The Sun God!!

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. . .

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?

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!

Like Lay's Potato Chips. . .

Dunno if my Aussie readers are familar with the Lay's Potato Chip and its' ad campaign of many years ago, in which a snacker confessed that they were so good that "no one can eat just one!"

I'm thinking I'm that way about building rolling stock. I finish a few wagons, get the unmentionably messy workbench cleaned up. . .and then more arrive in the mail or just sort of "accidentally" fall off the shelf to work on.

So much for the vow to work on roadbed, points, laying track, etc.

My excuse: I'm waiting for more PC ties and rail to get back to track laying.

In the meantime, what's on the workbench:

• two PRY/NPRY pneumatic cement hoppers from ARKits (delivered 1978-79, they're brand-new in the era I'm modeling. . .thus, I suppose they won't be too weathered);
• AR Kits OCX 63' container flat;
• Casula/Callipari OCY 63' container flat (traded Lance Lassen an unbuilt OCY for an AR Kits OCX).
  

The Cement hoppers will get the Keiran Ryan etched-brass ladders/roofwalk treatment as well as an attempt to improve on the "molded blob" brake components on the underframe.

The OCX/OCY is an interesting comparison between two nearly-identical pieces of equipment by different model manufacturers. And one is definitely better than the other.

But, photos and all that when I get 'em done.

Back to the workbench. And--can you imagine this?--there's live AFL premiership action via our ESPN2 satellite network between Richmond and Sydney Swans. If only I didn't get rid of that tube of Vegemite!

New toys! R-T-R and otherwise. . .

New stuff! Austrains ELX and Auscision KLY, and detailed old-school Trax/Casula TRC. . .

After a couple of months of true "modeling"--building kits, adding detail, painting, and weathering--of rolling stock and locomotives, it was pretty damned nice to open some packages from Australia the other day and taking out beautifully built, detailed, and painted ready-to-run freight wagons. Too easy!

New to the roster are a pair of Austrains Victorian Railways ELX open wagons (we Yanks call them "gondolas" and a pair of Auscision KLY 55' louvre vans. They're both perfect for my era, the ELX's dating from the early-mid-60's and the KLY's from the second order for these wagons delivered in 1975-76. The KLY's are from the same time frame as the WTY grain hoppers, which wear the "L7" two-toned blue PTC logo. The Aucusion KLY's wear the earlier "Rocking R" logo. I've never actually seen a photo of a second-order KLY with the Rocking R, and found it curious that both logos would be delivered simultaneously. I'm sure Auscision got it right, I've just not seen any photographic proof of it!

Both of these cars are spectacular models. I'm familiar with the quality of the Auscision stuff, so that was no surprise to me. This is the first rolling stock from the new-era of Austrains imports I've purchased, and was quite pleased as well. I'm going to have to come up with suitable loads for these ELX's to hide the lack of detail on the interior sides of the models--the only thing distracting from an overall "perfect 10" in my opinion.

Not all the packages arriving on the doorstop in this flurry of model railway purchasing were ready to run--Joe Callipari got my order together for 10 Casula "S" truck kits with proper .088" SEM wheelsets. I'm waiting for a pair of OCY container flat and a pair of PRY cement wagons from AR Kits and at some point the very cool new RACE containers from SDS models (perfect on the OCY flat on the headend of the North-West Mail!).


Workaday, not too flashy at all: a pair of detailed/scratchbuilt TRC using the TRAX/Silvermaz wagon body. Weathering is still to come.

TRC rebuild

Still lingering on the "to do" list of cars for May's prototype model exhibition but not finished on time were a pair of TRAX/Silvermaz (Casula) TRC refrigerator wagons. I'd purchased one on e-bay for cheap a few years ago and did a basic assembly (sides, roof, top, underframe with couplers and trucks) of it for use on the layout, and picked up another one new from Joe last April. When I finally readied to build one "proper" (with semi-scale couplers and reasonably complete underframe and carbody detailing added), I discovered that the underframe was basically a crude, inaccurate chunk of plastic, and figured I could do better. But where to get plans? I turned to Ray Pilgrim and Bob Stack, who were both gracious enough to scan two excellent Peter Jarvis articles on modeling this car from the June 1996 AMRM. VERY thorough treatment of detailing this very basic model.

I'd just about had the basic underframe assembled from plastic sheet and forms when Bob alerted me to a resin casting kit created by Ian Radcliffe and sold through his IDR line at Hobbyland in Hornsby, NSW. My timing was not quite perfect! The casting kit looks quite nice and hopefully should be readily available soon. (And those KHG brakevan and CF/KF four-wheel flat wagons he sells are my current infatuation!)

