Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

Is Lego a Gateway to the Hobby? Lego layouts are now a regular feature of most major exhibitions, as the Thomas the Tank Engine craze was when launched 30-odd years ago. While exhibiting Murray River Bridge, we were positioned next to a Lego layout. Over the duration of the exhibition we had a chat to the operators, just to see how they do what they do and what challenges they face. I was surprised that some of the mechanisms are custom-built to handle the rigours of the exhibition circuit. I was amazed by the preplanning that they do just to get a Lego layout to an exhibition. Of course, everything needs to be ‘kit-built’. The team operating the layout were very passionate about what they were doing and willing to…

When we decided to build an exhibition layout based on a prototype near-vertical canyon (Cheakamus Canyon) in Canada a new board design was required. It needed to incorporate very deep scenery, a backdrop, lighting, wiring, the lot! In the end we created a long version of a cameo layout. A cameo layout can be described as: • a 3D modelled scene combined with a 2D backdrop, • a complementary fascia to focus viewers’ attention on to the modelled scene, • built-in lighting to provide illumination for the modelled scene, • necessary offstage areas or staging tracks built into the layout, • displayed at a ‘natural’ viewing height, and • electrical interfaces that are built into the layout. After a rigorous thought process, the final design was taken from aircraft construction…

The Mk I version of Barcoola was featured in the December 2007 issue of AMRM. There were things about Barcoola that could be improved. But re-building a layout can be challenging; there is an ever-diminishing return when rebuilding. A list of changes that could be done to improve the layout was developed. These included: • move Ginacood Hotel to the front of the layout; • replace the low backdrop with a higher, curved version; • build a new fiddle yard so we were not using the club’s equipment (the then Bayside Model Railway Club); and • build lighter boards of foam, possibly with curved boards. It became clear that a number of the boards would be replaced and new ones built. Looking at the plan of Barcoola, the easiest way…

Narrabri North is a dead-end siding on the line between Narrabri Junction and Moree in far north New South Wales (NSW). The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) designates this siding as Auscott Siding (see Narrabri North track diagram). Points from the main line are located at the 572.834 km post; these are trailing for down trains. Between the main line and the facility gate there is clear standing room for a 50-wagon train. Concrete sleepers are installed on the siding up to the facility gate. The rest of the track and run-around loop have steel sleepers. The Arrow Commodities siding serves two purposes: • the silos and weighbridge etc. are located in the south-eastern end of the facility, and • a hardstand area where containers are side-loaded is on the…

The simplest form of a small layout or module is the inglenook concept. In HO scale this can be about 1200 mm long and about 250 mm wide. There is a website for an article on railway shunting puzzles for inglenook sidings [Editor’s note: refer to https://tinyurl.com/2uzbpr5j]. There have been many clever examples in the model press; different versions of this idea and some very interesting and high-quality examples. I constructed a standard version of this concept and was surprised how much enjoyment my grandchildren got from it and for how long they operated it. While this is a basic standard concept, there is no reason why you could not adapt it to an Australian scene. Brian Shields’ Renmark article [Editor’s note: refer to AMRM issue 343, August 2020] provides…

SAR/ANR/AN bogie sheep wagon in HO scale, Ozrail Model Trains, Unit 2 Building 4/Lot 1A Lawrence Hargrave Way, Parafield, SA, 5106, (08) 8258 7665, email: info@ozrailmodeltrains.com.au. Price in text. The models come packaged in individual boxes in a clear sleeve that holds a pair of wagons (RRP $180.00). The packaging is sturdy and protect the models quite well. Models of sheep wagons have been notoriously difficult for manufacturers to produce due to the many metal bars on them. Ozrail have managed to replicate these bars successfully; the bars are fine and appear to have the correct number of them. The end loading detail is good and bars have been modelled on the ends. The roof is modelled in the early version of the prototype; later versions show different roof configurations…

Bullinga is a fictious location in western New South Wales. Allan was a prolific modeller and Bullinga served as a ‘showcase’ for these models. The most complete version of Bullinga included: • a four-track yard, signal box and a mixture of two-position signals and searchlight signals; • a goods siding with two goods sheds and a yard crane; • at the western end, a four-track locomotive depot with water tank, two traditional palm trees and a scratch-built two-track through engine shed; • at the eastern end, a single siding for livestock and a goods platform for side-loading open wagons; and • the station building is a NSWGR Pc3 with an advertising hoarding positioned on each side. Allan was more of a modeller than an operator, so Bullinga served many purposes:…

Using his time between jobs away, Robert has developed a technique of 3D design and casting his models. This suits Robert during his down-time lifestyle and can effectively replicate models he needs. Robert models in N scale.…

