Welcome to Buggardine!

 A classic 1980 view by Chris Anderson of a Gwabegar-bound goods train between Ryalstone and Mudgee, with a 48 Class up front followed by an assortment of S-wagons, a bogie goods van, nad several flat wagons loaded with RACE containers. RACE was  a cooperative effort by several Australian state rail systems to pool containers for domestic less-than-carload shipments of traffic (think: United Parcel Service). These cars would be set out at Mudgee.

That's what I'll call it for now--the new New South Wales branchline terminal layout I've decided to plow ahead with.

I like a little bawdiness in my Australian place names. South Coast Rail has a whole epistle given to unusual Australian place names. (Burrumbuttock--there's a name to fuel the imagination. How about Coonabarabran? I'm mostly intrigued on that one given the Wikipedia entry on how it got its name: 
 "It seems no one really knows the source and meaning of the word Coonabarabran. It may derive from a person's name or from the Kamilaroi language word 'gunbaraaybaa' meaning 'excrement', translated earlier as meaning, 'peculiar odour', this possibly is a bowdlerisation. Another meaning is derived from an Aboriginal word for 'inquisitive person'."  Quite a divergent pair of choices. I'm guessing the former is the real story, and the Aboriginals just told the settlers the latter to appease them. But I digress.) Walla Walla doesn't even make the list!

So, there will be no double-decked dual Walla Walla railway this time. I'm sticking to New South Wales, and proto-freelancing a rural branchline terminal. I'd been kicking this one around for quite awhile after seeing railway models in Australia based on this concept. Bowen Creek quite comes to mind. And most recently, Burrowa. I like the idea of a sun-baked, drought-stricken nowhere little town in central New South Wales. Call it late 1970s, when rural traffic was in decline. The franchise was on shaky legs. The inspectors weren't as regular out on the far reaches of the territory, so the paint is peeling, the weeds and high grasses are taking over the roadbed, and without steam, those Sellars turntables are starting to get a little balky in their operation.

I scaled back ambitions from Narrabri this time. I'm hoping that by concentrating on the visual and operating experience of such a branchline terminal, I can accomplish my goals. I'm still striving for operations, but realistically I know I'm somewhat of a lone wolf (with a few other wolfs time to time for company) and need to have a railroad that is fun to build and scenic, doesn't require an overwhelming amount of rolling stock or locomotives, and can be operated by two or three--or even one.

So, welcome to Buggardine. Okay, bad joke--but the original name, Dilgonga, was even more double-entrendred.

Where is Buggardine? The name is influenced by Baradine, on the Gwabegar line. I love the Warrambungles, and the idea that grain trains came off the plains and down the canyons of this rugged piece of New South Wales. I didn't want to be constrained by an actual prototype, so le's forget for now that Gwabegar didn't exist, and Buggardine did.

 Another 1980 Chris Anderson view, as the 4853, an earlier series 48 class, wheels 10 empty S-wagons and a GHG guard van along the Gwabegar branch near Yearinan with a Baradine-bound goods train. Light rail and minimal ballast!

It's a small town, maybe the council seat of the shire. To the south and west are the jagged Warrambungles. To the north and east, the flat plains of the wheat belt. A thrice-weekly goods train calls here, the timetable bolstered by conditional extra schedules for wheat, occasionally livestock movements, and depending upon contracts, containerized cotton extras (the cotton industry, as it has in the nearby Namoi region, has recently taken root in the area, and containers are loaded on a newly-paved apron adjacent to the old flour siding).

The infrastructure is typical of rural NSW locations: station, loading bank, light crane, goods shed. A silo. Livestock pens. There's a weed-grown track leading to a 60' turntable and unused coal stage, and near there, a decaying bunk house for crews that no longer stay in town. A stationmaster's home, water tank and ganger's shed complete the terminus scene; two parallel sidings run into town, serving two oil distributors and a flour mill, and the aforementioned new loading area for cotton containers.

