Outside the fence

Unlike the larger scales, the one thing you can't avoid when modeling in NZ120 is that life exists well outside the normal railway boundaries. In fact, its what sets us apart from the neanderthals larger scales. With a renewed interest in Paekakariki I have been looking at the surrounding town to see what I need to  add.

Fortunately (again) there is a good White's avation photo (these guys should have been knighted) of the wider area. My interest is the sea-side of town. 

While I'm not planning to model all of it, the block of houses on the railway side of Tilley Rd are an obvious choice. And that means we need to take a closer look at the houses themselves.

So, from left to right we have:

-The single mens compound.

-Several W&MR cottages (they are present in photos from 1909).

-A group of 3 NZR railway houses.

-What looks like a stationmasters house (though I'm now leaning towards a double bay villa which still seems to be in position today)

-Another railway house

-2 small cottages

-The signal and traction depot

-A bowling green. I'm pretty sure no-one has modeled one of these before.

Moving just south we come to the buildings on Beach road.

- The pub

- The Holtam buildings, and possibly the buildings next to it (of a similar vintage) depending on just how long the road on the baseboard is.

As always the buildings that make it into the scene will be a juggling act between the footprint of the buildins and the shrunken space on the layout. In addition I've made a rod for my own back a long time ago by choosing to have the layout viewed from both sides which doubles the amount of modeling and research required.

Touring around

 

So, as part of my "get out more you hermit" drive, yesterday afternoon I found myself on a Layout tour round Palmy. Quinten also turned up so we have a good chat between stops (ranging from 3D printing to the latest advances in car fuel systems and climate change).

I was surprised at the standard of modeling during the day (and also that other people somehow manage to keep their garages clean). All but one were US Ho scale layouts, and I must admit That US prototype just leaves me cold. With that said, there were still bits I liked.

 

Could do with a bit of weathering but I like the overall look

 There was a truely enormous setup, with stunning woodworking and lighting. both photos taken from teh same spot, and it continued round to the left.

It also had some nicely detailed industries, with a bit of dirt.

The last layout on the tour was possibly (to my mind) the most impresive of the lot. UK prototype Southern railway prior to nationalisation. The station is almost to scale and is a model of the town where the builder was born and grew up. His father was a signalman there.

There were some really nice wee scenes including the house he was born in. When he pointed out which one a voice at the far end of the room says "and I can see inside and you haven't cleaned your room".

The signal box was re-created using PECO switches.

As well as the points, all the signals worked as well, driven by servos. One think I did find interesting was that the OO scale locos and wagons looked really small. 

On another layout I found a very clever way to set up a helix using threaded rods.

Takes some of the issues out of the engineering of construction.