Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

It's amazing what you see walking back to your accommodation from dinner after a day of railway research. These two Art Deco gems are a block apart on Wallendoon St, Cootamundra on the corners of Thompson St and Sutton St. They were probably built in the mid-1930s as were other Art Deco buildings in Cootamundra. As they are still in everyday use for the purpose they were originally designed for, they are design elements that could justifiably take their place in any Australian country town layout set in any era for the last 90 years. The service station was originally a Shell outlet but was also a British Petroleum outlet in 2010. All you would need to do to back date either building is change some of the details such…

Upon arrival on Saturday the 4th of May at 08:35 I was met with a line-up of patrons that extended nearly all the way to the Grand Avenue gates! Thankfully the queue was quickly compressed in size by the Epping Model Railway Club's (EMRC) staff. Allocating lines for walk up patrons (like me) and those who had pre-booked. The exhibition opened at 09:00 sharp and by 09:06 I had paid the $20 entry fee and was in the door! First stop was the bring and buy stand where everyone had the same idea at the same time! The tables of pre-loved models very quickly found new homes. The exhibition consisted of 88 stands of layouts – trade and clinics, this included several new layouts. One highlight was the authentic CityRail…

The National N Scale Convention 2024 was held from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June at Wangaratta Performing Arts and Convention Centre in regional Victoria, and featured 11 exhibits and 15 traders. 153 people attended from across Australia (two from overseas) with 29 partners coming along to the Branchline Convention Dinner. This is a record attendance for the National N Scale Convention. Layouts included Pat Gagel's ‘Binda’, Peter Hill's ‘Essendon Depot’, Stephen Curry's ‘Hexhamish’, Canberra Monaro N Scale Group's T-Trak, Sydney N's ‘Gresham’, Rob Popoviski's ‘Gunnadoo’ and Daniel Thomson's ‘Senohikui Tetsudo’ with the Inland Rail exhibiting their N Scale layout (whilst supporting the Convention as a sponsor). There were interesting displays of fine craftsmanship from the 2mm Fine Scale Association, ‘Pocket Sized Modules’ and ‘Puzzled and Confused’.…

This is my second layout based on the town of Casino New South Wales (NSW), and the North Coast Line, set in the 1970s. The first version of ‘Casino’ was featured in AMRM issue No. 329 April 2018; this layout was dismantled when I moved house in 2011. Some years after moving, I started on ‘Casino Redux’, a bigger and better version of the same design elements used in the first layout. The main lessons learnt from the first layout were: • Hidden track – the staging yard and a lot of interconnecting main line was hidden. There were too many design elements, such as stations which were squeezed in, and the separation between each design element was not ideal. It was difficult to access some of the hidden track,…

Building a locomotive such as the Garratt was a challenge to say the least, but even after decades of watching this model working on a layout, I can never get sick of seeing it glide along the track with all its elegance and composure. Many questions come from observers, and one is: how on earth did you build it? Well, I'll give it a go, but I might miss something along the way so I'll apologise for that. I built this model in 1991 and took it to Melbourne in 1992 for the Australian Model Railway Association (AMRA) Vic. Branch model railway exhibition at Camberwell Civic Centre. Remember those years! My model of No. 401 won an award for ‘best locomotive’ and we took an SAR layout ‘Beltowie’ along to…

I had recently built a rake of five Steam Era Models (SEM) 72ft clerestory E coaches built in 1910 jointly by the Victorian Railways (VR) and South Australian Railways (SAR) to run on the Melbourne Express. The VR also built coaches for the Sydney Express which would have terminated at Albury. As an aside, I thoroughly enjoyed putting the E coach kits together, even though they weren't produced as actual E coaches: the modeller needs to cut and join shorter AW and BW sides to form the sides for the longer E coaches, and do the same with the roof and underframe. The ‘cutting and shutting’ was easily accomplished with the aid of an engineer's square. Additionally, I used Revell plastic cement, with a squeeze bottle and needle tube applicator;…

