I'm Baaaaacccck

So, what did I miss then?

Its been a while since I've been round. other projects (scale and gaming) have been attracting me, and I have felt that I didn't have much to contribute to the scale for the last year or so. Not being on facebook (by choice) means I'm out of much of the NZR modeling group, though I get some 2nd hand information (ie NZ48 would be the new thing if the finescalers would let other people play, and where have all the S scale kit makers gone?).

So to start up again with something railways related, on Sunday I biked the Rimutaka incline both ways on a $10 mountain bike off Trademe.

Starting at the Wairarapa end, the uphill goat track into Cross creek was a challenge and I was stuffed when we got to Cross creek.

Down hill

Up Hill

 From here it got worse up the 1 in 15. My blood pressure pills did me no favours (a dry hacking cough) and the bike was pushed most of the way. I did query my companions CPR skills at one point.

Towards the top the views get more spectacular.

Onto Summit and after some lunch and a rest I felt much better.
The collection of rusty rubbish at the top was interesting.

 This appears to be the remains of an S class single Fairlie.

No idea about what the 2 small boilers come from (bring on the anorak brigade..). I thought that the larger fireboxes might have been marine ones, but closer inspection revealed that they had identical fitting holes so are more likely to be original A or Ab boilers replaced after WW2 by re-boilering (takes anorak off again).

 The turntable and water tank base.

 Obligatory shot of the summit tunnel.

We then headed down the hill to Kaitoke. 4-5 km down the hill, my bike head tube (the bit that the front forks run through) started making rubbery squeaking noises. 3km further on I thought "maybe I should have a look". On being confronted with a ball race with holes where 1/2 the ball bearings used to be, I thought to myself "this probably isn't good". and the best place to find this is the furtherest point from the car...
Fortunately it wasn't terminal and it turned out that alterations I had made the previous day were a fault (and not the $10 spent on Trademe). Turning round I found that riding up a 1 in 40 hill is far easier than a 1 in 15 hill.
Back down the incline was also entertaining. The bike brakes were not up to much, so the descent was mostly focused on not allowing threbrakes to lock up, while pondering the best way to dismount a bike backwards if it headed off over the edge. I also involved me going far faster than was sensible with everything rattling o a dodgy cheap bike while laughing like an idiot. The trip down took10-15 minutes (and could have been quicker but for waiting to see that my more sensible slower friend was still on the track).

At the bottom, we paid a visit to the loco depot.

Engine shed back left and brake van pit front right

It was only left to ride the goat track back to the car park (with a 40 meter drop on one side with plenty of big rocks on the track) to finish up a 34km day. Padded bike shorts might look silly but are indeed gods gift to your ass.

Yet More Coal

Chatter from the peanut galley over the last couple of weeks has been discussing ore modeling locations on the west coast, and the attractions of old steam locos and long rakes of coal wagons.
A list of station track plans was drawn up, and the only major one missing from the list was Greymouth.

Greymouth was actually 2 different yards, so lets have a look at plans from 1912

 The main station also contained the car yard (and the loco depot at this time, Elmer lane not being built until the 20's). This was the departure point for passenger trains south to Ross, North to Westport and east to Otira and beyond. The other Station, Riverside was used for the local trains to the Greymouth coalfields and up the grey valley.

The wharf yard was deeper than the corresponding area at Westport. The track work was far more complex as well. Looking at it from an operations point of view, the set up is to run short rakes of hopper wagons onto the quayside to be unloaded by the mobile cranes. The corresponding trackage at Westport was far simpler.

Amazingly (and/or sadly) the only thing left of the 2 yards today are a single line to Hokitika through the main station, and the goods shed and cranes on the Quay.

Coal time

 (With the news of the last week with the seemingly impending demise of solid energy due to the usual combination of mismanagement, incompetence and greed, we step back to look at happier times on the coast. How we can trust people to run this country when they can't even remember where they live escapes me)

I've always had an interest in West coast coal operations, and what red blooded steam nut wouldn't. all those locos which lasted far longer in an isolated area with towering lush scenery and old ramshackle buildings.

There were 2 coal ports on the west coast, Greymouth and Westport. In this post we will have a look at the Westport station and wharves.
First up an overlook of the whole area courtesy of the 4th ed Tramway atlas.