Just outside of town, on a separate dead-end siding with a run-around track, partially obscured by trees and rising hills, is a new, modern wheat board high-throughput grain elevator complex, visited in season my tandem branch line locomotives and the new WHX/WTY wheat wagons.

Completing the scene is a panorama leaving town, dropping down into the Warrambungles, a peaceful scene across the paddocks where sheep and cattle graze.

It seems doable, and given the right amount of "restraint," I have the room to keep the layout uncrowded and believable.

 

 Just a sketch, but. . .you get the idea.

Emerging from a cloud of (probably toxic) dust.

 How I started the morning: destruction as a form of art. . .

Spent most of this weekend tearing down North of Narrabri. It's not really gone--somewhat careful demolition (you can never be too careful!) to recycle whatever assets of the old layout has allowed me to be "sustainable" (in the modern parlance) and not toss too much unwanted lumber out the upstairs window.

Seriously. After removing most of the lower deck, I was able to open the windows, letting the sunshine into the layout room for the first time in 5 or 6 years. My 10 year old son, Ian, exclaimed that he "didn't know there was a window there!".

It's tougher to tear down a model railroad than it is to build it. In my case at least, construction was problem-solving-as-you-go. And in the heat of wanting to make progress, construction proceeded not in the most logical, linear fashion. Meaning that lots of times, screws were driven in from the top side of the benchwork instead of below. Why is this important? When it comes time to tear that mother down, you'll discover that the screw heads you need access to are buried under the scenery. Something I mean to remember each time--but rarely do.

In the meantime, it's a godawful mess--as bad as it was the last time I tore down a layout, the Walla Walla Valley, back in 2008. Worst part is the dust from the pressed paper ceiling tiles used as sub-roadbed. It's like springtime in Lubbock in here. Everything is covered with a layer of white dust. I always ask myself why I insist on the ceiling tile--why not use pink foam? I guess with the foam I'd just be trading white dust for pink staticky dust.

The helix was generously donated to a UP switchman in town who could use it for his layout he hopes to build in the future. Lower level lighting and a chunk of excess NSWGR rolling stock ended up with my mate Lance Lassen. About half of the rest of my Aussie stock was offered up via Facebook, and all of it so far has either been sold off or spoken for. I'm guessing my asking prices weren't e-bay astronomical. I hope the new recipients of the models are happy with their purchases.

So this begs the question I get a lot now: So, are you done with modeling Australia? Are you going to do another version of Walla Walla Valley? I've been coy in the past, repeating the "conceptually linked" line one layout designer used in Model Railroad Planning to justify a two-level layout, with two different railroads, not physically linked. "Conceptually Linked?" Well, in addition to the Walla Walla in Washington State, USA, there's a Walla Walla in New South Wales. . . served at one time by the NSWGR. Could THIS be my next layout?

Stay tuned!

 By the end of the day: a bit tidier. . .and a clue as to what's next . . .

The End. . . for now.

 

Not the beginning of the end--rather, the end of the beginning!

The End of a Model Railroad is rarely something to celebrate, and the case of North of Narrabri is no different.

Readers of this by-now semi-annual blog about building North of Narrabri have well noticed the lack of updates; those times I have updated in the past few years, it's mainly been to assure my dwindling number of followers that I'm still in the game, just not working as intently as I did before.

So with the deepening layer of dust on the layout from lack of use, inspiration and progress (measured at 115 scale centimeters at last count), it became obvious that as time went on, it was becoming tougher and tougher to get back on that modeling wagon without some big lightning bolt of inspiration to bring me back in there.

My kids had largely taken over the train room, which I don't really begrudge them, as one of the early tenants of the layout's design was to open up the room for use by the rest of the family.

In the past couple of years, though, other interests in my life have emerged to edge the modeling from priority status. We did a bit of remodeling of the house, which certainly diverted time and money from the model railway. Last November I acquired a 1966 Ford Thunderbird, which while not needing much work at all, called me either to the garage downstairs to troubleshoot the constant little nags, or to the open road to enjoy such a vintage piece of Michigan Steel.

