From left field

 Bit of a meandering post here, but an insite into how I come up with layout ideas.

My day job in science research revolves in a large part in remembering small details from large chunks of data from many years back and recalling them at usefull moments. Its a lot harder than it sounds. Anyhoo...

First up I was sent some pictures of a competition entry from Celyn Bennet in this years convention. 

 

What makes this model historically important is that it is the first completed scratchbuilt NZ120 loco (if I'm wrong, reply in the comments section). Its a nice mix of metalwork and 3D resin printing with wheels and gearing from the 2mm association. The cab is open for a crew and its also fitted for DCC.

Fast forward a few weeks and I'm visiting an NZ magazine editor in Oamaru and in our travels we pass close to the old site of the McDonalds lime works. 

 

This short line was worked by D6 which orginally wound up at the Ocean Beach Railway before passing recently to Lumsden. It's also figured in photos in a few books, articles and calendars as the line survived intothe 1960's.

Back home last weekend and some late night googling leads me to the Whites aviation collection at the National Library website. As an aside this collection is absolute gold.

The best bit is that you can zoom in to look at important details.

The company owned a second D which was used for spare parts after the boiler ticket expired. Obviously it was also handy as a stop block.

We can also look at the layout of the main buildings...

 

 And the loco shed

So we now have enough information for the general plan, the buildings and an idea of the landforms in the area. Next post I will come up with a track plan and ideas for how it would work as a layout.

Magazine review time

 During the blog layoff a couple of things happened on the railway magazine landscape in new Zealand.

First up we have seen the demise of Railfan after 25 years of world class content. It was a magazine in which every issue was full of interesting articles and photos for everyone. Its one of those things where its just nice to pick up an old issue and imerse oneself in the contents. The Branchline series and John Agnews Carriage history were always standouts for me. 

The new kid on the bock is The Linesider, a retirement project from Kiwibonds. I remember a couple of years back when he said he was thinking of publishing a magazine and had done a business plan for a year to see if it was feasable. Into a second year it must at least be breaking even or just slowly sucking his retirement fund dry.

So opinion time, I think that the Linesider has started to hit its stride in season 2 with some interesting articles. The editors knowledge of the wider world of modern railways has been to the fore in the article on the new locos for the South island.

I must remember to renew my subscription.....