Monthly Archives: February 2017

Ballarat Tramway, Museums, Site Updates, Web

Site update – 20 February – BTM Tram #18 photos

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Over November, December and early January I documented some updates to BTM Tram Number 18 as it goes through its rebuild.  The page has a lot of interesting images of the underframe, resistor grids and the motors. Of greater interest, to me at least, was the changing out of an armature. It’s not something I’ve ever seen done before so I thought I’d document it. Head over to #18’s page and view the evolving gallery there.

The armature being lifted out of the motor housing
The armature being lifted out of the motor housing

If you have any information to share please let me know and I’ll be happy to share it.

Andrew

1. Small, Exhibition, Layout Design, Layouts, Liked off site, Operations, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Switching, Tuning Fork, Web

Site seeing – February 19 – The small passenger layout edition

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While searching for ideas recently I came across a now very old set of posts from 2001 onwards about the building of a narrow yet long passenger station layout. Onto today’s site of interest.

Site 1: Simon Martin’s Shelf Layout project

This appears to be an orphaned site, and I cannot find any information or updates beyond the 2005 update on the page. Which is a real shame as this layout is a simple, well designed and yet highly operational layout for the single operator at home or at an exhibition.

The track plan is clean and has no major needs apart from two switches and some flextrack. You could even use this to get into building your own track work. Operationally there is much to work with. Trains may arrive and depart from either platform. Heading to the fueling depot means that you need to either shunt back onto the main, then into the second platform road prior to running back into the fueling/storage road. Planning your moves here would be very worthwhile in the smooth operation of the layout.

The fueling/storage point on the bottom left of the plan gives options for storing stock on the layout without over crowding the scene. Scenically the station building hides the end of the platform roads and gives the layout a greater depth than would otherwise be the case.

I think this would be a great design to work with not only in the short-term, but for the longer term by adding all the bells and whistles (such as automated announcements, details, more scenery and upgraded ready to run models.

I’ve tried finding anything else by the blogger but have been unsuccessful. I’d love to see more of this layout and what it became. No luck however. So we’ll just have to enjoy the layout as it would have been. If you know anything about the layout, the author or have contact details for Simon, let me know in the comments.

1. Small, Layout Design, Layouts, Operations, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Switching, Web

Site seeing – February 17 – Alain Kap’s excellent exhibition layout blog

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I’ve not met or talked with Alain before. But his small layout popped up on one of my regular reads, Carl Arendt’s Micro/Small layouts site, when notification went out about a page update this week. But we’ll get to all of this shortly. For now on with the site seeing.

Site 1: Alain Kap’s Exhibition Layout

The link above takes you to the Alain’s blog with a search set for his Show Layout posts. There are five articles included so far, each of which shows something new and to me interesting. The board design and build are my favourite so far. As this gives me something to think about for diorama style layouts in the future.

The layout, based on Shortliner Jack’s Box Street layout, is well worth the look as Alain takes you through the baseboard build and then through track laying and building creation. Looking forward to more of this coming in the near future. There is way more great modelling there too, and not just railways.

Site 2: Carendt.com – February update

There are four layouts featured in this update:

  1. R.I.P. Car Shop – by Alain KAP in HO standard gauge
  2. Ingly Nook – by Scott Pollard in 009 narrow gauge
  3. Piper’s Yard – by Andrew Cockburn in OO standard gauge, and
  4. Bridge Street – by David Collett also in OO standard gauge

All of which meet the criteria for small and friendly little layouts, they also are well done visually and technically. Very well worth looking at all the pictures provided in the post.

I do hope you enjoy this post. If you do, or don’t, let me know in the comments.

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Site seeing – February 16 – The traction faction edition

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Having grown up in a city with electric railways there is always that part of me as a modeller wanting to recreate what I remember as a kid. Watching the sparks pull away from the station and hearing the sounds of the motors change as they reached the limit of adhesion, especially on a wet day, can make me a very happy-chappy when I hear them. You can read more about the history of Sydney’s electric trains at the operator’s site “Sydney Trains“. Being an avid reader of technical stuff when I find really useful information about modelling overhead and trams, trains and trolleys I like to share. Thus onto todays site seeing journey.

Site 1: The East Penn Traction Club

This is not the only useful page on the site, it is however among the most giving pages on the site with a large range of downloads available on all areas of overhead modelling. A large proportion of you are US-based and for those interested directly in modelling trolley systems this is a treasure trove. For the rest of us, a large range of highly useful documents on improving HO model performance, modelling tips and articles and a set of standards that certainly could be adapted to your need without major change can be downloaded.

Site 2: Roundtrees Sidings

In the mood for traction action today we come to Roundtrees Sidings. Based on Fawdon (Newcastle) on the Tyne & Wear Metro in the 1980s features a working representation of the Tyne and Wear Metro system.

The original linked page had a lot of detail of the design and creation of the model. Sadly that original page is gone from their site, However, there are still some basic details of the model to help you understand size and scope. There is no track plan which would have helped. There are lots of videos available on YouTube however that give a reasonable idea of the model.

There are also, on our favourite video site, a lot of driver’s eye view videos of the Tyne and Wear Metro that are well worth the watch. Especially if you enjoy cab rides.

I hope you get some use out of today’s sites. Leave a comment if you find them useful or have other places of interest you’d like to share.

(Updated on 2023-07-11 by Andrew)

Information, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Tools, Web

Site seeing – February 13 – The Clamp it edition

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Despite what you might be thinking (for those of us old enough to remember this television show) this is not about the family made rich through an accident during hunting for dinner. This post is about creative solutions shared on one of my favourite sites when building to a hard right angle. So despite wanting to tell you a story about a man named Jed it’s time to launch into today’s site seeing adventure.

Site 1: Model Railroad Hobbyist – Clamps for assembling structures

I have thought for some time about buying a right-clamp for assisting building my structures. Especially so since I do a lot of scratchbuilding. When I saw this pop up on my email feed from MRH I just had to share some of the ideas here.

My favourite one (since I have most of these available now) is this creative use of Lego:

Image courtesy of MRH Forums

Head on over to the post and see some of the other great ideas presented there. I have to say though that this one really ticked all the boxes for me.

Loads, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Weathering, Web

Site seeing – February 11 – The load of scrap edition

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Update and explanation

There has been  a shortage of posts on Andrew’s Trains during February, due to a couple of factors. First and most importantly my eldest is moving to another city and beginning at University. Mum and I have put in a lot of work to get her ready for the transition during January and so far in February. This has included multiple trips back and forth looking for accommodation, signing of leases, paying rent, bond and the government related tasks that need to be done to get your adult life underway. The second reason in my output has been extreme heat events we’ve suffered in regional Victoria over the last couple of weeks. Most homes in town don’t have air conditioning. Ballarat’s climate (being nearly 1500 feet above sea level with usually low humidity) means that apart from a few days each year we don’t need it. However, when the air temperature gets over 35 degrees Celsius (this week over the 40 degree Celsius mark) there is simply nowhere to hide from the heat. February is Victoria’s hottest month and the most dangerous. Enough of all of that for now – on to the modelling.

Site 1: The Design Build Op Blog – Scrap Steel Loads

Image courtesy of designbuildop.hansmanns.org

Mike Weiss, one of the Wheeling Freight Terminal crew members has a very clever method of creating scrap steel loads for gondolas. His approach takes on industry standards, rather than the usual articles in model railroad magazines about making scrap steel loads. Often these articles don’t provide an easy way to remove the loads without a wire loop or hidden magnet. In this article Mike addresses both issues. There is a lot of great information on the blog beyond this post. Take the time to look around. Very well worth the effort.