photo on the layout, of course, but taking advantage of "glinty light" helps pass it off a little more as the real thing. I had cleared off the Wee Waa section of the layout to paint track and base scenery and while leaving the room looked back and saw late afternoon light from a southern exposure window nicely lighting up the scene in something approximating the right at sunrise or sunset "glint" lighting I like so much.

With the usual fluorescent layout lights on, there's nothing special with the scene:

But with just indirect ambient light, there's definitely something to work with. Maximum depth of field (f29), a low camera angle, and long exposure (10 seconds, ei 200) with a 1 stop under-exposure EV value deepens the shadows and keeps the highlights from blowing out. There's not much color in this scene, but there's enough contrast to work with:

From here, it was all a matter of manipulating the color, cropping the scene, and merging the photo with an appropriate sunset view (for the record: Soldier Summit, Utah, 1979). I'm happy with the results. The harsh lighting goes a long way to hiding the fact that I've got no ballast or real sceney down yet. Actually, that's what I should be doing rather than making photos of the layout!

Wee Waa: a country branchline station

2011-02-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

Looking down-bound (towards end of branch) at east end of Wee Waa, 1981. Photo from flickr, courtesy opsbooks,used with permission.

Ice and snow in Fort Worth--brrr. Quite extraordinary, actually, though last year we got one big storm with 14" of snow. The past week has brought us three blasts of winter--ice, a bit of snow, and another shot of ice. It's been enough to keep me inside and brought me back to working on the railway! Quite a change from summer in Australia, where it's quite toasty warm and the sun beats down when there isn't a bushfire or cyclone or torrential flood to deal with.

Ah yes, Australia. And specifically, oh little town of Wee Waa.

I want to get at least one "scene" relatively completed in the next couple of months, so bit off the smallest chunk I could, the 9-feet of benchwork in the upstairs office containing the branchline town of Wee Waa.

Most of the track had been in place for over a year, but I'd had a couple of points left to build and wire to truly finish the trackwork off. And in studying the prototype plan a bit more closely, I decided to add a crossover off the loop in order to allow shunting the goods shed without disturbing the load bank. Such an extravagant use of points would be considered "unprototypical" in the states, where railroads do whatever they can to avoid maintaining trackage like extra crossovers and the like. But that's part of the point of a Yank modeling Australia, isn't it? To build a railway that clearly isn't the same as Bob Santa Fe or Jerry Union Pacific's pike.

Newly-revised Wee Waa.

All that's left is a few feeder wires and adding the point control rods and I'll be ready to get crackin' with scenery, a dash of paint on the backdrop, and finishing the goods shed, station and load bank before tackling the rest of the structures: there's a grain silo, the water tank by the level crossing, and a cement flood control weir where tracks pass through a levee on the up side of town, in deference to the often-flooding Namoi river.

I'm looking forward to getting the wiring and point rodding in tomorrow, so I can fire up the DCC and run a short goods train into town and give this track arrangement a test drive!

For a little vignette of what this part of the Walgett branch looked like in 1974, check out this link to a travelogue by Brian Ayling. Cool stuff.

And thanks to John at collectingbooksandmagazines.com for permission to use the photo at the top of this posting of Wee Waa. Wonderful view, eh? He's got a ton of other great photos of Australian life in his flickr account, which I can't recommend highly enough.

The Roster Groweth

Last month, I became the quite happy recipient of eight Austrains WHX grain wagons, which are all new and shiny silver and quite noticeable on the layout. Once I fire up the Iwata brush, I hope to put an end to that! That was followed by six nice RACE containers by SDS--perfect for the OCX/OCY flats I constructed in 2010.

It's been about a year since I splurged on much equipment for the railroad. Now that the WHX's are safely aboard, I'm now waiting the postman to bring one more Train-O 44 Class, and a few resin kits from Ian Ratcliffe's IDR product line--a pair of KF flat wagons, a KHG brakevan, and a MLV louvre van for the mail train.

And then it could get ugly (or, rather, expensive). There's the Train-o MHG brake vans next month, then a pack of Austrains FS/BS/BSR coaches for the mail train after that, and more RACE containers to get from On Track and SDS, and a pack of SDS's OCY's, and, oh my, at least three packs of those tasty Tulloch tanks from SDS as well.