I followed most of the step-by-step directions in the article and came up with a quite nice model.

It certainly holds up well next to the Ready-To-Run Chinese wagons, and with the time and effort invested in it certainly gives me a bit more pride in ownership.


Cost vs. value vs. detail vs. modeling time vs. ultimate modeling satisfaction?

It's clear that Australian model railroading has moved light years ahead from what was available when the TRC was originally offered, probably 20 years or more in the past. It's amazing that the rough approximations of under frames not just on the TRC, but, for example, other kits like the Mini-Models BCW's were seen as cutting edge in their time. Amazing still is that these kits are still available new--the TRC from Casula and the BCW from Berg's, the marginally-detailed AR Kits WHX--for a considerable sum, $25+. Are these prices out-of-line for what you're getting, considering both the level of detail on the under frames (or lack thereof)? I'm guessing both of these kits have long since earned back their initial cost of development.

I'd certainly like to add more TRC's and BCW's to the fleet (that article in a back issue of AJMR about super-detailing the BCW really has my attention), but the costs of such crude kits give me pause before ordering more. But what can you do? You either accept that these are the only models of these cars available and pay the price, or you wait on the hope that one of the R-T-R importers will bring in a much-pricier--but much-better-detailed--car in the future. . .whenever that will be. What's the pride of ownership worth to me in a kit that I took to a much higher level of detail?

I'm not sure of my own answer to this one. I certainly like just popping a box open and having a nearly-100% accurate car, right there, in front of me, ready to go onto the tracks. At the same time, I like the fussing with wire, and styrene, and brake cylinder castings, etc. I appreciate that the "classic kits" are still available, and that small businessman/modelers like Ian Radcliffe are supplying smaller-runs of specialty modeling kits.

I do know that if I devote much more time to building up my fleet of wagons (let's see--10 S trucks, at least six more WHX's, and another half-dozen assorted Mini-Kits BCW's and AR Kits models on queue!) I'll never get the railroad itself built.

And the layout, now that i've got all these nice cars to run, is what REALLY needs the immediate attention!


That chunk of plastic on top of my model is the original underframe supplied in the TRAX/Silvermaz TRC kit. With the proper reference materials, I came up with something a bit better. . .

A few diseasles. . .

It's wheat harvest time again, and 4464 and 4716 stand ready to continue their toil hauling the golden grain of the Northwest.

I know there's a certain segment* of the hobby committed to steam, and I have no problem with that. But I'm a child of the infernal combustion era, and to me, there's nothing better than walking through a loco depot filled with idiling locomotives, taking in their grime, their smell, their sounds. And while I've missed the era when varied 44's, 47's, 48's and occasional 49's all gathered at Narrabri West, it's certainly fun to try to recreate a time and place I never had a chance to visit.



Broadmeadow-based Goninian-Hitachi 4716 rolls by with a rake of RU's to shunt into the elevator siding. From photos on-line I've researched, these things really gunked up quite nicely, especially with oozing oil around the engine-room doors.


Not far behind, classic "world loco" 4464 departs with WHX in tow for the sub-terminal at Werris Creek.


Finally, it's 4914's turn to depart onto the Walgett line with empty open wagons for loading with cotton. The Clyde-GM branchliner, assigned to Parkes loco, is a somewhat unusual visitor this far north of Werris Creek. Where's the 48's? From the looks of things, somewhere in China!



*and you know who you are!

Fruits of My Labors. . .

Goodwin-Alco 44203 leads grain train into Narrabri West. . . weathered with diluted acrylic colors, Isocol/ink wash, weathering powders, etc. I replaced the crude cast-on hoses on the pilots with brass castings and replaced the horns, all with Ozzy detail parts.

The weeds in the yard have had a few extra days to grow recently as I've been pretty dedicated to completing a reasonable number of NSWGR freight wagons and locos in time for this upcoming weekend's prototype modeling meet in nearby Keller.

All that's left are single 47, 44 and 49 class locos to weather, and I'll be ready to go.

So, would you like to see what a week's worth of weathering has brought to North of Narrabri? I'm guessing none of my readers will actually make the trip to Keller for the festivities, so feel free to click on the photo for a 1080p wide version.


FWH 32008. . . a PTC blue wagon, at least under the grime. The PTC blue quickly faded to light blue, then grey, but usually by then it was coated in a rusty orangey layer of dust, rust and wheat chaff.


