Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

When the South Australian Railways were under the guidance of Commissioner Webb in the early 1920s, goods transport on the SAR system was revolutionised by substantial orders for new bogie open and flat wagons, along with louvred and closed (‘box’) vans, all of which were a huge advance on the elderly four-wheel stock that formed the broad gauge wagon fleet at the time. During this period the VR hired two of the new M class box vans for a trial period. While on the VR system they were recoded BH, but retained their SAR numbers (7005 and 7372). The exact hire date and return is not clear, but suffice to say it was for several years from around 1926/29 to the early 1930s. The result of the trial is unknown…

As you travel through an industrial estate and even out the back of the local shops, you will normally find an industrial bin or two. They come in many shapes and sizes. Some fit on the back of special trucks to get transported to and from its hire place, to be used for a project, and then returned. Others are permanently allocated to an address, a high-rise apartment block, a shopping centre, a local business etc. These types get emptied by the garbage truck once or twice a week, usually by lifting it up overhead and tipping it into the back of the garbage truck, ready to be filled up again in a week or so. Why? While looking for something simple to make in a styrene workshop at the…

The 1960s were a time of great innovation on our railway system, something that tends to get overlooked with the focus of the majority of modellers on the disappearance of steam during that decade. One of the major innovations was the stepping up of the development of container transport, something that had begun in Australia in earlier years with the development of small containers to help overcome the problems caused to interstate transport by the change of gauge that occurred at every border, except that between Victoria and South Australia. One of the early attempts to provide faster and more secure interstate transport of goods was the Flexi-van, an American concept that involved the transfer of entire truck trailers from road to rail in such a way that overcame the…

Coming From Eveleigh Press In recent years, Eveleigh Press, the book side of our organisation, has been beavering away on a number of publications. One, The Steam Tram in Australia and New Zealand, which has been in preparation for five years, is due for release around the time this issue appears. This volume, by Bruce Macdonald OAM, covers the various systems in Australasia that used the steam tram for public transport. Bruce’s work is enhanced with colourful maps of some of the systems and covers some very interesting modelling opportunities, like the Parramatta-Redbank (on the Parramatta River) system, bringing rail and water systems together. Another volume which has also been ‘in the works’ (for over 25 years) is Goods Wagons of the NSW Railways 1855–1905. This comprehensive volume has been…

You may well ask why a British-born person, who has lived for the past 42 years in Western Australia, decided to model the NSW rail system. Well, I spent my younger days in the south of England and travelled many miles on the 2-BIL, 2-HAL and 4-COR suburban electrics. As an ardent train spotter at the time, I also remember seeing the experimental Bulleid 4-DD double-decker electric trains. On arrival in Perth I soon had the opportunity to visit Sydney and was struck by the resemblance of the red rattlers to the Southern electrics of my childhood, a fact that had not escaped the attention of Tri-ang’s Australian subsidiary, when it produced the NSWGR ‘Sputnik’ suburban electric using some of the components of their British Southern Region suburban electric models.…

AMRM Issue 307 (August 2014) reported on the development of a model railway layout, Nakele Junction, by students of Kaleen High School in Canberra. The layout was built as a collaborative mentoring project between the students and a team from the Canberra Model Railway Club Inc. As at November 2016, that mentoring program had been operating successfully for five years and was about to commence building its fifth layout. The school has evolved to become ‘The University of Canberra High School Kaleen’ and the partnership between the school and the model railway club has stood the test of time. Most of the mentoring team had stayed with the project for the first five years of its existence. I was impressed by Trevor Marshall’s thoughts in the transcript of a speech…

Ask anyone who has built a model railway and they will all say that compromises need to be made. It could be the length of a train or the sharpness of the curves. Perhaps the station could not be as big as was hoped. Whether your model railway is 1.4m x 600mm or 14m x 6m, you will make compromises. Billabong Marina has the first dimensions; so many compromises had to be made. The trains are short, the curves are sharp, I use unrealistic set-track points, the clearances are very tight and most of the buildings are nothing more than facades. In fact, apart from the station, there is really only one building which actually needed to be built in ‘3D’; the fishermen’s Co-op. This industry, and the fishing boats…

SAR F class 4-6-2T Suburban Tank Locomotive, r-t-r in HO scale by Orient Express Reproductions, 2 King William Rd, Unley 5061. Ph: (08) 8271 7861. Website: www.orientexpressmodels.com.au . Prices in text. Prototype In the early 1900s Adelaide’s suburban services were primarily worked by the P class 2-4-0T locomotives. It was realised that rapidly expanding traffic on the suburban network required a larger engine, and so came about the F class 4-6-2T suburban tank engines. Entering service from 1902, 44 members of the class were eventually constructed over a 20 year period by Islington Workshops (22), James Martin & Co (12) and Perry Engineering (10). These well-proportioned locomotives quickly took over suburban passenger and freight haulage. They were well suited to fast passenger trains with their large 5'3"…

Scale: HO Prototype: Freelanced NSW, set in Sydney’s suburbs Period: 1960s to early-1980s Layout type: Continuous run with branches Layout size: 4.2m x 4.76m Rail height above floor: 800mm Baseboards: Particle board and MDF mounted on 35mm x 35mm steel frames (salvaged lab benches) with some sections screwed on to roof joists Track: Peco code 100 track and turnouts Control: DC analogue Structures: Kit and scratchbuilt, some from OO scale computer downloads, reduced to HO Scenery: Formed with polystyrene foam covered with plaster and texturing materials Locomotives: r-t-r and kit-built Rolling Stock: r-t-r and kit-built Builder: Jonathan Majer with assistance of family and friends…

AndIan Models have released further 3D printed locomotive crew figures in both HO and O scales, moulded in poses typical of those adopted by crews working 30T class tender engines and 20 class tanks. Haskell Co of Taiwan have released the second batch of their r-t-r HO scale models of the WAGR WO ore wagon. The vehicles are sold in six-packs with six different numbers and are also available factory-weathered (top). The models are also available in kit form, also in six-packs, but unassembled. The kits include wheels, weights and all plastic parts, but aren’t painted or decalled. Latitude 32 has released an HO scale 3D printed WAGR WNA/APNY pneumatic discharge nickel concentrate wagon, as built in the 1970s for the nickel concentrate traffic…

Roof Flashing How heart-warming it was to read in the Mailbag section of AMRM Issue 332 (October 2018) Bill Pearce’s letter, Corrugated Iron Roofs, about roof flashing, especially roof capping. How many times have I seen roof flashings either poorly done, or totally absent? As was mentioned in the article, most layouts are usually under eye level and all one can see are roofs, so it is imperative that model builders consider roof design. It is sad to say that on the majority of laser-cut kits, the roof material falls short even of the barge board on a gable end. This would not work in real life and would not be up to the building code [Or keep the rain out! – Editor.] There are many things to think of…