Like I said. It's going to get ugly. But you either have to get them now, or miss them (or end up paying high $$ from some clown on e-bay). Thank God the 48's aren't here now, or Eureka's DEB sets! It's going to be tough enough to scrimp the $$ together for airfare down under early 2012 without all these models. I'm going to have to pray for more snow and start shoveling driveways for my neighbors!

My Essential Library

2010-12-29T14:48:00.001-08:00

Safe Hands, signalman Vic Smee, Kankool, May 1965. Photo copyright Robert and Bruce Wheatley

My wife Mary treated me great for Christmas, for she braved the rigors and fears of overseas credit transactions and two-week shipping times to give me the Wheatley brother's Railway Portraits Volume Two.

What a wonderful book, just as their first one was. Besides the quality of the images, their photography from the final days of steam railroading on the NSWGR appeals to me in so many ways--their ability to capture a moment, composition, and story-telling qualities, sure, but the humanity of the endeavour of operating the railway comes through in each photograph. I feel a connection to the people in the photographs, but also to the photographers, for how they came to make these photographs is very similar to my own early days trackside. While Robert and Bruce made themselves a fixture in the loco depots and platforms of the railway in the late 60s and early 70s, I too took up a camera in my mid-teens and spent a couple of intensive years photographing in black and white a railroading way of life that was doomed: the last years of the legendary Milwaukee Road in the Pacific Northwest of the states.

We certainly shared similar experience: late night photo sessions trackside in freight yards; roaming the locomotive shops as heavy repairs were being done; asking for cab rides; nagging station staff for train movement information; and, when the photography was all done, coming home and developing those black and white images in a makeshift darkroom in Mom's laundryroom.

Though I'm not a steam guy, per se (though the texture and detail in adding steam locomotives are certainly tempting to model!), much of the infrastructure and process of operating the NSWGR in 1965 was the same as it was in 1978-80, my modeling era. Thus, the photographs are a deep well of information to dissect and apply to my modeling.

Not only do I have the disadvantage of modeling an era now 30 years in the past, I model a location I really have no intimate knowledge of--so recollections of those who were there and books and photographs are mostly all I have to go on. That said, developing a library to assist my modeling is essential.

What are my essential titles in my Australian railway library? In no particular order:

Railway Portraits, Vol. 1 & 2
Day of the Goods Train, Ron Preston, Eveleigh Press: the nuts and bolts of operating goods trains, from infrastructure to goods sheds, wagons and air brakes to telegram messages.
From Grease to Gold Braid, Ken Ames, Iron Horse Press: for this Yank, a great autobiography of how "coming up through the ranks" worked in NSW. The lifetime career of a station master, his training, assignments and responsibilities. Drags a bit at times, but lots of nuggets of information I can apply to the model railway.
48:Backbone of the Railway, Ron Preton, Eveleigh Press. The essential book on the essential NSWGR branchline locomotive. Really what inspired me to model Oz railways in the first place.
Units in Focus, Mead, Cotterall, Renton, Roundhouse Press. I've borrowed Lance Lassen's copy of this long out-of-print 1980 title so long he probably doesn't remember I have it. Precisely the era I model, and a fascinating mix of locos and freight loading back when trains were short and guard vans still rode along for the ride. Many great views of wheat trains out of the North-West. A companion title to Cotterall's earlier end-of-steam book.
Country Railway Stations: New South Wales series, edited by John Sargent, Train Hobby Publication. Chances are there's a station depicted in this six-volume series that you're currently modeling. Invaluable color resource depicting structures, paint colors, track arrangements and trains.
Branchline Modeler/Australian Journal of Railway Modeling,Vol. 1-10: Thank God these are still available. In depth coverage of modeling projects and topics, the likes of which you won't find much anymore in the current leading Australian railway modeling magazine. And not one article on recycling old film canisters or paint can lids! Hopefully, this magazine will come back in the near future.
Modeling the Railways of New South Wales, Convention Notes, 1986-2007. A full CD-R chock full of varied notes on convention topics; sort of a more organic version of AJRM on PDF.
Freight Wagons in New South Wales, 1982 John Beckhaus, AHRS, 1982. I've got to hand it to the "Mexicans," as they have probably a half-dozen titles on rolling stock: passenger equipment, two-axle and bogey freight wagons, etc. covering the Victorian Rail fleet. This thin thirty-year-old glimpse of the NSW PTC freight roster will have to do, I suppose. Not particularly well-illustrated given the constraints of format, but a snapshot of the fleet right at the tail end of the transition from two-axle equipment to modern bogey freight cars, just as the four-letter Australian-wide code system took over. I've scanned it to PDF's and store it on the hard-drive for easier access.
A Bulldog Odyssey, Bamberry. While these gorgeous EMD's were never found in Narrabri, and the book covers NSW only as part of a continental view, the color photography within its pages is stunning and inspiring.

