Forestville 2011

Someone once said that the Menzies era in Australia was not 15 years of Menzies but the same years over and over again – so it is with the Forestville Exhibition.

It must be difficult to organise an exhibition and to get layouts and their owners to attend but Forestville seems to have the same layouts over and over again creating a sense of dullness. Not Dungog again! It is a perfectly good layout and modelling standards are high but it is a perennial and nothing seems to have changed. The only way to freshen it up would be to do something radical like run a time table or run it with operators in front of it with humanity.

But the long trek from Concord to Forestville was not wasted. Some interesting works were found in the second hand stall along with a Athearn CF-7 that was $30 less than the one on the Model Rail Craftsman stall.

Here it is stretching out on the rolling road.

One layout that was worth a second look was Bavaria based on German practice and extremely simple, a loop through scenery with a siding at the station. Unlike most German models it lacks “humour” (no fire houses on fire), “naughty scenes” or flashing lights on emergency services vehicles.

Note how the model is displayed in its own world, the layout height, presentation of the back scene and the close lighting creates a bright and attractive model.

The use of standard detailing items such as Noch products is excellent in my view and not overdone as often is the case. The downside is the tail chasing nature of the train operations which tend to be a bit boring.

Nevertheless the model has an apparent simplicity and is full of light which makes it very attractive.

While at Forestville I witnessed a tail end smash brought on by operator error and the mighty power of DCC. The layout will be nameless to protect the guilty.

The sound of 4205 hitting the guards van was not on any sound card!

Another Magazine

I was down at Concord buying our afternoon coffee at Del Mondo. There was a bit of a crowd and not enough staff so I wandered next door to the Newsagent and returned with another modelling magazine – Airfix Model World.

Why do I need another magazine? I have hundreds of them in the house and in the shed. Well it goes back to my slightly misspent youth.

Airfix Magazine “for plastic modellers”

One day sometime in the late 1960’s I started buying the Airfix Magazine from the East Ivanhoe Newagency. Was it owned by Mr Giles? Later it was Fred and Peter Smythe, who gave me my first and often I think my best job – as a paperboy.

I had a standing order from 1969 and above is an image of one of the remaining early copies I have with the cover intact.

Airfix Magazine was produced from June 1960 to October 1993, was a brilliant marketing tool. It treated the topic of plastic modelling seriously and provided a mixture of news, historical information and articles on conversions and builds. Looking at the April 1969 issue I saw that the series on the Panzer 3 by Peter Chamberlin was concluding, while the “Bombing Colours” series by Bruce Robinson and Michael J.F. Bowyer. this would run for many years and was also a history of the RAF’s Bomber Command as well as the paint schemes of its aircraft. There are articles on model railways, model ships as well as aircraft and war gaming with “Ancient Britons”.  

I spend a considerable time in the alcove that was my bedroom reading the Airfix Magazine and assembling large plastic armies. I developed my annoying habit of referring to sources in arguments with my friends regarding aspects of WWII, aircraft and tanks.

As the years progressed the magazine changed most notably it metricated to A4.

The articles became a bit less interesting and the Airfix advertising was decidedly corny (e.g. The Army, The Navy and the Airforce gave it a Whirl  advertisement for  the Airfix Westland Whirlwind H.A.S. Mk 22). There were of course more competitors to Airfix in particular the Japanese who though more expensive in the UK were higher quality and more diverse subjects.

In any case by 1979 I was at Uni chasing after various bands and had even met girls who were not my sister’s school friends! I was surprised to learn that the Airfix Magazine survived till 1993.

Now in 2010 Airfix has been revived and now a new Airfix Magazine has retuned to join the groaning magazine shelves.

I probably wont be a regular buyer  but I bought this issue out of nostalgia.

Lidcombe

I had a little project in Lidcombe (NSW). I had never really been there before. I’d been through on the train but on foot I found a neat little shopping centre. Compare this photo looking down Joseph Street taken c1941 with a photo taken in November 2010

(source Wayland, S. C & Lidcombe Council 1941, Lidcombe and its development as an industrial centre, Council of the Municipality of Lidcombe, Lidcombe, N.S.W)

 

Not much has changed except for the cars and the car parking. Quite refreshing to find these gems.

