Model Railroad Planning 2014

Just got my copy of Model Railroad Planning 2014 direct from Kalmbach Publishing. As usual, it is full of interesting articles and some excellent model railroad photography.

The first article is "operating a busy passenger terminal" which is based on the New Orleans Passenger Terminal (NOUPT). The modelled station is huge and exceptionally well done, including fully lit interiors. The layout is HO scale.

The next article is the "Southern Pacific's Siskiyou Line" in N scale. The layout size is 25 x 27 feet which is pretty big for an N scale layout. One of the things I like about the articles in MRP is the emphasis on the decision-making process in designing a layout. This article didn't disappoint in that department.

"Alice Street in 4x8 feet" is a prototypical track plan based on the Santa Fe rail-marine operation out of Oakland, California. There are some fascinating historical photos (B&W) here.

The next article is called "A moving experience" about a layout built for a newly purchased retirement home. The original layout based on Moscow, Idaho (I think the Americans pronounce it moss-cow) was featured in Model Railroad Planning in 2008.

My favourite article is "Switching for breakfast". This article describes the prototypical train operations for switching (shunting) the large Post Cereals food complex at Battle Creek, Michigan. A description of a typical shift switching the industry was very informative. For me, the best part of the article was a table showing the different spots (positions) within the Post Cereals complex that had to be switched with what particular product (receiving and shipments).  This table alone gave me plenty of food for thought in just what variety can be achieved with a single, large industry on a model railroad. A HO and N scale track plan accompanies the article providing suggestions for how the prototype can be modelled.

A short article on five layouts in four different scales that occupy 14 x 34 inches was next.

Lance Mindheim follows with an article, "Simple plan, plenty of action" based on a southeastern USA switching layout. Lance makes a nice distinction between planning and design - planning deals with more strategic issues that will inform the decisions about overall layout design (track arrangements, for example.). The suggested model railroad layout plan is for a room size of 12 x 13 feet. Lance includes both a plan of the layout and a plan showing switching options.

"Big train, small layout" has an interesting circular design based on a figure eight. It is a portable layout used for model railroad exhibitions and is a little bit different to the norm.

Byron Henderson's article, "North Western's Chicago commute" offers some thoughts about a model railroad track plan 8 x 20 foot in size. The layout is based on the Chicago & North Western's commuter services between the North Western station and the western suburbs of Chicago. Again, the thinking behind the layout design is what is key to this article.

"Slogging up to Locust Summit" is a model railroad based on the Reading Co.'s train operations over Locust Summit near Gordon, Pennsylvania. The track plan fits into a space of 31 x 40 feet and includes plenty of big hauling steam locomotives on this predominantly coal-hauling route. An interesting depiction of a typical day at Gordon gives a nice summary on operations. There are some nice model photographs in this article as well.

Tony Koester next goes out on a bit of a limb with an idea about modelling the same town on two decks and switching cars between them. This idea could be a way to save on available space.

My other favourite article from Model Railroad Planning 2014 is the article by James McNab: "Choosing the right place at the right time". The article describes the importance of time and place in consideration of design and the need for being selective about motive power and rolling stock. It is important to balance traffic levels for certain times of the year (for example, seasonal factors play a major role in agricultural production). James' layout is the Iowa Interstate Grimes Line. The article has both model and prototype photos. Videos of this layout are available on the Model Railroader website to registered viewers: see www.ModelRailroader.com

Model Railroad Planning 2014 ends with articles on staging yards, improving a published (Atlas) track plan, space-saving use of "wye-less wyes", dummy tracks, and modelling a passenger terminal in 15 x 18 feet.

While the focus of the annual is on US modelling and prototypes, there is enough information and thinking potential here for anyone interested in model railways to find something of use. As usual, this publication is of high quality and recommended.

A few photos from Sandown

I have selected a few photos I took from the Sandown Exhibition to show here. I didn't have a great selection of quality images to select from, but the following images at least illustrate some of the layouts I particularly admired from the exhibition.

The first image is of steam locomotive N489 on the Florey Springs layout exhibited by the South Australian Railway Modellers Association from Adelaide. The N class of steam locomotives were built from 1925 (at the Newport Works) onwards for the Victorian Railways. N489 was part of a batch of locomotives built in 1949-50 by the North British Locomotive Company in the UK. Out of this order, ten of the locos were purchased from the Victorian Railways by the South Australian Railways and became the 750 class.



The next image is of the stone-loader on the Florey Springs layout. I liked the whole stone-loader complex and associated buildings as a good-looking lineside industry. The model looks like an adaptation of the Walthers HO scale New River Coal Mine.



