Cataloging done

This week I spent some time cataloging the magazine collection as it was getting rather untidy, and with the much appreciated donation by Mr Mackie of a large number of older editions of AMRM, I needed to get some order into the collection.

I also was able late Saturday afternoon to start the undercoating of two of the five stock drawers. I will finish these two off sometime this week so that I can put the foam liners in prior to adding the stock that I have recently purchased, etc so that I can finally make some room on the craft table to get on with some of the Illavearf and container modelling that I want to get stuck into.

Just this morning Craig donated a few more AMRM's for the magazine collection. Lucky I bought a few more plastic storage boxes on the weekend!

Only one visit to the Club this week!

My devious water leak previously mentioned curtailed my mid-week visit to the Club this week whilst on holidays as I was busy waiting on plumbers, digging trenches, waiting for plumbers (again!), and finally getting a whole new water main line laid. Not what I had planned at the start of my holidays. NOT HAPPY JAN! I did get to the Club for the monthly meeting on Saturday but go no closer to getting my CFCLA CQBY wagons out of their packaging and running behind EL51! One day!!! Mr Mackie showed some of us the finer points of using dirt on a layout for scenicing purposes. One member, Bob, suggested the dirt from ant mounds. What a great idea as the little fellas do a fine job of breaking down soil. Now I just have to wait for the next bout of steady rain for the little mounds to appear in the backyard!

Well the holidays are now over for me for two weeks. I have another week off in the last week of January to hopefully a mid-week visit to the Club on Wednesday of that week.

Now to plan out some work on the Kensington Hill side of Illavearf. Also the researching continues on what to model for the NSW/Australian fleet?

Belated New Year's Resolution

I don't usually make New Year resolutions, but for 2010 I think I have decided to set one that hopefully I will be able to achieve. Namely, to spend more time on Illavearf as it was neglected a tad in '09 as a result of time spent on other modelling projects (decoders mostly!) So first thing on the To Do list will be to construct the platform and station building for Kensington Hill.

Unfortunately I have not been as productive as my good friend Mr Mackie as family commitments and a devious underground water leak has prevented me from spending time in the shed or at the craft table. I did get one thing in last Thursday when the missus and kids were at a playgroup function, I was able to put together five drawers for keeping the new rollingstock safe. I now just have to find the time to paint the things!

I got another step closer in running my new CQBY container wagons when I took off the outer plastic wrapping of the box, but the wagons are still firmly in the box. All in good time!

Christmas - New Year week happenings

Well I have been busy since the last post, mainly with the annual Christmas rush, both before and on the day. The closest I got to my new Class 44 on Christmas Day was when I unwrapped it! Boxing Day was spent on totally un-railway related purchases, but I have a very nice Panasonic 250GB HDD, dual HD decoder DVD recorder (what a mouthful!) now thanks to my credit card loyalty points! I took my son Lachlan down to the club on Wednesday morning, as well as the recent purchases. I accomplished a number of things whilst at the club. I ran some of my British steamies (I had the HO layout to myself for close on an hour - whoo hoo!). Lachlan ran his N scale US diesel freight train. I finished getting my decoders' settings via the club's Decoder Pro/SPROG 2 setup. And finally got 4494 out of its Trainorama box and dropped in a NCE D14SR decoder. It tested OK straight up. I will eventually replace this with a sound decoder once I have saved up the requisite lucre. I then got its decoder settings from Decoder Pro. A busy but enjoyable morning.

The only thing that I didn't get around to was actually opening up my Auscision CQBY CFCLA container wagon pack!! Hopefully before the end of my holidays!

Now the next big decision. What will the new year's resolution be?

4494 and CQBYs arrive in time for Christmas

Last week (Thursday I think), the Trainorama Class 44 model '4494' arrived. What a fine looking model. On Sunday I took it for a spin on DC around Illavearf just to make sure there were no problems before the missus wrapped it up to place under the tree. It ran very well. A couple of things though that I thought could have improved the model were a switch to turn the lights off under DC, and the possible lighting up of the marker lights. These are not show stoppers however under DCC. And depending on the room available in the shell the marker lights might be able to be lit via fibre optics. If no room, no bother as it is still a finely modelled engine. Now I just have to wait for the Loksound Select decoders to come into Oz so that I can have sound.

This morning I took delivery of the Auscision CFCLA CQBY container wagons from Mr Mackie. VERY nice detailing. Now my Auscision CFCLA EL51 has something to pull around!

4464 weathered and club competition

Well after a dry run on an old piece of kit with the DCC Concepts weathering powders, I took the plunge and went ahead weathering 4464. For a first attempt, I think I did fairly well. Possibly a tad heavy handed around the bogie frames, but hopefully some feedback might improve things for future weathering projects. As for the club competition on the weekend, I submitted 4464 in all its splendour. I know I voted for it but have no idea whether anyone else did. Even my son Lachlan voted for another model. Well done to John Kennedy who received my son's vote along with the majority of members to win Most Popular. Also congrats to Daniel Bella and Tony Caston. Truth be known, I was considering voting for Tony's Southern (UK) steam loco but thought I best vote for myself just to know at least someone voted for 4464! Last week I also ordered a Trainorama Class 44 (4494) loco as my Xmas gift from the missus (mostly paid by myself!). Some photos of weathered 4464 below.

Article on 42207 conversion written

Last week I completed the fine tuning of 42207 (see photo) and took it for a spin around Illavearf. I also completed the article in draft. Just have to read it with a fresh set of eyes. I will then give it to PK for a RMCQ Semaphore article. Once I have had feedback from AMRM on the first article (Class 44) I will then make a decision on whether to submit this one for AMRM's consideration as a follow on article. As for weathering 4464 for the club competition, I got as far as saying to the missus I am going to the shed for an hour. It was at this point that she said she had to go to the shops to get a few things, should only be ten minutes. Famous last words! Half an hour later she had retuned but by then I was feeding the baby. My hour dwindled to less than fifteen minutes before I had to get ready to take my eldest son to a birthday party. So in the end didn't get anywhere near it! Hopefully tonight I will do a trial run of the DCC Concepts weathering powders on some old stock before committing them to the real model by the end of the week.