Coal came down from Deniston, Stockton and Seddonville in long rakes of Q hoppers, hauled by a collection of Wb and later Ww locos. The section (untill it was conected in 1943) had a very small number of other wagons but 90% of the rolling stock were Q wagons.

First up the station from 1912. Even for a seemingly remote station its quite big (I suppose there had to be somewhere to put all those wagons). I was interested to see the separation of the wharfs. The goods wharf is on the right, and the lines leading up to the coal staiths, which I think lasted till the early 1920's.

 From the national library collection. More of a promenade than a coal facility.

 From the next section we see the other end of the coal staiths and the second coal loading wharf.
 The track layout is not overly complex compared to the other end of the yard.

And from the even stranger files.....

It appears that the coal wharfs were a prime destination for the well healed.

Old photos

I've been looking at pictures of Timaru harbour, and came across this old plate.

At first look, its just a run of the mill internet picture.
However once you start scanning in, it just gets better and better.
 (if you have a slower connection, just wait and the detail will appear. sort of like Google maps)
The details on the wharf and the dredges are just amazing (I can make out the signs on the wharf).  Will digital photos be this good in 100 years?

Observations

On tour today I see that Kiwirail has gone back to the past with rotten rows springing up round the country.

"One of these pictures is of a stack of large lemons, the other is of a pile of fruit"

The man who picked DL for the class designation (skipping K in the process) had remarkable foresight.

What, another year already?

I quick check this morning shows that I have not written a blog post in over a month. Personally I'm blaming the garden...
I've also been on overseas travels for A family Christmas (the lady of the house's side that is).
This time I managed to wangle a trip to one of the 'best preservation lines in the world', Puffing Billy in Melbourne. I'll let the photo's do the talking.

'Belgrave station. Na class 8A waits for the doors to shut.'

'We moved about 150 meters round a curve and then stopped. Just when I thought I was being had, a train turned up from the other direction.'

'20minutes travel saw us to Menzies creek, 1/2 way between Belgrave and out destination Lakeside.'

'The presentation was very impressive. It could have been 100 years ago.'

'Another Na leaves Lakeside with a 10 coach train. The drivers were not sparing the loco's, 100 years old or not.'

'The line runs through Australian native bush for much of the length between Belgrave and Lakeside. This is the return trip.'

'I had to get a photo on the famous bridge.'

'Tanking up before the last trip of the day. Seems to be good on coal too.'

 We only traveled 1/2 the line but that was good enough for a 1/2 day out with the extended family. So, what are my opinions. First up, Australian trains are really not my cup of tea. They just don't do anything for me. Having said that, this is the best heritage railway I have seen. Nothing comes close in this county in overall presentation. Everything was clean, neat and tidy. The staff (almost all volunteers) were helpful and talkative. They all seemed to be enjoying their day, even if it was boxing day. The locos were all driven hard up the hills, and down hill were allowed to run at a fair clip. The price (for a party of 6 adults and 3 kids) was a bit eye watering but I would do it again without hesitation.

In a time honored tradition of the railway, you are allowed to sit up on the windows and hang your legs out the sides (there are bars holding you in). As I participated in this tradition I wondered how many tonnes of paperwork would have to be filled out to do something similar in this country.

'No Hi-Viz in sight.'

On Display

From NZ120.org and other spots some photos of the Taupo show from the weekend.

'Look apon my works and dispair, ye modelers of inferior scales!'

Peter attempts to convert the heathens to modeling in a decent scale.
(more photos here)

'Thank you for purchasing your DCC system, we hope you will spend many happy hours trying to understand the instructions...'

Beakaboy in a quiet moment, deciding which train to run next.
(more photos here)

The Next show on the list is the Wairarapa show on the weekedn of the 10/11 of August At teh Masterton town hall. Marks model works and assorted hangers on will be there. No NZ 120 layout planned to be there unless my modeling mojo seriously fires itself up in the next 2 weeks.

And in other 1:1 scale news, The Standard Railcar made the trip from Pahiatua to Napier and back.
On my list of things to be built.

The Field Trip (How not to do it)

Am_Fet writes:

After the sterling work so far on the Cheese Store Roundy Layout I had to face the fact that at some stage I would need to get to Patea (somehow) and get some photos from the correct angles and resolution that would allow them to be used for the "photo building" method.  A set of decent photos for the backdrop were also on the shopping list.

A chance comment by Drew a few weeks back spurred me into action.  He announced that the DL invasion was imminent and the chance to ride a DC might soon be gone.  Right then!  Operation "Last Chance to See" was underway!

