Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

For those who model the New South Wales Government Railways in HO scale, a quick look at today’s market will show we are blessed with an ever increasing selection of r-t-r rolling stock to complement long standing ranges of kits from various manufacturers. However, sometimes we may need or want to possess a model of a particular prototype in a certain form, era, variation, condition, etc. which isn’t available off the shelf. If the desire to own such a model is strong enough, then we must consider the concepts of either kitbashing (taking a preexisting kit/model and altering it to what is needed), or scratchbuilding (building a custom model from raw, often specialised components). The practices of kitbashing and scratchbuilding rolling stock, structures, etc. have been a part of our…

NSWGR HG Four-wheel Goods Brake Vans, r-t-r in HO scale by Casula Hobbies, 62 Moore St, Liverpool 2170. Ph: 02 9602 8640. Website: www.casulahobbies.com.au . Price: $110.00. This latest release from Casula Hobbies marks a bit of a milestone in HO scale, r-t-r NSW prototype. Now, with the exception of the KHG/NVKF, every goods brake van that ran in NSW past 1950 is available as an r-t-r model. Plus, this van, while not being as prominent in the memory of enthusiasts as it should be, was the backbone of the NSW goods brake van fleet from the 1910s to the late 1940s (read the full prototype history of the HG vans in Ian Dunn’s Prototype File, printed elsewhere in this issue). Casula Hobbies have released a huge…

New Shopping Cart Just as this issue was going to bed, a week or so before the 2018 Christmas break, we were advised that our updated AMRM website with shopping cart was ready to go online, same url: www.australianmodelrailways.comWe have been working on this service for some time now and understand that some of our customers have become quite frustrated with the unreliable service that was a side-effect of the rebuilding of the website. Hopefully, this frustration should be now over, but if not, and you still have problems purchasing online, please contact our office as soon as you can on ph: (02) 9311 2036 or email: amrmagzn@tpg.com.au If ringing outside office hours leave a message; we will get back to you. We want to make sure you can buy…

Moving to Canberra from Tasmania in 1970 brought me into contact with a computer operator who had a fabulous collection of American Pennsylvania Railroad HO scale models. Through him I was introduced to the Canberra Model Railway Club, where all sorts of layouts were in vogue, including rudimentary Australian. I dabbled in N scale Pennsylvania for a while, before returning to Tasmania in 1984. Through another work contact I was introduced to John Fielding, an avid modeller of the NSWGR in the 1950s. By 1989 my wife and I had moved out into the country, where a layout featuring the area around Moss Vale/Mittagong was constructed up in the roof cavity of a little old cottage – difficult to build and uncomfortable to operate. We sold the house with the…

The following prototype information has been extracted from Coaching Stock of the NSW Railways, Volume 1 by D Cooke, D Estell, K Seckold, J Beckhaus and D Toohey. (Eveleigh Press 1999). The twenty members of the VHO class of passenger brake vans entered service between June 1928 and April 1929. They differed from the similar, but far more numerous, MHO large capacity brake van in minor details only, the most obvious being the provision of end doors and diaphragms, to permit staff to pass between the van and adjacent passenger carriages, and a different arrangement of the coffin chambers and dog boxes, necessary to allow the provision of internal access to the end doors. The vans were originally numbered 1802 to 1816 (the Robert Kilburn/Clyde Engineering contract of 1927) and…

I have always admired the modelling skills of fellow railway modellers featured in AMRM. I don’t have that sort of skill, but have tried to compensate for it with photography. I photograph a building that I admire and that will give an image that lends itself to processing in the manner described in the photo story below; adjusting the photo on the computer, printing it and then gluing it to a basic structure made of foamboard or cardboard. As printed paper eventually fades, particularly if exposed to sunlight, I have been looking for a way of preserving the finish and extending its life. I recently stumbled across a spray can product named Krylon. Preserve It! Digital Photo and Paper Protectant which claims to “more than double the life of digital…

A major part of completing a piece of model railway equipment is putting the finishing touches, such as lettering, onto the model. When we complete a locomotive or some rolling stock we usually apply the supplied decals, probably not thinking too much about the type and size of lettering we are applying. Buildings are a different matter. Making signs for your buildings is usually something the modellers have to do themselves. Most signs were big and bold and did not use fancy fonts unless it was a brand name style. Computers have certainly simplified the making of signs. You can use your word processor to create very simple signs. If you want to be a bit more creative and have more control over your text and graphics, a drawing program…

An unfortunate consequence of the way trains are marshalled and run is that most of the interest is centred on the leading vehicles. The trailing end of the train is seldom captured closeup on film and the humble guard’s brake van does not receive its fair share of attention. For the first four decades of the 20th century, the largest group of brake vans was the four-wheel HG type, of which 331 were built between 1900 and 1911. The last survivors made it to the 1960s, by which time they were assigned to specific services and restricted areas, particularly the Yass branch, the Camden branch, Manning River siding at Taree, between Grafton and South Grafton, and the industrial sidings at Botany and Bomaderry. This gives a false view of their…

Traction Scale Models have released their 3D printed SEC single-truck Ballarat tram kit in both O (illustrated) and HO scales. The models are available via the Traction Scale Models ‘shop’ on the i.materialise 3D printing site. Traction Scale Models have available a considerable range of Australian, New Zealand, Japanese and US prototype trams and tramway accessories, via the i.materialise and Shapeways 3D printing websites, and there is even a small, but growing, range of HO scale NSWGR ‘early days’ railway models, including a number of 1850s-era four-wheel passenger carriages, a Hudson six-wheel brake van and a four-wheel open B wagon.…