Just a quicky...

This is a little diorama I've started to get my eye in with scenery,  roadside furniture and to form the appearance of 'broad gauge' trackwork courtesy modified Peco Code 75 flextrack. The sleeper spacings will be altered to match prototype, the lengths trimmed also to give the appearance of sightly laterally-staggered sleepers, with the odd skewed one thrown in to represent SAR secondary mainline.

As usual, more to follow soon!

Another Few Days Past, Another Update

Hello Again Viewers! 

 

 Ah... an ever-growing army of the un-dead...

(A Simpsons quote, please don't be offended!)

Now at the point that I have a Holy Trinity of followers, I'd like to point out that I am merely a beginner in the modeling game... and blogging for that matter. I have built a handful of BGB kits and other models in the past, with varying degrees of success, but I have a long way to go. And that was a loooong time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

And a shout out to fellow bloggers and consummate artistes Shane McCormack and Pete Michalak (of "Liralau" and now "Bridgewater" fame and prolific builder of locomotives and everything). Please do yourself a favour click on their names to checkout their blogs and works in progress. Pete seems to build models in his sleep and Shane has taken to winding the clock forward on his rollingstock. I am extremely envious of their talents!

The Ozrail 900s

Right, the Ozrail 900s. 909's mech/chassis has been returned to Chris Fretwell at Ozrail Model Trains, who has kindly offered to repair it. Ozrail's customer service - or more importantly after sales service - is second to none. 900 is getting a hatchet job done on it as I want to improve the detail with Model Etch Products grilles/mesh, glass (Krystal Clear) and replace that headlight, super detail and weather it.

900 "Lady Norrie" suffered violent damage to its nose after she 'fell' from my mantle piece courtesy of my ginger kitten "Jones"... Below is a photo of the loco with its nose reattached and factory glass removed. Keep the faith my loyal followers as wonderful things will be happening to this loco... as long as my skills aren't outweighed by my ambition.

WARNING: The following images may be deemed too shocking for some of our audience. Viewer discretion is advised.

 The workshop the other day...

 

900's Nose Job

 

SAR English Electric Shunter no. 500

 My Ozrail SAR 500 (no. 500) will be headed that way too for a new board (replacement, free of charge) and if the Cash Gods are smiling I might follow Pete's lead and get DCC and sound installed.

706

Another update of yet another project I've started - I am making up for lost time - and this time it's my sole Austrains 700 class no. 706 which has come in for scrutiny. I purchased some bits from the very helpful Ian at Ian Lindsay Models namely 442 bogie sideframes and 442/700 Kadee adapter/coupler pockets. The ILM 442 bogie sideframes unfortunately aren't much use to me to represent the 700 bogies, so I'll have to sell those on, but the coupler pockets are perfect. Some filing of the pilots and the pockets was required to make them a snug fits and to ensure the Kadee's met the height gauge. As you can see from the photos, I have sliced off most of the moulded hoses with a scalpel. I'll take the pipes off too and add some thin styrene to replace the half-relief detail on the pilot a la the amazing Justin Moy's work on his 442's...

The Ian Lindsay Models parts

706's pilot with the pocket installed and

moulded hoses removed

 

The pilot drilled for hoses, Kadee #153's fitted and

buffer holes filled

 

My plans for this loco are numerous but achievable. These include replacing the bogiew brake cylinders with cast items, fitting some brass rodding to represent the brake lines and sand pipes, fabricate the coupler release bars, add cast air and MU hoses and pipework on the pilot, add sun shades in the cab, fit the correct horn type, add marker lights, add better fletner vents and MU sockets, drill out the exhaust and fade and weather as per the prototype although I haven't decided for which timeframe.

When funds permit I'll buy a couple of more to convert. One in ANR livery, one in Mustard Pot and another for conversion to 701 in GWA livery... no wait, that's three more! Damn this hobby.... :)

FIN

Well, that's enough rambling for now. Plenty on clickys to click on and I'll try to add some links on the blog main page for my favourite retailers and blogs.

Cheers,

Joshua

Port Pirie, the East-West and the retirement of 909... for now. Oh and Pac Nat S307.

Well, so much (HO scale) activity of late!

Nothing profound, just a few bits and pieces and a bit of a road trip to Port Pirie to run some stuff on the SARMA layout that is open for public viewing, housed within the confines of the disused railway station adjacent the old yards. Whilst the trip was worthwhile there were a few issues around the operation of some of my most expensive items (not the 750, I didn't take that with me).

My Trainbuilder East-West set was brought out its boxes for its first 'mainline' run, with mixed results. The consist was made up of a BD, the Cafe car, 2 ADs and a CD. However, none of my locos could pull the consist. At all! Granted the bends were tight-ish and this was on a grade but the coaches required some decent effort just to drag along by hand. Anyway, in the end a single AD and CD were left as I slowly deducted the other coaches as either there was too much weight or they consistently derailed.

Bogie swing is one of the issues I think will be resolved very easily. Spacers or washers, between the bogie and chassis, may even solve the issue in one go. But a bigger issue and arguably more critical is the bearing, or lack of, for the axles in the bogies. The wheels simply do not spin when there is weight on them and these cars are heavy! More about this when I attempt fixes on them.

Now for the 'tragedy' and I can only blame myself for being a softy. A young girl wanted to 'have a drive' of my Ozrail 909 that was doing laps of he layout hauling a short mixed that included the BD and CD. 909 was coping with this short train, just, but only if you kept the throttle/volts low. So I showed the little girl and her father how to operate the throttle and then Shane appears with my lunch. Off I go outside to enjoy the sunshine and have a chat, forgetting there's a very young girl piloting ~$1,500 worth of model trains.............

....I come back inside to check on thing only to be told 909 has ceased functioning. Full open throttle and continous slipping on the grade = melted gearbox parts and driveshafts.

Yay. :(

I dismantled 909s sister number 900 "Lady Norrie" the night before to begin a rebuild to get the Ozrail models looking 'better'. The cursing must have been heard by the model train gods and I was punished accordingly. Damn.

A top view of the Ozrail 900 mech

 I'm new to the blog scene and I don't understand why it uploaded these as portrait images. Anyway you'll have to bare with me. The following two photos are of the gearbox tower and the driveshaft that has come adrift... if you look carefully you might see the dislodged shaft poking out of the chassis weight...

I'll provide more info on the repairs as I do them.

Now, on a lighter not here is a modified Lima S class that I acquired from the very talented Nathan Peters. It's a dummy, thankfully, and little more work is required to get it up to speed (it'll be 'in the shafts' for most of its life behind NRs/ANs/DLs and when they appear, 93s. Although it was supplied with kadee no. 5s they needed to be fitted. I use scale-head no. 153 or 158s on my locos. Some styrene packing at the rear to suit Piece of cake. Done, done. I want to fit steps on the leading bogies, some additional hoses, sun shades and of course judicious weathering... but not graffiti!

The standard Lima axles were still present and they won't cope with anything less than code 100 so I whacked in some Powerline 'traction tyre-less' axles. A bit too much sideways slop so I had to glue some styrene strips to limit the free play. I reckon these will last about a minute when I get it on a layout...

Until next time... ciao!