Over on Chris Gilbert’s new layout thread I’ve posted a suggestion for a car puller. Using nothing more than a map pin. You can view my response here: Offsite Link
As always happens you post one thing and then find another site with an even better idea. Rails West has already done all of the hard work and provided not one but three posts all about car pullers.
Moving cars …(without a locomotive) — Part III.
via Moving cars …(without a locomotive) — Part III.
Enjoy your reading on car pullers.
Introduction
I’ve known Chris Gilbert for many years thanks to the Internet, specifically RMWeb. Chris has always managed to be a great mentor on things model railroad, even if he was not aware of his mentorship. He’s been successful in building, exhibiting and publishing a range of model small exhibition layouts over the last several years. What gets me is how quickly he puts these model marvels together.
Florida Springs (V 2.0) – An HO Scale exhibition layout
Chris in his own style said that he started the layout on Tuesday the 10th of February with a trip to his local hardware store.
Within five days he was at this stage:
As if that was not enough to make me feel like I need to pick up my game, his detailing is exquisite. If you take a link at post number 5 (link here) you’ll see what I mean.
Every time I see what Chris can do in so short a time, I am simply bowled over. He thinks about something and then he gets it done. It’s something that I am going to aim for in my modelling this year.
Before I can get there though I have to complete some other modelling projects to finish for my local model club show in April (you can read more about that on the Modellers of Ballarat blog (link here).
I’ve listed other sites in the resources section below. Enjoy having a look at Chris’ layouts. They really are magnificent works of art.
Resources
· You can find out more about the O scale Fort Smith Railroad layout (External Link) here.
· You can visit Chris’ YouTube channel (link here) – and watch his videos of Haston and North Haston – great stuff.
Introduction
I love the internet publishing phenomenon. What Gutenberg did for the printed book, the internet has done for the publisher. We now have more access to more information than ever before. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the information provided, in general for the modeller the publishing boom has been a godsend.
We now have access to more free, high quality photos of areas, industries, locomotives, railroad operators and rolling stock than in any time in the history of railroads. I could not create the prototypical layout designs I do without this access.
If you’ve not read this blog before, I live in the Western Gold Fields of Victoria, in the fair city of Ballarat. The city is steeped in our country’s (albeit short) history. Primarily Ballarat’s history focuses on the Eureka stockade and the beginnings of the Australian democracy movement. Geelong our nearest sea port (and Victoria’s largest Regional centre) is a short 88 kilometre, 60 minute drive south. (Unfortunately there is no direct rail service there at the moment.) But I digress…
Site 1 – Rail Geelong
Today’s site seeing tour focuses on our nearest big regional centre Geelong, and its railways. I only discovered the site thanks to T-Trak Ian’s blog with a link from there to the Sadliers photo page (Link Here)
There is a lot of photos there, and even though I am relatively short drive down the road, I’ll be using Marcus Wong’s site for quite a bit of research in the near future.
You can visit Marcus’ excellent site here: http://www.railgeelong.com/
I’ve been catching up on email from the last few days (the weekend weather was too nice and allowing myself some “offline down time” was simply too enticing). One thing that did pop up today was a Post from T-Trak Andrew about his T-Trak (module style) table top layout based on an Australian company ‘Sadliers Logistics’. Interestingly Sadliers provides Freight Car Load (FCL) and Less than Car Load (LCL) service across Australia using their own fleet of wagons. (Do I hear anyone saying ‘everything old is new again’?
The layout is a deceptively simple layout, but has multiple switching locations on it to keep one or two operators busy for an easy 1/2 hours work each night, assuming you are not replacing all wagons. if you wanted a longer operating session then you’d replace all wagons on the layout and have to switch in everything from staging.
Here’s the statement that nails about his approach:
“The overall scenery style is to be generic Australian. While I intend to operate Australian prototype rolling stock most of the time there will be sessions when I will break out my British, European and Japanese items and go IRWIL mode. (IRWIL – I Run What I Like).”
