Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

The Prototype SAR Goods Sheds A ustralian railways built goods sheds at most major stations for the safe storage of goods entrusted to them for transport. Look through any station diagrams and you’ll find them marked, very often accompanied by a freight office, an extended goods platform and a derrick crane. The SAR built these sheds in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials so we will start with a brief overview of the prototypes. In the fledgling colony of South Australia, stone was a readily available building material, but good timber was scarce (particularly compared with the eastern states), and with industry still being established, corrugated iron was also in short supply, so the early goods sheds were built from stone, in two styles: The classic round (or barrel)…

My model is in Sn3½, that is 1:64 scale with a track gauge of 16.5mm to represent the 3'6" of the prototype. It is built to depict R174 (the first loco of the second order) as a 4-4-2 in its final years of active service in the early 1950s. The superstructure and tender of the model is completely scratch-built, except for boiler fittings and loco and tender bogie side frames obtained as castings from Railwest Models in Perth. The chassis is also scratchbuilt, except for Markits wheels, Mashima can motor and Comet Models 36:1 gearbox. The chassis side frames are brass strip, the boiler rolled from sheet brass and the remainder of the bodywork built from styrene sheet. Like all my Sn3½ locos, R174 is DCC fitted and has a…

The late Rod James was one of the titans of the Australian modelling scene, with some amazing modelling accomplishments to his name. Along with the development of his model manufacturing enterprises, starting with the Rails North range of epoxy kits and then taking over the fledgling injection moulding concern, AR Kits, and turning it into a major 1980s-era manufacturing powerhouse, he built a series of memorable exhibition layouts, including Crafton (AMRM Issues 164 and 165, October and December 1990) and Wingham (now in the custody of the Taree and District Model Railway Club). At the time of his untimely passing in 2001 he was constructing an exhibition layout, Southern Highlands, that, had it the exposure of his other creations, would have been regarded as one of the ground-breaking layouts of…

On the weekend of 15/16 August 1992, a young girl (Mandie) and her father (me) took Twigg to its first exhibition. Another August, 26 years later, saw Twigg being exhibited at the AMRA (Vic) Caulfield exhibition. While Mandie and I have done most of the exhibiting over the years, my wife Carol and our younger daughter Kylie have also participated. Over the years we made some changes to Twigg, such as extra people and flowering plants in the gardens of the houses, along with a fresh layer of scatter in differing colours as the existing cover faded. Plus, the total numbers of locomotives and rolling stock available for use on the layout have continued to grow. Immediately after the 2017 Caulfield exhibition, we gave thought to the following year and…

Exhibitions: The Management View I read with interest Trevor Hodges’ In the Loop column, The Exhibition Experience in AMRM Issue 340 (February 2020). I appreciate Trevor’s comment regarding the apparent sameness of layouts on the exhibition circuit, however I must point out that these layouts take time to create, with the standard of exhibits now so high it takes considerable time to produce a layout to meet these requirements. Having said that, some exhibitors do produce new layouts on a regular basis; some small ones are often seen for a couple of exhibitions and then are changed. However many exhibitors do take their layouts to as many exhibitions as possible to try to recoup some part of their initial expenses. On the other hand, having managed and planned 18 exhibitions,…

NSWGR 5,000 Gallon Water Tank with 8” Jib and 10,000 Gallon two-tier Water Tank kits in HO scale from Mechanical Branch Models, PO Box 38, Beecroft 2119. Website: www. mechanicalbranchmodels.com.au. Price: $195.00 per kit. These HO scale kits comprise 150 high quality etched brass, etched nickel-silver, cast polyurethane and 3D printed resin parts. Each kit includes assembly jigs for the joists and channel structural steel work. The general instructions for assembly and finish of both kits are accessed through the website (www.mechanicalbranchmodels.com.au).The instructions cover the assembly of both types of water tank. I suggest printing the instructions in colour, which makes them a lot easier to read and follow. The references used for the assembly of both kits are: • The assembly instructions mentioned above • Steam Locomotive Watering Facilities An…

I was recently given a Faller Car System set as a ‘significant’ birthday present. It consisted of a motorised Mercedes Sprinter van, flexible wire to set in the road (which a magnet on the van’s steering rack follows), filler to cover the resulting groove in the road, grey road paint and road marking decals. This immediately raised the question of where to install it on my pre-existing Paterson-Keating layout? [‘The Paterson-Keating Lines’, p.18, AMRM Issue 333, December 2018–Editor.] Although the layout features an extensive road network, it is all A to B, whereas the Faller cars need a continuous circuit on which to operate. Furthermore, the cutting of the groove is a fairly brutal process, which would likely result in damage to the layout’s scenery. Faller does sell a special…

The Prototype Towards the end of the nineteenth century the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) saw a need for faster and more powerful passenger locomotives. The 3'6" (1067mm) gauge main line network now extended north, east and south of Perth, with heavy passenger traffic, particularly east to the goldfields around Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Designs were prepared for a 4-4-0 tender locomotive for this traffic and an order placed with Dübs & Co. in the UK for twelve engines in 1896. These new locomotives entered traffic in two groups of six in 1897 and were designated as the R class, numbered 144-155. They were an immediate success, leading to the order for twelve more from Dübs in 1897. This second order all entered traffic in 1899, numbered 174-179 and 227-232. The…

It has often been said that accurate modelling of the top/roof of a model is important as we generally view our models from above. This is particularly true of buildings. The ridge capping applied to buildings where corrugated iron is used as the roofing material is one area that does attract attention, so it is worthwhile doing a decent job of it. The generally accepted method of producing ridge capping is to cut a piece of paper into a strip, make a sharp fold along the centre and apply this over the roof cladding at the ridge. There is nothing wrong with this method provided it is neatly carried out. Other methods that reproduce the more correct roll along the centre of the capping are often proposed and usually involve…

Change of AMRM Phone Numbers With the AMRM office about to change over to the NBN, some changes to AMRM phone numbers are taking place. We will no longer have a fax machine, so the AMRM fax line (02 9311 4323) and the secondary office phone number (02 9661 4046) will no longer be used. The current main office number (02 9311 2036) will remain in use and should be used for all communication. This change to office numbers will not affect the editor’s phone number, as that is at another location. Ixion J Class Delay Ixion Models had been advised of an unexpected situation that had arisen at their factory which will delay delivery of their r-t-r VR J class 2-8-0 steam locomotive. Due to a new policy, the…