RMCQ Exhibition

This weekend was the RMCQ Model Railway Exhibition at the South Pine Sports Complex at Brendale.  Once I finished work, I did some painting of ten tea bags that were to be cut into 20 tarpaulins on the weekend.  Later in the afternoon, I got all the items that I was going to need for the weekend and put them near the front door.  On Saturday morning at the appointed time, Geoff picked me up and we went together to the Exhibition.  We were both working on the NMRA Demo Stand in the morning.  The numbers at the show in the morning were brilliant.  It was quite busy.  I might have shouted myself a set of 3 x PCO wagons in 12mm for the layout.  Later in the day when I got home, these wagons made it to the layout and two of them were fitted with a 25’ QR refrigerator container.  I had no more 25’ containers left.  On the Saturday morning I spent some time and cut up and then folded up 40 tarpaulins.  Following that I did some maintenance on a number of HO scale clotheslines.

On the Sunday morning at the exhibition I did the rounds of the shops and no one had any more 25’ QR refrigerated containers.  Apparently they have all sold out.  I will just have to wait for a re-run.  In the afternoon, after Marty was given a cease and desist order from the super, he eventually moved on.  We had plenty of laughs on the Saturday and Sunday at our stand.  Maybe Brad had a hand in some of these funny antics.  When I finally took over the seat at the modelling table, I assembled my two saw horses for my Club modelling entry.  Next my modelling activities turned to cleaning up the two International Acco trucks I got from Oz Kit.  I can feel a whole lot of car/truck modelling coming up in my December-January holidays period, as I have six (6) 4 wheel drives and these two SRA trucks to complete painting.  I also plan to pick up another couple of SAR trucks and a compressor trailer.   I find the hardest thing to do when modelling is picking the colour items that we going to paint the models.  I was sort of looking forward to Platform Printing having a stand at our show, but they were not in attendance.  I was after another set of 10 trackside workmen.  I can easily hide these around my layout in various fettler camps.   If push came to shove, I could probably hide thirty workers.

Number at the show were lower on the Sunday morning, and dwindled away to practically no one on the Sunday afternoon.  There was the odd person coming through the doors but nothing like Saturday morning.  As we were packing up on the Sunday afternoon and I was finally working to my car, I reached into my pocket and found my shopping list for the weekend.  Well I guess I forgot to pick up some bogie screws.  I will just visit Tyson’s shop next Saturday morning.

I think beyond doubt, this show is definitely the number 2 show in Brisbane.  Thanks to all those involved.  It was great.

So now I have just one weekend left to complete the models for my RMCQ Christmas Modelling competition entry.    I am looking forward to seeing all the entries in the competition.

Trawmay Trip

This week was another week of inaction by me.  While I spent Saturday at the local NMRA meeting no other model railway activity was undertaken, except doing a bit of reading.  I purchased the current issue of Railway Digest on Monday.  My issue of AMRM also rocked up later in the week and that magazine takes over in the order of precedence of reading.  Both issues are halfway through being read. 

Yesterday the local NMRA group had arranged for a visit to two local north side layouts.  Darren picked me up and drove me around.  Both layouts were very different and were a credit to their builders.  We spent an hour at each layout watching the trains run and asking questions.  There might have been a bit of stirring of me also occurring.  Once we had visited both layouts, we all met up at the Brisbane Tramway Museum for a BBQ lunch.  It just so happens that trams are not currently running due to a transformer issue.  But we were able to have a private tour of the site.  It was quite interesting and very informative.

Next weekend is the RMCQ Model Railway Exhibition at the South Pine Sports Complex, Cribb Road, Brendale 9-4 both days.  On The Saturday morning I will be working with Geoff on the NMRA stand doing construction.  I will also be working with Marty on the Sunday afternoon.  Pop by and say G’day.

Hopefully next week I can get back into the groove and do some work on my model competition entry for three weeks time.

More Planning than Doing

Saturday this week was Club meeting day.  I had three jobs to do.  The first was to visit the local hobby shop on my way to the Club and pick up some steel or brass structured shape or wire for use in my diorama.  I ended up getting the wire, as the shapes were way too big.  The second job was to drop off a number of magazines to the Club and these were to be inserted into a number of goodie bags to be given out to people at the door at our Club Exhibition in a few weeks time.  So I packed the car the night before and when I got to the Club I just brought them inside and stored them on one of the tables.

The third job was to drop off a bag full of goodies into the Club wheel barrow.  These goodies get built up into about a half dozen hampers for raffle prizes at our Club Christmas Party in December.  That also happens to be our Club Modelling competition.  However, I left that shopping bag in the kitchen at home.  Bugger!  The wheel barrow is looking a bit slack and it does need a helping hand.  Now, I will need to drop my stuff off in a couple of weeks, when I am next over that side of town.  That is the date of our Club Exhibition.  I will drop by to the Clubrooms on the way to the Show.

Today I hit the road and went to visit the Miniature Train Club Gold Coast, and their new clubrooms down at Pimpama.  It is quite easy to get to, just a few hundred metres off the M1.  I got there about 11:00am, parked outside and I worked out what building they were in.  The crowd was really good.  I understand that they also signed up a few new members on the day.  Three layouts were operating, and another was a static display, as they had not yet got it running after a long time in storage.  They also had two TVs rolling through various photos showing their progress in lining the Clubrooms.  That was a great effort by the Club in finally achieving their own premises.

When I got home I started working on a few more items to add to my diorama for the Club Christmas Modelling Comp.  I will continue to glue some items together tonight or tomorrow night.  Then I can move onto the next lot of items, next weekend.

On Friday I was waiting to get my delivery of the latest AMRM magazine.  They did not appear in the mailbox.  I then went for a 2.5km walk to a local newsagent, and they did not have the November Railway Digest.  The kind staff members advised that it is due in on Monday.  Luckily when I went to the Club on Saturday PK gave me his hardcopy NMRA magazine for November.  Without that magazine I'd have nothing to read this weekend.  I expect that I might have it finished being read on Tuesday evening.

Achievements

Well this last week has seen a few milestones achieved.  This is blog post number 850.

The daughter finished her last Uni assignment on Wednesday evening this week, and we now wait to hear her marks, as she hopefully has completed her Law Degree.  She still has her part time job to keep herself busy until mid December, then a well earned holiday break, and then she starts her first fulltime employment in about January or February next year.  That was quite an achievement.

Also last Friday week I submitted my AP paperwork for Master Builder – Cars.  This was for my 7^th AP across the 4 disciplines.  On Monday night I heard that my paperwork was approved and I gained that AP certificate.  I also saw that I was approved as the next NMRA MMR in the region.  So that is the end of a short 4 year, 1 month and about 1 week period of activity in completing a number of components (wagons, structures and track), supporting information and the various paperwork for my various APs.

I assume, it will be a few months before I will get officially presented with my next AP certificate and the subsequent MMR paperwork, as there are no real meetings scheduled until January next year.  But it is small load off my shoulders.  I always said that I wanted to complete my last AP before I retired.  I was thinking of taking Long Service leave next year, so I guess I made that goal.  So my goal now is to light a fire under the backsides of a few mates in order to push them further along their AP paths. 

Today we had our Club’s Buy and Sell and towards the end it got a pretty wet.  That forced a bit of an early end to proceedings, with the public and sellers all scattering.  I sold a few items and I also purchased a couple of things.  I did alright out of the day.  I was able to pay off a few debts and now I need to start working on that ‘To Do List’ of activities for December.