Iron Gate

Cabbage's Travels

Iron Gate stream a scene waiting to be captured.
This little stretch of coast line has always made me wonder about a model railway scene, so on the way back to Picton the effort was made to stop and get some informational pictures that may be used for a MMW 4 module corner, bend or dog leg scene.

The approach

South west corner

The iron gate??

North east corner

The get away

Iron gate stream bridge

South Tunnel exit

 And not to mention the aerial photography 

Have to take it all away to the drawing board and see what can be made of it.
Using 4 similar reversible and interchangeable modules to make a bigger scene is what the free-mo idea is all about

 The idea

The idea is based on a 1200mm radius curve but looking at it I'm going to try a few other sizes, maybe up to 2400mm which would make the modules roughly 900mm along the track.

AO Milestone

DB notes:

I needed to find a pic of some AO cars to continue my journey and had a read of when this all began and subsequent episodes.

The 12 year old mentioned in there turned 16 yesterday, so I guess this has been a long slog towards nothing. And I note that the real Tranz looks a little different now.

Finally some progress!

Reflector interiors and tinted windows were added on the 4 cars that were furthest advanced and somehow I managed to cobble up 8 sets of Tranz Scenic decals (some made up of 4 bits of scratched up decals) and here we are.

Its enough for a basic train - obviously there's still a bit of work to be done but few of the Americans will notice the lack of undergubbins and inter-carriage connectors (which I've subsequently had a go at and you'll see in the pics below).

These were surprisingly popular with the locals at the Long Island open house today, especially that they were all created from scratch (more or less). I also had a copy of a NZ Railfan handy with some pics of the real (previous) Tranz so they could see the prototype in a more appropriate setting.

Great Workbenches of the World Part Eleventy-Five - An Ongoing Series

DB exposes:

Now that we temporarily inhabit a small, elevated concrete box, I hadn't expected to do a lot of modeling. But I bought some stuff with me rather than having it freeze in a storage unit over winter.

Unexpectedly, today I continued a never ending journey on my AO cars for the TranzAlpine in the hope of getting a few 'done-enough' for a model railroad club open house this Sunday.

In doing so, I thought it might be time to revive Evan's Great Workbenches of the World series.

Workshop with a view

Yes, here I am decamped on the bed, trying not to get Tamiya smoke and PVA glue on anything (noticeable).

I have a few plastic drawers of stuff that live under the bed. The big one out at left houses paints and plasticard scraps. The three drawer one next to it has various projects in many scales from many continents, lots of US diesel shell parts, decals, sandpaper, glue, knife etc. and on top are smaller ones with various and sundry little parts.

The cardboard box in the foreground has some NZ120 models and partially finished bits, including my DJ in pieces, bits to make more CWs, 4 painted AOs that I'm windowing, and 4 unpainted ones yet to grow wheels. This was an old keyboard box (remember when computers used to have actual keyboards rather than swipey-swipey things?) filled with some tray inserts Rhys procured about 20 years ago that happened to be sized about right for NZ120 things.

The actual 'workbench' itself is a white wooden shelf from a cabinet about 30x30cms square that is being used to paint some clear plastic with smokey shades. At right, Mrs defacto Northern Dandruff is providing encouragement by having a snooze complete with lovely dream about yummy paint smells.

There you have it. Small, compact, and you have to tidy it up when you finish or you won't be able to sleep.

Leaving Home Ain't Easy

DB sadly draws conclusions from airborne experiments:

Landfill: Scenery removed and out for the worms

While in the land of the long white cloud, His Royal Druffness has just acquired a train room with attached house, up here in the Great Dandruffy North, we've just done the opposite.

It's quite a shock for two people to move - after having spent 12 years in a fairly roomy 4 bedroom house - to a tiny 1 bedroom apartment.

The physics of this transformation required the rapid expulsion of what seemed like several tonnes of accumulated rubbish; including the unceremonious trashing of my half-finished layout in the sky.

It was an interesting experiment, but even when accessed from an altitude of 6' 3, the idea of an 'above the doors' layout turned out to be a little impractical. While viewing it wasn't as bad as you might think, it's the operation, and ongoing maintenance that was always going to be extremely difficult.

The Big Gorge, stripped of scenery and nicely packaged for the trash man

Close, but no cigar.

Not that I wanted a cigar.

It was a bit sad making the decision to dump Moana, a layout section I really loved making and looking at. The scenery (and the goods shed for unknown reasons) was saved to be reincarnated in some other scene but its soulless shell was crushed by a passing garbage truck on Friday.

On the same day, I also separated from my modeling table (as featured in Great Workbenches of the World) for the past 22 years. Sigh.

Onwards and upwards.

[Aside] In case you were wondering what I was up to over the quiet months before I started attacking DJs and running my DXs, yes, I'd been playing with more N scale silliness. Here's my attempt at a 4-front windowed Canadian cab Dash 9 made from an SP kato -9 loco with an Atlas SD60M cab modified for 4 windows and fettled a little. Now in long term storage.

Something new for Steve4painting to roast