Tuesday night found me ensconsed in the salubrious confines of the Capital Connection to Palmy where I had a midnight connection with freight 522 to New Plymouth.  After a pleasant evening playing trains in the ManSion, I was duly delivered to Milson depot at 11pm ready for the nights adventure.  Luckily the heater in the cab of 7186 worked well and with 7158 and 4692 on behind we made short work of getting to Whareroa and the joyous reunion with Drew who was down to take the train the rest of the way to New Plymouth.

After dropping off 7186 (which was down to run 537 back to Palmy in the afternoon) we headed to all points north.  Another stop at Stratford has us dropping off 4692 which was slated to run 52 shunt before heading back to palmy that evening on 521.

It was around about here that I fell asleep for 30 minutes or so, not having slept for the previous 24 odd hours.  Oddly enough, I'd slept through the same bit of countryside the last time I was through as well!  Apologies to all Inglewood inhabitants, but it possibly doesnt say much for the scenery....

The plan was for Drew to tie up 522 then drive back to Stratford to run 52 to Kapuni, but a complete lack of tonnage killed that plan.....so after service 7158 we headed for home and breakfast.

With the weather looking threatening, I made the call to pass on the chance to sleep and to head to Patea while we could.  As it was the weather was freezing, overcast and a bit damp, but I still took the chance to get the photographs that I needed while Drew just basically ran riot, occasionally yelling from a different part of the complex "I feel like I'm on Time Team!" and imitating ghost noises.

After getting the photos, we went on a general fossick trying to work out where the old buildings were and their uses.  The engine room took a bit of nutting out, and I still dont think we worked it out.  There are remnants of where the boilers poked through the walls, but where the attendant stuff went (coal piles, chimneys etc) is still up for debate.

Treasures found include

...finding the trolley tracks along the loading bank at the front of the complex were to the weird gauge of 2'6".

and this old wagon door with the intriguing lettering "R E" on the top.

After a bit of siteseeing (Patea river mouth, Tawhiti museum which was closed, Normanby diary factory, Te Ngutu Battle site where Von Tempsky was killed) it was back to Drews place for a few hours kip before being dropped back at Whareroa around 5pm for the trip back to Palmy on 521....and that elusive DC ride.

After 521 came a quick dash back to Welly on 229 with 4191 and crawling onto the couch outside my lab at around 2am for 6 hours kip before work Thursday morning.

SO.....that was the easy bit, now I've got to use the photos to make the backdrop and buildings!  ARGGHH!!

Patea Way Back When

(No idea where everyone else has gone....might as well put up more rubbish)

A big thanks to Drew for finding these pics online while sitting at home on the company dime (ARSH says the roster...whatever that means).

Patea in 1958 was a really busy place with both the freezing works and the wharf going full noise.

Heres an enlargement of the enlargement showing strings of what look like Kc, Xa and Xc wagons under the awnings of the Cheese Store loading bays.  That saw-tooth roofed building on the right interests me as its no longer there.....I might revisit my photos to see if there are any remnants of it.  Also a stand out is that wonderful signwriting on the facade.  If you look carefully you can still see it under the grot, but unfortunately it hasnt come out in any of my photos. 

Some photoshop trickery may be needed.....

Out and about at Turakina

Am_Fet writes:

I've been spending quite a bit of time in Palmerston North at the moment as KiwiRail look to move the Traction Control room down to Wellington.  My part of the project was building some new server racks in the communications hub at the station while avoiding being blamed for everything else from link failures to lack of salt in tomato sandwiches by the local techs.

The chance came up one afternoon to change the channels on the tunnel radio system for Turakina, so I jumped at the chance to get away from punching Cat5 cable for a few hours and headed out into the hinterland.

Here is our destination, the radio hut above the eastern end of the Turakina tunnel (starring Ian's backside...)

The tunnel system works on what is called a "leaky coax" which is effectively an unshielded cable running the length of the tunnel that is used as an aerial for the VHF system (you can see it looping over the tunnel mouth in the photo above).

This is the tunnel mouth from track level showing the radio hut, the coax coming down into the tunnel mouth and the Track Warrant Loop sign for the Ruatangata crossing loop down the other end.  The pole beside the hut is the yagi antenna for the UHF link back to either Hunterville or Palmerston Nth (cant remember which).  And BTW, this was all taken from gated private land and I was "working"....so be warned!