The angled shot of the station and yard on the Totternhoe Mineral Railway gives some indication of the way the railway has been displayed. The actual model railway sits on a curved "ribbon" on a black-painted baseboard, within a black frame, and with rear black curtains to maintain an integrated and theatrical layout presentation. I first saw this layout a couple of years ago at the Sydney Model Railway Exhibition but the layout has not been widely seen on the exhibition circuit despite the layout being built over fifteen years ago!



The Dolly Varden Mines Railway is a wonderful narrow gauge layout (in On30) that was up for sale at the exhibition! Here we see an example of the detailed scenery as a diminuative steam loco hauls a couple of wagons on this exceptionally detailed model railway layout.



The UP/Rio Grande layout was huge with four(?) continuous loops allowing for plenty of train movement. The layout was built and operated by the La Trobe Valley Model Railway Club in Victoria. If I heard correctly, this giant layout took only 12-18 months to build! This image shows a steam locomotive hauling a mixed freight over one of the many steel girder bridges on the layout.



The ANP Switching District layout was a great example of a shelf style switching (shunting) layout that could fit into most standard-sized bedrooms. In fact, that's where this layout lives when not at exhibitions. The layout was unfinished but had all the trackwork and wiring completed, and several lineside industries had been constructed in styrene but also unfinished. Operation was with DCC. I actually think there should be at least one operational but unfinished layout at every exhibition to show the average show-goer that exhibition layouts just don't magically appear out of nothing!



The final photo shows the Murranbilla layout. I first saw this layout last August at the Caulfield Exhibition. For Sandown, the layout was a little unusual since it had both a barrier fence around the layout and a good set of layout lighting (in what looks like grey aluminium guttering).



I will finish my "review" of the Sandown Exhibition by saying that I enjoyed the exhibition but feel the quality of presentation of some layouts was sometimes let down by poor layout lighting. Perhaps it was the overcast day and the rain; perhaps it was my eyesight! But I can assure people that excellent layout lighting really showcases quality modelling and must be considered as a major component of any exhibition layout.

Modelling the Railways of SA Convention is over for another year

I returned home to Canberra this afternoon after spending an enjoyable day yesterday at the Modelling the Railways of South Australia Convention in Adelaide. I think that the attendance at the convention this year would have been one of the biggest since the auditorium looked pretty full. Congratulations and thank you to Les Fordham and the team who put together another great convention and another set of quality notes.

One of the key features of the convention this year was signal cabins. Over here in NSW, we call them signal boxes. Anyway, David Goedecke gave a great presentation on Modelling South Australian Signal Cabins, including detailed prototype notes and photos; describing how he built a model of the cabin at Ambleside. What was especially interesting was how David became interested in signal cabins. David told us that when he was a young boy he came upon a book in the local library about the life of a signalman in England - "Signalman's morning" by Adrian Vaughan. After reading this book, David became fascinated with signal cabins and their operation. I can well understand from my own childhood experiences where interests in later life originally formed. Random childhood events often have enormous impact on our lives, albeit at the time, seemingly so innocuous!

Signal cabins were clearly of interest to other people as well since there were plenty of examples in the model display area, mostly in HO scale but at least one in N scale. I have included photos of just three examples showing HO scale models of Ambleside (Goedecke), Adelaide (Gavin Thrum), and Penfield (Vic Kollosuhe).


I also really enjoyed the presentation from Lindsay Baker about oil depots. Oil depots are a particular favourite of mine. It was good to hear first hand from Lindsay who had worked in the industry for many years for Golden Fleece. Lindsay also gave us an insight into how he has used oil depots on his HO scale layout - based on Naracoorte - called the South Eastern Division. Lindsay highlighted the different types of petroleum products carried and distributed by rail, as well as mentioning the diversity of customers that kept oil depots in business. In addition, Lindsay reminded us that oil depots were supposed to be securely fenced! The combination of prototype information and his description of how he uses oil depots on his superb home layout was a great way to showcase an effective and believable lineside industry. Lindsay modelled an oil depot for the display area and I have included a photo below.


And speaking of the display area, there was plenty to see including signal cabins, SAR cabooses, locos and rollingstock. There was an even a small model of a Country Fire Association (CFA) shed and surrounding infrastructure. But possibly the pick of the display was Frank Kelly's superb model of SAR locomotive No.1 and train - photo below.


Other presentations from the day included early passenger cars of the Ghan by John Beckhaus, the 600 class steam engines of the SAR by Bob Burford, modelling SAR/VR joint stock Pullman passenger cars by Noel Potter and Stuart Hicks, SAR Webb cabooses in N scale by Mark Wilson, and photos of modern rollingstock by Noel Potter. The special guest speaker was Les Smith, ex-Australian National Chief Mechanical Engineer, who closed the day with a fabulous account of some of the goings-on during the AN period - sometimes fact is stranger than fiction!

Finally, in addition to the presentations, I really enjoyed catching up with people and meeting some new people (even a couple from Canberra) over the course of the day. All in all, it was another great convention and well worth the trip.

