Just need to modernise the OH&S standards with a splash of yellow paint on some steps and full-length handrails on the hood units and I'll be all up to date...
Watching this definitely makes me want sound in my models. Off to DCCSound.com to drool.
I'm not sure whether it's really cool these old machines have been lovingly restored to their VR colours and are still out making money (the train is run by El Zorro, locos leased from the Seymour Rail Heritage Centre), or if it's scary that broad-gauge freight is so badly run down there is still a place for these antiques (average age around fifty years).
(found via a post on the British RMWeb forums)
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Saturday, October 31, 2009
I'm a bit sad about this
On ebay currently is an auction for some of the rolling stock from the big TT scale Victorian Railways layout that lived at the Melbourne Showgrounds up to the late 70s.
For me as a little child it was one of the highlights of the Royal Show, and I remember wanting to spend far more time looking at it than my family would tolerate.
I also remember missing it when it went away. At the Show for years after I kept hoping this wonderland would suddenly reappear around the next corner.
For me as a little child it was one of the highlights of the Royal Show, and I remember wanting to spend far more time looking at it than my family would tolerate.
I also remember missing it when it went away. At the Show for years after I kept hoping this wonderland would suddenly reappear around the next corner.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Planning Software
I'm not sure why I succeeded today when I had problems last time I tried to install it, but the freebie model rail track planning software Xtrkcad is now happily running on my Macbook.
I suspect I'm going to want to buy a mouse, though.
I suspect I'm going to want to buy a mouse, though.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I've Been Given Some Peco Setrack...
So 
it's time to start actually building something.
The plan:
A quick project taking advantage of this generously supplied track. It won't be my "ultimate layout", but it will be a chance to cut some timber, solder some wiring, build some scenery and otherwise learn how to do stuff.
The subject:
VR of course. A branch line terminus with a roughly prototypical track layout.
Let's see how we go. The enthusiasm seems to be holding up.
it's time to start actually building something.The plan:
A quick project taking advantage of this generously supplied track. It won't be my "ultimate layout", but it will be a chance to cut some timber, solder some wiring, build some scenery and otherwise learn how to do stuff.
The subject:
VR of course. A branch line terminus with a roughly prototypical track layout.
Let's see how we go. The enthusiasm seems to be holding up.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Shopping Trip
No, I didn't go to South Australia to look at hobby shops. But if I just happened to be there...
I did well at End of the Line Hobbies, in Victor Harbor, picking up a kit of a VR tank wagon and assorted other bits and pieces. They've got a particularly good assortment of the nuts and bolts and bogies and bottles of goo needed to make models.
Also of interest are the built up and painted kits they sell. Not cheap in absolute terms, and I view myself as a builder of kits so I'm not really a potential customer, but I can certainly see these models as good value.
Amongst other stuff I'm not directly interested in, there was better range of South Australian kits than I was aware existed.
Now, while I noticed that my VR Products tanker kit came without bogies and bought some at End of the Line, I didn't go so far as to check more deeply into the instructions looking for other bits that might be needed, which ran to brass wire, styrene sheet and a Model Etch handbrake stand. Fortunately, I was able to make up these deficiencies at Orient Express in Adelaide (well, in Unley, actually, a tram stop south of Adelaide's CBD grid). They support a decent range of local, US and British stuff, but the emphasis seems to lean to the European. I don't, don't, DON'T need to be thinking about how nice, and almost affordable, those models of Swiss electric locos are. Love those electrics with huge steam engine style driving wheels and coupling rods... Orient Express also seem to be strong in the DCC and digital sound electronicy stuff.
South Australian Hobby Centre in the Adelaide CBD seem to be no longer into model rail (though I was tempted by a couple of extremely nice Bandai kits of fighters from the old Star Blazers cartoon; fortunately their choking expense kept them out of my huge pile of unbuilt plastic).
I did well at End of the Line Hobbies, in Victor Harbor, picking up a kit of a VR tank wagon and assorted other bits and pieces. They've got a particularly good assortment of the nuts and bolts and bogies and bottles of goo needed to make models.
Also of interest are the built up and painted kits they sell. Not cheap in absolute terms, and I view myself as a builder of kits so I'm not really a potential customer, but I can certainly see these models as good value.
Amongst other stuff I'm not directly interested in, there was better range of South Australian kits than I was aware existed.
Now, while I noticed that my VR Products tanker kit came without bogies and bought some at End of the Line, I didn't go so far as to check more deeply into the instructions looking for other bits that might be needed, which ran to brass wire, styrene sheet and a Model Etch handbrake stand. Fortunately, I was able to make up these deficiencies at Orient Express in Adelaide (well, in Unley, actually, a tram stop south of Adelaide's CBD grid). They support a decent range of local, US and British stuff, but the emphasis seems to lean to the European. I don't, don't, DON'T need to be thinking about how nice, and almost affordable, those models of Swiss electric locos are. Love those electrics with huge steam engine style driving wheels and coupling rods... Orient Express also seem to be strong in the DCC and digital sound electronicy stuff.
South Australian Hobby Centre in the Adelaide CBD seem to be no longer into model rail (though I was tempted by a couple of extremely nice Bandai kits of fighters from the old Star Blazers cartoon; fortunately their choking expense kept them out of my huge pile of unbuilt plastic).
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Stuff Other People Do Better Than Me - Part 1
http://shelley-railway.blogspot.com/
A couple of layouts, plus some other goodies, by Andrew Collier on this website built across nearly a dozen different Blogger sites.