And lastly, the acquisition of a new, smaller, lighter mirrorless Fuji X-series camera system has rekindled one of my earliest loves: photography. It was my photography interest which grew as a result of my initial railway interest in the mid-1970s, and eventually provided me 10 years of employment as a photojournalist. But photography for the sheer pleasure of making images of things that struck my eye became less and less of an occurrence once I left the profession to become a railroader in 1994.  Since starting a family, the only times I went out of my way to make photographs were family events or for railroad photography--and apart from trips to Australia in 2009 and 2012, I'd done very little of that. The Fuji cameras made photography fun again, and I'm fully vested in once again exploring my visual creative side.

Stifiling my layout progress were a couple of issues: the age of my DCC system (Easy DCC from around 2000), the unresponsiveness of CVP, the system's manufacturer, to respond to requests for help on upgrading the system; and the continued delay after delay of TrainORama to deliver three 48 class I'd ordered in February 2008. True, they're ONLY locomotives, but this was a layout based on Narrabri, and without the signature locomotive on the railroad. . .well, it just wasn't motivating to  not be able to run a full program of trains on one of my rare operating sessions.

So, I decided to start anew. I might be back working on a layout early next year, or it might be a few years. I'm not going to let a hobby pursuit drag me down. It'll happen when it happens. In the meantime, I can scale back some benchwork, remove other portions (and repair holes in the drywall I'd punched to situate a helix), and just not worry about model railroading for awhile.

The 40-or-so hand-built turnouts will likely be recycled on Lance Lassen's Tocumwal layout; I'll be thinning out my rolling stock collection by about 40%. And I'll get on with these other pursuits.

What might replace Narrabri? I'm leaning towards a streamlined, one-town layout that will extend along two walls of the existing railroad room, with a benchwork around 50cm deep. I'd imagine it being a mix-up of Coonabarbaran and Wee Waa: a modern high-thruput grain operation, the older concrete silos "downtown." A traditional stock, loading bank, goods shed arrangement. A small passenger station with thrice-weekly 620/720 service. A couple of oil spurs. A siding for containerized cotton. And a weed-grown loco servicing facility with small armstrong turntable. The era will be the same as Narrabri was: mid-1970s to 1980.  Hopefully, but the time I get back to this new layout, those 48's will have arrived--from TrainO, from Auscision--hopefully from someone.

So, while this is an ending, it isn't THE END. It's just a break. And when I come back to it, it'll be fun and exciting and something I will devote the time to.

Thanks for all your interest in North of Narrabri! Your own work has served as an inspiration for me and a benchmark to aim for.

--blair

The future is becoming apparent. . . .

Don't look for much in the way of new blog entries here in the next several months. It isn't going to happen.  

While at times I might have gotten consumed in this model railroad hobby, it's been important to me--especially in the past couple of years--to make sure that it remains a hobby. It can be too easy, when you're "borderline Aspergian" like myself (self-diagnosed), to feel compelled to write posts just to keep the blog current. Friends ask: "You haven't updated your blog lately. When will you do so?" All I can answer to that is that if I have nothing to write about, I won't scrape something together just to move the blog to the top of the "most recent" list.

As readers of this blog well know, there hasn't been any real progress to report on North of Narrabri in a long while yet. I've added rolling stock (those Tulloch tank cars from varied manufacturers sure look superb!). Even completed a few models. Added my first 48 Class (A Powerline? Yep! C'mon, Bob Cooke, get that Chinese factory to work making those models I paid for in 2009! I don't want to ask for my money back and turn it over to that crew in Victoria!). But other than that, really, nothing to write about.

All this means, though, that other portions of my life--my non-model railroading pursuits--have gotten more attention. Family matters have added a bit of priority (as they should); other areas of my railroad interests (dealing with a photo archive that goes back to 1974) have taken up more time. And I've added a couple other hobbies that have robbed from the modeling time.

What does it all mean to North of Narrabi? From a posting standpoint, nothing really, as I'll continue to post as the inspiration strikes.

