Does this still work

 I am really posting to see whether this still works

The Eureka Models experience

I want to get something off my chest. In June 2011 I ordered a Eureka Models’ Victorian Railways’ Bogie Open Wagon 3-Pack (2 VR E wagons and 1SAR O wagon) along with their OT back. At the time I was assured that they were in production and due in 12 weeks. In addition I was told that Phillip Dunn was involved in checking the design (so I thought they should be ok).

Although the OT’s arrived the E wagons have been delayed and delayed. I forget the story of old factories and new factories and new “new factory” and Chinese New Year which Ron has told me over the years to explain the delays. Privately I always suspected that as Orient Express Reproductions released the OB wagon in late 2011 Ron was waiting for demand to build up again.

Phoenix Reproductions has taken over some of Ron’s old projects including the E wagons. I emailed Ron to ask how my order was to be filled he replied that Phoenix was supplying him with a number of models and that mine would come from Eureka’s stocks.

Nothing happened thereafter. At least from the Eureka side of things except a note in the latest AMRM asking those with orders not filled from Eureka to contact them. Which I have done twice by email using the address on their website which is the same one that they last sent me the Eureka Times. Still nothing.

I fronted up to the Eureka stand at the AMRA show yesterday and spoke to Ron. When asked where my order was his attitude was immediately defensive. He hadn’t got enough models from Phoenix – they had left him short. They were going to supply him with more next week …etc (a view I might note Phoenix disagrees with). I asked why he didn’t reply to my emails he shrugged his shoulders and said, “but I get 50 a week, I don’t read them” (this to someone who would get at least 50 per day). I said “but I am a customer” again the shrugged shoulders and no reply.

What an appalling attitude to a paid-up customer. The whole saga seems to have been one of optimism and self-interest. I am quite disillusioned as I thought despite the wait, I would get the model but now I guess not. I will be interested if I will get my money back.

I posted these comments on the Australian Finer Scale Rail Modelling and our Too Regular Distractions group on FB where it was reported for being RTR nevertheless there were numerous comments pointing to similar experiences with Eureka and ron Cunningham.

Faced with the option of no RTR E wagons I then ordered a pack from Phoenix ASAP and began to search my legal options to get my money back. About a week later I got an email from Ron saying that he had dispatched my order and a confirmation from Phoenix (!). They all arrived and I should say that I have no problems with the models just the whole Eureka experience.

I would advise not dealing with Eureka and Ron Cunningham altogether.

Exile Bay

Sometimes for our evening walk we pick up coffees and walk along the eastern side of Exile Bay. This was the scene mid-august as the sun was setting over the Bay. The shots are looking west over Bayview Park with the Bushells Factory being the prominent building in the shots.

I  tried to get the texture on the water as well as the sky.

Shot on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and probably processed by Samaung’s software to make it look good!

Mangroves

This afternoons walk was just as the sun was setting and the twilight was upon us. Jane had been talking about abstract art and I shot these images of the mangroves in the falling light as the shapes looked sort of abstract to me.

I loved the light and the texture of the water as well. all shot with by Sansung Galaxy Note 4 in Canada Bay.

Springer’s free download of books

Just after Christmas I read on the SHA website that Springer well known publisher of archaeological books and journals was offering a large number of texts for free download. This is what I got one afternoon in between sanding and painting a bookcase.

