Sunday Morning

Well, it was a day and a bit yesterday. First up was the ceremonial loading of the car with the layout. I managed to get 2/3 of it in and the rest will head down next Thursday night. First stop on the way south was Paekakariki. Time to get the camera out for some shots. As I didn't pan really it was just point and shoot, though there were some buildings that I concentrated on.

This is a relay shed of some sort that was there in the time period I am modeling, though it was then painted white ish. Also the ex ORB Drewry DSB (near equivalent) shunting wagons at Steam Inc. Closer to the camera, the balasting is 'interesting' No sleepers visible, but not up to the tops of the rails, and there are 2-3 different grades and shades I can see. Will be 'fun' to model.

The station itself. most of the ray track on this side has been removed.

Looking North, and the area of interest here is the hill on the left, and how tall and what shape it is. I've looked at other old photos and this one just adds to the confusion (which I though I had unconfused). Maybe I need a GPS reading from the loco shed and the top to work out just how tall it should be.



The Air-rail shed. With the building of the new rolling stock shed you can no longer easily (at all?) get to the other side, so I will have to go off old photos that I have.

After this wander round, I paid a visit to the home of Scenic textures (well, technically, its a shed and a cupboard). A cuppa and a chat with the proprietors was very enlightening thanks to the local knowledge, and hopefully I'll have some better leads on some of the important buildings on the main street ie the old Pub (and I'm happy to reward in wine if they pass on their preference). Looking at the hills from the coffee table also reminded me that google maps does not do 'ups' at all well, and I may need to rethink that side of the layout. A major plus is that when i need to do the scenicking, I'll be able to order with instructions 'Oh, just what you see out the window will be fine...'
While I do wish I could have stopped for longer, I was on a deadline and so next it was off further south...

A wide ranging discussion was had, but we can't discuss some of it, though the opinions expressed about the scale with the largest following in this country were a surprise to me. Skepticism was also expressed about the chances of getting my competition models done in time for the convention, to which my reply was 'Well, I better start writing that clinic as well...' And while photos may make it look like I was holding court, I was meerly the only one sitting on that side of the table. Also of note in that photo sitting on the table to the right of me. This is something that Cabbage Industries has come up with based on a brainstorming session a few weeks ago, and which he may like to post comment on.