What does it mean for the layout? I've pondered several tweaks to the layout concept, including, at either end of the spectrum, adding an Ardglen-inspired banker district and expansion of the layout (booting all other activities other than the layout out of the room) or scaling back the layout to a three-wall single-level shelf railroad concentrating on a branchline terminal to allow the construction of portable layout modules that would be suitable for inclusion in a Free-Mo modular environment. This would also allow me to refinish the layout room as part of readying the house for sale, should we decide to put the home on the market.

It's summer here in Texas, and Mary and I are busy right now working on landscaping the yard, something we've not though much about since moving into this place in 2004. I'd imagine that by fall we'll be ready to move inside, and at that time, will be making some hard decisions about the future of the layout.

But, be assured that while North Of Narrabri may well morph into a different model railway than it is today, it doesn't by any means mean the end of my modeling or interest in Australian railways!

Yeah, I'm Still Alive. . .

I know it's been a good long spell since I last updated this blog--but I don't feel too bad in comparison to some of the slackers whose blogs I regularly check--but just a quickie here to say that I'm still alive and while North of Narrabri has got a fine layer of dust upon it, it won't be long until I pick up the pace and get back into the layout room. A visitor from Canberra will be here in a bit over a week, so that's inspiration to get the layout room habitable and the railway operable.

Sometimes, life intervenes. Sometimes, interests wane a bit and you wait for the right inspiration to bring you back to them. I've been fortunate to be blessed with a great wife and two, er, interesting sons. I've also been fortunate--or maybe cursed--by being a guy with a good many interests. Unfortunately, these interests pull at my spare time. I've only got 24 hours in a day just like everyone else. I'm lucky that my job doesn't demand more than 40 of them each week.

I will allow that more of my time that I'd like to confess to has been squandered in front of a computer for the past several months (damn you Steve Jobs, for your iPad!). My photography interests--more often meaning the archiving, scanning and cataloging of over 30 years of railroad photography--has eaten up a bit of time. And after seven years in our home, Mary and I decided to dedicate the last half of the summer to fixing it up a bit, painting rooms, redecorating, getting some projects done that should've gotten attention awhile ago. All the while considering whether it' might be time to move to a new/old house. There ya go: another new hobby, that of mid-century architecture and furniture. Like I said, there's only so much time.

I'm aware than many of us of the train persuasion also enjoy other types of transportation--if it moves, I'm probably at least marginally interested in it. And I know a couple of you out there shut down the layout at night and squeeze in a little virtual flying. So for those who love the vintage war birds or just love aircraft, here's a photo from last weekend's airshow at Alliance Airport, about five miles from my house. Two of my favorite fighter jets did a "heritage" flight for the show, and here's Friday's practice trip, with a privately-owned F-86 Sabre Jet paring with a still-active U S Air Force F-4C Phantom wearing South East Asia camo. I don't think these two jets were active concurrently; but being as the F-86 dates from 1949 and the F-4 as early as 1958, I think you could still call these "steam era" jet aircraft!

So, how does it pull?

Now that I've got a Powerline new 48 Class as a guinea pig to compare to the other two branchline locomotives on the layout, Trainorama's 47 and 49 class, I'm naturally curious as to how much grunt the little locomotive will have. My crossing loops are 6 1/2 actual feet long, sufficient for a single branchline locomotive, 10 WTY-code grain wagons, and a guard van. So, it'd be nice if a train of this size can be pulled by a single PL 48 up the 2.5% gradient of my corner helix.

On a scale, the three classes weigh in as follows:

• 49 Class, 271g
• 48 Class, 260g
• 47 Class, 251g

Earlier testing of the 47 and 49 classes found that each could sufficently handle the grade solo with the following trains:

• 13 FWH (Tranorama) wagons + van. Weight of 1097g, a "scale" tonnage of 895 tonnes.
• 9 WTY (Auscision) wagons + van. Weight of 920g, a "scale" tonnage of 753 tonnes.
• 10 WHX (AR Kits, weighted approx 82g per car) + van. Weight of 903g, a "scale" tonnage of 744 tonnes.

