The New Train Room

After months of the usual stress and bother involved in buying a house, we finally got the keys and have begun to move in. As much as I'm looking forward to beginning the layout, the list of things to do on the house is already growing at an alarming rate! So any progress will no doubt be slow or non existent for now. But at least I know there is a space ready and waiting when the time comes. In any case I thought I'd share a few pics of the new train room, a seven metre x seven metre (inside the framework dimensions) double garage. This will be where the layout will begin to be constructed, hopefully not too far into the future.

I'm hoping that over the next few weeks we wil get all types of weather so that I can see how the temperature varies in the garage, as well as finding out if there are any leaks. It all looks very dry inside and I can see no signs of water damage on either the framework or walls so fingers crossed it's all in good shape.

The first priorities will probably be to install some more power points, and then have a really good think about lining the walls. I'm hoping I can get away with not having to line them, but if it looks like it is necessary long term it would be silly not to do it.

Track Plan Changes - Already!

One of the great things about not being able to rush in and begin this proposed layout, is the opportunity to spend plenty of time looking and thinking about the whole concept.

Initially I was happy with track plans I have already preesented, with Hawkesbury River Station on the lower deck directly beneath Gunnedah and having a short run up the Cowan Bank to what would end in a staging yard/Hornsby. However after having a bit of a think about how it would all opperate I've had a change of mind.

Hawkesbury River station and yard have now been moved to beneath the run twards Gunnedah along the left wall, with the Cowan Bank part now being much longer, running underneath Gunnedah, around and out into the peninsula and then having Cowan station and the Up Refuge modelled instead of a bigger staging yard. This will allow a much longer run up the Cowan Bank which will make the banking of trains seem much more realistic due to the length of the run.

The other positive is that with the Hawkesbury River no longer underneath Gunnedah, opperators of Gunnedah Yard and Hawkesbury will not be sharing the same space. Likewise people shunting the stock sidings on the top deck will not interfere with the lower deck opperation as that area will merely be a run up the Cowan Bank with no sidings to worry about shunting.

The only downside of a longer Cowan Bank section is the need for an awful lot of gum trees!

Gunnedah and Beyond - The Track Plan Continued

Following on from the last post where the basic upper deck track plan was shown, here is a basic drawing of the bottom deck track plan.

After leaving the top deck and heading down the helix, the single main line will come out on the bottom deck and head into what will be basically a staging yard, that is a mixture of Hornsby and simply an area Beyond Gunnedah. A turntable will definitely be part of this yard, the exact location and layout I have not yet decided.

In this way trains that went through Gunnedah and beyond the upper deck heading towards Emerald Hill or Narrabri can have the engine and brake van swap ends in the yard and run back up the helix for a return trip through Gunnedah picking up and dropping off wagons as they pass the various industries.

This lower yard will also represent Hornsby so certain trains will start here and run north towards Gosford. They will go down the Cowan Bank where I will definitely model the disused No. 5 Boronio Tunnel and possibly one of the other tunnels for atmosphere.

Next they will run through Hawkesbury River Station, which also has a pair of sidings and in the steam days was the site of a coal stage, and another siding on the west side of the station where bank engines awaited duty. I found a track plan of Hawkesbury River circa 1959 which I have scaled into place on my drawing.

After leaving this area trains may go through a tunnel representing the Long Island tunnel and will then come out the other side and head into what will be a yard representing Gosford / Beyond Gunnedah.

If another helix is built, this staging area would represent trains coming from Werris Creek once they go up the helix to the top deck. Also as mentioned in my previous post having this helix would allow non stop running around the whole layout, and different coal trains could be run as a full and empty as they could go empty clockwise (down trains) through Gunndeah and full anticlockwise thrugh Gunnedah (up trains).

There may have to be some modelers licence used in as far as time periods go as I'd like to have the ovehead electric wires (or at least the frames that hold them up) representing the post 1960 period, but I'm not sure when the coal stage and banking steam engine siding was removed? In any case this is a case where it's my layout and I want t model the things that I find interesting and if it clashes slightly with reality so be it.

