Happy Birthday 4 Aces

Happy Birthday O 1111, who turns 100 years old tomorrow! Went down to the Tram Museum at Loftus late in the afternoon today with the kids and had some rides on SPER's classic Edwardian trams from the long lost Sydney Tramways. You may have guessed that I have a soft spot for the Trams of Sydney especially the iconic toast racks. I just can't imagine Sydney with 100's of these beautiful trams whisking their commuters off to work in the morning peak. I get to put up with Tangaras and air-conditioned CDC Bus diesel contraptions which is about as appealing as gouging out your eyes with a rusty spoon. But today, I got to feel what it was like to travel in style on a Sydney toast rack. Out and about were O 1111, O 805, N 728 and some other classics, C 29, C 290 and F 393. J 675 was on standby and 42s was lurking near Railway Square as well. C 29 had some trouble late in the day and was failed when it dropped its lifeguard but otherwise all was good. Said hello to David C and Mark N and learnt a few things about what's going on. Unfortunately, Elscotto couldn't make it as his XL Falcon's gearbox gave up the ghost. Anyway, it seems that OP 1089 is making lots of progress and looks set for a re-entry into service next year and P 1729 is having lots of attention as well. Good to see that P 1501, which was recovered from the Tam-O-Tel in Lightning Ridge and is in Bendigo, will continue to be restored. All we need now is the coupled E's to get the love and we could all be toasted to our hearts content.


I took some pic's of course.....check them out





I do wish Gladys Berijiklian, who was there earlier in the day, sees the value of what SPER does and helps out with some financial assistance but most importantly, sees the value of Light Rail trams in the modern world and gets the trams back running where they used to be. I hope it happens in my lifetime.

Another One for the Paint Shop

I've finally finished the Redfern FN car and I can safely say that I've got the soldering bug out of my system! While I certainly enjoyed putting the kit together over the last month or so, I think the next one will go together a lot quicker now that I've worked out all the shortcomings in the instructions. The hardest part of the kit was the bogies as they are near scale in width which made it difficult to get the wheels to not rub parts of the side frames and short out the layout. Having said that they do look good once assembled. I added some extra detail to the car including brake cylinder and associated rodding, brake detail on the bogies and inlet pipes for the gas cylinder. The other thing I did was replace all of the supplied  supports for the double roof with ones I bent up from some flat bar as the originals were way too thick. All I have left to do is add lamp irons and brake hoses and it will be into the bath for a good scrub and then off to the paint shop.


Here's how it looks,

I'll add the buffers after painting

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. It's the most complex etched kit I've done so with this behind me, I'm more confident in tackling the LCB Ashbury car I bought a while back....just not now.

There's a package wending it's way from the US so it might be time to unleash the navvies again.

Long Weekends are the Best

Don't you just love long weekends? Especially when there's a Model Railway Exhibition and it rains! Thornleigh was a much better exhibition this year than last year with good quality layouts like Bullenbung Creek, Boorowa and Arakoola to name a few. The other thing I liked about the show was there was plenty of room to move around which was excellent and gave you the opportunity to stop and talk without creating a traffic jam. My son enjoyed the show as well especially the Scenery Clinic and he walked away very pleased with himself. As it was my birthday, I had some cashola to spend on some goodies, like Andian Models BLV's....yummy. Had a chat to Ian and a peek at the upcoming compensators and rodding chair etches which will be superb. Can't wait! It was also interesting when chatting to people how often the topic of kits vs RTR came up. You can probably tell which side of the fence I sit on but it's heartening to see that the kit market isn't dead and is actually getting better I think.
So the plan for this weekend was to finish some painting which had to be postponed due to the rain. Instead, I started off a new kit from the pile in the drawer waiting to be built. Yes I know I was going to start on one of Mike McCormac's superb Doggies but I had an uncontrollable urge to solder. Lots. I haven't made an etched brass kit since I can't remember but it would have been one of the Craftsman models steel S trucks. Anyway, I decided to start on a Pioneer Models Second Class Redfern car. And here is how far I've gone.

1 x FN Redfern Car

This will keep me occupied for a while and I still have the painting to do as well

Done and Dusted

The MLV's are all done now, all 10 of them. Thankfully, my old faithful Badger got the job done and the Paasche will now be consigned to the "Do not Open" drawer. So, after some washes of rust and thin sprays of dirt and soot, this is how they turned out.

MLV23269

MLV's 6705, 23260 and 260

The Lot

I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out so I'll take the tape of the wheels during the week and then start on the next project. I think I'll finish off the passenger cars I painted and do a bit of track laying as well even though Craig suggested getting started on the LFX. That will definitely be next after the passenger cars as I feel the need for a challenge and Mike's wonderful kit will certainly give me that. Besides, I can practice my lining skills on the BKD, EHO's etc. One thing I'm not clear on was whether the BKD was lined at all so I'm going to make an assumption that they were lined similar to a brake van....unless someone tells me otherwise.

Getting Closer

The new spray booth has worked out well with the 10 MLV's getting a coat of etch grey and then top coats of Floquil Grimy Black. And no dust problems either. The booth made a big difference in keeping the fumes down in the train cave so it's been a success I would say. I tried to use the Paasche airbrush again and it failed entirely this time, no paint flow at all so I used the Badger single action and it worked fine first time. I think it might be time to ditch the Paasche and look at something else as it just doesn't seem to want to work.

So here's the louvre vans as they look today.

Before the decals

After the decals

This week I'll finish them off with some weathering and then it'll be on to the next project. I probably should finish off the N cars, horse boxes, GT, EHO's and BKD that I started painting a while back which will mean getting the decals printed for them and working out how to do the lining.

Then again, I might do something else, maybe lay some track for a change. We'll see what turns out.

Off to the Paintshop

The MLV's are done now so they'll be off to the painters over the next week or so to get a coat of gunmetal grey and muck. I'm reasonably happy with them except for the wagon code panel on the side. For the '30's, it should be on the louvres closest to the corner pillar but unfortunately, it's too difficult to remedy so I'll just have to live with it.

One of the MLV's

Here's all 11 of them

I've been contemplating how to scratch build the earlier 28 ton cantilever framed MLV's but haven't come up with a solution yet to replicate the louvres. I've got some spare LV van sides left over from converting some Lima vans to the short LV's so I might get some plans soon and see if I can use them instead. If that fails, then it's scratch build for sure. If anyone has some ideas or techniques, I'm all ears as I've been looking around for methods but nothing has turned up. Also, there's the Andian Models BLV coming plus I've got a couple of the Redfern Models BCV's.....shudder. I love what James McInerney did with his, turning a sows ear into a silk purse as he describes it, but the louvre panels are wrong for my era so it may be better to scratch build some of these as well.

Since building the layout, I had to get rid of the cardboard spray booth as it wouldn't fit under the bench work. So I splashed out on a proper spray booth from Runway 13 that vents outside the train cave.

I reckon it might get a work out soon.

More on the MLV's

Still working on the MLV's with some progress being made during the week. I've added the air tanks to all of them and have started fabricating the truss rods with 2 wagons completed so far. Here's how they look

It's slow progress that's for sure but worth it in the end I think. Well that's what I keep telling myself as each post for the truss rods, has 3 parts which equals 240 pieces for all 10 wagons. Also, I See that Andian models will have the BLV's ready for the Epping exhibition so it looks like I'll have to make tracks to Epping this year. Just in time for my birthday as well!
I also managed to add some fascia to the layout as well as plug some of the holes in the back drops and build some shelves....not very interesting but necessary all the same.
More work to do this week on the MLV's and we have a long weekend next weekend so who knows how much will get done.
Hopefully, lots!