Planning a loco roster

While hunting for other things related to Cross creek I came across the Loco planning for Paekakriki.
Somewhere (from Fetler D'amatuer possibly)I had a list of the Steam locos alocated to Palmerston North in 1964, as no locos were allocated as such to Paekakariki. I was interested in having a mix of types, hence breaking it down to trainspotters differences (though why a K funnel is that diferent from a Ka funnel at 2' is beyond me). I would probably include a K as well for something different.

Of the more modern models, only the Ew is not available on Shapeways. I included a Tin hare as they were used for a short time after the closure of the Rimutaka incline. The D/Dm/D sets would have to come up with a mech of some sort.. And while you can buy the tops for the Ka and Ja's the under frames are a different matter (and shall we have a discussion on wheel sizes again?)

I then included a selection of passenger trains to model. Its possible to buy all of these.. Last up was a list of number plates to order from Coln Mcharg. having not seen an obituary anywhere I assume he is still alive.

Saturday Morning

Well, Just.

This morning after a bit of a fossick through the book shelves ( I must find some bindings for my collection of Railfans) I came across my collection of information for the Rimutaka incline.

No sign of a doodle for a complete layout (I'm sure that I did one) but there was a plan for Cross Creek.

The top plan was a test sketch, obviously I thought that the extra passing loop could be done away with. Not sure why I included a second crossover as this was in the days before I made my own track. on closer inspection I've brawn over the top and so I think that the intended orientation is as shown in the first plan. There's also no notes on size and I'm guessing that it would probably fit on 8' if some compromises on train length were to be accepted. depth would ideally be 2'6"to 3' to model the hill behind to get a sense of dwarfing the station.

Painting

Time to start things moving on the workbench again.
I've had a couple of Shapeways 3D prints for a long time now. The had a clean a while ago (several trips through the soncator at work in beakers of Pyroneg (a lab glassware detergent) which seems to have removed the oily support (I can't smell it anyway).

I then primed with Tamiya spray paints . Hull Red for the DF

Up close the vertical lines from the printing process are visible, and I'll have to carefully sand them out.
And a Grey for the Bedford bus.

This has odd unsmoothed areas above the wheel wells which will be challenging to get rid of.

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.