Saturday, November 17, 2018

Large exhibition layout concept - Caltowie

Hi All

Insomnia is a double edged sword, however it does yield results.
I was searching for concepts for an exhibition layout that would fit into the proposed new layout room.  30ft by 16ft.
The northern grain region has some great little yards.
Crystal Brook is the most obvious, however the junction is just a little too big for the room.

There are other standard gauge locations which would fit the bill, Jamestown and Yongala.
Caltowie has the advantage, for a couple of reasons.
1: The yard has a curve at either end, this makes it easier to model.
2: Caltowie is squeezed in between the town and the highway level crossing.
3: The grain loop is clear of the main line and crossing, thus in an exhibition format the mainline and crossing loop can be clear while loading grain.
4: S curve at the Jamestown end of the yard.

Rolling stock wise, SDS Austrains NEO  has the AOQF.
Auscision the AHGXs.

 yard looking towards Jamestown.
From Norm Bray
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60901191@N08/42612284465/in/album-72157637613953546/
 Down end of the Yard, looking towards Jamestown.  Note the low level station in the background.
and the NG mainline in behind the signal and the 500 class.
http://www.lionelnoble.com/caltowie/




Gota love those curves, anyhow.

Enjoy, Scott

Some smaller layout designs - Rudall SA on the Lincoln Division

Hi All

I have been investigating or looking at concepts, for a small layout, roughly 16ft in length.
A number of things have been lining up lately.
I have a couple of mechanisms for the NJs class and a GWA 1200 class.
The AHGXs were transferred to the Lincoln Division, thus I had some of the modern versions of them.
This means that I could build a ultra modern small layout on the Lincoln division,

The real change in operations is a train to a single location.  Which meant that most of the sidings were designed to have a couple of wagons loaded at each location, not an entire train.

This introduces much more complicated shunting movements.

They are more complicated when there are main roads at the yard throats.

Rudall is on the Buckleboo line, is such a location.



The Birdseye highway intersects the town of Rudall.  The yard has a single loop, and a single siding.
The yard throat is bracketed by the highway.
The yard has two silos and a bunker, the station building is still there and is the barracks.

The shots you see here, are from:
https://www.pilbararailways.com.au/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=153

and Norm Bray's flicker.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjMnHXQo

 Rudall yard throat down end, looking towards Port Lincoln.

 The bunker on the south side of the yard.
 The barracks.

 The left over of the siding on the west side of the main.
 The up end of the yard looking towards Port Lincoln
 Up end of the yard looking towards buckleboo.






 I reckon this is an interesting location.

Enjoy

Scott

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

The 50th Anniversary Whyalla Model Railway Society exhibition 2018

Hi All

We were lucky enough to be invited to the 50th Anniversary Whyalla Model Railway Society exhibition on the 27th to 28th of October 2018.

Its been a while since we have gone to a regional exhibition, I had almost forgotten just how much of a blast these can be.

Jim and Geoff did a spectacular job, I just wished we had allocated more time to take full advantage of the events on offer, not just the exhibition.

For Murray River Bridge this was a good test of the planning skills.
We had only three operators and the layout, lights, rolling stock, tools, luggage and people all had to be loaded into a 7 and a half by 4ft 4" trailer and a 4X4.

I had left a full day to load the truck and the trailer, however I had to inspect a house for Helen's Mum which was a fair distance from my place.
long story short we got it all packed up by 21:00 that night.

03:30 the next morning we were off!

We arrived at Whyalla around 17:00.

Jim had organised the accommodation, and he had done everything nothing to sign, they were waiting for us.

The next morning we checked out the yard, a GM and 22 were shunting around, and their ballast train was being loaded.

Jim had stated that we should meet at HMAS Whyalla at 10:00 have a bit of a chat etc, so I thought it was run over the details of the exhibition etc.
However it turned out to be a private tour of the ship and the museum and their layout at the museum, followed by a BBQ.

At the same time I was negotiating the house we saw two days ago for Helen's mum, so it turned out to be the most expensive tour ever!

We had a BBQ with exhibitors and proprietors, in a calm environment prior to the onslaught of an exhibition.

It was great to discuss the hobby and not talk shop, with Fred and Claudia from Orient Express hobbies.

The set up went smoothly, and we had time the next morning to set up all the rolling stock, and I had pre consisted all the locomotives so that cut down the time considerably.

Here is a picture of C501 932 950 and BL26 on a Steel train.

Here is a brief overview of the exhibition.


on Saturday night the club hosted a dinner and awards night, and it was a cracker, I not laughed as hard as that for awhile, we had Helen, Doug, Jim and his wife and Chis and Linda from Ozrail models on our table.

the next morning I took some shots of the layout.




























The layout next to us was built by Anthony and Cassy, modeled on RJ Corman in the USA, its inspiring to see passionate younger modelers producing very nice layouts.  Great work guys!

MRB has now traveled just over 5000km, and it's just over a year old.

Doug and myself discussed a few enhancements to the fiddle yard, and the Cobalt SS point motors seem to have passed there test at a full exhibition.

Thanks again to all, the Barcoola "bockscar Hobos" enjoyed the weekend immensely.

Regards

Scott





Saturday, October 6, 2018

SDS models new weathered by Barcoola range

Hi All

Here are some before and after pictures of NRs "weathered by Barcoola" these are now offered for sale by SDS Models. I am really happy with the results.









They are all painted per prototype and factory backed by SDS models.

http://www.sdsmodels.com.au/latenews.htm


Enjoy scott