Exhibition report – March 12, 2016 (Kyneton & Sandown – in that order)

17/03/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

Trip Detail

Wondering if we could make two exhibitions at opposite ends of Melbourne with nothing but public transport, boy wonder and I headed off early (07:19 hours) from Ballarat station on a joint VL34 – VL04 (with VL 1234 trailing the consist) to Southern Cross.

Vlocity set VL21 at Ballarat Railway Station Image courtesy of “Wongm’s Rail Gallery”

Quickly moving over to platform 12 we picked up the suburban service and headed off a few minutes later.

Sandown Park railway station is on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines in the South-East of the city. Roughly an hour out-of-town we arrived at the gates of the exhibition at 09:55 hours.

With the crowds already building and the exhibition opening at 10:00 AM we were pleasantly surprised with how they managed to move the crowd quickly through the racecourse turnstiles; our experience was smooth and speedy.

By 10:10 we were inside and looking around. Now onto the exhibition report.

Sandown

Overall I was disappointed; mainly because I want to see layouts at a model railway exhibition. I understand that vendor support is critical to the running of all shows that want to be around more than once. However, moving to an exhibition model that has few layouts and lots of vendors is not my idea of how to spend 10 dollars adult and five dollars a child, plus fares/fuel and maintenance. Unfortunately this is what Sandown is; a vendor fest. I’ve not been for a couple of years and have no intention of returning until the list of layouts are more numerous.

The verdict: If you want to buy something then you should be there. If you want to look at new and exciting layouts, I’m sorry but this is not the place to be.

Highlights:

There were many large layouts, among which boy wonder delighted in the Lego display. Big and well done. Nice one Lego lads and lassies.
Neil Cowie’s Northern Pacific – a basic 4 x 8 with two 6 foot wings on opposing corners. This was the first run of Neil’s layout on the exhibition circuit, and what I saw I liked. The group he is a member of will be holding an open day in April I believe. More about that in another post.

One of the wings on the end of the 4×8

Another view of the wing

Leopold – while a roundy-roundy had a lot of interesting track and operational potential. The modelling was very good.

Looking up the layout

The far end of the layout looking to the fiddle yard

Nice work on what can be a tricky kit – the silos

Looking down the layout – loved the trackwork and yard design

Finally; Ravenswood was again another roundy-roundy with excellent topography and scenery and I believe based on an actual location here in Victoria (I’m from Sydney remember).

Looking down the layout – trees, good ones and lots of them

Loved the timber station that apparently was never updated on the line

Sandown to Kyneton

We left the exhibition at 11:30 and headed over to the station, which is a walk of only a couple of minutes. Then a suburban train back to Southern Cross (that required a little work since the train was 9 minutes down and finished at Flinders St). Due to the late running train we missed our connection to Bendigo and had to wait an hour for the next train. On time our Velocity’s left Southern Cross at 13:37 heading for Kyneton. The run down to Kyneton was speedy with few stops, but the track left something to be desired with several kinks throwing the train and passengers about.

Velocity and Sprinter DMUs at the fueling facility at Southern Cross

N457 and cars waiting for the signal to run to servicing

VL28 powering up to leave platform 7A – Southern Cross

VL28 leaving platform 7A and moving into the station throat

VL39 arriving on the 16:31 Kyneton – bound for Bendigo – right on time

VL52 stabled at Kyneton

Kyneton station is beautiful. An old fashioned bluestone edifice that says Victorian Railways from the foundation up; modernised of course but still lovely. Arriving on time at 14:39 we walked the 1100 metres to the venue (which crosses a river and beside the town’s botanic garden) to the venue.

Kyneton

Kyneton is not a small exhibition, nor is it a large one. Well supported by the vendors it’s the layouts that rule the show. Suffice to say that Kyneton is my preferred long-weekend model rail show. They seem to attract great modellers to the club and have a great selection of layouts every year.

The verdict: Kyneton is the go-to exhibition on the March long-weekend. If you’ve not been before I suggest that you put it in your diary and take a trip on the train out with boy-wonder and I next year.

The Highlights:

Glyn Halt – a simple narrow gauge layout shown on the blog before.

The layout that is Glyn Halt

Great Colne – a freelanced North British layout this is a work in progress, but it looks like a real cracker. I am looking forward to seeing this finished at next years show.