Having this section electrified will allow me to run 46 Class electrics and possibly the early stainless single deck interurban passenger trains if and when they are ever released.

Another possibility is having the 46 Class haul the W44 Concentrate train from Hornsby to Gosford where a Garratt would take over and haul it up the second helix towards Werris Creek. In this way even though the W44 never ran through Gunnedah, the top deck could be used simply to run it back around to the Hornsby yard where the 46 would once again take over.

So whilst everything will not be completely prototypical, there is flexibility there to have some interesting operation and run a good variety of trains.

Gunnedah and Beyond - The Track Plan

It's been too long since I last updated this blog, but I haven't been completely idle.

All going to plan (when does that happen?) there's a good possibility that soon I may have a 7.2m x 7.2m shed to house a layout. It will have to share space with at least one of my cars, but that shouldn't bee too much of a problem.

I've come up with something that is probably a little bit ambitious, but by the same token I'm a big believer in taking a big bite and chewing like heck.

The plan shown here would be the top level of a two level layout, with the top level featuring Gunnedah yard. The benchwork looks to be around 750mm wide, and mainline curves will genrally be around 750mm radius as a minimum.

Along the left hand side a single line approaches Gunnedah, with two oil sidings on the outskirts, BP and Vacuum. These sidings would be serviced by either up or down trains, with some tankers being taken out from Gunnedah yard. I haven't decided exactly what will be located leading up to the oil sidings yet, as there are a few things to work out, more on that further down.

Trains will then take a 90 degree curve run into Gunnedah yard. Wheat trains will drop hoppers off to be shunted into the wheat siding, there are two mills which will need hoppers shunted in and out of, there is a goods shed, two oil sidings and two loco storage roads off the end of the wheat siding. So there is considerable opportunity for operation within Gunnedah yard itself.

Leaving Gunnedah yard the track once again curves through 180 degrees to the right where the stock yard is located. Stock trains made a big portion of rail traffic through Gunnedah.

Leaving the stock yards the track curves back through 180 degrees and heads back to the right, where the sidings for the Section Silo and Amoco oil siding branch off. The Section Silo is one of those big roughly circular silos made up of multiple circular bins.

The single main line then curves back to the right and past the silo, where another oil siding is located, Ampol this time. The multiple oil sidings will also allow for a good deal of operation.

Heading past the Ampol siding the track again curved to the right and runs along to where the meatworks siding is. Once again this will allow more operational work.

From there the track splits into two lines, with the inside track simply forming a return loop which will allow trains to head back towards Gunnedah.

The outer track will run down a grade around the outside and enter a tunnel which will take it into the helix that will take trains down to the lower deck.

I haven't drawn the lower deck in any real detail yet, but basically under the meatworks and section silo will be a very rough representation of Hornsby, which will in fact be more of a staging yard with a turntable. It may seem weird going from the outskirts of Gunnedah then into Hornsby but there is a method in my madness which I will explain later.

Underneath the extension between the section silo and the stock yards will be a brief representation of Cowan Bank that will actually feature a decent grade.

Curving back around underneath where the western end of Gunnedah yard is will be Hawkesbury River station, with the goods sidings located underneath Gunnedah yard.

Coming back around underneath where the Vacuum and BP sidings are will be a basic representation of Gosford, mainly to allow for more staging track and another turntable.

I'm not completely sure how I am going to get from the lower deck back up to the upper deck at this part of the layout. I can't fit a helix as it will block the entrance to the garage for the car. Although I have tossed up the idea of building a portable helix, maybe using castor wheels or something so it can be wheeled into place! That will need some more thought.

The reason for the lower deck representing Hornsby to Gosford is it will allow me to run electric power, so 46's will have somewhere to run, I can run a Newcastle Flyer HUB set behind a 38, and it also allows for trains leaving the outskirts of Gunnedah to enter Hornsby yard, have the brake van re-marshalled to the other end and then run back up the helix and back through Gunnedah dropping off or picking up wagons from the various sidings.