Computer assisted control Like most modelers I have many interests in this great hobby of model railways. One of my interests is computer assisted control of my layout. This came about several years ago when I was thumbing through a Eisenbahn Journal on my favourite landscape modeler, Josef Brandl. He was building a layout that was being controlled by a German software called Train Controller (TC). This sounded interesting to me, so I researched the software, joined the website's forum and asked questions about its functionality. I was impressed with what this software could do. Over the next five years, through the forum, I built a friendship with a fellow user of the software. He helped me with setting up and coding the software. Fast forward to 2020 I became…

N Scale Auscision Models - N Scale Are intending to produce a selection of New South Wales rolling stock including; The State Rail Authority of New South Wales (SRA of NSW) XPT passenger train. Also expected are the MGFH flour hopper wagon, NPHH cement hopper wagon, NHHF and CHS coal hopper wagon, NHGF and BGVF grain hopper wagon and the KLV and KLY louvre vans. 20ft high cube and high cube side door containers, 40ft and 48ft high cube containers, and 46ft 6’ reefer container. Badger Models Has announced the production of the r-t-r SRA of NSW XPT passenger train. Gopher Models & Buckambool Models Gopher Models and Buckambool Model Trains have developed the r-t-r New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) C38 class 4-6-2 steam locomotive, with Buckambool Model Trains…

Wiring is best achieved with simplification, clear designation, and good access. I built the scenery boards for my latest layout using an early version of the Cameo board concept see AMRM issue No. 348 June 2021. This method of construction means that behind the backdrop there is a shelf between each upright, created by the stringers. A convenient by-product of this design is a handy location for running wiring looms. Some simple aspects and rules to wiring. Setting some standards and rules for wiring on a layout will help maintain consistency and thus reduce the possibility of errors. The following is a list of rules and conventions I use to install and maintain my wiring. • Wire colour allocation. Black (negative) and Red (positive) are the best colours for track…

BEZY / QQAY After 25 years in service, the BEZY container wagons can boast an interesting history. Queensland Rail built 299 of these three-twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container ‘skels’ between 1999 and 2000 at their Redbank Workshops. These wagons were intended for narrow gauge operation (1067mm, 3’6” gauge) and were numbered in the series of 47554 - 47852. The 299 BEZY wagons were part of a larger fleet building program of 558 three-TEU wagons between 1993-2000 with the BCZY and BAZY classes, predating the BEZY. While all three classes of wagons are very similar, the BEZY is quickly distinguishable by its shorter wheelbase Barber S2HD type bogies. The BEZY has a tare mass of 17.6 tonnes, a gross mass of 80 tonnes, and a length of 19.384 metres. The Barber…

SDS Models SAR Early 8300 Brake Van Address: P.O.Box 804 Winston Hills NSW 2153 E-Mail: sales@sdsmodels.com.au Phone: 0431 423 878 Price: $125.00 AUD per single van pack Website: https://www.sdsmodels.com.au/8300web.htm When SDS Models released the South Australian Railways (SAR) early 8300 brake vans, there were eleven models released in mid-April 2024. As of June 2024, a twelfth model, 8303 in 1980s one off green and yellow, was made available in the range. Prototype This series of brake van numbered 8300 to 8313 were built in 1947/48 at the SAR's Islington Workshops in Adelaide. These vans were built to replace some of the aging timber brake vans that were then in service on the SAR. All of these vans were issued to traffic on broad gauge wheels. The vans had a goods…

Large Scale Accucraft and Argyle Locomotive Works - Large Scale Will be shipping a new batch of large scale, Scale 1:19, Gauge 32 or 45mm (supplied) Victorian Railways ‘Puffing Billy’ NA class 2-6-2 steam locomotives. These locomotives will be available either as kits or r-t-r in the following liveries: • Two-tone green with white lining. • Canadian Pacific red and dark brown. • All over black livery (no lining). • ‘1A’ in 1898 Baldwin configuration, Ivy green livery. Optional packs include. • Radio control kit with mechanical fittings kit for mounting and connecting servos • Lamp small pilot head lamp as fitted to 7A (set of two) • Stack, tapered ‘stovepipe’ smokestack as fitted to locomotive 8A These will be available in live steam and electric-powered versions. The electric version…