AMRM October 2009

I received my latest issue of the Australian Model Railway Magazine (AMRM) today. The October issue is 72 pages in length with a hefty amount of advertising to keep the Australian economy (and the magazine) ticking over. I haven't read everything in the current issue as yet, although I have read in full the AMRM News section, Market Place, Reviews, and the featured layout.

I have every issue of AMRM from about the late 1970's when I bought my first copy at Micro Models in what was then, Hornsby Westfield Plaza. Micro Models is still in business, now as Hobbyland and on the Pacific Highway at Hornsby, under the management of Ian Radcliffe. I mention this because Ian and his son, Mathew, have some excellent models showcased in this latest issue of AMRM in the Gallery section. I should also add that I have a couple of Ian's excellent kits that he markets under the IDR brand (hey Ian, you need to update your blog!).

The featured layout in the October AMRM is a 1:48 scale (On2.5) freelance layout called Quart Pot Creek built by Geoff McMahon. The layout has some superb scenery (especially the trees), beautifully captured by the camera of John Dennis. John actually presented a clinic at the Australian Narrow Gauge Convention in Sydney earlier this year showing how he takes model railway photographs. From what I recall, he uses a simple compact camera but takes the same shot three or four times using different ranges of focus that he later "sews up" with a computer program (the name of which temporarily escapes me) to vastly improve the depth of field. The upshot is that John takes some superb model photos!

And also speaking of John Dennis, many years ago when he exhibited his Dutton Bay Tramway at the Sydney Model Railway Exhibition in Liverpool, we got into conversation about his model of the gypsum loading facility he had on his layout. John kindly later sent me photos of the prototype gypsum loading facilities at Kevin, South Australia - thank you John!

The October issue of AMRM continues the article about the Sydney suburban electric cars - this time on how to repower the motor bogie. The most interesting aspect of this series of articles is the use of battery power and radio control, something I was advocating a couple of years ago myself in the letters page of AMRM!

There's also an article (just skimmed the text so far) on building a laser cut trestle in N scale, looking a tad more realistic at completion than the following article on using old film canisters for bridge piers. Personally, I'd stick with the HO scale bridge piers from Uneek, available from Anton's Trains and other good hobby shops.

Bob Gallagher and Ben O'Malley look at loading pipes on the NSWGR TME flat wagon using the TME produced most recently by Austrains. The TME wagon is available ready-to-run from Austrains and Trainmaster, or in kit form from Casula Hobbies - ask Joe for the decals!

The rest of the magazine offers a variety of short articles, including Beyond the fence by Phil Jeffrey, and Ralph Holden's From the Superintendent's notebook. In this issue there is no Branchline Ramblings from Ron Cunningham who must be busy pacing the house waiting on the Eureka 38's to finally arrive from China! And he's not the only one; I have almost worn out the carpet and my 84 year-old dad has been losing his hair waiting in anticipation over the past five years!

Finally, good to see almost half-a-dozen letters in the Mailbag section.

Now, let's get back to the lounge and finishing off reading this latest issue of AMRM.

My weekend in Melbourne

Just a quick post about the weekend before a more comprehensive post with photos a little later on.

I flew to Melbourne on Saturday morning. I then caught the airport bus into Southern Cross Station. I bought my return ticket to Ballarat (about $20) and then boarded one of the Velocity sets (platform 8 south) to begin the trip. The train was delayed because of two defective cars that had to be uncoupled from the train. The train ended up being about 30 minutes late into Ballarat, not helped by a 12 minute delay in a crossing loop en route. From Ballarat station, I caught a taxi to pick up a rental car at Wendouree.

I drove from Ballarat down to Pittong and Skipton. The scenery here was more interesting - lightly wooded areas along the rail trail, green fields, and the occasional flock of sheep grazing - with mostly good sunshine but a chilly wind. Got plenty of photos of the kaolin factory at Pittong, some nice shots of parts of the rail trail, and some shots of what was left in the rail yard at Skipton.

I drove back to Ballarat, returned the car, taxi to station, and uneventful trip by Velocity train to Melbourne. Whilst no train photos, I still had a good day driving in the countryside and getting some good photos of an industry and some associated town and rail yard shots at Skipton.

I went to the Caulfield exhibition on the Sunday (yesterday). The exhibition was fantastic - great location, great exhibits, good trade displays, and good facilities. More about the exhibition (and photos) in the next post.

Day trip to Skipton

Next weekend I am flying down to Melbourne. As I said in a previous blog post, I wil be visiting the AMRA (Victoria) Model Railway Exhibition at Caulfield racecourse.

I am really looking forward to seeing some great layouts at the exhibition. I will also be interested in the commercial outlets and checking out anything new on show. For example, I understand that Railmotor Models will have a sample of their forthcoming SCT diesel locomotive in HO scale on display at the Caulfield exhibition.