Take a look at his site. I think you’ll enjoy it; I did.
G’day Folks, Back into it at last.
Sadler’s Sidings is my current really active project. It is a table top modular shunting layout that uses T-TRAK/Unitrack technology to join 3 by 300mm long modules plus a 100mm long ‘end of the line module’ and two clip on bufferstops.
The basic concept is focused around a freight forwarding company called ‘Sadler’s Freight Forwarding’. I chose the name Sadler’s for two main reasons. Firstly there is the prototype Sadleir’s Logistics who make use of regular rail service with their sidings in Melbourne, Perth & Sydney. See: http://www.sadleirs.com.au/sadleirs-logistics/interstate-road-rail. Secondly, my grandmother on my mother’s side was a Sadler who migrated out to Australia from England early last century. By using that spelling I can capture the flavour and concept of the prototype operation without issues of trying to be `accurate’. The layout is to represent a Sadler’s rail depot in the…
View original post 334 more words
Introduction
Today’s site seeing adventure is for those of you interested in railroad operation, in this case dispatching. Today’s link came across the wire thanks to the ‘Ry-ops-industrialSIG’ SIG group on Yahoo! Groups.
Site 1 – Train Dispatching
Today’s link points to Train Dispatching by J. G. Lachaussee. It has two separate sources of the same article (one from Scribd – the other directly on the site.) The article is as published in ‘The Sandhouse’ – A Publication of the Mississippi Great Southern Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
I’ve had a quick read of it and found it to be really interesting to see the information presented by a long time dispatcher himself. You can read more of the article here: <Offsite Link>
The article is by J. G. Lachaussee; published in the November 2011 issue of The Sandhouse.
Site 2 – Scribd
A while back I began a short history of the 40’ Hi-Cube Boxcars that rode the rails for a short period from the late 1960s through to the 1980s. So far I’ve only completed the SP and SSW part of the document and have not yet completed the other owners or operators or the modelling section for the final eBook.
There seems to be an inordinate amount of modelling interest in these very specifically operated cars; the model manufacturers have made a lot of them over the years. In fact there are more models available than those produced by the car makers themselves.
They’ve lived in model form for longer than they ever did during their prototype railroad days. If you’d like to take a look at the first part of the eBook please go to: https://www.scribd.com/doc/103033209/A-Very-Short-History-of-the-40-Foot-Hi-Cube-Boxcars
Now it is time to go model with my 10-year-old son.
Site seeing with a difference this St Valentines Day. The family headed for the ocean today to Geelong Victoria. While we were down that way I took the opportunity to visit K & L Model Railways Hobbies & Model Construction Supplies of 81 Ryrie St, Geelong VIC 3220.
All I have to say is – what a surprise. The shop is small, but what it lacks in floor space it more than makes up for in stock. They have a great range of O scale parts, kits and so on.
Had a chat to the owner to the owner this morning and I’ll be back there again once I have a bit more disposable income.
With K & L’s assistance I’ll be building a rake of O scale (7mm:Foot) NSWGR 4 wheel RU Grain wagons (see a photo here: Offsite Photo).
These cars have been on my build list for some times but not being able to find a local source of Brass ‘W’ irons and sprung axle blocks has meant that I’ve had to hold off on the build.
With K & L’s owner assuring me that he can get me everything I need the RU planning process can begin. I expect to build the first body out of styrene, then I’ll cast the remaining bodies before tackling the chassis out of brass section. This will make mounting and securing the ‘W’ irons much easier.
All the best on a lovely ‘cool’ summer Saturday in Ballarat.
The difference that a few trees can make to a layout scene should never be underestimated.
Over on the Port Rowan layout blog Trevor has just completed the planting of trees at St Williams, where (unlike the original) the layout bends around the wall. use the link below and look at the two pictures on the page. There is certainly more than trees going on here, there’s light and shadow and a fence and some other additions to the scene.
But Wow! What a difference has been made by the addition of the tree armatures.