1	Andrén, A 1997, Between artifacts and texts : historical archaeology in global perspective, Plenum Press, New York.
2	Atack, J 1986, 'Firm Size and Industrial Structure in the United States During the Nineteenth Century', The Journal of Economic History, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 463-75.
3	Babits, LE & Van Tilburg, H 1998, 'Maritime archaeology : a reader of substantive and theoretical contributions', Plenum Press, New York.
4	Banning, EB 2000, The archaeologist's laboratory the analysis of archaeological data, Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
5	——— 2002, Archaeological survey, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
6	Baram, U & Carroll, L 2002, 'A historical archaeology of the Ottoman Empire breaking new ground', Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
7	Bates, DG & Lees, SH 1996, Case studies in human ecology, Plenum Press, New York.
8	Blanton, RE 1994, Houses and households : a comparative study, Plenum Press, New York.
9	Burke, H 1999, Meaning and ideology in historical archaeology : style, social identity, and capitalism in an Australian town, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publisher, New York.
10	Burns, JM 2003, The life and times of a merchant sailor : the archaeology and history of the Norwegian ship Catharine, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
11	Caldwell, DR, Ehlen, J & Harmon, RS 2004, 'Studies in military geography and geology', Kluwer Academic Pub., Dordrecht; Boston.
12	Carneiro, RL 2002, The muse of history and the science of culture, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
13	Corbin, A 2002, The Material Culture of Steamboat Passengers Archaeological Evidence from the Missouri River, Springer US, Boston, MA.
14	Crowell, A 1997, Archaeology and the capitalist world system : a study from Russian America, Plenum Press, New York.
15	Dalglish, C 2003, Rural society in the age of reason : an archaeology of the emergence of modern life in the Southern Scottish Highlands, Contributions to global historical archaeology, ed. C. E. Orser, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, NY [u.a.
16	Delle, JA 1998, An archaeology of social space : analyzing coffee plantations in Jamaica's Blue Mountains, Plenum Press, New York.
17	Drennan, RD 1996, Statistics for archaeologists : a commonsense approach, Plenum Press, New York.
18	Goodwin, LBR 2002, An archaeology of manners the polite world of the merchant elite in colonial Massachusetts, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.
19	Groover, MD 2003, An archaeological study of rural capitalism and material life : the Gibbs farmstead in Southern Appalachia, 1790-1920, Contributions to global historical archaeology., ed. C. E. Orser, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
20	Jamieson, RW 2002, Domestic architecture and power : the historical archaeology of colonial Ecuador, Kulwer Academic Publishers, New York.
21	Kipfer, BA 2000, Encyclopedic dictionary of archaeology, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.
22	Kroll, EM & Price, TD 1991, 'The Interpretation of archaeological spatial patterning', Plenum Press, New York.
23	Kusch, M 1991, Foucault's strata and fields : an investigation into archaeological and genealogical science studies, Studies In Epistemology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht; Boston.
24	Langham, I 1981, The building of British social anthropology : W.H.R. Rivers and his Cambridge disciples in the development of kinship studies, 1898-1931, D. Reidel ; Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Boston Inc., Dordrecht, Holland; Boston, U.S.A.; Hingham, MA.
25	Leone, MP & Potter, PB 1999, 'Historical archaeologies of capitalism', Kluwer Academic : Plenum Press, New York.
26	Lyman, RL, O'Brien, MJ & Dunnell, RC 1997, Americanist culture history : fundamentals of time, space, and form, Plenum Press, New York.
27	Lyman, RL, O'Brien, MJ & Dunnell, RC 1997, The Rise and Fall of Cultural History, Plenum Press, New York.
28	Matthews, CN 2002, An archaeology of history and tradition : moments of danger in the Annapolis landscape, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
29	McCarthy, M 2002, Iron and steamship archaeology success and failure on the SS Xantho, Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
30	O'Brien, MJ & Lyman, RL 2002, Applying evolutionary archaeology a systematic approach, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.
31	——— 2002, Seriation, stratigraphy, and index fossils the backbone of archaeological dating, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
32	Odell, GH 1996, 'Stone tools : theoretical insights into human prehistory', Plenum Press, New York.
33	——— 2004, Lithic analysis, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
34	Orser, CE 1996, A historical archaeology of the modern world, Plenum Press, New York.
35	Pfister, C & Brimblecombe, P 1990, 'The Silent countdown : essays in European environmental history', Springer-Verlag, Berlin; New York.
36	Reid, AM & Lane, P 2004, African historical archaeologies, Contributions to global historical archaeology., ed. C. E. Orser, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York; Boston; Dordrecht [etc.].
37	Rodgers, BA 2004, The archaeologist's manual for conservation : a guide to non-toxic, minimal intervention artifact stabilization, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
38	Rose-Redwood, RS 2010, 'Genealogies of the Grid: Revisiting Stanislawski's Search for the Origin of the Grid-Pattern Town', Geographical Review, vol. 98, no. 1, pp. 42-58.
39	Rossignol, J & Wandsnider, L 1992, 'Space, time, and archaeological landscapes', Plenum Press, New York.
40	Ruppé, C & Barstad, J 2002, International handbook of underwater archaeology, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
41	Schávelzon, D 2002, The Historical Archaeology of Buenos Aires a City at the End of the World, Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
42	Shackel, PA 1996, Culture change and the new technology : an archaeology of the early American industrial era, Plenum Press, New York.
43	——— 2002, Archaeology and Created Memory Public History in a National Park, Springer US, Boston, MA.
44	Sinopoli, CM 1991, Approaches to archaeological ceramics, Plenum Press, New York.
45	South, SA 1994, Pioneers in historical archaeology : breaking new ground, Plenum Press, New York.
46	——— 2002, Historical archaeology in Wachovia excavating eighteenth-century Bethabara and Moravian pottery, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
47	Souza, DJ 1998, The persistence of sail in the age of steam : underwater archaeological evidence from the Dry Tortugas, Plenum Press, New York.
48	Spencer-Wood, SM 1987, 'Consumer Choice in Historical Archaeology', Plenum Press, New York.
49	Staniforth, M 2003, Material culture and consumer society : dependent colonies in colonial Australia, Plenum series in underwater archaeology., ed. J. Barto Arnold, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
50	Velde, B & Druc, IC 1999, Archaeological ceramic materials : origin and utilization, Springer, Berlin; New York.
51	Wall, Dd 1994, The archaeology of gender : separating the spheres in urban America, Plenum Press, New York.
52	Williams, RL 2003, French botany in the enlightenment : the ill-fated voyages of La Pérouse and his rescuers, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.