The first layout is Cudgewa, based on the idea that the branchline from Wodonga to Cudgewa was built to 2'6" narrow gauge (like the Puffing Billy line) rather than the 5'3" used in the real world. The rolling stock consists of caricatured versions of broad gauge VR rolling stock rather than being based on actual VR narrow gauge equipment. It's almost like the cute super-deformed stuff the Japanese do, but there's a delightful air of credibility to it all. Love it.
Next layout is Glendale, apparently being built as a shelf layout immediately above Cudgewa. It's another VR layout, to the traditional HO scale, but unusual in a couple of respects.
Firstly, it's set in the 1920s-30s when nearly everyone models the VR post WW2.
Secondly, it shows part of Melbourne's electrified suburban network. This isn't unknown, I was entranced by the big Woodville layout at the Hobson's Bay show over Easter, but it's far from common and there are virtually no electric models or kits available. The "Dogbox" EMUs here are built from homemade resin castings using Hollywood Foundry mechanisms. And, in this era when the VR was only beginning to shift to the use of American-style autocouplers, there are no Kadee couplers, just those old-fashioned buffers and hooks and chains you quietly pity British modellers for having to put up with.
Since I've long had thoughts of doing something VR suburban, I'll be watching this website closely.
A couple of layouts, plus some other goodies, by Andrew Collier on this website built across nearly a dozen different Blogger sites.
The first layout is Cudgewa, based on the idea that the branchline from Wodonga to Cudgewa was built to 2'6" narrow gauge (like the Puffing Billy line) rather than the 5'3" used in the real world. The rolling stock consists of caricatured versions of broad gauge VR rolling stock rather than being based on actual VR narrow gauge equipment. It's almost like the cute super-deformed stuff the Japanese do, but there's a delightful air of credibility to it all. Love it.
Next layout is Glendale, apparently being built as a shelf layout immediately above Cudgewa. It's another VR layout, to the traditional HO scale, but unusual in a couple of respects.
Firstly, it's set in the 1920s-30s when nearly everyone models the VR post WW2.
Secondly, it shows part of Melbourne's electrified suburban network. This isn't unknown, I was entranced by the big Woodville layout at the Hobson's Bay show over Easter, but it's far from common and there are virtually no electric models or kits available. The "Dogbox" EMUs here are built from homemade resin castings using Hollywood Foundry mechanisms. And, in this era when the VR was only beginning to shift to the use of American-style autocouplers, there are no Kadee couplers, just those old-fashioned buffers and hooks and chains you quietly pity British modellers for having to put up with.
Since I've long had thoughts of doing something VR suburban, I'll be watching this website closely.
Monday, April 13, 2009
So, Wotcha Doin'?
Okay, I'm modelling the Victorian Railways in HO scale, in the second half of the 1960s (give or take a few decades).
Why VR? Because it's the local prototype and I'm familiar with it, because I think it has generally cool looking equipment.
Why the 60s? From a practical point of view, this was still the era of the four-wheel wagon and the lazy country branch line, far more sensible in the available space than a kilometre-long string of containers led by four locomotives. I'm also after something a bit more remote in time, after all the 1980s are just like yesterday, aren't they? Aren't they?
Back in the real world, I'm unlikely to religiously stick to this era, even aside from the plans for Project Stupid.
Why HO scale? I have put a lot of thought into this one.
I am tight for space and while the smaller N scale is much less developed commercially than HO, there is enough available from people like Aust-N-Rail to make it an entirely practical choice for my preferred subject. But for now I think I want the bigger models. I'm willing to accept the trade-off of shorter trains and less sweeping scenery (given that I don't have much rolling stock and aren't sure I actually want to make heaps of scenery, this may be a feature rather than a bug).
In the other direction, O scale (1/48 for Victorian models) is possible, but my size limits really start to bite here. And it's expensive.
Yeah, but what are you actually doing? Well, no layout yet. Plans are to build some sort of VR country station as a get-up-to-speed exercise. I am building kits: current works in progress being a couple of Steam Era Models louvre vans and a Blue and Gold Models C passenger brake van.
Why VR? Because it's the local prototype and I'm familiar with it, because I think it has generally cool looking equipment.
Why the 60s? From a practical point of view, this was still the era of the four-wheel wagon and the lazy country branch line, far more sensible in the available space than a kilometre-long string of containers led by four locomotives. I'm also after something a bit more remote in time, after all the 1980s are just like yesterday, aren't they? Aren't they?
Back in the real world, I'm unlikely to religiously stick to this era, even aside from the plans for Project Stupid.
Why HO scale? I have put a lot of thought into this one.
I am tight for space and while the smaller N scale is much less developed commercially than HO, there is enough available from people like Aust-N-Rail to make it an entirely practical choice for my preferred subject. But for now I think I want the bigger models. I'm willing to accept the trade-off of shorter trains and less sweeping scenery (given that I don't have much rolling stock and aren't sure I actually want to make heaps of scenery, this may be a feature rather than a bug).
In the other direction, O scale (1/48 for Victorian models) is possible, but my size limits really start to bite here. And it's expensive.
Yeah, but what are you actually doing? Well, no layout yet. Plans are to build some sort of VR country station as a get-up-to-speed exercise. I am building kits: current works in progress being a couple of Steam Era Models louvre vans and a Blue and Gold Models C passenger brake van.
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