The Industrial Area

 I have an industrial area on the layout called Junction Yard. The name was a place holder as it is a goods yard next to a junction, so it ended up sticking. Here's an old image. I have just realised that there is not an image showing the whole yard. 

I've been spending a good deal of my fifteen minutes (hours truth be told) thinking about revamping it.

There are a couple of industries that are a little fun.

The first is Two Teachers Brewery. It's a Kibri Paulaner Brewery kit that has been on about three different layouts. Some of it is in a box somewhere but this part, combined with Faller grain storage kit, it looks good. It receives BWH hoppers with grain for the beer making and it sends the beer out in surplus MRCs.

Next is McGuffin Industries. This is another Kibri kit and has been reused a couple of times as well. What does it make? Who knows. A McGuffin is used in a story to move the plot along, such as trying to recover a Maltese Falcon. It could be anything, so long as the characters in the movie want to get it. This makes whatever. It receives all manner of wagons that might need a place to go. It shares the same track as the brewery and are often shunted at the same time.

One industry that I wanted to have is a dairy. There is a corresponding siding on another part of the layout so the transport of milk is essentially confined to the layout without the need for the milk tanks to go into staging. It was scratch built for the last layout in 2019 and fits in well here. The three unbranded Dairy Farmers tanks are swapped with branded Oak milk tanks. The MRC takes bottled milk to other places.

 

These industries have served me well for the last few years, but recently I went though a couple of old boxes and found my NGFF wagons. These are IanLindsay Models kits that I built in the 1990s. In real life they ran from Manildra in NSW to Clyde Yard in Sydney carrying bagged flour. When I plan a layout, I try to fit the stock that I have on it and plan industries for a type of wagon. For the last two layouts, these little fellows have sadly missed out. I was working on a siding on the last layout before its untimely demise. Chatting with one of my mates, he suggested that I could put in a siding next to the dairy as an unloading point. I would need to put in a very extreme low relief building to cater for them. I didn't think that it would be a problem...

...until I went the the Canberra Exhibition last weekend, and found a pack of V/Line flour hoppers in the sale box at SDS. I had seen a photo of these behind a NSW loco, so I reckoned there was a precedent. They look great. I spent the afternoon last Saturday researching what I could. Their time on the standard gauge was probably spent hauling limestone or cement. I already have enough wagons for my cement terminal.

These wagons went loaded from regional Victoria to Melbourne. My afternoon of research landed me on this blog: https://vrballarat.blogspot.com/ I hope the owner doesn't mind me linking it here. On his blog, Greg, the author, describes how he uses these wagons in operating session and has images of how they are loaded.

When I purchased the pack, I though that I would keep one and sell the other two and get my money back on them. I would put it where the NGFF wagons would be unloaded. They are removed and the flour hopper takes their place. Then I had other thoughts. 

I have the wheat silos. Why not have a flour mill next to it? Wheat comes in and flour goes out - bagged and bulk. These three wagons were going to reorganise my freight yard.

Then I remembered my trips to Bomaderry in the 1990s. I would catch the train there and while I was there I would see 48 class locos shunting light blue containers on wagons. I remember seeing flour in some of the corners of the corrugations of the container sides when I was on the train waiting to depart. I later found out that this was containerised flour from the Manildra Group mill. They were top loaded through hatches. The same type of hatches on the Powerline Models containers of the 1990s.

I had some in a box and found some paint. Then I put them on a couple of Silvermaz OCY wagons that I had in a draw waiting for a bit of finishing. I prefer the idea of these containers on short wagons as three wagons looks longer than two. I could pick up three container wagons on one shunt and replace them with the three flour hoppers. For now, here they are. If I go ahead with this, I might need to strip the paint off and try again, you can see the previous paintwork underneath.

I picked up a Walthers Redwing Milling kit to use. I'm still not sure whether I make it as it should be or use both the front and rear walls side by side and the side walls on either end like a low relief building.

Sadly McGuffin Industry will need to go. It can be consigned to a storage box.

The same will happen to the brewery. However, I could use part of another kit to replace it.

The diary, I really want to keep. Maybe, I might have to reduce the the wagons to tanks only.

Here is some thing that I have planned at least. The brown building could be the brewery. The red building on the end is a scenic block to hide trains that are going up the inline. Where it starts on the left is close to the incline - see the image above with the tautliner NGFF wagons.

One thing with this plan though, there isn't a place to load the NGFFs with the containerised flour and the flour hoppers.

What am I going to do? Sit on these thoughts for a bit so that I don't rush into something. Future me is never a big fan of past me and the lack of thought sometimes. I'll ask for advice from friends. I'm thinking of making the flour mill as big as I can and putting a warehouse for the flour where the dairy is in the image above. I might have to remake the dairy, consigning this model to the storage box. 

