This Time For Sure

I've started the benchwork for Picton Mk II and work has been progressing well so far. I decided to use L girders this time around as it will be easier to get the grades right as well as the multiple levels for the spiral and storage yards. Ian T sent me some photocopies from Linn H Westcott's article in Model Railroader describing how to build L Girder benchwork. This article would be nearly 50 years old now but is still relevant today. One things for sure, the bench work is much stronger than Picton Mk I.
I've been spending about 2 hours a night since the last post and so far, I've built the L girders for 3/4 of the Loopline which is attached to the wall plus the top and bottom for the standalone parts of the layout. I've still got to build the cross members which the roadbed risers will attach to plus the roadbed itself so there's still quite a bit of work to go. Plus the bottom deck, the backdrops and the facias so I'll be busy busy for a while yet.
Fortunately, I've been able to re-use all the wood from the first benchwork attempt so I've not wasted anything in the rebuild except for my time.

Thirlmere is over on the back wall and the spiral from the bottom to the top deck will be in the foreground

Another view of the bench work where the spiral and the storage sidings will be

Looking down the aisle to the work bench. Hill Top used to be attached to the wall on the left

I'll keep building away for the next couple of weeks and see how it goes. Not long to the Liverpool exhibition either so lots of train action in store.

Deconstruction

As I've said in a previous post, Ian T came over and suggested I make some changes to the layout design as the current plan wouldn't have been practical as I get older and less mobile. So, in the meantime, he's been slaving away at his computer and has come with a whole new track plan and design. And it's a heap better than my feeble attempt, not that my track plan wouldn't have worked, it's just that Ian's version has something "extra" that mine didn't. The trap I fell into was the old "must use all available space" which isn't necessary if you have a 6m x 6m space. The other problem Ian has solved is where to put my work bench, now its facing the back wall next to the window and with no railway to hinder things. Here's how the new track plans look,

Bottom Deck

Top Deck

The new design has meant that the first attempts at layout building need to be rebuilt and with that, everything has come down. It's amazing how quickly things come apart compared to putting them together. Everything is now pulled apart and I've rebuilt where Thirlmere is and have moved the 2 top and bottom decks from near the garage doors, where Hill Top is on the plan, to where the hidden exchange sidings will be.

The lesson here, I think, is to vett your plans with other people, particularly people who have built a few layouts otherwise you might end up making some critical mistakes like I would have. Luckily, I wasn't at a point where it was too late.

A Big thanks to Ian T for putting in the time and effort to come up with the new plan and helping me get it right.

Paint the Town Red

I've worked out what was going wrong with the spray painting finally. I got the mixture right and the pressure right but still the airbrush was not giving the desired results. I was trying to do some weathering of my goods wagons and there was still splotches and furriness happening and it had me dumbfounded. My airbrush is a Paasche VL double action that had worked previously but I had an old Badger single action airbrush that I used to use 20 years ago so I thought, what the hell, I'll give the Badger a go. And, voila, all is good in spray paint land. So I quickly finished weathering the goods wagons (See new Goods Wagons page) and splashed some venetian red around on some passenger carriages. Now the trick will be working out what's gone wrong with the Paasche. Here's how I Paint the Town Red

BKD Prison Van

KB Bulk Mail Van

FN Second Class Car

 I ended up painting the 7 car NIB set, 2 x EHO's, 2 x BKG's, KKG, BKD and KB as well as the previously mentioned goods wagon. I'll try and finish the passenger cars soon and then it'll be on to the lining. Can't wait for that.......especially the elaborate '30's lining that I haven't worked out how to do. Can someone remind me why I model the 1930's????

Going Forward, We Need to Take a Few Steps Back

Well, here we are and it's been over a month since the last post. Some will ask where has he been the slack $%^& and others will say "oh dear, he's back to whinge again" Whatever, I'm going to tell you about the value having somebody else's eyes look over the layout and what you're planning. Elscotto has been great in this but even 2 sets of eyes can miss stuff. Enter Bob G, Es D and Ian T. The 3 amigo's dropped over last Thursday for a bit of a squizz and while they were very encouraging with their feedback, there was also some questions about why I'd done some things a certain way and what were my plans for Picton and gaining access to the top deck. One of the things they brought up was the height of the top deck and also the depth of certain parts of the top deck. So, the top deck is built for us normal height people (Elscotto and I are both over 6ft) but for shorter people, it makes it difficult to see. Also, I've built everything as a still agile middle aged bloke but as I age, I'll lose that dexterity and I won't be able to reach the places I can now. This can be catastrophic for the longevity of the layout and seeing this one will probably be the only one I build, (it'll take me years to complete it) I better get it right to be able to use it in my old age. These are things I didn't consider. Also, we talked about the access to the top deck from the bottom deck and operations. I was planning on running permanent sets of passenger cars to replicate the Mails and Expresses while there'd be shunting for goods trains at Picton as well as permanent goods trains sets like stock trains and fruit expresses. This meant that I'd need storage tracks which I'd thought about but not in great detail

It's important to keep an open mind and not be precious about your modelling as how else do you learn if you can't take any criticism or new ideas? Anyway, Ian T said he'd whip up a track plan developing my ideas which he sent me on Friday. Having seen his ideas, I can tell you it's lucky I hadn't built more bench work as I'll be doing some major alterations by the looks of it. The plan Ian came up with is heaps better than my current one so I'm very pleased and grateful that Ian and the guys are helping me out. I'll post the new track plan once Ian and I finalise it.

