The first year in the expanded shed

It is hard to believe that it is just over 12 months since the extensions to my train shed were completed. In the last year I think I have achieved quite a bit, but sometimes it has seemed like two steps forward and one step back.

The layout February 2011

The same spot in February 2012

the view looking back along Geehi

In the last year I have built about 60 feet or 20 meters of benchwork and in another week I should have all the track laid on the benchwork that has been built. My goal had been to have all the benchwork built and track laid in the first year, but reality has kicked in and it will take at least another year to reach that target. It hasn't helped that I spent some of the past year dithering about the track gauge and I have laid track twice on some of the layout.

Since the last post I have been busy laying track, wiring and installing lighting and valances. I have also made some changes to the trackplan returning to my original plan shown here. I went away from this plan because the staging yard was at the same height as the yard at Mt Bogong but under the buildings of the town. It didn't take me long to realise that this just wasn't going to work, so I moved Mt Bogong to under where Sterling is on the plan. While this worked well, I didn't like how the layout was going to operate so I spent quite some time rethinking my plans.

The saying "couldn't see the forest for the trees" applied to me here. I went back to the original plan and realised it would achieve all that I wanted if I lowered the staging under Mt Bogong by about 150mm or 6 inches. This makes Sterling the highest point on the layout but that gives me a good hill to climb out of Geehi that will require short trains or helpers.

The disadvantages are that the duckunder is now 150mm lower. That is going to mean that I have to build a liftout section instead of a permanent duck under. I am not mad on the idea but it is something I am willing to live with. The other weakness of the plan is the hidden staging. It would have been nice to have staging that was open or had better access but I don't want to give up space that I could use for scenery. The staging yard will be only for storage and not a "fiddle yard" so should be ok. Another point a friend raised with me is that most of the time an operating session will only have 1-3 operators so there won't be a huge number of trains needing to hide.

Last weekend I decided to make the changes. I removed the staging yard from the centre aisle and lifted the spline trackbed in a steady grade from the MerriMeric River bridge to the town named as Sterling on the plan above. It should be very satisfying standing at the end of the penisula watching a train climb the hill.

Finally I would like to thank all of you that have shown an interest in what I am doing. I am amazed that there would be 34 people who want to follow the blog and that there have been over 4500 visitors to the site. There have been visitors from over 20 countries from places as diverse as the USA, UK, Germany, Sweden, India, Egypt, South Korea and of course Australia & NZ.

Cheers

Murray



Messing with brass

One of the issues as I see it of freelancing a narrow gauge railway set in Australia is the issue of motive power. While Australia imported loco's from all over the world most of these were Australianised so they look a little different to the same makers loco's back home.

 On my model railway it is tempting to use the Bachmann On30 engines straight out of the box as they run well and are good value for money. In my eyes though, they don't look right for Australia. I had a go converting a Bachmann 2-8-0 using styrene that was written up in Narrow Gauge Downunder

I was pleased with the look I got with this conversion but I made it too big. It looks massive beside my rolling stock. The cab also stands a bit tall and the styrene body being lighter than the original Bachmann body didn't do a lot for how well it pulled.

So I decided to have another go this time using brass. I have built a couple of brass kits before but I have never tried scratch building with metal before. I have found it surprisingly easier than I thought it would be.

Inspiration has come from South African railways NG15, Commonwealth Railways NM and various Indian 30 inch gauge locos. I still have to add running boards, air pump & plumbing, hand rails and cab details. The white metal details are not yet attached ( I know the smoke box door is crooked) but I am pleased with how it is all progressing

Summer happenings

December is usually the busiest time of the year with harvest in full swing. That means that there is very little time for modelling but I managed to get the weeping willow that I talked about in last post completed. I am very pleased with how it looks now that is finished.

I have started composing the Merri Meric river scenery and moving trees around trying to get a pleasing scene.

I think it will need more trees and that the water level needs to rise about 100 millimeters (4 inches).

Once harvest and Christmas where behind me I have been able to spend quite a bit of time on the layout. I have been going to post when I got the layout tidied up but it could be a while before that happens so please excuse the mess in the photos.

This is now what you see when you enter the shed. The hole in the backdrop leads to the staging yard that will have Mt Bogong above it. The track is about 300 mm above the benchwork to allow for a trestle bridge ( to be built sometime in the future) as a feature.

The backdrop has been installed all the way to Geehi and has received several coats of white undercoat ready and waiting for a coat of blue.

The roadbed is now complete from the staging yard to Geehi as well and I am just waiting for an order of track to arrive so that track laying can commence.

The track in the staging yard has been laid. I used Micro Engineering Code 100 that I had left over from my original On30 layout. The foam road bed is from Trackrite and I have glued it to the bench work with no more gaps caulk. I also used the no more gaps to glue the track to it. It has the advantage that if I need to make changes I can peel the caulk off with no damage to either the track or foam. The white no more gaps looks a bit ugly but as  it is hidden staging it doesn't matter. If it had been visible track, I would have used a grey or brown colour and ballasted as I went. I still need to do the wiring which isn't one of my favourite jobs, but it needs to be done before work can start on Mt Bogong.

I have also been relaying the track on my original modules back to On30. I had lifted the original tracks and had laid On3 San Juan flex track and points. This time I am laying the Custom Trax flex track that I talked about in an earlier post. Nothing beats the look of real wood ties.

It has been a productive couple of weeks.

