Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2014 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

As a child growing up through the late 1980s and 1990s, I developed a love for trains after getting my first model train set one Christmas. I would often stand out in the backyard and watch the trains head into Warrnambool and clearly remember them being in the old V/Line orange and grey livery until West Coast Railway (WCR) took over the Warrnambool-Melbourne rail services in 1993. For the eleven years WCR ran the Melbourne-Warrnambool services, I admired their distinctive blue, white and yellow locos and rolling stock and, to date, it remains my favourite colour scheme. Whilst the quality of Australian model trains has improved dramatically in the past few years (for example, Auscision’s B class loco in WCR livery), it has still been difficult at times to find…

Wagon History What is Scantling Timber? Scantling timber is timber sawn to a prescribed size, dimension or cross sectional area, mainly used in construction. Due to increasing volumes of sawn timber being carried, a new class of wagon was introduced in 1971. The prototype conversion was simply to increase the length of a standard IA open wagon by 4', so creating IS1, which was converted from IA11869 at Bendigo Workshops in 1971. It did not remain in service very long, being off the Rolling Stock Register by 1978. Subsequent IS type wagons (nos 2 to 22) were formed from KT class scantling timber wagons (which were also lengthened by 4'). Loading for these wagons was sawn timber from Orbost in Eastern Gippsland to Melbourne and occasionally to other Victorian destinations.…

On Track Models have released their range of r-t-r HO scale NSW TRC refrigerated vans. Available in three-packs, the models produced cover the entire service life of the vehicles from their introduction in 1951 to their removal from revenue service and relegation to service stock in the 1980s. The various colour schemes modelled (which can be viewed on the On Track website: http://ontrackmodels.com.au/models/  TRC), include era-appropriate detail changes, such as the height of the lamp irons, to match the various colour schemes. IDR Railway Castings have released their limited edition urethane kit for the NSW 85 class electric locomotive in HO scale. The kit includes a one-piece urethane body, urethane chassis, motor, bogies, pantographs, etched brass details and decals. AndIan have released…

Whereisit is somewhere in NSW, or anywhere you want it to be. This NSW country railway station relies on its stock and goods to be moved to the city regularly, so you will see the sidings being shunted with empty wagons. The loaded wagons are made into a train and taken to the city. This layout is DCC operated with sound locomotives for added realism. Hope you enjoy the sights and sounds on this model railway. Above is what you see written in the exhibition guide and I often wondered if, when the viewers read this, they think ”This is not the whole story behind the layout”. This layout came about because I started to get a roster of DCC sound locos and I haven’t got a ‘home’ layout to…

The last bastion of the scratch- and kit-builder against the inrush of ready-to-run and ready-to-place models is the construction of prototypically accurate models of infrastructure, both within and without the railway fence (though even this area of modelling is now being addressed by the commercials). Some fine examples of the building modeller’s craft were on display at the 2013 Victorian Prototype Modeller’s Forum.…

AMRM Digital AMRM is now available online, as well as in the traditional ‘paper’ copy. Readers can obtain either a paper copy or a digital copy for the same price, or both for an extra $9.95 a year over the normal subscription price. Multi-year subscriptions are also available. See p59 for full details of how to subscribe to the online edition. Changes in the Office After thirteen years, AMRM’s current Office Manager, Nicki Christie, is to move on to new pastures. Nicki joined the team in 2001 and has made a major contribution to the process of producing AMRM. Starting in the days when every article which came to hand had to be typed, Nicki has set up many of the procedures that ensure not only the efficient running of…

Comment: Public Image The guest editorial titled Public Image in AMRM Issue 306 (June 2014) shows how our hobby has changed over the past three or more decades. Yes, it’s true that the products made in China are of exceptional quality, but with that has come an increase in price for beginner modellers or even current modellers. However, in the editorial there were numerous issues that have been left out and one wonders whether what I say here will only scratch the surface. For example, my wife and I attend many model railway shows, but the same comment I hear from my wife is that a layout operator is about “to keel over and die”. This is in reference to a lot of old men operating model railway layouts –…

Scale: HO Prototype: NSWGR Period: Mid-1960s Layout type: Point-to-point timetable operation or continuous running when driver is feeling lazy Baseboards: Ply with pine frame Track: Peco Structures: Scratchbuilt, as supplied and kit-bashed kits Locomotives: Brass and ready-to-run Rollingstock: Kits and ready-to-run Suppliers: Model Railroad Craftsman, Chuck’s Ballast, Casula Hobbies, Trainorama, Eureka, Berg’s Hobbies, Powerline, Auscision, Anton’s, Haskell. Builder: Geoff Small and family…

“I’d like to have a waterfall”, said Gavin, when we were discussing what landscape features might appear on the model railway layout the Canberra Model Railway Club was developing with a team of high school students. The students had been ‘getting their hands dirty’ applying coloured plaster fabric over the layers of styrofoam sheet forming the ‘hills’ in the background of the three-module layout being built in an empty classroom. The ‘dogbone’-shaped layout was given the name Nakele Junction. Nakele being an anagram of the school’s name, Kaleen High School. Close to twelve months later, Gavin has his waterfall and it looks quite realistic, tumbling down the rocky layers and into Lake Nakele. He enthusiastically told ABC radio and ABC TV about what the student team had achieved when he…

In the middle of July 2012, a ‘long service’ dinner was held for the loyal staff of my South Australian Railways – Eyre Peninsula Division. In 2004, a ‘ten year’ dinner had been held to celebrate a decade of operation and, while the management hopes that it will be possible to hold a ‘twenty year’ dinner, most of us are of an age when the planning of events too many years ahead is really beginning to tempt fate. So it was decided to mark eighteen years of operation instead. Apart from the superintendent, there are presently five SAR-EPD operators. Two others have left, one because of ill-health, and the other through a move interstate. During the eighteen years of operation, running sessions have been held on 97 occasions. Of course,…

Many years ago as a barefoot kid, I stood on a bee and was rewarded with my very first bee sting. I survived, but the bee unfortunately died. Now, not a few years and bee stings later, I happen to have a mate who is an apiarist... more commonly known as a bee-keeper. I was helping him one day when the thought occurred to me that I had never seen a bee hive diorama, either pictured or ‘live’ on a layout. That is not to say that it has not been done... simply that I have never come across this scene. So I decided to immortalise my bee-keeper friend and some of his bee hives on my layout. The scene that I have created is typical of just a few…