Check out that post: Link Here
But wait, there’s still more. Check out his second post from a couple of days later: Link Here
Trevor now goes into the scene and really shows some of the visual differences the trees make. I’ve never met Trevor, and we live on totally different sides of the planet, but I feel tied to his style of modelling.
Hope that you are having a good evening where ever you are.
There are some who believe in Friday the 13th as a bad omen. I like to think of Friday the 13th as a good time to get things done while everyone else is cowering under their beds, waiting for the sky to fall.
Site 1 – Clear Iron (YouTube)
I just got through posting about the new Rapido RDC-1. If you are unfamiliar with this little cracker of a design enjoy this video from 1952 about the RDCs.
Site 2 – Trinity Railway Express (YouTube)
When we lived in Austin Texas we’d head on up to Dallas and Fort Worth every now and then so I could indulge my railfanning needs, which to be honest I never could really meet in Austin.
Of interest is the ex- B&M 6110 RDC-1 heading the consist of 3 RDC’s. TRE #2005, TRE #2006, and TRE#2007
Site 3 – US Budds (again from YouTube)
This much longer but just as interesting video takes a look at the US operators of RDC-1s including:
Enjoyed a massive storm through Ballarat tonight, and now the temperature is dropping away. Hope the day has been great where you are.
Introduction
I think that the RDC is a great addition to any layout. For those who model passenger operations anywhere from the late 1950s on, these little beauties fit right in. I believe that even in the USA they’re mostly gone now from day-to-day service.
Rapido’s new RDC-1
Thankfully they’re going to be remade by Rapido. And the work they put into this is amazing. Apparently they’ve scanned the real thing, and then worked off the scans and the blueprints to decide what was as-built, and what was in-service.
These cars also ran as is here in Australia. The Commonwealth Railways bought three of them for service in South Australia. I believe that ComEng (Commonwealth Engineering – Granville NSW) also built a set or two under license for use on the South Coast Daylight trains running from Sydney to Bombaderry (Nowra) and return daily but they never worked right for the NSWGR.
Eventually they had the motors pulled and became loco hauled (which is how I remember them in my youth on runs down the coast).
In chugging around their site I noticed that Rapido will produce units that are painted but unlettered. Hopefully this gets some of the Australian modellers interested.
They’re not cheap at CN$325 (especially with our rapidly sinking currency), however, I just checked and the Canadian Dollar is worth slightly less than ours at the moment (0.97 as of writing) so with shipping I’d expect landed costs to be under AU$375 mark..
Resources
The product information page: http://www.rapidotrains.com/rdc1.html
The versions page showing all the versions being produced: http://www.rapidotrains.com/rdcus.html
There are some sites that I find myself returning to time after time. Vibrant sites with lots of new ideas and a great wealth of modellers, who love to share. My favourite message board is to be on and partake in is RMWeb.
There is always a project or layout build under way that has something to give you. Today I’d like to point out two projects on RMWeb that I find really interesting for a number of reasons.
Site 1 – Down Ampney
Built in 7mm scale as a basic garage-garden-garage line; the garden section is in effect just a single track with a couple of sidings and scenery provided by mother nature. Control is planned to be a mixture of DCC and RC.
The Scenic modelled section is to be situated within the garage with a cassette fiddle yard on the other side. The garden will include a viaduct but be fairly basic for the sake of ease of building and getting something up and running quickly and to reduce maintenance.
Site 2 – Draycott (Camp) Halt Sidings
The model depicts a small corrugated Goods Shed and two sidings, with the tail-end of the Head-Shunt also represented, the Loop being ‘off stage’ so to speak. This is a classic Inglenook type ‘shunting plank’ and will give somewhere to have some fun with ‘shunting puzzles’ and to test new stock whilst Down Ampney is being built.
Conclusion
While both are 7mm O scale layouts, the standard of modelling is very high, while the area and layout being modelled is small and simple. Lots of working potential too.
Well its a very warm day in Ballarat, and my son and I are off to the local pool. Hope you’re having a great day where you are too.
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