However, the exhibition will fill only one of the two days for me. I am planning on taking a day trip by train from Melbourne to Ballarat in the morning and returning later that afternoon. I intend to hire a car and then follow the rail line south-west to Skipton, stopping to check out the quarry at Kopke and the Imerys kaolin operations at Pittong. I hope that there will still be some rail infrastructure along the way to Skipton, although I realise that the rails have been lifted and been replaced by a rail trail. Good to read here how Imerys worked with local people to help with the construction of the rail trail. If I had more time (and a bicycle), I wouldn't mind doing the Ballarat-Skipton rail trail ride.

I like exploring places (and industries) that I haven't seen before so the Skipton trip should be quite enjoyable.

Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention 2009

Yesterday I drove up to Sydney from Canberra to attend the 26th annual Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention. The convention was held on the very south side of Sydney at Loftus, next to the tramway museum. The drive took three hours one way via the Picton turn-off and Appin.

Two special recognition awards were presented to start the day's proceedings. The awards went to Peter Berg of Bergs Hobbies for his commercial and personal commitment to the hobby, and to Ray Pilgrim for all his help and assistance to the Convention organisers over many years. Both awards were certainly well deserved.

The 2009 Convention followed the format of previous years: attendees go to five selected presentations out of the eleven (twelve in some years) on the day. The five presentations I attended were as follows:

• Layout baseboard construction and base scenery by Terry Flynn.
• Transportation of milled agricultural products by Phil Collins.
• From raindrops to tender tanks (2 parts in one session) by Ray Love and Craig Mackey.
• Modelling NSW yard lights by Max Stuart
• Weathering track by Phil Badger
  

Rather than rewrite my notes of each session and summarise the articles from the Convention booklet, I want to just highlight some of the main points of personal interest.

The presentation by Terry on baseboards went through standard materials (wood, steel and aluminium) and construction (box, grid, and L-girder) procedures. However, I was very interested in the FREMO (free form layout standards) for modular layout construction. I can see how the FREMO standards might be useful for encouraging individuals to actually build a module that can be assembled with other modules into an operating layout. There should be no more excuses that one can't build a layout - just build a module instead and link it up with your friends or club members' modules! Terry mentioned that the Australian Model Railway Association (AMRA) has just published FREMO standards, based on the US FREMO standards. I later discovered some FREMO operations from North America in Utah and Calgary. There are more.

Phil Collins gave us a history of how milled grain products (e.g. glucose, flour, etc.) have been transported by rail in NSW. There were plenty of photos to illustrate his talk. Of special interest to me were the wagons used to transport glucose. Manildra (thanks for the correction, Phil) converted a former BMT milk tanker (BMT 1) for glucose transport. This vehicle didn't last too long since the underframe bent because glucose is much heavier than milk! The other interesting point of note was the use by Cargill of specially converted former DOT (Departmental oil tankers - thanks for the correction, David) into vegetable oil tankers.

The first presentation I attended by Ray Love (assisted by Craig Mackey) managed to put part 1 and 2 into the one session! Ray showed a series of photographs to illustrate the way the NSW railways obtained, transported, and supplied water to service steam locomotive requirements - essentially from dam or reservoir to water tank and water column. Of special interest was the pump house at Glenreagh which Peter Jarvis modelled very nicely. Naturally, like much of the New South Wales railways, there were plenty of variations in type and colour of water supply infrastructure like pumphouses, water tanks, and water columns. Reference to photos and dates is recommended.

Max Stuart's presentation on yard lights was the best presentation of the day, in my opinion. He combined both prototype and model construction in the one session with good photos and illustrations, an informative talk, and a very beautiful diorama to showcase the working yard lights. Max based his work on an article by Bob Stack on yard lights that appeared in an old issue of Australian Journal of Railway Modelling (AJRM). Bob Stack is of course the chief superintendant of South Coast Rail. I am sure both Bob and Stephen Ottaway (editor of AJRM) would be chuffed that Max was able to turn the information from that magazine article into an excellent working model. Attending the yard light presentation was not only informative, but practical as well. Max had some kits available of the yard light with a full set of pieces (including cast goose-necks) and instructions. I bought one complete kit but could very easily go back to Max for more!

The final presentation at 4.30pm was from noted Australian modeller Phil Badger. Phil is well known in model railway circles for his many presentations over the years and his practical assistance to the hobby with brass etchings of components and kits. Phil talked about weathering and how it impacts on track and lineside structures. A big reminder I got from Phil's presentation was to pay closer attention to track and lineside details when looking at photographs, noting in particular railway era and colour variations of track, roadbed, and lineside paraphanalia.

Thanks to Peter Jarvis and the other organisers for another successful Convention.