So the lower deck kind of works as both a Short North section, and twin staging yards. The main trains that would use this would be coal trains which I can run empty out through Gunnedah, past the outer reaches of the top deck and down the helix, and full trains can run in the opposite direction, coming from the "Hornsby" yard and up the helix and then back through Gunnedah. Empty trains would continue down the Cowan Bank and around to Gosford where they would then make their way back up to the top deck. This way empties and fulls look right going through Gunnedah and simply run in opposite directions.

Of course this is all still speculation and armchairing, but in principal it fulfills what I want to cover and should allow for some interesting operation.

Hand Laid Points

One ofthe things I always admired when I was in my teens back in the mid 80's, was people who hand laid their track and points. The finished product always looked so much nicer than Peco Code 100 track that I had at the time.

So when I got back into my model trains earlier this year after about twenty years of them being packed away in in a box and my four metre x two metre layout long gone, I decided that for my next layout I would like to not only use finer scale track, but to also give building my own points a go.

Initially I was going to use the Fast Track template from the US as it looked like a very easy way to build points, but then after some discussion it was pointed out that the sleeper layout did not match the NSWGR points we use.

Luckily someone was kind enough to supply me with a scale drawing of a set of NSWGR points with the sleeper layout clearly shown, and I used this in conjunction with the Fast Track No.6 point diagram to morph the two drawings together in Photoshop, so I had the HO scale rail layout and the proper sleeper pattern. Several sets were printed out in both right and left hand versions.

I bought a few lengths of Peco Code 75 Flex Track as this would be what I was going to use for the layout, and stripped a length of its rail as I couldn't find anywhere locally who sold the rail seperately.

I bought a length of balsa wood that was the same thickness as the Peco sleepers, or should I say located the rail bottom at the same height as the Peco flex track, and made a simple jig that allowed me to cut the sleepers to width quickly and accurately, after a strip of balsa was cut to match the varios sleeper lengths. I think I've cut out about one thousand balsa sleepers out so far! I used a multi compartment fishing tackle box to store all the seperate length sleepers in, with each little compartment marked with the sleeper length that matches the point drawing. This makes it very easy to grab the correct amount of sleepers in the right length to make a set of points.

Once again in my haste to begin, I couldn't find any good track gauges locally, so after looking through the nut and bolt drawers, I found a set of slotted bolts that were a nice tight sliding fit over the Peco rail head. So I cut out a piece of MDF, drilled some holes, put the bolts through so they sat snugly on the flex track and tightened the nuts top and bottom. It looks and sounds crude, but it worked fine. I've since bought a couple of sets of brass roller gauges which look much nicer, and to my relief slid over my MDF and Bolt gauged track perfectly. So once again don't be afraid to use what you have and a bit of initiative to get the job done if you can't get the glamour tools at the time.

So armed with a Dick Smith soldering station, some Clover House PCB Sleepers from the Model Railroad Craftsman (http://www.mrrc.com.au), MDF track gauge, balsa sleepers and point drawing I began.

I used a tiny dab of PVA glue to glue to PCB sleepers to the drawing in their correct position. Once dry I began soldering the track to it, straight stock rail first. With a set of files I shaped the rail to make the frog and soldered it in place, and gradually filed and laid the rest of the track.

Once it was all soldered in place I checked over it with the gauge, and then ran a set of AR Kits bogies with RP25 profile wheels back and forth through it. They rolled very freely in all directions, suffered no wheel drop through the frog area, and for my first attempt and not only building points but soldering as well, I was very happy.

I individually stained the balsa sleepers using my cheap $2 shop water paints in various shades of grey. I used some clear sticky tape attached the to drawing sticky side up, and then placed the balso sleepers in their positions. A smear of super glue wa splaced on the bottom of the rail and the points were lowered into position on the balsa sleepers. I placed a heavy dead fat weight on top while the glue set. After an hour or so the points were pulled fron the sticky tape and I sat back and admired my creation!

