Recent work and ponderings

Sorry for no update last week, I was crook so nothing happened! I continued with the Scalescenes double tunnel mouth on Saturday night. All that is left are the wing walls, any last minute tweakings of the construction to fit the aperture in Kensington Hill that is waiting for the tunnel mouth, and the coat of clear varnish to protect it before installation. Once I am happy with the final product, a photo or three is probably worth putting up to show off my handy work!

On another note I have been pondering future projects. As a result of linking up with Eastmoor (see blog link) I have been doing further research into Pocklington. The track plan of the station and yards would I think be a great subject as a possible exhibition shunting yard plus a through main line either continuous loop or point to point fiddle yard. As for scale and period, it would depend on available rollingstock for the region, which was the pre-grouping NER, post-grouping LNER, or BR (NER) post nationalisation. I am open to either OO or British N scale. Further research is required and I might spawn another blog for the 'Pocklington Project'.

As for my NSWGR layout, I have been doing some research and I have three possible candidates for layouts based on prototype locations. Murwullimbah and Byron Bay on the North Coast line, and either Dubbo or Narromine. These two prototypes could be point to point HO scale, or specific to the location in question, depending on the room I have left in the shed. The other option are two 'mythical' locations based on their prototypes but which would give me modeller's licence to gin around with the locations. The first one is based on Byron Bay's earlier historical periods when it was a small port/terminal for dairy goods, timber and at one point whale products. I would call it Cavvanbah after the original name of the settlement. The second one might be based on Narromine which had wheat and livestock yard facilities. I would call this one Narrowmind. I am hoping to head down to Dubbo in May to see my sister, so I might take the opportunity to visit Narromine and get a feel for the place before I make a decision on the location to model.

My last musing for the week concerns an interesting rail vehicle, namely the CargoSprinter. This is a small container transporter currently used by CRT in Oz, which is based I think out of Albury in NSW. However the prototype is used in Europe and Britain for various things such as PER work, container transport, emergency vehicles, etc. Marklin used to produce a set but it can be quite expensive on the second hand market. I think the CargoSprinter would be easy to scratchbuild (famous last words) as it is basically five container wagons joined together. The end wagons have driving cabins which could hide a SPUD each. Each cabin is fairly angular so I reckon styrene would be the go. A bit more research on dimensions required and if anybody reading this can help out that would be great. I will spawn another blog called the 'CargoSprinter Project' to manage this from.

Well as you can see I have been busy doing more thinking than modelling this week, but this happens!