Thanks Springer and thanks to the SHA for letting everyone know.

Coleraine Junction again

I blogged about Coleraine Junction in December 2012 and since then nothing much has happened. I have been gradually been amassing information – historical and mapping.

For example here is the site on the 1942 inch to the mile map.

I have also been looking at the Working Time Tables that cover Coleraine Junction. There are three lines – one little used line to Penshurst and Warrnambool, the branch to Coleraine and the main line to Portland and Mount Gambier. In addition as the depot for Hamilton was situated at Coleraine Junction there would be light engines going to and from Hamilton. When you put all that together Coleraine Junction would have been quite a busy box.   

Last weekend (June 2015) I was in the area for a workshop and arranged with Jane to spend some time at the site of Coleraine Junction. Of course it is heavily altered and there is little original fabric left except for some culverts and concrete facing but i was able to get a feel for the setting of the signal box. To do this I took about 100 photos and made field plans and sketches.

This is the site of the signal box taken from the (new) bridge looking roughly south east. The signal box was roughly where the bush is growing. The open flat area above was the site of a Departmental Residence.

This is the view from the Coleraine branch looking towards the junction. The trees would form a useful block behind the track and in front of the sky.

Looking north at Coleraine Junction from the Penshurst line, note the trees, landscape and a culvert in the mid-ground. 

This is only a selection of the 100 odd images but it does help crystallise some design elements. The embankment and cutting and bridge would at the Hamilton end would form one end. The Departmental residence, fence and trees would form one side  and more trees could be used with modelling license to screen tracks and the loco depot.

This layout would not be a shunting layout but one with a passage of trains through the junction  (accompanied by the appropriate bell codes of course) which would allow for a display of a collection of rolling stock and locomotives.

I am now going to look for a good quality aerial image and then try and sketch out a design.

(Note this post was written around the time that Google disabled Live Writers functionality and Microsoft did nothing, now it seems to be fixed).

The Eiffel Tower at night

 

We were in Paris in Auguest-September 2015 and on our last day we did the Eiffel Tower. We chose the late afternoon/evening to start our climb with the result that we were at the top (after 720 steps) as the setting sun picked out the surounding suburbs. We stopped for dinner on the way down and then we climbed down the steps through the lit structure of the tower which gave this amazing effect of mechano gone wild. The light picks out the detail of this amazing structure.