I had started to collect together locomotives and rolling stock from my modelling days in Sydney to put together a small static display for a NSW country show. Somehow my enthusiasm took over and I started to build a small module to operate some of the collection on. My latest distraction has a baseboard size of 1600 mm by 420 mm and is a small NSW country branch line terminus, where the NSWGR meets the Victorian Railways. The station is based on the possible connection of a NSW line from Hay to a Victorian Railways line from Balranald. In one of the Train Hobby books there was a photograph of an X200 diesel rail tractor shunting at the border station of Tocumwal that set the plan in motion. As my…

EXHIBITIONS & EXPOS CANCELLED – CLAREMONT – WA. June 5-7, 2021. Australian Model Railway Association WA Inc. Model Railway Exhibition, at the Robinson Pavilion Claremont Showgrounds, 1 Graylands Rd, Claremont WA 6010. TOOWOOMBA – QLD. June 5-6, 2021. Toowoomba Model Railway Club Inc. presents the 2021 Toowoomba Model Trains & Hobby Expo, Founders Pavilion, Toowoomba Showgrounds, Glenvale Road, Toowoomba. 9am-5pm Saturday, 9am-4pm Sunday. $14.00 Adults, $10.00 Concession. Email: tmrcexpo@gmail.com Facebook: Toowoomba Model Railway Club Inc. www.eppingmodelrailway.org.au STAWELL – VIC. July 10-11, 2021. Victoria’s Smallest Model Railway Show, Stawell Railway Goods Shed, 15 Wakeham St, Stawell. 10am-5pm (Sat) & 10am-4pm (Sun). Adults $5, Children under 16 free. Stuart 0438 545 233. Grampian Model Railroaders Inc. www.gmrinc.org.au ROSEHILL – NSW. October 16-17, 2021. Great Train Show at Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavilion, off…

The Yarra Valley Model Railway Club put on the first exhibition in greater Melbourne in over a year over the weekend of 3–4 April 2021. It has been two years since its last exhibition. The club observed all the COVID-19 requirements; hand sanitiser etc. was readily available to exhibitors and the public. There were 43 exhibits including trade stands. The N scale representation was high, and showcases the ever-growing interest in Australian N scale modelling. Notable layouts included: • Robert Popovski’s Gunning (NSW) and Gunbower (Vic/NSW border), • Australian Japanese Model Railway Group’s modular layout, and • Victorian N scale collective’s expansive T-Trak layout. Notable HO scale layouts included: • Herbert River, Queensland cane tramway; • Leafy Bay, a terminus branch line based on Gippsland, Victoria; • Tallarook, the Sunbury…

On prototype railways, wagons of ore or mineral are transported from a mine or quarry and offloaded at a receival depot or processing complex. Then, the empty wagons usually return to the source of the ore for reloading. If your model railway is anything like mine, ore wagons often run empty because that’s the way they traditionally come from the model manufacturer and the creation of loads is still on the ‘another job to do’ list. However, you can build removable loads reasonably quickly. By using the ‘great crane in the sky’ to load each wagon at the mine or quarry and subsequently unload at the receival end, we can run ore and mineral trains prototypically. Removable loads are especially suitable for long rakes of the same type of wagons.…

For those with better carpentry skills than mine, there is the folding layout that has been perfected by Gavin Thrum for his layouts Great Moor Street, Commercial Street and Port Dock. As can be seen from the photographs, the layout folds up into a compact unit that can easily be stored away. The three sections of layout fold out to give a layout approximately three metres long. Details of this can be found in the Modelling the Railways of South Australia Convention Notes for 2013. In the 2019 Modelling the Railways of South Australia Convention Notes, Gavin presents the Port Dock module with numerous photographs of sections of the layout and illustrates how various structures and details were made. The first of Gavin’s South Australian folding layouts was Commercial Street,…

HO Scale Auscision Models Auscision Models has received a shipment of its SRA of NSW, CityRail Tangara EMUs and the SAR/ANR/AN 600 class diesel locomotives. Auscision has also announced it will be producing the AN CLF and CLP diesel locomotives. Tooling samples arrived just before AMRM went to press. Athearn Trains Athearn has announced that it will be producing the Fortescue Minerals Group (FMG) Dash 9-44CW locomotive. To be available in three road numbers (003, 007 and 014) in DC or DCC with sound, delivery is expected in March 2022. Reviewing the digital rendering, some of the FMG features include: • spare knuckles on the rear pilot, • Nathan K5LA horn, • dual rung handrails, • front-only ditch lights mounted on the anticlimber, • teardrop windscreens, • modified oil cooler,…

From Bags to Bulk I refer to the letter from Derek Cox and write to support Wayne Hoskin’s article. It was an article about the transition era and was not intended to go into any details of the rolling stock used or the political background to the introduction of bulk handling. On the latter I am not sure that the AMRM is the place to discuss the political background, but for interest, Kenn Pearce (in a presentation to the Modelling the Railways of South Australia Convention (MRSAC) in 2018) has gone into some detail to background the development of grain silos in South Australia. Refer to MRSAC notes pages 6-421 to 6-430. Nevertheless, Kenn has studiously avoided the early political background and later privatisation; all another story! On the rolling…