Down the rabbit hole

I've been doing some bits and pieces on my tramp steamer. The masts are painted and I've made a start on the deck detail.

So its all coming along nicely and apart from the railings everything else seems to be straight froward, just adding some cast details and doing the rest of the bits in wood etc rather than folded paper. So today I'm ding a web search just to see if I can find anything else on the ship, and I come across a Flickr folder with a collection of deck photos

And suddenly a simple job comfortably ensconced in ignorance get the searchlight of enlightenment focused on it. Theres plenty more railings  and a lot more detail full stop.pluses are bridge detail and also the capstans which will be easier to make. minuses are the whinches which are far more detailed.

So how far does one go with this information?I could go nuts but at the end of the day its only really a backdrop, and those were once simple paint jobs.

More History

Amateur Fetler has sent me some photos from a lockup in darkest Timaru.

Dunedin

Port Chalmers

The current iteration of John Rappards Dunedin and Port Chalmers layout which debuted at the 1986 convention. Originally end to end, it was rebuilt in the late 80's /early 90's to a roundy roundy with Port Chalmers on an extension, which is when I first encountered it. The original rolling stock is still in existence with a modeler in Dunedin.
Its nice to see that its survived over 30 years as its an iconic layout for both the scale and NZR modeling in general.