Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

As these words are being penned, in Australia, we are nearing almost three months of COVID-19 lock-down, but the restrictions are easing. For most of us, the restrictions have been severe in that we have been expected to stay at home. Realistically, there has been little choice for all entertainment venues have been closed, with club meetings and exhibitions either cancelled or postponed to an unknown date. As I found out there was a way to get around this seclusion. But, in my case, that needed some severe pain, an ambulance ride, followed by an urgent surgical procedure and a few days recuperating in a coronary care unit. We do have a wonderful health care system in this country, something we should never forget! However, being trapped at home has…

Awhile ago a Canberra Model Railway Club member circulated a link to a mid-2018 post from Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine describing a portable DCC programming system. The idea was to be able to take a small programming system along with club layouts to exhibitions and the like to allow locos to be programmed if necessary. Club members occasionally have a troublesome loco which needs a bit of diagnosis when exhibiting away from home, or they may buy a new unit from one of the traders present and need to check it out on a programming track and perhaps change the address. Therefore the idea had considerable merit. The unit described in this article was put together from surplus components. One problem was that the unit described still needed an external…

I have spent my life working as a model maker in some guise or other, the latter part of my career found me making full size replicas designed to fool people into thinking they were real. I also managed to fit in ten years as Master/Engineer aboard the PS Enterprise (an 1878 Australian paddle steamer). I have a passion for all manner of mechanical apparatus. The first tram model I made used the motor block out of an Egger-bahn N gauge 0-4-0 electric loco. I made a body from shim brass of a Birney car and it ran round inside a coffee table for years until my parents moved and threw it out. Over the years other things have kept me very busy; I built two full-size steam launches and…

The death of Robert Beath on 8 June brought to a close the life of an active modeller and friend of the railway enthusiast and railway modeller fraternities. Born in Newcastle in 1924, Robert entered the Royal Australian Air Force when World War II broke out and saw active service in the Pacific theatre, during which he was severely burnt. He made a good recovery and, after the war, learned the book-binding trade and gained employment with the major Newcastle printing firm, Davies and Cannington. After rising there to the position of Production Manager, he branched out in the mid-1960s and bought a partnership in the small printing firm of A S Newey and Son of Broadmeadow. As Newey and Beath, the firm undertook more challenging work and began to…

Scott Fitzgerald Manager Scott has been a contributor to AMRM for a long time, authoring quite a few articles over the years (some under a pseudonym). As the new Manager responsible for the production of AMRM, he has a clear concept of where he wants to take the magazine in the future and has ‘hit the ground running’, producing a sizeable proportion of the contents of this issue already as part of his ‘on the job’ training. Managing AMRM, along with the very necessary technical and procedural aspects of putting a magazine together, requires a thorough knowledge of Australian railways, along with a deep understanding of railway modelling, both of which Scott has amassed during a long history in the hobby. Growing up in Queensland and Victoria, he started his…

Buffer stops come in many different styles and sizes from simple (a sleeper ‘spiked’ across the track) to complex (British hydraulic type, as still in use at larger stations in the United Kingdom). These essential items can be purchased at any hobby shop, but British, European and American ones generally don’t look like the rustic ones seen around country Australia. I have made and fitted a number of buffer stops, inspired by VR prototypes, on my (under construction) layout prior to ballasting the tracks. There are three variations of the basic design that I have used; that is, free-standing in round section, free-standing in square section and braced in square section. The material used is 6mm dowel for the rounds and 6mm square, all purchased from a well-known hardware shop.…

The products covered in the Review pages have been supplied or made available by the manufacturer, producer, importer or retailer listed in each product heading. AMRM welcomes access to new product lines for inclusion in the Review pages and requests items be addressed to the Editor at Australian Model Railway Magazine, PO Box 345, Matraville 2036. Readers are reminded that the prices quoted in the reviews are those applicable at the time of going to press. Those using the prices as a guide to purchasing products by mail order should always add extra for postage, or contact the supplier for the additional cost for mail order. Editor…