VR delivers sleepers

On the VR Enthusiast discussion group Forthbridge asked about how the Victorian Railways delivered sleepers to their worksites. This reminded me of an incident when at the first Lake Condah Mission test excavations. When on returning from a trip to Heywood (14/09/1984) I spied a sleeper train at work on the line from Ararat to Portland (just south of Three Waterholes Road).

I deviated from my route and took some photos:

After I finished I took the next track through a pine forest back towards Condah Mission. I promptly got bogged so bogged that it took a 4wd and two tractors to get the Nissen Bluebird out. To be fair to me the 4wd bogged itself trying to get me out and one tractor also bogged itself.

My employers – the Victoria Archaeological Survey were not amused however members of the Aboriginal community who were with me thought it was a huge joke and I was often asked “seen any good trains lately”?

The images record an interesting scene of railway life.

Austrains IA wagon - opinions

With the arrival of the over speculated about Austrains “mystery” wagon – the VR I wagon and derivatives, a new era for the VR Enthusiast has arrived. Following on from the I, IA and B from Austrains are Auscuision’s U. T. KMQ as well as a GY and SDS models is promising another GY and a KQ wagon. Can a Z guards van be arriving in the not to distant future?

For the sum of between $25 and $35 per wagon a VR modeller will be able to build up a train of classic VR four wheelers to run behind their diesels. Previously this could only be achieved by assembling the excellent BGM/SEM kits which are about half the price (when you include painting, detailing and couplers but not costing assembly time).

Many modellers have expressed difficulties with the kits, although in comparison with injection moulded kits of AFV’s and Warships, the BGM/SEM kits are uncomplicated and easy to assemble requiring only basic modelling skills. However the RTR manufacturers must sense there is a market for VR four wheelers as there is allot of Chinese moulded plastic en route to Australia (some of which is heading to Concord).

I bought a "combo pack" which had I 15868, IA 14438 and B 69 at the "Our Town Show" on the 4th September 2010. Having some spare time on a Sunday morning, I ran the callipers over IA 14438 and had a detailed look at my purchase.

The sources I used are the usual culprits – the Peter Vincent website, Rob O’Regan’s website and Mark Bau’s website. From these several official diagrams of the IA were obtained which gave wagon dimensions. I converted these to HO scale and then went measuring with my trusty digital callipers.

At this point you need to consider possible sources of error – the conversions (feet to metrics, real to scale) being one obvious one. Then there is the difficulty of measuring. Variations on how you hold the callipers can result in errors. You also need to make sure you are measuring to the same points on the model as on the diagram. for example length over couplers – where on the couplers and don't forget Kadees are over scale so this measurement is inherently inaccurate. In contrast distance between axle boxes is likely to be more accurate as the location of the axles is readily found on both the model and the prototype.

The results are:

Length over couplers: should be 8.7cm my measurements are consistent with this allowing for errors

Interior width: should be 2.97cm is 2.86 cm – probably the sides are over sized  as they are thicker than the SEM ones.

Wheel centres: should be 4.02cm and is  3.91cm

Doors are ok but difficult to measure precisely.

Side height: 1.28cm and is 1.34cm

So the model is possibly slightly larger than 100% to scale but this is less than 1mm so could also be a measuring fault. Comparing the model to one of my SEM IA wagons the Austrains model looks ever so slightly larger which confirms my feeling (assuming David got the SEM model correct).

The model is in some form of shiny plastic (POM?) and the underframe and wheels pop out leaving the wagon sides and a metal wagon floor.

The brake rigging is simplified and will need some beefing up – this is my preference. The brake cylinder is at a very odd angle, again it could be left or fixed. The grab irons, coupler pin lifter and tarp supports are all fine details. both the tarp supports and the coupler pin lifter move.

