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This weekend was very slow with most of the time spent in
front of the TV watching the V8s. I did get to the shed for about 15
minutes on the Saturday and I inspected the 5 wagons I sprayed with Frosted
Glass last weekend, and turned them around and sprayed the other side using the
same technique as the week before. The two Banana wagons were put back
into their siding at Lismore and the other three Limestone wagons were left to
dry in Acacia Ridge Yard. So that was it. I could not get motivated to do anything else.
I have been tossing up how I was going to build a model of
the gantry crane that existed in the breakdown sidings at Casino. Datasheet
G5 has the crane that existed at Kyogle and I have built this one. I don't think there is a datasheet that covers the crane at Casino. The
Casino crane looks like a must heavier looking beast, as it was not for lift loads, but probably locos while bogies might have been replaced. I have seen one photo of the crane in the Breakdown sidings on one of the Facebook groups but that does not allow me to work out the
height and footprint, and the sizes of the various girders that I need to build a model.
So if anyone has any photos, I’d be happy to receive a copy, or if they have a
plan of that crane, you would be a lifesaver.
It just so happened that on Tuesday this week while I was
going through my email at home, I clicked on my blog and I noticed the
interesting number of hits. It was 444,444. So I had to take a
screen shot and keep it for prosperity.
Tuesday Night this week we are going to Cliff’s.
We visited Shelton’s place on Tuesday this week. He
had some minor track realignments in his layover tracks or staging area. He
has two tracks where I thought there was once 3, but I think he can install four tracks in the
area. This would allow him to have a few more trains just sitting there
that can enter and leave the layout to run past. It will also give him more variety as
he does a lot of breaking up and reassembly in his various sidings.
On Saturday the NMRA division 1 group went to a local
business that was run by one of the members (Gary) and more than 30 people turned
up. We also had someone from Bundaberg live stream in, along with a group
of people from Lismore. So we used technology to allow people who could
not travel to us to also attend the meeting. We had Gary run us through
some of his fantastic machinery.
There were other presentations during the day, I did one on building loads
in particular the rail loads for my rail carrying AKFX wagons, but I also showed off
a couple of steel carrying wagons in NSW NOBX wagons and some QR HWO
wagons. The reason was to show members how simple it is to add a load to a wagon. In my session, I showed some rail stacks for my AKFX wagons in
varying states of completion. I had 4 lots of rail all painted and
completed. Another was completed but not painted and two more were just
frames, with the central rail and the two outer rails in place. On one of
these frames I installed 6 more lengths of rail on one side of the frame to give an
example of how I do that work. I then painted the unpainted completed rail stack and
that took all of about 30 seconds. We had a presentation on making conifers by using the twisted wire and hemp method using some ready made tool. The outcome was quite realistic. My issue is there are not many of those types if trees around the area I model, so I can't make many. They are certainly a north American tree. Gary then gave a very interesting
presentation on weathering with paints and pigments and he also has a
collection of chalks and pencils. The couple of wagons that he did do
some work on turned out very nice indeed. I also spent about 3 minutes at
the very end, giving a demonstration of the Frosted Glass spray can just giving
a dull coat to four pristine wagons. To me every wagon needs to be
weathered somehow and nothing should be presented on a layout in pristine format
straight out of the box. It needs some form of enhancement.
Today I spent a small amount of time at the modelling desk. I added the 6 other lengths of pseudo rail to the half
completed rail stack that I started at yesterday's modelling clinic, and then completed the second frame. I then painted
both of these and I just need some 4” x 4” dunnage to separate the rail stacks in my wagons.
As my can of Frosted Glass had run out I visited Bunnings
and picked up a new can. The old one had lasted a couple of years so I
can do a lot more work on some wagons my wagons in the coming weeks. But I could not wait and once I got home I gave about another 10 wagons a bit of a dust up with Frosted Glass.
I had plans this weekend to continue work on my QR HO wagon,
but nothing has been done as yet. Yesterday I went to the Club and showed
off the progress on that wagon and my three AKFX/Y wagons, and my rail
loads. Again I get the question about what size rail did I use. The
answer continues to be none - it is styrene. I also had on display two QR
HWO wagons which I had painted/weathered the inside of the open wagon.