The PL 48 nicely handled the grade with 12 FWH wagons + 2 heavy Austrains WHX cars+ van; it also had no problem with 10 Auscision WTY + van. For its weight, it easily matches the Trainorama locomotives in pulling ability, and the loco depot shouldn't be shy about assigning it a full load on assignments out of Narrabri.

LATE UPDATE: Felt compelled to try to give an 8 car rake of Austrains WHX cars (151 grams/each) and a van up the grade, and it just managed. . . 1208g plus the van. . .these roll quite well also.

Curious: anyone know the tonnage rating of a single 48 class on the 1:40 Ardglen grade? I'm guessing the model is pretty comparable.

A Long Dry Spell. . .

Welcome to Narrabri, 4865! Finally, a reasonably well-done DL531 to join the Clyde-GM 49 Class and Gonian-Hitachi 47 Class. Now, all I need is about five more, and I'll be set!

 

Wow. It's been awhile since I've last posted to this blog. I'm not AWOL, although I certainly wouldn't have minded setting down roots during my last visit to Australia and sending for the family to join me.

Since returning from three great weeks in New South Wales, ACT, Victoria and South Australia, "real life" has kept me quite busy--quite busy enough to push the voluntary "demands" of writing a blog on model railroading Australian-style to the back burner. The kids have been busy with school, with baseball practice, with (now) summer vacation. We briefly toyed with the idea of buying a new house, then decided that we'd probably be better off fixing up the one we already have. And, frankly, after three weeks away from my wife and kids, I felt that maybe I should just tone down the hobby pursuits just a bit to be fair to the ones I left behind.

But, I'm back now. And ready to pickup where I left off. . .which was. . .where, exactly? In terms of modeling the North-West of New South Wales, I full admit dragging my feet the past couple of years. Certainly, doing research on just what Lance Lassen and I should prioritize during our latest Oz adventure took up a good amount of time (don't want to waste precious time on holiday spinning our wheels, you know). And frankly, progress on the layout had been stalled for awhile: I found a couple of design flaws that, while not major, were significant enough to keep me from wanting to get after them. And, I was getting disheartened as the years have rolled by and the signature motive power needed on my layout--the ones I'd paid for over three years ago--still hadn't materialized.

I wish I could've said that we were lucky with the timing of our trip and I was able to bring home the three just-released 48 Class locos Trainorama was producing--but the realities from the factories in China didn't allow that to happen.

But, fortune did eventually shine on me, if only a little bit. The new Powerline 48 Class have just been released, and while Lance and I certainly were impressed by the pre-production samples we saw in Melbourne in February, I wasn't totally committed to purchasing one or two as a stop-gap until the Train-O's arrived. But a couple of weeks ago, a mate in Canberra, Brad Hinton, offered me an 'extra' PL 48 Class he ended up with--4865. A perfect number for a Werris Creek depot locomotive. And the transaction would be painless--I'd transfer appropriate funds to him, and another modeler from Canberra, John Prattis, would carry them to Texas for me en route to the NMRA convention in Michigan. How could I refuse!

So, now I have my first 48 Class on the layout. Still outnumbered by the pairs of 44, 47 and 49 class, but it's a start. My motivation to recreate this part of the NSWGR circa 1978 has been rekindled. Now the six- or nine-month wait until the trio of Train-O's I'm waiting for seems a bit more bearable. And if this PL 48 Class is deemed worthy, I may well add another couple to the roster before the NEW Trainorama delivers their version.

What about the Powerline Model?

I've certainly been critical of the pre-production photographs of this model posted to the "Model Railways in Australia" Yahoo group (clearly a Powerline-backed discussion group), to the point that I'm sure Ian Comport didn't want to hear any more my criticisms.

But, I'll have to eat my words on several earlier criticism, and while this isn't an "A+"  release, I'd give it at least a solid "B"--maybe a "B+" if I had greater confidence in the decoder.

