2013 RMCQ Modelling Competition and Christmas Party

Yesterday was the date of the Annual RMCQ Modelling Competition and Christmas Party at the Clubrooms.  We had a great turn out of members, and a great range of diverse models.  We also had quite a few donations of goods for the various Christmas Hampers.

From about 1:00pm I was talking with a subset of our HO members about the new HO Clubroom layout.  We were discussing some of the electrical items on the agenda.  I tendered a schematic for the location of the UTP's on the layout along with suggested input points for 12V feeds to the cab bus.  This was followed by a suggestion for the location of the five power districts on the bottom deck.  Then we discussed where we would locate the Command Station and the EB1's which we will use for the circuit breakers for each power district and also the potential location for the Booster.  One of our resident electricians advised he would start looking into providing power circuits under the layout from our existing wall power points.

After our usual 2:00pm Club meeting which was quite quick this month, The members started to vote on the various popular categories in the modelling and photo comps.  So here is a selection of photos of some of the various entries in the Club Modelling Competition in the various categories:-

This is a scratch built crane that looked very nice indeed.

The concrete batching plant that I think took out one of the awards.

 

This duo of models were not in the competition but were by the prolific expert modeller Jim Hutchinson.  On the left is a QR signal cabin based on the one at Dalby in south western Queensland.  The one on the right is a model of the Glenapp Signal Box on the Uniform gauge line south of Brisbane.  This just happens to be a crossing loop on my layout.  I know where that model will be going.

This entry was a bitbash activity following the instructions from the various AMRM articles last year and this year of one of the Sleeper carriages based on a Lima coach.  See, some people do build models from these articles.

This small N scale diorama was an entry in the modelling competition and was very nice.

This was another entry.  A small N scale layout with a train that was doing loops.  There was some very fine detail on this layout.  It just proves that you do not need too much room to have a working layout.

Following the Modelling competition, we had the Christmas Hamper draw.  This year I think we ended up with about 7 separate hampers.  We then had a couple of re-draws as one hamper contained a slab of XXXX Gold and the winner was not a beer drinker.  So it was redrawn.  This was followed by a separate 6 pack of XXXX Gold.  Unfortunately I did not win anything this year.

Before the meeting, Jim Hutchinson provided me with 20 Bulletin Magazines and 30 Australian Railway History Magazines.  These were mostly from the 1990/91 period with some from 2012/13.  I read through all of them last night.  I was able to glean a good amount of information from these magazines that covered Cassino and a number of crossing loops within my area of modelling.  Some of these facts will be used when I redraw my timetable sometime next year as I now have details of some of the XPT time trials through Cassino back in 1990.  Most of these will end up in my magazine library.  This way I can run both Brisbane Limited and XPT trains at the same time.

Today my only activity was to go to the shed and re-install my Bridge across the Richmond River as it was also entered into the Club Modelling Competition yesterday.  I am having too much fun watching the Poms get flogged in the Cricket.  I'm tipping a whitewash for the series!