NGBF 28734. . . a recent re-paint and re-code, this one hasn't had time to look like hell yet.


FWH 29009. . . rather restrained in weathering this one. That gunmetal grey sure aged well, far better than the PTC blue or SRA maroon.


WTY 36035. . . you've already probably read about these on the blog. This one was only given a isocol/india ink wash to give it that slightly-used look. . .


WTY 36129. . .this and the other two WTY's were given the isocol/ink wash as well as weathering chalks to bring up the weld seams dusted with "wheat dust."


WTY 35932. . .


WTY 36105. . .


WHX 30515. . .now weathered. Isocol/india ink wash, dry brushing of some rust, weathering chalks for wheat dust, used on all four of the WHX's. If I modeled a few years later, I'd have to add lots of grafitti, too!


WHX 30530. . .


WHX 30664. . .


NVFF 31793. . . the guard vans seemed to all end up with a blotchy, grimy roof, so this was a mix of sprayed-on acrylic washes and the reliable Isocol/ink wash.


Four RU's. . .I've got 17 of these ultimately to weather, so I didn't want to go too deep into it, but the isocol/ink wash, followed by several sprayed washes of grime and rust, followed by thicker brushed on washes of cheap "hobby acrylics" thinned in isocol built up depth in the weathering and was relatively quick and easy to do. . .

. . and while I didn't do this with any of these, yet, I do want to further explore the cool "alcohol white-out" that occurs when you apply a wash of rubbing alcohol over a car given a coat of Testor's spray Dullcoat--also called the Dullcoat Fade. It leaves a blotchy, quite realistic powdery-looking faded paint job.


CHG 9151. . .guess it still needs air lines added. I was tempted to really go hog-wild with aging up this fine Eureka model to more closely match the patched-up-in-plywood version illustrated in the Beckhaus' 1982 book. It's still an option!


FWH 28962. . .one more! This one, a bit more rusty. I should really fade out some of these cars and nearly remove the NSWGR lettering, don't you think?


GLX 29487. . . another case in which it's tough to tell this one's painted in PTC blue. Based on a photo I recieved of a similar dusty, rusty car in Lithgow. The roof was oversprayed in a lighter, faded shade of blue to reflect the effect of Australian sunlight.


GLX 29485. . . same weathering principles as the blue car. These sure seemed to rust up around the doors.


BDX 25395. . . AR Kits build up inspired by a photo supplied by Al Cutmore. I love the Rhombus loco!


K 23415. . . rather half-assed ink-wash and weathering powder attempt. Too red, but that's easy to fix. With a sawed-in-half Chooch gondola load. Hey, $7.95 gives you two castings, enough for 2 K trucks and a couple of S wagons worth of loads. Figure my pastoralists in the NW need lots of fencing wire!



GHG 39092. . .with the "arrows of indecision" logo, cried out of a grimy wash treatment, with a dusting of "earth" on the running gear.

* * * *

This isn't a finished scene, but it's in keeping with my "quick and dirty mockup" of future photographic scenes on the layout I tend to throw together when I finish a push of construction on the layout. Here we've got the trashed-out and abandoned VW Beetle dumped in the (imagined) Namoi River as a grain load behind a Jumbo departs for Werris Creek.

How do those gum trees look? I didn't build them, and they're not Auscision. The could've been Auscision, I guess, since i'd been hot to shell out big overseas bucks to stock up on their trees since Auscision announced they were in stock on their website. In stock, but no price information for several months. So I waited until the official information was released. . .and in the meantime, stumbled onto a big display of a great variety of trees in my local hobby shop the other day. The gums pictured are from JTT Scenery Products, of Garden Grove, California. I thought they might be manufactured in the US, but apparently these are "imported exclusively in the USA by Model Rectifier Company," according to the box. I'm guessing they're from China (perhaps the same factory Auscision's trees come from?). Their prices (US) are comparable to Auscision; an 8" gum (c.180mm) goes for $16.00 vs. Auscision's 200mm gum from between $18.95 and 21.95. JTT's 6" gum is $12.95; Auscision's medium or small gum trees (100mm) are around $15.95. The Auscision trees appear to have nicer detail on the trunk, and the range of Auscision trees available is truly breathtaking. I don't know what the hell an AM10286 is, but it's a cool tree and I'll probably find a way to get at least one!

While I no doubt will be purchasing several Auscision trees for foreground duty on the railway, I'll be buying the JTT products whenever I see them in the store for medium or distant use.