Here's a few of my impressions of the new Powerline 48 Class:

1) It is a beautiful model. Proportions look great. Detail is wonderful for the most part very nice..  The earlier concerns I had about the hand rails and blobby air horns are mitigated somewhat by the final result. The cab mirrors--especially-- and windshield wipers are still way too clunky, and cry out for after-market replacements--with the great quality brass and stainless etchings available, why are these items to blobular and toy-like? Speaking of etchings: Why not an etched radiator grille? The molded radiator is quite flat--giving it a wash of black paint improves its "depth."

2) Underframe detail is great--as long as you don't have to remove the carbody! Still matching some parts up that fell out/came loose with the holes they came out of!

3) Carbody removal, as rumored, is a bitch. Really, four underframe screws AND two coupler screws to hold the carbody in place is a little excessive. I'm going with just the two coupler screws. . .not likely the carbody will be in danger of slipping off without 'em! No reason in this day and age to so tightly engineer the product to make basic maintenance of the mechanism a reason to destroy nice detail.

4) The decoder seems to be just adequate. I'll keep it in until I decide at a later time to put sound in or not. What WAS funny to me was that after struggling to remove the carbody to flip the DCC switch and then struggle to put it back in place, one of the plastic tabs that hold the carbody to the sideframe of the body was in JUST the right position to push the switch back to DC! So, had to go through it a second time. What's needed is a slightly shorter switch lever. . .or, even better, engineer the DCC board so the switch is located under the removable roof hatch on the carbody (between exhaust stack and the fan), or even behind a stepwell or under the fuel tank! And it is noisy. And given the history of Powerline's decoders in the T class, I'm not hopeful about this one.

5) Oh, the fan. Whimsical little thing to include on the model. . .has its own little tiny electric motor, and, mine, at least, makes a horrible humming noise. After I got the DCC switch in the right position, I STILL thought I was on DC given the hum the engine makes while on the layout. I'm guessing I'll lose the fan motor in the DCC sound install. Seriously, as good as the model is otherwise, to have this toy-like feature is beyond me. Actual radiator fans move quite slowly (okay, the electronic wizards among us will no doubt add a resistor to the small motor to slow it down). Most of the time, radiator fans don't move--another reason to add this to a DCC function.

6) The green plastic blob crew have been excised from the cab. Two deadheading crewmen in a Train-O 44 have been moved to proper positions in the 48 class. Much better.Hopefully they won't file a union grievance about the brightness of the lighting in the locomotive cab.

7) Buffers: Seriously, I don't care if they're sprung or not. I removed the springs and shortened the alignment pins so they don't impede on the carbody removal process.

8) End sill steps: Wow. Four of the 12 etched steps came loose from the stairwells while removing the body. I appreciate the detail on these, but Lifelike in the US was able to offer cast and better-secured plastic steps that look just as good. It wouldn't be an issue, I guess, if you didn't have to gently spread the ends of the underframe in order to remove the body.

9) Paint and lettering is first-rate. The tuscan red may be a bit orangey compared to the prototype, but it comes close to the shade used by Train-O on the 49 class. Not a close match to what is considered "correct" indian red on the 44 class. But, there's always variation in paint; if I have a couple Powerline 48s in the with Train-O 48's dressed in what I assume will be the proper shade of Indian Red , the subtle variety will look nice. Silver cab roof? May well have been done to the 48 class, but the Preston book didn't mention any so painted and haven't seen a photograph of one that was.

10)Plated wheels: Powerline blew it on this. Comport admitted as much when he said the second run would have blackened wheel sets. Even so, an easy fix. At least there aren't Pizza-Cutter flanges.

11) (Narrow gauge concern): The gearbox is full-width to the standard gauge wheel sets. Not a concern for me, but thinking down the road some SA modelers would want to be able to put 3'6" wheelsets for their railroads, and this model won't allow it.

While falling short in a few areas, it will certainly hold my modeling interest until the Train-O 48's arrive and I can make a comparison.

But having an honest-to-gosh good-running 48 class proper for Narrabri is enough to finally get my butt off the chair and back to working on the layout. For now, little 4865 no doubt pines for a few more sisters, but that time will hopefully be coming soon.