In the meantime, I had a bit over a week in Cairns on holidays since the last post so no train time during the break but I have been doing some weathering on the goods wagons which I've posted in a dedicated page. I'll do the same for passenger cars, loco's and scenery when I get around to finishing some.

Busy Busy

I've just taken 2 weeks off from the Salt Mine for 2 main reasons. One, it was my birthday and I don't like to work with salt on my birthday. And secondly, I wanted to finish off the the top deck or 1919 mainline for my layout. I also decided to lay some carpet in the train cave and also make another 4 bookcases so I can move all my train porn into the cave. So it was a very busy 2 weeks in the cave plus a few other odd jobs around the house like fence repairs with my neighbour Gavin and cooking for the little get together I'm having next weekend with friends for my birthday. I don't normally have any celebrations but this year is a little different seeing as my age now has a 5 in it. The good thing about the birthday was the wonderful evening I had with my wife's family and the lovely speech she made for me....I'm sure she was talking about someone else because all of the nice things she said. Some train goodies came my way as well including a NCE ProCab. Woohoo!!!

So here's some pic's of the train cave

Watch your head Fred

New Top Deck

The Top Deck meets

So now, it's back to the Salt mine after all the fun of finishing off the Top Deck. I know where I'd rather be.

Night Time is the Right Time

Went down to the Loftus Tram Museum last night with the Kids and had some rides on trams in the dark. Met up with Elscotto as well as he's a confirmed tram geek as well!! Well Steam Tram that is but the electric type are also cool. The kids loved it as did Elscotto and I and it really showed what it was like to ride in a tram in winter and at night. Running were O 805, W2 249, Adelaide H Car 358, Nagasaki Car and Ballast Tram 42s. Riding in the O was great if a little chilly as the wind whipped in through all the open doors.....luckily it wasn't raining!! The thing that struck me was how bright it was inside the car. For some reason I expected the light to be a bit on the dull side but you'd have no problems reading in the O class.
Everything ran well except for 42s which decided to mount the concrete turning from the mainline between Railway Square and the workshops. No problem though, just back 'er up and she re-rails herself.....nice.
It's a pity the Museum can't run the trams down to the Royal National Park after dark but I'm sure there's some rule or regulation which prevents them from doing it.
I also took some photos of which 98% turned out  crap. I've posted the best of the bad bunch for you all to laugh at.



After last night I'm really kicking myself for not hanging around for the night trams during the 150th anniversary celebrations. Hopefully, they'll do it again at the next tram gala and I'll have my act together photographically.

Happy Days are Early Days

As the years go by they seem to get shorter as it feels like only a couple of months ago that I attended the 20th Modelling the Early Days of the NSWGR. This year, the 21st convention has come and gone again and apart from a new venue, the quality of presentations and information was the same as always....excellent.
Some of the standouts were Craig W's presentation on the preservation of a 1903 cattle wagon. This was excellent as I'd seen this particular wagon on the TRAK blog and since they'd disbanded, I'd wondered what had happened to it. I had heard it was going to Oberon but we all know now that the wagon is at Valley Heights and will be the subject of a static restoration / conservation led by Craig. Interestingly, it's the last wooden framed cattle wagon in existence as the preserved examples are all 1960's conversions using standard 18' steel underframes which, as Craig pointed out, are not really a true representation of the cattle wagon as the majority were wooden framed. It also seems that the 2 "Ned Kelly" cars that were conversions from wooden framed cattle wagons have disappeared from the RTM during all the moves and disposals of assets. Not good. Craig is looking for volunteers so get in contact with the RTM if you want to help out on this project.
We also learnt from Ian D about the tubular framed vehicles imported by the railways in the 19th century as well as Cowdery couplings and the experimental combination cars trialed by the railways to try and get more revenue from stock wagons by using them as covered vans as well.
But the standout for me of the day was Gary S and his research on the liveries of the NSW locomotives in the 19th Century. Liveries are such a controversial topic but Gary's well researched presentation left me a lot clearer on the colours used....except maybe below the footplate....green or indian red???

The other great thing is meeting new people so this year was no different. Spoke with Oscar D about his incredible engineering and the superb results he achieves in his true to scale modelling. I didn't know P87 wasn't "true scale" but I do now. Also met Nick who's been reading this blog....hope you get your house completed soon so you can get back into modelling again.

And lastly, it's the access to great Kits produced to suit the era we model and this year was a beauty. Spent a fair bit of money but what else should I spend it on? Booze, women, fast cars....nah, nerdy trains it is for me!! This year I picked up an 1885 and 1891 louvre van as well as some second hand Pioneer Models 2nd class Redfern cars (thanks Es D) as well as a T 14 class single spinner from John Sever of Ezi Kits.

Yeah!!

Yes, the 3 members were gone by 1893 and no, they never ran up the hill beyond Picton but I don't care. It looks so good and should look lovely hauling some 4 wheel passenger cars that Elscotto purchased from Eddie G.

Bring on next year and I won't leave it so late to get my models finished to take to the convention....didn't take any this year as I didn't get to finish them....oh well.