Changing direction

April and May is always a quiet time of year on the Bogong & Geehi. The general manager & chief engineer is usually sitting on a tractor planting his crops in the hope he might make a dollar.

The long hours on a tractor mean I don't have much time to any modelling at all but it does mean I have plenty of time to think. It can be very useful time, thinking through problems & trying to develop better solutions.

It has been nearly 18 months since I decided to make the change from On30 to On3. On the whole the change has been good. I  am enjoying the better running qualities that comes with larger models and it is nice to see all those engines that sat on the shelf for years running again. There has been some issues too. Getting my head around the amount of room it takes to turn one of those locos around is a bit of challenge.

One of the biggest and on going issues though has been the "appearance" of  Rio Grande trains in Australian scenery. While it looks OK it doesn't look quite right. One of the reasons I left On30 was that all the locos I wanted were kits which I don't have the time or skills to put together. At the same time I had a collection of On3 locos sitting on the shelf. When I bought them I had been going to model the Rio Grande but I didn't then have the space. Today I have the room and as it is my all time favourite railway so it seemed a good idea to model it but in Australian scenery.

When I began this railway I had a couple goals that I hope to achieve. One is to realistically model the Australian landscape. I want a railway that runs through the farms and forests and small country towns that you find in the foothills of the Snowy mountains were I live. The other is to model a freelanced railway that looks like it could have existed and that was where I was falling down. The issue has been nagging me for quite some time and it is time that I resolved it and started having some fun.

A corrugated iron roof added to a San Juan boxcar kit

What to do though? I could go back to On30 but then the issues that had led me to change were still there. I could put up with American trains in Oz scenery but I haven't got used too it in 18 months I'm probably not going to. This is where the tractor driving comes into it - what if I was to modify the Rio Grande rolling stock to look more Australian? You can see my attempt to modify a kit to make it look like it belongs. Even though I still have plenty of work to do to complete the kit it does look promising. As a bonus a bit of research showed that most of Australia's 42 inch gauge railways such as in QLD, WA, SA & Tassie have the same loading gauge as the Rio Grande.

I can see the Bogong & Geehi using my Rio Grande loco's pulling trains of Aussie waggons looking just right!

Cheers, Murray

Progress

I have spent the last couple of weekends hard at work on the layout. A visit to Walhalla during our recent family holiday was just what was needed to get motivated to get the railway running. As you can see in the photo on the right, all the framework for the town of Geehi has been completed. I like to use 25mm steel tubing to make modules. These have the advantage of very strong and relatively light.  The original modules for Gidgenbung were built over 6 years ago and have stood the test of time. On those I used mdf for a floor but have modified the design to include a part wooden frame to screw risers to.

This is the view looking the other way. Geehi will be on the right and Gidgenbung is on the left. In the distance is the Roundhouse which is next on the long list of projects to complete. 

The visit to Gavin Hince's layout also has induced some changes to the track plan. The reality that you need good access to your staging really hit home. The original plan had the staging at the same level as Mt Bogong, hidden behind a rock face. I think that is not really feasible so I have decided to put it under Mt Bogong. I still want the option of continuous run so I have added a junction between Geehi and Gidgenbung. This is a yet unnamed branch that runs straight into the staging. The change means that the duck under near the door needs to be low enough that a duck under isn't really practicable. I really didn't want a lift out section but I like the track plan I have so a lift out section it will be. It also means that Coolamine won't be the highest point of the mainline. I am going to make Sterling the high point so that I still have some nice grades for my locos to climb.

Lastly I wanted to show you the structure I have been working on. It is a 120 foot long Pin truss bridge built from a kit by John Palecki structures  www.jpstructures.com . This is a highly detailed resin cast kit that has gone together beautifully. It is a massive 750mm long and I am planning to add wooden approaches to take the total length to around 1600mm long. Hopefully it should make a spectacular crossing of the Merri Meric River just out of Geehi.

Cheers, Murray

Operations on the North Coast Line

A Mason Bogie arriving at Cascades

Last weekend I was visiting Melbourne and was lucky enough to receive an invitation to partake in the monthly operating session of the North Coast Railroad. The NCR is owned by Gavin Hince who also publishes the magazine Narrow Gauge Downunder. The NCR is an On3 layout based on the North Pacific Coast Railroad that ran north of San Francisco. The layout is complete but every time I visit Gavin has made some changes.


John Dennis was the yard master at Lands End



Laurie Green Shunting Mill Valley



Chris Dennis making a meet at Mill Valley



Gavin Hince busy at the dispatchers desk



A timber train coming down from Angels Camp



Grant McAdam & Dan Pickard running the timber line

 











It was a fun night and shows the value of designing a layout for operation. The evening ran smoothly and a days trains ran the line with hardly a mishap except for one little one.......

The yardmaster shunting a bit too far....

If nothing else an operating session is a good excuse to get together, Thanks Gavin for a great night.

An (almost) empty shed

Finally after many months delay the train shed extensions are complete! I have shifted the Gigenbung modules into position and it is nice to wander through the shed imagining how the completed railway is going to look.

Trackplan

This is my proposed layout plan. The room is 8.3 metres by 8.5 metres. The minimum radius is 1000mm. It is a layout designed for operation but with the ability to have a continuous run. I tried to achieve all of that without a duck under but couldn't do it. The duck under at Coolamine will be 1500mm high so shouldn't be an issue. I would be happy to receive any comments and constructive criticism

Shunting Gidgenbung

The local goods train arrives in Gidgenbung

The crew need to spot a goods van at the chaff mill

crossing the road to the chaff mill

Welcome

Welcome to my blog about building my model railway. On this blog I hope to show you the progress as I build a model of a fictitious railway set in the Australian alps. I originally started building this layout in On30 but decided to make the change to On3. The reason for this was that I decided to pickup my favourite narrow gauge railway - the Rio Grande from Colorado and put it into Snowy mountains in southern NSW.

I have been relaying track on the sceniced portion of the old On30 layout and here is a photo of the progress



A goods train passing through Gidgenbung