It's sad for these buildings. They join the others from previous layouts in storage, waiting for a future layout. I reckon that if I get my act into gear, I could finish this by the end of the decade. I also reckon that after I retire, (still a long way off yet) I'll have another layout in me with ideas and lessons learned from this one and spots for buildings

For now, I'll keep running the layout.

Until next time.

  

Making Stuff Up

 After creating my track clean train, I was left with two E wagon kits. While I was at Casula Hobbies a couple of weeks ago, I spotted some E wagon log loads. So I bought a couple.

I've been looking into the industries around Tathra, mainly because I had added another siding to the yard. I had been using it to load ballast hoppers. However, the small loader that I had been using kept getting knocked over and the clearance because it was on a curve was very tight. Not only that, but after watching a clip on a modern stone train being loaded with a front end loader on YouTube, I realised that a significant amount of dust is produced. This obviously pretend HO scale stone dust would end up over my little plastic people waiting at the station opposite the loading. That would never do. So I put in a new siding.

Now that I have a spare siding, what could I have loaded there?

I had put my sleeper wagon there to be loaded with timber sleepers. I have a couple of other WSC kits to build. One is Sydney Hobbies and the other is an IDR Models kit.This is more coincidence than knowledge, but I have since found out that sleepers were cut on the south coast and shipped by sea to other places. This industry dried up in the late 1950s. But what if it didn't? I just need to build the kits and presto! A definite new industry.

Timber is also an industry in the area as well. Timber logs are processed (turned into wood chip) at a wood chip plant in Eden and exported to be turned into paper and cardboard.

My E wagon log loads could help with that. It seems that the NSW railways didn't have specific wagons for the task according to Railway Freight Wagons in NSW 1982 by John Beckhaus.

I looked into modern log trains in NSW. Today it seems that timber logs are loaded onto a flat ISO container base with bolsters to hold the logs in place.

I've always had a soft spot for the UK style timber wagon (OTA) that I saw while travelling by train through the Scottish highlands in the late 90s.

So I made my own wagons up.

I used the E wagon base. I had issues fixing the truss rods underneath the first wagon. I'd cut the supports too short. So, using an ICX container wagon as inspiration, I altered the underside if the wagons. Next, created bolsters for the wagons and some panels for the ends. I drew my inspiration for the end panels from the NGFF Taughtliner wagons. (I have a couple of these to add to the roster.) The end panels are not an exact copy of the NGFFs but are loosely based on them.

They were painted in weathered grey (Vallejo Air Tire Black) and the ends and bolsters in red (Model Master). My airbrushing skills have taken a hit from not being used for a couple of years.

What would you call such a wagon? Using the above mentioned book, I called them NFTF. N for NSW, F  for flat, T for timber and F for the type of bogie they are on. I gave them numbers outside of the numbers used in NSW in 1982.

It was a bit of fun. I did need to buy some styrene from my local hobby shop so the two wagons cost me $24 each if you include the two loads.

Here are a couple of images for the finished wagons ready to run on the layout. They could do with a spot of weathering, but that can wait for another day.

Would I make more? Probably. I have all the styrene that I need, as well as bogies left over from old scratch built container wagons that I made over 25 years ago. I might paint them in other colours first. However, I have a couple of sleeper wagons to build first.

Until next time.

I'm still here. It's just that I've been doing other stuff.

No posts in 2025! Well, as the heading says, I've been doing other stuff.

I won't go into it as it is not that exciting.

I've still been working on the layout but not a lot. Most of the stuff was done in the last few weeks.

Over the last couple of days, I built a kit. This is my first kit in a while.

I popped into Casula Hobbies last week for some S and K truck loads, as well as some sleeper loads for WSC kits that I have. While I was there, I spotted a Silvermaz bogie water gin kit. I hadn't seen one for a while and I know that there is also the Casula Hobbies kit which is a little fancier but I didn't need fancy. I just need the the top of the kit for another track cleaning wagon.

I've already written about my track cleaning train - in fact this has been the most popular post on the blog.

I have a Walthers track cleaning boxcar. It's the same length as the water gin. Take off the body and modify the water gin tank a little and hey presto - a track cleaning vehicle that is based in New South Wales.

This one has a cork pad. The other one has a track rubber. The MHG has the Noch track brushes.

It's a different colour because I couldn't remember the yellow that I used the first time.

Now I have two flat wagons left over. Their story is for another post.

Until next time.

Slow but Steady Progress

 With a bit of renewed enthusiasm, I've started the the scenic work on the layout. Of course once that starts, running takes a back seat. Hopefully, I can plan some things well so that I don't need to move too many thing around.

The first part of the work, I started on the station on the corner of the layout. The blocks of flats were from the first layout when I was still in my old house in the coast. I'd like to use them all and they sort of just squeeze in. In front of them is the station on a rather sharp curve. There will be a huge gap for the little plastic people boarding the trains. Fortunately, it is high and a fair distance from the front, so it hopefully won't be too noticeable. I've yet to cut out the front platform. I've also decided to extend the rear platform. Just out of the image to the right is raised section with buildings on it. My plan is to put the station building up there and stairs leading down to the platforms, similar to Waverton.

