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.

Turning things around

Right, an attempt to start writing semi regular Saturday morning posts that requires me to A) haul my ass out of bed early and B) evade brunch making duties (this morning at La Casa Dandruf its pancakes and maple syryp) untill 11am.

Even since Paekakariki has had a full completement of mainline track, I've pondered just how to get the trains back onstage once they head off North or South. Now mostly I'd just say a return loup with storage sidings but then I got to thinking, why not something better? I had kicked around in my head (theres plenty of free space) modeling more of the area south to Pukerua bay to let the electrics stretch their legs but I could not figure out how to do it. 

My initial thought was just to use the outer storage loop as a sceniced mainline section. The immediate issues are that you can't park a train on the bank (well, not quite true but I don't think they have signal failures/derailments that regularly on the real thing). I then hopped out of the box and came up with a separate mainline and storage setup.

Now this has 3 storage loops plus a couple of lines for the EE units to sit between jobs. Its all rather complex though. The other issue is that trains leave Paekakariki and immediately head north along the Pukerua bank. Not overly ideal (though its just occured to me that if it was reversed it would work fine). the whole thing folds in 1/2 for transport and storage. Theres an access hole in the middle as well.

I then considered having a diamond crossing that swaped the north and south mains so that it would work and trains would run into the storage yards and then out onto the main line. 

Trains head into the storage yard then do a circuit of the mainline before arriving at Paekakariki. Aagin if I simply reversed the first plan we wouldn't need to be here. Mr Bond then pointed out that the rail crossings of the baseboard joins were not square, and the track was awfully complex and what about maintanance.

A couple of minutes of looking/thinking last night and I realised I could strip 1/2 the points out and it would still work and I would only have square track crossings of edges.

I think its a bit more elegant, you don't loss anything by simplifiying the points layout, and its also easy to operate and maintain.

The only real issue  (damn you prototypical modeler in my head) is that the electric locos will reverse on every trip. Not an issue for the Ew's but it is for the Ed's and Dm's. The only alternative to fix this involves a lot of loco handeling/shunting off stage which I don't think is a good idea at all (unless someone can convincement me otherwise).

RailX pt 2

 As I said in pt 1 I had a few conversations over the weekend.

I was asked up to a TTrak layout for an opinion on something. This was repainted and re-decaled N scale US models. I was asked to be honest. I thought the colours were good and then it was all downhill...I don't think I will be invited back. At least Fretesch are the correct makers models (and I can tell the difference between a U26C and a C630).

I then had a chat with a gent who had been a member of the Otago Model Engineers (OMES) after I had been there in the early 1990's. One thing interesting that I did learn that the model of Dunedin Railway station I built is to be moved to a display cabinet downstairs. Now, this might not sound like much, but the live steam guys defend the spots in these cabinets with a similar fevour to that last seen in Japanese soldiers in late WW2. Apparently its on facebook (which I'm not, I'm very picky about where I get my disinformation). Oh and before I came forward they thought it was built by an Asian exchange student...

Last up was Brian Roulston of Scenic Textures. We both cut our early serious modeling teeth at the OMES in the early 1990's. From him I learned that another old member of the Otago NZ120 modular group had passed a month ago. I think this leaves me as the last man standing from the original group in the early 1990's. We reminised about some of the characters and stories which quite honestly has brought a tear to my eye as I write this.  My memories of this time are not only about the huge layout that we assembled, but also that I don't recall any arguments in the group, just a shared vision for a layout. I've been lucky enough to (so far) do that twice in my life so far. Hoopefully I get another chance yet.

The only thing we can do as modelers to honor our friends memories is to pay it forward ourselves.

RailX done pt 1

So another RailX has come and gone. 2 days of modeling, talking and borax poking. As usual I was part of the Cabbage Flying Circus, and I spent the first day making track. This time round it was the trackwork for the landing on the Huia tramway. I was working with code 40 rail, which I really hate doing as its just too small. To cap it all off I had forgotten my glasses and I was essentially working by feel. Strangely enough this seemed to work fine and things just rattled along. I must try it more often. The Sunday was a bit of tidying up the soldering, and then a fair bit of chatting to old friends (again, because I couldn't see anything).

 Micheal Gee had brought another 3D print, this one for a phase I Da. Comparing it with the 25 year old Etch Cetera Da's...

We immediately noticed it was a bit taller in the car body, but below the footplate the height is about right. The long hood could also do with a bit of chamfering between the roof and sides. Good enough for me to plan to order a phase III Da. 

There was an American layout just across from us. Now normally I have about as much interest in US prototype as the GDP of Kazakstan. However I can apreciate a well observed layout. The lighting rig drew some apreciative comment as well.

The lighting rig was very nice too.

It was also setup with a JMRI interface and was controlled by cellphone app. It was nice too see the system work live though I don't see the point of being able to throw the switches from the handset.

RailX again

Yep, its that time of the 2 years again with RailX on in Palmerston North. I also see that theres a show in Timaru, though I doubt there will be many people having to choose. Having failed dismally last time to operate a layout (again, I'm sorry for being so crap, Grant) I think I'm allowed to play with the model makers again. And unless theres great demand I won't be bringing any boats this time round. Looking through the collection of 1/2 finished products (Df, Johnston A, Ds ) I'm actually thinking about making more track. Its something thats still not commonly done and is very hard to spead up using 3D printing (certainnly for anything more complex than straight track). Now that I have said that someone will come up with a way of doing it.

So, drop by and say hello (oh, and Russel, if you are coming down I could be tempted with a 56' guards van)

Why not another project?

Quite a long time ago (last decade) I brought a Trackgang UC-15 tank car as a start on a model of the well known tank train that ran regulaly between Wellington and Palmerston North last century. It has resided in the unmade kits pile untill I spied it a couple of weeks back and brought it out onto the workbench.

While theres really not a lot to it I think what had put me off a bit was mention of drilling holes in aluminium tubes and cutting to exact lenght etc etc. Holding it up to the plan it was 1mm over, so I imediately felt much better about not cutting it. The ends were glued on and sanded to tidy them up. And then we stalled. Not for the normal reasons of lazyness, but to somewhat expand the project. On my list of wagons that I came up with over a decade ago, I've got listed 12 UC15's and 2 Uc 4's. making them in metal is going to take a long time, and also a fair bit of money going to Russels model empire. What are the alternatives? 

At this point everyone would leap forward and cry "why not 3D printing?". Well, I'm not everyone fortunately (or unfortunately, its all a matter of your frame of reference). Being a bit more of an analog kind of modeler I've come at it from another direction.

16mm wooden dowel cut to length with the ends sanded to shape. sides sanded and a coat of paint on. Underframes cut from 2mm plastic to size with areas to grind out so that the wheels don't rub. Theres not a lot to the rest of the model that I can't do though I am going to need some brake cylinder's and ladders. I have a pile of old bogie castings sitting in a box and just need the wheels which are another issue. The bogies are brass castings that take US length axles ~14mm (not the UK 15mm). I look to be stuck with the 36" microtrains metal wheels at 5.5mm diameter (too small). If anyone knows where I can get US 40" wheels "at a reasonable price" I'd love to know.