It has been a while since my last post which heralded quite a dramatic event for me. Initially, I was on sick leave but then decided to take my long service leave. Part of the reason for that was trying to make sense of everything that had happened since it was such a huge shock and the mental impact was greater than I expected. All good now.
Anyway, the last few months has allowed me to do some travel here in Australia, mainly to Sydney, Melbourne, and one trip to North Queensland. I also managed a short trip to Wellington, New Zealand.
I was in North Queensland late October and it was sugar cane harvesting time. I didn't have too much spare time looking for cane trains but there were plenty of full cane wagons ready for collection and transport to the local mills. I was really impressed with the extent of the cane railway system.
I also visited the model railway exhibitions in Adelaide in June and Melbourne in August. Unfortunately, no reports were forthcoming as blogging wasn't high on my agenda.
I thought it was about time to get back into the blog, especially after two inspirational events over the most recent weekend. On Saturday I operated on a large NSW-themed layout and then on the Sunday I attended ScaleACT 2023.
The first experience was my first operating session on SJ's Kangaroo Valley Railway in its new home just outside of Canberra.
We didn't run a timetabled session like they usually do but rather did a sequential set of train movements using a simple instructional card system. This enabled new people like myself to get a feel for the layout and where everything was located. I ran the suburban electric services for my first couple of train movements (see photo below) before moving onto other passenger train operations.
It was a very interesting session and the nine operators on the day all had a great time. Many thanks SJ.
On Sunday I went to the annual ScaleACT plastic kit show from the ACT Scale Model Society. This year it was held in a new venue - Thoroughbred Park in Canberra. This is a great venue for this type of show. There were over 700 entrants into the model judging display which I understand was the largest number ever for ScaleACT. Check out this video summary of the models on display.
In addition, ScaleACT did some live streaming via Facebook for the first time. I went to the Clayton Ockerby session which was very informative. Clayton has his own Youtube channel which is worth checking out. I find military modellers offer some interesting model painting techniques that we can apply to the model railway hobby.
There were several traders selling model kits, tools, paints, and accessories. Burfitt Tools and Kerroby were there, as well as SMS paints (all familiar to the model railway scene). There was also a second hand stall which was very popular.
I spent more time than I expected talking with different people (had a good chat with Clayton later in the day - top bloke!) which I guess is similar to my experience at model train exhibitions!
Anyway, there was one model on display (a helicopter lettered for the Ukraine airforce) that I really loved. The two photos below show you what I mean.
So, the weekend was very inspirational and I hope this energises me into getting back into my layout and moving the layout forward.