The interior has timber detailing on the floor but no side detail. I think the doors should be thinner than the sides according to the diagram. This challenge as been avoided by Austrains and SEM no doubt due to cost.  

The wagon weights 20g which is a bit light for both NRMA and NEM standards. The bulk of the weight is the floor which is metal.

The model is finished in a representation of VR wagon red with white steps and white squares in corners. Basically it looks far too clean for a wagon constructed in 1915 and will need to be detailed to fit in with the owners preferences. The photos of the wagons in the 1970’s show them to be fairly bashed and battered (reflecting over 50 years of work) and the Austrains model from the box looks far too neat and kempt whereas it should be IMHO unkempt.

So if you want a model you can plonk on the tracks and run, this will do the trick – it looks good and although it is slightly larger than it should be this is not really going to be noticed I think (unless you are wondering around with callipers and a VR diagram).

(above Austrains and SEM IA wagons

In contrast my SEM IA wagons are still not finished after intermittent progress since 2002 (or possibly earlier) and some of the handrail details are much finer than my attempts at wire bending, it’s back to the work bench for me to improve these details.

Also on the workbench at some stage will be the RTR  IA’s for weathering and minor detailing. My preference is for rolling stock that look like they have been used and the Austrains finish is too slick for my preference. I am also wondering whether it might be possible to scribe representations of the doors on the inside of the wagon.

To conclude; I am happy that I have got these wagons and that I have ordered more. They will complement my existing completed and to be completed SEM models. If I just want to run a train, then these wagons are ready to go. They will need some work to finish them to my personal preferences which to some degree negates the RTR aspect but consider the lack of progress I have made on the SEM kits. Therefore the Austrains wagons suit the time poor. 

Shipwrecked in Stockholm!

The last days of this trip were spent chilling in Stockholm from which we were to fly back to Sydney. What better way for us to chill than a “Hop on Hop off” Harbour cruise  with a stop off to the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa Museum is definitely one which exceeds expectations. After a short time queuing, we came in the entrance to see the truly astonishing sight of the Vasa sitting there in this vast dimly lit hall. It looked like a ghost ship, something, as Jane ironically noted, out of Pirates of the Caribbean. The impact is dramatic.

 

I did note a sign advising the more dim witted tourists that this indeed was the “museum ship”!

The ship speaks for itself but in the surrounding seven levels of viewpoints and galleries is a detailed explanation of the ship its construction, context and those on board. The latter was discussed in a really comprehensive discussion of skeletal remains.

 

The iconography of the Vasa is really important as the ship was dressed to impress with the elaborate carvings pronouncing on the Swedish Kingdoms superiority and place in history.

There is also a good display on the conservation work undertaken to preserve the Vasa – they literally wrote the book on preserving shipwreck  timbers.

Inspired by our 3 hours at the Vasa we hopped on the next hop on/hop off and stayed on while they visited their stops around the harbour. This was great a good end to a day which started at 5:00 am in our hot Helsinki room.

Then as we were getting ready to hop off at the quay at Nybroviken  the small ferry instead of slowing seemed to speed up. Jane and I were standing waiting to go off and we moved back from near the bow at the deckhands shouted warning. Then with a big bang we hit. Both Jane and I hit the deck. There was chaos. My first thought was to get Jane and I off the boat. Janes was for fellow passengers. 

We got off fairly quickly. Jane seemed ok but I had a very sore (bruised)bum. We were both a bit shaken but other passengers were worse off with a few being taken to hospital.

Here is the scene just after we got off with the Swedish police just arriving. I was quite shaken and sat for a while to recover and to be given the once over by the paramedics.  Jane later became quite sore in the shoulder – a form of whiplash I think and of course my bruised bum was a very sore outcome,

Two shipwrecks in one day!

Miniature Wonderland

This is supposedly the largest model railway in the World. Who knows it is huge and here are some photos to give an impression of the layout.

This is the server controlling the electrics.

The DCC Control room would shame many real life railways (they let women run the trains!!!)

I am not sure whether this is weathered but the detail is quite exquisite.

Especially when you consider the size of the layout (this is the Swiss Section).