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.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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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