Next I thought that I'd start on the top retaining wall again. I had started using Lego boxes. I got back into Lego during lockdown, right after the train room flooded, the layout went mouldy and I had to rebuild. I couldn't get straight into the rebuild as I had to wait for the walls to be replaced. So I had a few boxes and I thought that I could recycle them. I put Scalescenes brick paper on them printed on my inkjet printer. It didn't look too bad. However, after awhile, the walls started warping. I think it was because there was a printed side and a brown side. I glued the paper on the brown side so that no print could come through.

After having a chat with someone about my woes, they suggested going to Officeworks and buying some decent cardboard. Two sheets of 1000gsm card later and I have a 2.5m retaining wall.

Then I ran into brick paper quality control issues. I ran out of Miccador Matte Spray. Officeworks said that they stock it, but they didn't when I got there so I bought a cheaper alternative. It does not work as well. I am now waiting on a delivery of Miccador Matte Spray. The spray seals the paper so that the ink doesn't run. Something that the cheaper brand didn't seem to do.

I had enough pre-sprayed sheets (two) to start on the wall near the terminus. Looking at the photo, I think it might need a bit more added to it, maybe a girder.

It may not look like much but considering not much has been done lately, it's a big step in the right direction.

Until next time.

It's Been a While... Again

 Crikey! As I look back at the last time I wrote anything, it was over twelve months ago.

What's been happening?

I've been running trains. I haven't done much to the layout at all. However, I've added a couple of extra sidings at Tathra and I had to realign the head shunt for Junction Yard, which also meant that the up and down main lines needs to be realigned too. The cause was due to no clearance between the head shunt and the incline to the terminus, which meant that any plans for a back scene between them would not work.

None of those operating noticed this change. However, it shortened the head shunt by the length of a bogie and for some trains, that is enough to make things awkward. Trains and some of the sidings had a lot of thought go into them for operations. A slightly shorter head shunt means that longer locomotives will need more movement to shunt the same trains.

I reckon it's time to make a real start on the scenery. I need to get back to my 15 minutes a day philosophy.

In the meantime, here's some footage of the Transport Heritage Expo from the weekend just gone.

Until next time.

Some Alterations Done

 I'm still poking around where the incline is. The new incline is working well but the set of carriages which caused me to change it still has some problems. To be correct, a couple of carriages have problems and it appears that the chassis is twisted by not very much but enough to cause a problem, not just on the incline but in other areas too - mainly on curves.

Yesterday, I decided to complete a job that I thought should only take ten minutes. I wanted to add a siding at the coal mine for a couple of extra hoppers. I have a hopper from the loco depot and an American hopper, which was a gift from an American friend, that travels to my Tathra station for unloading. I could be good to unload some supplies at the mine as well. I did think that it would be a good spot for my explosives van until it was pointed out to me that using dynamite in a coal mine would kill everyone. I'm sure other supplies could be dropped off there.

As I like photos, here is the process.

Before.

I marked where the point is going and used a razor saw on the ends of the track to mark on the track where to cut.

I then removed the length of track and believe it or not, cut out the middle. It seemed easier than trying to measure small bits of track.

Job done. How long did it take? About half an hour but about half of that was putting in the siding after finding a suitable piece of scrap cork. I then planed the top of the baseboard so that I can attach a facia board with a bit of height to prevent accidental knocking off of trains to the floor. It hasn't happened yet but I reckon it could be a possibility.

 

Before I took the last image, I also installed the windows int he coal tipple and reassembled it.

I've a busy week ahead with work and I reckon my fifteen minutes a day will be running trains.

Until next time.

New Incline

 Last Sunday I wrote about having trains running by Friday. That didn't happen. I had to order some more cork off ebay which arrived on Thursday. I painted it yesterday and it's ready to go onto the layout. The incline has been installed and I padded out a section with some green foam which I bought at Bunnings a long time ago. It now looks like this:

Compare it to before.

This time I have more space for the track. It will be laid directly onto the cork on top of the plywood incline. In the image above you can see where the incline is exposed. It had picture mounting board on it, if fact the rest of it still does and you can see the same closer to the camera. I used this method on my last layout and it ran faultlessly. Like last time I used 4th radius set track on the inner curve, however, this time I also used it on the outer curve with some short straight sections in between each double curve section to help maintain the space between the tracks. I also used set track spacing which is wider. I did this to speed up track laying of a slightly tricky bit. The cardboard was wider, but it hung over the side of the Woodland Scenics foam inclines. I propped up the edges with some foam core board. This wasn't always spot on. I'd rushed the job originally and spent way too much time fixing bits if it.

Hopefully, by this time next week, trains will be running again.

Until next time.