An overview of the layout

The goods shed – all built using card and paper products

A look along the siding

An overview of the station are

The owner talked with me for quite a while telling me about his techniques – really nice bloke

Alexandra – wow – nothing more needs be said, except that this is what Sandown should have had.

Wow

Wowier

Wowser

Brilliant

Gobsmacking

Colinsville Riverland Railroad Company – a great little whimsy, with outstanding modelling and imagination.

Nice

Great presentation

Fine modelling

Beechy – an 0n30 masterpiece with great scenery and modelling making an eye-catching package

Town and Country – first seen at the Albury (Laverton) show in 2015 still a great layout after seeing it at several shows recently.

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Site seeing, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site Update – March 16 – Ballarat Tramways Gallery

16/03/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

I’ve begun uploading images to the Ballarat tramway page, spurred on by working as an assistant conductor this weekend.

Zip over to the page to take a look at the growing gallery.

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Site seeing, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site seeing – March 13 – the Under the Wire, but not over the hump edition

16/03/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

I am big time into electric traction. Having grown up in Sydney’s west during the reign of the famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) Red-Rattlers it was a privilege to witness the double-deck trailer introduction and the total takeover of the network by Double-Deck Suburban and Interurban sets. Of course having an uncle who drove on the Sydney passenger network helped in this love of ‘sparks’.

Recently I realised a dream when I became a member of our local tramway museum (the Ballarat Tramway Museum). I’d love to be able to drive for the museum, before that happens however I have to become a conductor and be passed medically fit. I’ve finished my conductor training. This means that I’m an assistant Conductor, able to work under another conductor’s supervision. I did that during this weekend’s annual Ballarat Begonia festival.

A couple of photos from the day I’ve posted below:

#616 heading for Gardens Loop on an outbound run on Sunday 13/03/2016

Depot roads 2 and 3 with #13 on the right and restaurant tram # 939 on 13/03/2016

My good self as Assistant Conductor 13 March 2016 - Ballarat Tramway — My good self as Assistant Conductor 13 March 2016 – Ballarat Tramway

You can visit the Ballarat Tramway gallery page for more from the Begonia weekend and I’ll be adding more over time as I find them in my archives.

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Site seeing – March 10 – the Llanastr, B&MR edition

10/03/2016 Andrew Martin 2 Comments

Small layouts really tick the box for me when it comes to model railroading and I’m assuming they tick your box also since you all keep coming back. Recently this English layout was discussed on the Prince Street blog. On to today’s sites.

Site 1: Llanastr, B&MR web site

The idea for the layout was born in the early eighties when the builder moved from All PostsWales and found himself in an apartment too small to accommodate the layout he’d been building based on the Brecon and Merthyr station at Rhymney.

Llanastr - thanks to the ScaleFour Society's website — Image 1: The entire layout in all it’s finished glory

To keep his skills up and to run his stock he decided a compact layout should be built that allowed a fast setup and takedown time. Llanastr was the result. The home site has a full history of the layout and the build details.

Site 2: The ScaleFour Society’s website – pictorial

The image shown above provides a comprehensive overview of the layout. But there’s still more (unfortunately no steak knives). Head on over to the ScaleFour’s site and take a look at the other images of the layout, they are worth the effort after the jump.

Site 3: Llanastr on YouTube

Although short this video provides a full overview of the layout and shows in detail the sheet background (I’ve not seen one better) and the track plan. If you look closely in the left-hand end of the layout you’ll see the operator using the pivot table to move a loco onto another road.

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Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – March 08 – The making it aged edition

08/03/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

As the author makes note of on his website: “Styrene when used to represent wood in the model world eliminates the limitations of wood. Wood has its own grain and color. Styrene is a blank palette which can be manipulated“. I agree with his sentiment wholeheartedly.

Site 1: Making styrene look like aged wood

This great tutorial shows you how to use plastic card to simulate wood in many ways. It’s a great tutorial and worth the time to read.

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – March 06 – the Lumberjack edition

06/03/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

They’re something that we’ve all seen, and make the models we build better for being in the background to provide a place anchor or the foreground as a load. But making them is not as simple as it seems. Today’s site may well change all of that.

Site 1: Making Logs

When the author needed to make logs for cribbing on his layout he decided not to whip out to the backyard and take his chances he decided to go the route of scratchbuilding. Follow along on this simple (and simply amazing) tutorial and build yourself a log or 50.