Edwin Flowers 11 February 1940 – 11 May 2020 Edwin (Ted) George Flowers, born in Kogarah on 11 February 1940, was the eldest of four children. He attended Kogarah Boys’ High School before commencing work with the NSW Railways in 1960. He met his wife Kay and they married in 1967, had two children and an amazing 53 years together of love, laughter and travel. Ted accomplished a career spanning 41 years with the railways. He started work as a cleaner, progressing to a fireman on the steam trains, before promotion to driver. He drove both steam and diesel trains before moving on to suburban electric trains. He drove the old ‘red rattlers’ and early suburbans, and was based at East Hills. After about 13 years he moved over to…

This issue of AMRM is the last one for which James McInerney will be in the driver’s seat. For the past fourteen years, James has centred his life around preparing the material for each and every editorial page of content. This was not a simple task, for the material that is submitted always requires attention, whether to grammar/spelling and/or preparing photographs for publication (and in many cases, actually photographing the subjects written about), as well as arranging for the production of any drawings required. Along with the the preparation of the article content of the magazine, a major task was the assembly of the Reviews/Recent Releases/News section of the magazine, which required James to liaise closely with the commercial interests in the hobby, both large and small, gathering information and…

Dagun As someone who has railway ‘muddled’ for too many years, I was pleased to see Anthony Veness’s layout Dagun in the June issue of AMRM (Issue 342). The layout was well researched, very nicely done and the whole concept showed that a smaller layout can still be enjoyable to build and operate. I have read many Iain Rice books on small layouts and have dabbled with a couple of different small layouts myself, so Anthony’s fine effort certainly resonated. Recently, I offered to provide a static model display at a NSW country show. After dusting off what NSW models I still had after many years residing in SA, I decided that it would be nice to at least get them operating, so I have been building a small 1.6m…

When the majority of the Branchline Ramblers can individually boast of over half a century of involvement in the model railway hobby, you can imagine that between them they have seen quite a few of what ultimately turned out to be quite revolutionary developments introduced into the hobby. Ask any of the Ramblers to name three such developments and I suspect that sound and Digital Command Control (DCC) would be common on everyone’s list while my suggestion for third would be ‘L’ girder benchwork, which has played a major part in the ongoing 35 year building (and rebuilding) of Werris Creek. Werris Creek is constructed entirely using L girder bench-work and the model railway was used as a test bed for both System One (which became NCE) and Digitrax, which…

Don Hagarty passed away on Sunday, 31 May 2020. Better known in railway history circles, Don was extremely interested in the modelling scene and made a tremendous contribution to the early years of modelling the NSWR. Don was a well-known civil engineer who spent much of his working life with the NSW Railways. Working in both country and head office positions, he became the NSW State Rail Authority’s Chief Civil Engineer. He was a keen railway historian and the author of many articles and several books, including the history of the Sydney Railway Company (Sydney Railway 1848-1857) in which Don used numerous scale plans from the model railway scene to illustrate his research. Like many in the hobby, Don was a quiet man, well respected by all who knew him,…

SCMRA ACTIVITIES For all activities contact Eastern Division representative Graham Windmill on (02) 9626 0351. EXHIBITIONS & EXPOS CANCELLED – PARADISE POINT – QLD. July 18-19, 2020. Miniature Trains on the Coast Model Train and Hobby Expo. 0419 654 630 or secretary@mtcgc.org.au CANCELLED – CANBERRA – ACT. August 1-2, 2020. Malkara Model Railway & Scale Model Exhibition Gavan Bennett 0401 308 926. malkara@actmrs.org.au CANCELLED THORNLEIGH – NSW. August 8-9, 2020. Marklin Models Exhibition. Peter 0407 007 899. CANCELLED INGLE FARM – SA. August 20-23, 2020. South Australian N Gauge Society display. secretary2@sangs.asn.au. http://www.sangs.asn.au/ CANCELLED – CAULFIELD – VIC. August 22-23, 2020 at Caulfield Racecourse. (03) 9885 7034. amravic.com.au POSTPONED – HOMEBUSH – NSW. October 3-5, 2020. Sydney Model Railway Exhibition. SUNBURY – VIC. October 17-18, 2020. Sunbury Model Railway Exhibition.…