Waiting for the Mails.. .

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!

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.