There were a couple of small things I wasn't totally happy with, purely from an asthetic point of view, and rather than go to the trouble of modifying this first set, I thought I'd paint the rails and use it as part of a small diorama which which I could photograph models on.

Having built the first set, I've learnt a lot, and figured out some better methods for some of the steps, and I think the next set I build will not only be easier but of an even higher quality. It certainly proves that you never know what you are capable of until you give it a go.

Brake Vans - You Can't Have Too Many!

The long term goal for the layout is to be able to replicate the prototype NSWGR train movements through Gunnedah. This will mean multiple goods trains consisting of bulk wheat and coal, as well as livestock and mixed goods consists.

As the era I am modelling required each train to have a brake (or guards) van, one will be needed for each consist of wagons and hoppers. I figure a bare minimum of around eight to ten will be needed to fulfil this task.

Trainorama have produced some beautiful NSWGR brake vans, but I was able to get a set of four Hanovale Model Castings produced NSWGR GHG brake van kits for a very reasonable price, and have begun building one of them.

These are quite a nicely detailed kit, and with some added detail hopefully will not be too far below the good looking RTR Trainorama units, one of which I have and plan on buying a few more.

Like always, as I was about half way through building the first GHG, I noticed that the roof casting does not have the strapping across the roof of the prototype or the Trainorama GHG models. I pondered whether this would be all that noticeable, but then decided that if I didn't try to replicate it I would regret it later.

The strapping is only about 1mm wide and about 0.1mm high in model form, so I would need some very fine material to make the straps from. As luck would have it, only a few weeks prior I had bought from the local News Agency a roll of very thin completely clear acrylic/plastic sheet as I thought it may come in handy for making window glass from. Running the vernier calipers across it, it measured about 0.1mm thick, perfect for my intended use.

It was easy enought to cut a 1mm strip of it, cutting in the same direction as it is rolled so it will naturally want to follow the curved roof profile. I made a template showing the location of the straps which I taped to the side of the Brake Van to give me the locations.

Wit a few tiny dabs of super glue, it was pulled tightly across the roof, and once the glue set the ends where trimmed fluch with the gutter. Once all strips were done, another light coat of primer was sprayed over the top, and the result was in my opionion very worthwhile.

Tarped Coal Hoppers for Wheat Traffic

On of the common sights on the NSWGR back in the 60's was the use of coal hoppers for wheat traffic during bumper crops.

This adds some visual variety to the look of a bulk wheat train, having a few tarped wagons amongst the normally covered roof wheat hoppers.

This is a feature that I definitely want to reflect so I have had a go at making some tarps to go over a couple of Trainorama HCH Hoppers.

I've heard of some people using aluminium foil to make their tarps, and some using tissue or paper to make them, so I thought I'd try to combine the two and see how it worked.

My reasoning for using both is that the aluminum foil gives the tarp some strength and the ability to be molded and hold its shape, while the single layer of tissue paper would give it the texture it needs, as well as readily accepting paint.

I took a sheet of normal cheap aluminium foil, and using a wide artists brush thinly spread on it a diluted mixture of PVA glue, and then layed a single layer of tissue over it and allowed this to dry overnight.

Using some cheap water colours bought at the $2 shop I mixed up a watery mix of grey/brown and using a little bit at a time gradually built up the colour of the tarp using slightly different shades to break up the uniform monocolour look.

Once dry the tarps were cut to the correct dimensions, bent into shape to represent how it would look with a ridge pole beneath it and placed in on top of the hopper to see how it looked. Normally two tarps would be used with each one wrapping around the ends of the hopper, so the picture is an illustration of the texture and colour of the tarp only, not the completed look of the model.

It's possibly a little too dark overall, however I have seen some pictures of very weathered and darkened tarps, especially on wagons pulled behind steam engines. Overall though I'm quite happy with the texture and general look of the tarps, and now have to figure out how to add the tie down rings to the hopper and add ropes holding the tarp down.