Ballarat Tramway, Museums

One step closer to a dream – Saturday 27 February 2016

28/02/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

Since late last year I’ve been a member of the Ballarat Tramway Museum. I became involved for several reasons primarily because I love trams and trains obviously, and that for the first time in my working life I had an oversupply of time and an under supply of work.

This weekend I completed and passed my initial Conductor training at the museum. Right now that means I am an assistant Conductor. I still have a couple of steps including a medical to pass before becoming a fully fledged ‘Conny’. And then hopefully I’ll be up for a slot in the driver training program starting later in 2016. I just wanted to say a big thanks go out to my Conductor trainer and the museum drivers and all the volunteers who started and have kept the museum going since the 1970s.

I’m looking forward to helping out for many years to come.

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Flying Scotsman – is back!

26/02/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

After a mammoth 10 year £4.2 Million rebuilding program spearheaded by the National Railway Museum, who bought her for £2.3m in 2004, Flying Scotsman is back on the rails again. Work to restore the locomotive began in 2006 with Flying Scotsman undergoing an extensive restoration in the workshop of Riley & Son (E) Ltd.

The locomotive is in its BR green livery as 60103. Flying Scotsman’s return as a working museum exhibit sets another record for the oldest mainline working locomotive on Britain’s tracks occurred yesterday 25/02/2016. As you can see from the videos below, there’s a bit of hoopla going on at the moment:

Flying Scotsman chasing down a spark, being chased in turn by three helicopters.

Flying Scotsman doing what she was designed for – running fast on the mainline

To find out more about what the Flying Scotsman is up to this year head over to her website (http://www.flyingscotsman.org.uk) for more.

1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), O Scale, Proto 48, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – February 26 – diesel parts arrived edition

26/02/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

For those of you who’ve been following the blog for a while you may know that I am rebuilding two Weaver GP38-2s. In the process of rebuilding I had come to the conclusion, due to the difficulty of getting parts help from several of the USA suppliers, that I would have to build a lot of O scale parts. Then Lo and Behold – American Scale Model Professional Services comes on the scene on eBay; more in a second.

Site 1: American Scale Model Professional Services (eBay Store – page 2)

So here’s what I bought:

When I saw these little babies on Flea Bay I thought all my Christmas’ has come at once. Because these parts were going to be a Royal Pain in Diaz to manufacture. I can do it, but with dragging feet, toes in the dust and all, I just “din wanna”.

Not only are they better than I thought they’d be in the flesh, they appear to be far better than I’d hoped.

In addition the shipping costs were pretty good and the service was outstanding. Ordered the 8th of February they arrived the 24th February. I got gouged by the fallen Australian dollar – but that was not the owner Bill’s fault. I blame the bloody Chinese economy for that! I’m going to keep Bill’s details in my diary and contact him again when I need more parts. Hear that Bill? Done in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator voice – I’ll be back.

And yes, those are decals in there. I’ll be putting on the magnifier and taking a look at these later on. Later gator.

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – February 25 (It’s the Southern Pacific edition)

25/02/2016 Andrew Martin Leave a comment

My long-suffering, patient and very lovely wife of many years is from the Lone Star state. My first train experience in Texas was in late 1997 just after arriving in the US. After pulling into a little gas and go station to get a soft-drink (soda) for each of us and something for the car on Airport Boulevard near Highland Mall.

While sitting in the car after filling her up, the Longhorn RR’s GP9 pulled up right behind the store (the little gas station is gone now, but it sat between the rail line and Airport Blvd), the crew got off and bought themselves a soda before remounting and chugging off up the line back toward the yard at McNeil.

It is not a bad way to be introduced to North American Shortline railroading. Being less than 10 feet away from the loco and it’s train was mesmerizing. I think the crew even waved as they walked by. I do however digress, onto today’s site of interest.

Site 1: The Texas and New Orleans, Southern Pacific Railroad slide show

The Southern Pacific gobbled up a lot of other railroads in its time, before being consumed itself in 1997 by the UP. Among the most interesting legacies of the constituent railroads were the station and depot buildings whose architectures varied widely, depending on the local flavour. Among my favourite SP depots is the San Antonio depot. While not shown in this set I have some colour photos of the San Antonio depot during an open day showing the stunning stained glass window above the depot stairs leading up to the first floor. A wonderful Spanish Mission style depot it is only one of the eclectic mix shown in the set above.

There’s more than just depots and other buildings in this lot though; there are also lots of locomotive pictures, location pictures and more, and the most of them are in glorious black and white. I hope that you enjoy.

Andrew's Trains