Ipswich Show outing on Sunday

I didn't get up to any modelling this weekend, however I was able to take the family and my Dad out to the Queensland Model Railway Show at The Workshops Rail Museum at North Ipswich on Sunday. The weather was great and the displays pretty good. I have seen a few before but I can't recall seeing 'Coorparoo' before. Very good. Some photos of 'Coorparoo' and others of interest below. I also saw a few RMCQ members out there with their personal exhibitions. Bob with Dagabar and Ian with Cherry Blossum (something or other! - sorry Ian). Dallas was out there helping Ian. RMCQ didn't get out there this year. Dad was very interested in the models but was more interested in the museum's collection. It brought back some interesting memories! I have also been keeping an eye on some Ebay listings but unfortunately I was beaten in the bidding. Damn response times! Well maybe this week I will be able to continue with the upgrade of the Class 422 to DCC. Time will tell!

Coorparoo






Wygani





Dagabar




Who's Who?

NSWGR Class 422 upgrade

Tonight had me over the table contemplating how best to proceed with upgrading my old Class 422 to DCC. I had thought about replacing the current light globes with LEDs, but this might be a bit tricky with the space available above the internal plastic 'windows' insert. So before I go on the plastic cutting warpath, I might try just connecting up the current light globes to the decoder. Speaker location was decided upon above the front bogie in the body shell's roof. However I didn't have the motivation to start actually installing the decoder and speaker, so instead I started some prepatory work and made up the two black and two red front bogie additional pickups ready for installation. These are based on the pickups I designed and made up for the Class 44 mentioned in an earlier article. I will probably document how I did this upgrade to run past AMRM once I know the outcome of the Class 44 article I submitted.

CV search!

Saturday just gone found my eldest son Lachlan wanting to spend some shed time with Dad, so I didn't say no to running trains. I took the opportunity to do something I have been meaning to do for a while now, and that was to note the main CV values of those engines with decoders in them. Mr Mackie had sent me his DCC loco spreadsheet and I just modified it to suit my locos. Hopefully soon I will get an opportunity to go down to the club and have PK show me how to use the Sprog-II DCC interface to get a copy of all of the CV values per loco. It was also an opportunity for those locos that haven't had a recent run to get one. What a fine excuse. Thanks Lachlan! Now I just have to get in the mood to restart the scenicing of Illavearf. Some Eckon OO signal kits from the UK are on their way so I will have an incentive to get my finger out and get the the layout finished.

Decisions, decisions, what to model in Oz?

Recently I have been devoting a fair bit of thinking time to the question, "What am I going to model with my Oz outline rollingstock?" I have four or five Lima NSWGR brown passenger stock (TAMs I think). Four or five Commonwealth Railways silver passenger stock. Some old Lima NSWGR Class 44s (4464 Candy and 4469 Tuscan), a 42 (I think) Tuscan, a 422 (Freightrail 42207), and some steam 38s (I think). After what I believe was a good first attempt at scratchbuilding a CDY/NOCY wagon, I could roll out a few of these to add to the rollingstock. As for location I am thinking either my take on the Murwillumbah branch from Murwillumbah to Byron Bay before its closure in 2004. The other option is a fictious branch in NSW somewhere where a lot of different stock rolled through.

On the flip side is to model a modern &/or composite 'what if' period as I do have a very nice Auscision EL51 CFCLA outline (I do like this livery). I have no rollingstock of the modern period, but I am thinking of possibly a five pack of Auscision CQBY 60' container wagons in CFCLA livery as a starting point. At least it will have somethnig to pull then! I can then suggest a couple of twin packs of 20' and 40' containers as Christmas presents from my sons.

Hopefully Mr Mackie allows modern outline on his Cassino layout?

Comments &/or suggestions appreciated.

BTW I will still complete my British outline layout Illavearf in the meantime. Planning on the Oz outline will take a while I am guessing.

AMRM like the article

James McInerney from AMRM liked the article I submitted and has requested that I send down the hi-res JPGs for publishing purposes. So I'm chuffed! Pardon the pun. JPGs burnt to CD tonight for mailing tomorrow.

Class 44 upgrade completed and article submitted

Other than weathering, which will be a future project to get into the Club's Xmas modelling competition, I consider the Class 44's upgrade complete. I finished my article on how to undertake the upgrade tonight. Writing an article is a lot easier if you do it progressively as part of the project. This includes photos. I have submitted the article to PK for inclusion in the club's newsletter, The Semaphore. It should get a guernsey as PK is always looking for subject material to fill the voids! I also sent the article off to James McInerney at AMRM for consideration. Stay tuned for how this went.