Weeping Willows

If you have spent any time in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in Southern NSW or northern Victoria you will have seen weeping willows lining the banks of mountain streams & rivers. They are a signature tree of the region I am trying to model. Modelling trees is one of my favourite aspects of the hobby so I have long planned my streams to have weeping willows on their banks too.

I have made several attempts to make a willow but the resulting trees looked anemic to say the least and badly needed a lot more bulk and leaves. I have been making the armatures from copper wire soldered together.

Earlier this year the well known British modeller Gordon Gravatt released a book about modelling broad leaf trees. Gordon is one of my modelling hero's. He has built numerous layouts over the years that are often featured in magazines like Model Rail Journal. His latest masterpiece is a model of the French metre gauge railway Reseau Breton. The layout called Pempoul is stunning and even more remarkable when you discover he literally scratch built everything. If you have some time to kill google Pempoul. I digress, I got my copy from Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop in England who do a great mail order. The book is Modelling Trees Part One- Broadleaf trees, published by Wild Swan.

Gordon recommends that when building trees with a soldered wire frame it pays to start from the top and not the bottom. I found that following his advice helped me to get a lot more twigs to add foliage to, as you can see in this photo. He uses a plaster mixed with white glue for covering the wire . The plaster Gordon recommends is called Artex and is used for adding texture to ceilings but I couldn't find it here in Australia. I used powdered polly filla with mixed results. It didn't dry as strong as I would have liked. I am not sure what plaster I will try next as it needs to have a long working time and a degree of flexibility as not to crack when I add the foliage.

In the past I have used punched paper leaves for trees. A recent business trip to Adelaide took me to Orient Express who sell the excellent miniNatur scenery products from Germany. I found a foliage mat covered with individual leaves sold as Beech foliage. It comes in a range of colours with spring being a bright colour similar to the willow trees I am modelling

As you can see I have started adding the foliage and I am very pleased with the result & it should look great when I have it all on. Even though the minaNatur product comes as a mat it is quite time consuming  to add to the tree as I am tearing the mat into individual strands to get the weeping look. A tree this size will use at least two packets, not cheap but in my mind well worth the expense.

Splines 1.2

I have been trialing a different style of spline construction. The first spline roadbed I built was solid, made up of Masonite packing strips bought from Bunnings. It takes 14 strips to make a roadbed 42mm wide. While it is very strong it took longer than I thought to glue all those packing strips together.  I had read that some modellers use spacer blocks to save on materials and to make construction go quicker.

Solid spline on the left & splines with spacers on the right.

So I decided to give it a try. I used 9 packing strips glued in three splines separated by 10mm thick spacers. This has given me a roadbed that is 47mm wide and about 50% quicker to build. I think it is just as strong as long as the spacer blocks are placed together. The gaps between the splines also have the advantage of not needing to drill holes for the track wiring. I am planning to build the remainder of the layouts roadbed with spacers.

Handlaid flex track

I have always loved the look of handlaid track, but never had the time or patience to lay my own. While surfing the web I discovered Custom Trax who make handlaid flex track and points on real wood ties. I placed an order and when it finally arrived from USA I was pretty impressed.

As you can see it comes pre-ballasted with woodland scenics ballast so it is very easy to match. The base is a high density rubber. Steve Miller the owner of Custom Trax recommends gluing the track to the roadbed with caulk.

  I only have two very minor complaints. The ends of the ties are unstained but that will be easily fixed with a dab of alcohol/ink wash. My other issue is that it takes 4-5 weeks from the time your order is placed until it is shipped so you need to plan ahead.These very minor issues are a small price to pay for track that looks & performs great.

The points have added detail and are DCC ready. I am so pleased with Custom Trax that I will use it for all my visible track on the Bogong & Geehi Railway.

Splines, more steel & radio's

Since my last post I have completed the steel benchwork of the centre peninsula by building a module for the end . I wanted the curve in the track on this end to be 1000mm radius so the module had to be large. So large in fact that I had trouble getting it through the door! It took several attempts to get it in but I got it there in the end.

I have been asked why steel for my benchwork and not wood. I am far more comfortable working in steel than wood and have a full metal-working workshop as part of my working life. Steel also offers engineering advantages over wood. I weld the top of the modules that hold the lights in such a way that they push against the weight of the lights with out extra bracing. It's the same for the brackets that hold the different levels of the layout. The disadvantages are it is harder to make changes and is probably slightly dearer than wood.

The idea of spline roadbed using thin pieces of wood glued together has appealed to me for a long time but I have never tried it until now. I have seen people like Joe Fugate promote it on his website and narrow gauge modeller Jack Walton using it on his layout. I like the idea of flowing trackwork with little waste  At Bunnings I found a Masonite product called packing strips which are ideal. They are 3mm thick, 25mm wide and 1800mm long and cost 75 cents each.

Like trying most things new it is much easier once you have had a go and worked out your own system for building it. My first challenge was placing the risers so I got a smooth curve. The easiest way I could find was to find the centre of the curve and use a steel ruler to mark where everything should be. I started using 40mm x 19mm wood made in to Tee's as risers. I found them not solid enough and so have changed to 70mm x 35mm wood and have found this to be much better. The other advice I can give is have lots of clamps to hold it all together while the glue dries. As you can see the roadbed flows smoothly and there is very little waste.

A couple of weeks ago Tom Barbalet from model rail radio asked me to call in and discus narrow gauge modelling in Australia. I had a very enjoyable time chatting with Tom, Chris Abbott & Gordon Dobson. You can listen to Model rail radio from their website or itunes.