While at the Club, I was able to score two pair of 2CN bogies from B2.
Thanks mate. These will be used for my next two standard gauge scratch
built wagons - whatever they turn out to be. I also had to do some
maintenance on a kit wagon (after sales service) that I had assembled and sold
at a previous Buy and Sell. One bogie on one of the three wagons kept
coming off. So I drilled a deeper hole for the screw and re-screwed the
bogie and all was good. I was also given four lengths of code 80 N scale
flex track, which I will get around to cutting up to the same lengths as my
AKFX/Y wagons rail loads. So hopefully I will get around to building two
real rail loads for these wagons and paint them and see how they look.
I was having discussions that the Club should arrange a day
where members could bring a few wagons along and we could give their wagons a
light weather. I just hate pristine wagons that many of the ‘Plonkers’ in
the Club run. To me it just shows off, who has the biggest bank balance
and doesn’t care about modelling skills – either learning or
demonstrating. There are a number of guys in the Club, who over the years
have ably demonstrated that they can handle a spray gun to either dust up a
wagon, paint the sides of the rails or dirty a loco grill. Hopefully we
will get a few of these guys together and set up a production line for members
to bring one or 10 wagons and members can watch and learn. Then we can get rid of the
illusion of club full of ‘Plonkers’. Maybe we can do it before the upcoming May Exhibition in Brisbane? The Club’s new exhibition HO/ HOn
layout is starting to come along quite nicely. I think it might make its
debut in Bundaberg in a few weeks, but I think it will also be going to the
Brisbane May Show. I might have to nick away from my Structure Building Stand at
the Brisbane Show and put a train of scratch built and weathered QR wagons on a
track and give them a lap or two around the layout.
Anyway today I sat in front of the TV and watched the
cricket from Melbourne on TV and did some modelling. Today’s task was to
build a rail load for B2 and PK’s N scale wagons. So I built two N scale
rail loads, but only got around to painting one. I also decided
to paint the insides of three QR open wagons that got missed when I built and
painted them a while back. The 'white styrene look', just looks bad on a
nice scale wagon. So these were quickly painted with a quick spray of
grey primer and returned to their current location on the layout. I will go through my open wagon sin the near future and weather the insides of more open wagons. I guess I should practice what I preach.
I also got my paints ready and tools ready for next weekends
modelling day for the NMRA meeting.
But as of now, I still have not done any more work on my QR
scratch built HO wagon. I will see what juices flow tonight, when the
family watches that TV show – I’m a crap dancer or something like that.
Tuesday night this week is up the road at Shelton’s, so it
will be good to catch up with the crew again and see what they have all been up to.
This weekend was a long weekend for me. The week started with a long weekend as well. I left early
on Thursday for some medical appointments and then on Friday, the whole electrical switchboard for the house was ripped out and was rewired. So basically I had no power, light, fans or
airconditioning for most of the day. So the boss was not silly. She and the daughter went to the local shops for a few hours in the airconditioning while I minded the sparkies and sweated like a pig. So that was day spent sitting around
reading train magazines.
On Saturday I went around some hobby shops to check out what was happening and
picked up some styrene strip. Today I started putting that styrene to good
use. I built another rail load for my AKFX/Y wagons. I also started
the frames of two more rail racks. In two week’s time the local NMRA
group will be having a modelling demonstration day at a local business’s workshop (just around the corner from me) and I will be putting together some rail loads and painting them up on the day. So everything is already
prepared to rock up on that day, and give the demonstration.
Yesterday I also started putting together the first draft of the
itinerary for Numbnut's, Dazza's and Scooter's awesome road trip to the NMRA convention in Sydney in June. I will
do some more work on it next week and then send it around for comment.
Feeling bored this afternoon, I started looking at some of the great plans Arthur provided for me last week. I am looking at building a QR HO wagon (or two or more) out of styrene. I found some styrene that I had sitting around, that had the approximate profile of the wagon sides and ends. I have since built up the box for the open wagon, and now need to add some external detail and the underframe detail. I just don't have any wheels to add to the wagon. Once this is complete, I think I will try and build up a HOE wagon, which is a HO without the two pairs of side doors each side. You must crawl before you can run.