Any titles on here I've missed that would further help me understand and model the North-West, circa 1978-80? What titles have inspired you?

The Sun God!!

2010-12-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

I recommend the latest issue of Australian Railways Illustrated, if you're not on the subscription list. I just got mine in the post today, and if last issue's salute to the Indian Red/Brown/Tuscan/whatever-you-want-to-call-it era of the NSWGR wasn't tasty enough, this latest issue goes whole hog with a portfolio of classic Graham Cotterall color photographs.

Graham just turned 65, and has been seriously photographing railways, first in Queensland, later in New South Wales, since he was a teenager. He's bridged the gap from medium-format black and white to 35mm slides and today is still banging away with Canon digital gear. Though he experienced the steam era first hand, and its gut-wrenching transition years (and authored a black and white book about it; two, if you include "Units in Focus," the all-diesel volume from the era I model), he's still modern-as-today in his photographic interests: you won't find him track side at the steam museum triple-headers, I'd suppose, when there's a down goods train in good light on the Central West. When he's not trackside--and, I suppose, even when he is, giving cellular communications--he's a locomotive assignment manager for CFCLA and sometimes driver for Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

Now, I've never met Graham personally. We have a few mutual friends, though, and I'm fortunate to be on the receiving end of the latest stunning e-mail with a photo or two from him. We were going to get together in 2009 during my first visit, but he was on holiday with his family in Queensland, but Graham certainly kept Lance Lassen and I informed as to train movements we might be interested in photographing. He's sometimes called "The Sun God," for he seemingly never takes a photo when it isn't full-out sunny. The sun, we joke, just follows him around.

So, please, check out the selection of his work in the latest ARI (I'd provide a website link, but I can't find it in the mag anywhere!).

It all started under a tree. . .

2010-12-15T23:36:00.000-08:00

My e-mail Christmas card. Click for the full effect. . .

It's been too damned long since I've updated this blog. So long, in fact, I've forgotten what format to publish this in! In this case, no news is no news, I suppose, since I've not touched the models since completing the first cement car last summer. But not working on the layout doesn't mean I've not been busy elsewhere: a great summer with the kids, visitors from Australia, and too much time doing computer-related stuff--mostly getting serious about scanning a good portion of my 30,000 35mm Kodachrome railroad slides dating from the mid-1970s, as well as jettisoning the old Wintel PC for a shiny new Macintosh. Yes, I'd drunk the Kool-Aide. And yes, it is a fabulous machine.

What's Santa putting under your tree? I'm keeping it simple this year: a couple terabites of computer storage for all those photos. And crossing my fingers my wife will brave international commerce and get me a copy of the Wheatley brother's new book. The "other" stuff I can get myself, and I'm waiting on some SDS RACE containers, some Austrains WHX wagons, and I need to get off my duff and order some resin kits from Ian up in Hornsby.

All this building and scheming and acquiring of model railroad stuff, for many of us, wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Holidays in the first place. There was always a Lionel 3-rail train under our Christmas tree growing up: my father, expecting to have a son for his first child, loaded up on Lionel trains in 1954, shortly before--oops! this was in the day before ultrasound--my older sister was born. It was another six years until I came along; and it took a dozen years, but by Christmas 1973 I was in full-blown infatuation with model trains. Our local hobby shop--the kind with erector sets, model trains and a slotcar track in the back (remember those? before the internet shut most of them down?)--had an AHM Union Pacific passenger train set for sale, and I literally had dreams night after night about owning that.

It wasn't a big surprise on Christmas day when it showed up under the tree: my father had spent many an evening and a couple Saturdays building me a basic 4 X 8 foot oval of track, passing loop, and industry tracks, fibre flex track laid down on a baseboard painted in glossy green enamel grass and black streets. Finally, my dad had someone to share his love of railroads with. He wasn't too pleased when I, imagination stoked by articles in Model Railroader magazine, began changing the track plan around and kitbashing buildings into something else. His pristine sheet of plywood was no longer pristine. No matter. My commitment to modeling began, whether my father was pleased or not. And it's led all this way over 37 years, layout to layout, dalliance with one railroad and then another. It all began with that Lionel train under the tree, and really got going with those hyper-speed AHM Union Pacific E-units.