This is the bridge over the Turakina river.  Drew wanted me to scope it out as a photo location, but I dont think its going to work as the sun will always be on the "wrong side" as shown by where the shadow as falling.

Anyway, what got me thinking about this is its worthiness as a "scene worth modelling".  The bridge makes a nice showpiece while view blocks are provided at each end by the lush trees and the tunnel mouth.  Could be just the thing for a set of the MMW module ends?

On Holiday III

Well, a bit late, but being back at work will do that to you.

Final site visited on our trip down south was another out of the way preservation effort. Well, not quite technically correct as its on state highway one, but its in Ashburton. Not a top ten tourist destination by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyhoo, The Plains railway has been on the preservation map for quite a long time (over 40 years). It is located on the first 3 km of the now closed mount Somers branch. They have a small range of preserved locomotives, but its an interesting selection.

One thing it shares in common with the Pleasant Point railway is the the presentation of the grounds.

'Simply magic'

The station building originally came from Cust in North Canterbury.

No steam locos in operation today, but just as interesting was the Vulcan Railcar on that day. An extremely useful item for a smaller preservation site to have as theres not the problems associated with maintaining a steam loco and a couple of carriages.Also good for the less than optimal track.

 After a ride (well, you have to don't you) I spotted a sign stating that tours would be given of the loco shed. Asking at the counter, I was told 'Oh, just wander round the back, there's a group working in there today'.

Off round the back, and here we are.

K88 is probably the most famous preserved locomotive in New Zealand, so I don't have to say anything else. There was some work being done on the brakes by 2 youngish chaps.  Ja 1260 lurks in the background. Laird Druff regaled me with tales of hitching a cab ride from Hampden to Oamaru on a trip home to Timaru one night, and hitting 70 miles an hour . On the twisty section south of Oamaru this would have been something. Anywhere this would have been something. I wish there was some way to substantiate the story's I've heard of the speedo needle hard against the block past 90 on the Canterbury plains. The Ja required a boiler washout.

A64. Another ideal sized loco for a small preservation railway. It made me think about an NZ120 model again. Unfortunately she is out of commission awaiting a new 10 year boiler ticket.

Here's another picture of the Vulcan heading down the row of pines towards the hills.

 As a final shot, here are two for the future. K 94 and F 150 await their turn for restoration to running order. The cab and tanks for the F are also on site.

'If I won Lotto...'

So, another small set up well worth a visit. Most surprising is that admission is free and there is a small charge for the train ride. All rather silly really.

On Holiday

Well, I was intending to do a bit more blogging over the break, but Internet has not reached some areas of the south island yet (well, easily hackable wireless connections at least). And while I have not seen much in the way of trains (the correct number attached to the phrase "Oh, you will see a few trains on the way down" is 2), there were other things to do. These involved getting on a borrowed bike and setting off into the countryside on selected parts of the Central Otago rail trail. First day was a short trip up to Chatto creek (also known locally as 'sh*thole creek'). The first section is pretty flat from Clyde to Alex, and was a nice warm up. The main thing things to look at were.....

'Vineyards'

'Trees and dry hills'

Both these pictures are taken looking back towards Clyde just in case anyone gets confused.

Once past Alex the terrain changes and we are up into shist country.

The Trail follows the Manuherikia river valley for the first part of the journey. Its reasonably easy going as the 1 in 50 tiger hill bank is after Chatto creek. there are patches where the valley opens up and we are out into big sky country.

 There are the amazing rock outcrops.

 Probably even more incredible than the landscape, if that is possible, is the mark that the early railway builders have left upon it. This was entirely done with hand tools which defies our modern day imagination.

 So, first day back on a bike for a decent ride since I left Nelson two years ago and a final tally of 55 km.  They lady of the house made it 40 km before her legs gave out and was picked up by the support crew. My legs gave out on the final stretch back to Clyde. When you are passed by a retired couple and can't catch up with them again your day is done. Oh, and at the end of the day I wished my ass was asleep. Fortunately the bike riding and sitting groups of butt muscles are completely different, so the end of the day was not that bad.

 Over the years I have at times kicked around modeling parts of the Otago Central branch. after this day I'm just not sure that it is possible to do it justice unless one is prepared to use a large area and wide baseboards. Even then it is a huge ask.

'How can one model all of this?