To all of you who bother checking in and reading this occasional blog, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and all that stuff!!

PRX for your cement?

2010-07-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

Needing a bit of weathering and good to go: the AR Kits PRX with Keiran Ryan walkway and ladder kit.

Just about finished with the first of two ARKits PRX code pneumatic cement wagons. This model represents a car from the first of three orders from Mittagong, circa 1979. It's equipped with interstate bogies and wears PTC teal blue ends and underframe.

These cars were just being delivered during my era of modeling, so they'll require only a light treatment of weathering. The supplanted the cylindrical ARX cars (not available as a model, but have at it with a CH or WHX as a source for kitbashing), but will look good riding the through goods trains to and from Moree, as they seemed to accumulate in small blocks. The cars are still going strong 30 years later, though beat to hell and now thoroughly caked in cement dust.

The ARKits model has been out a few years, and is an easy to assemble, if somewhat crude, representation of the car. You'll often see these show up on layouts in the pages of AMRM or at exhibition railways, usually assembled right from the box with hideously thick ladders and walkways. The underside of the model isn't much better--there's little attempt to represent anything more than a crude arrangements of plastic blobs for the air reservoirs, and missing entirely is the crazy maze of air lines running all over the place.

Thankfully, Keiran Ryan rides to the rescue with a nice brass etch of the walkways and ladders, both easy to place and assemble (his additional drilling jig for the walkway works like a charm as well). Using just the ladder and walkways will elevate this model considerably; he also includes corner stirrups and additional detail for the brake spider.

Most folks won't notice the lack of any real detail under these cars--why would they, unless your model ends up on its side, eh? However, the photos on Ryan's website for the detail features several views of the underside of these cars. . .taken, wouldn't you know it, of a car on its side after a dustup.

I decided to remove the plastic blobs and add a little more detail--air reservoirs from the AR Kits brake sprue, as well as brake cylinder and clevis. I added the brake chain, the rods for the handbrake, and a few select air lines running under the car. From the sides, it looks convincing enough without being completely anal.

I am not a fan of silver acrylic paints, as they often are very "grainular"in appearance no matter how well mixed. I fell into this trap once again by painting the car with Polly Scale Bright Aluminum. This didn't look too good, so I elected to strip the car and use Floquil laquer-based Bright Aluminum. Stripping the car was made easier by the lack of adhesion of the Polly Scale on the slick AR plastic. The Floquil paint went down very smooth and with a reflective lustre matching new aluminum. With a bit of dull coat from a can, it knocked off the sheen and gave the car the slightly oxidized look I was after.

This car is far from perfect; the roofwalk is a bit wavy and I goofed on the stand-off distances for the ladders to the roofwalk platforms (hint: they're different on each side). But it was a good learning experience and I look forward to the second car's construction. They look so cool, I might just need three or four.

Comparative "blob" underframe from AR Kits, top, and my somewhat detailed underframe treatment, bottom.

Visitors from Down Under. . .

I often joke that being one of the few Aussie modelers in the US means that it's very unlikely anyone visiting the layout will "count rivets" on me and tell me I'm doing something wrong.

Unless a modeler from Australia visits the layout, of course.

Which happens next week for the first time when we welcome John Gillies of Canberra to Texas. He's on a month-long holiday in the states with his three daughters, and we look forward to seeing him again (we met up in Gunning when I visited Oz in 2009). Now, John's too nice a guy to show me up and call attention to an inaccuracy in my Oz modeling, probably, but I luck out this time since he's a Victoria native and a modeler of US prototype to boot. Burlington Northern, it turns out. The railroad I grew up next to. So I'd try to be nice to John, too, and hold my tongue when I visit his layout on my next visit down under. Not that i'd have to--John's an excellent modeler and thorough researcher. And a helluva nice guy. As long as I don't wear a Geelong jersey (he's a Hawthorn fan).

We look forward to stuffing the Gillies clan with Mexican food. Maybe some agave? I wonder if he'd swallow the worm?

Welcome to our part of the world, John, Melissa, Caitlin and Thea!