2015_08_24

2015_08_24 Continued   The Auscision 421

Let the pictures do the talking?

Not going to talk about the nose. These guys have produced three bulldogs now, and they have done what they had to do. Ended for me.
The model, is beautiful. Is it their best yet? Not sure. But it is certainly nice and if it carries through to the first series X in December, I am going to love it.
Well done Auscision. Have bought two P Class and a 421 and tickled pink with all of them
Cheers
Rod.

2015_08_24 One Day after...

2015_08_24  Back from Caulfield.

Great trip down and back. However I took the car into Melbourne..     What a mongrel of a City! its down the bottom of Victoria and the map shows an anal cavity emptying out on poor old Tassy.

Your drivers are maniacs. I had shit box mini car zooming up the inside and another up the outside. both trying to squeeze into the car length I was leaving in front to avoid piling into the car ahead as he lifted his foot of the accelerator on the floor to full weight on the brake.  You people in Melbourne are crazy, and I got to tell you I am going home to the Border to form a militia to man road blocks at Chiltern to keep you bastards out of our home towns...maniacs!! two days of hell and how come all these ratbags have P plates on? Are all the responsible people too frightened to come out on the roads these days?

Hold on need a mouthful of water to wash my medication down :(

ok why did I come here? Oh that's right to tell you I enjoyed all the chats and the camaraderie at Caulfield this year. Leave the comments on the layouts to others, enough to say they were great as usual. Favorites dead heat Maryborough and Town and Country. The new Bradford (Benalta fame) was a close second or should that be third. But that's how I see things. :) Plenty of other ones there to amaze others.

My Bank Manager has already rang me this morning, warning me of irregularities in my card accounts :(  So I must have gone even harder than ever before ;)  Not game to look yet ;(

So here is the annual booty list in picture form ;)

After starting work on Grafton, I realised that I had nothing to populate a NSW side. So Austrains provided a few 4 wheelers to at least make a showing.

Finally bought some of Ian's update kits for the Powerline S Cars

Using Trainbuilder brass parts as well as machined plastic bits and glazing.

Damn another engine I did not expect to buy. But they look so nice, don't they? This one a temporary Victorian pre 1983

Wodonga Roundhouse

Roughly in position, just got to work out the track spacing and glue it all in with scenery.

What are you saying? Wodonga did not have a roundhouse?   Well hold on, I just got it home last night, it surely will have when I do fix it in ;)

The Walther 90footer is the best I can do, its DCC and indexed. Cant wait to populate it with locomotives and lights and tools and fitters and crews   <BIG GRIN>

Bugger would not give me a cent off it either, but finally relented and bought the fuel depot because I needed the decal sheet for another job :D  Yeah right ;)

All in all their is one hell of a lot of money here for one model railway. I think it gets a better feed than I do.;)  The two engine sheds were supplied built up by Stuart Walker and I am delighted to give him my hard earned folding stuff. You can help him stay in the hobby manufacturing field too by giving him some of your hard earned as well. He is by far the best of those in this field. Find him here

Train Building Design-Laser Cutting services

Just chatting with Joe from Casula Hobbies (actually probably annoying him) when I spot this. I said that I was unsure any of these were left in the wild. He said Really? I better put the price up, and he went to take it from me, and I said no way!   Its nice. I have not got one, but do I need 3 x Walker 280's and another 2 x 153 motors with two trailers?   Duh!!

This is my own little bit of Hobsons Bay. I asked the Club if I could have it and they agreed to sell it to me. The club layout may be gone, however I have 10 point machines which will click and sing the Hobsons Bay memories for me, and each time I shunt here, I will remember all those great guys we enjoyed the company of ,all those years.

Cheers
Rod Young

2015_08_20 Two Days before...

2015_08_20   Chiltern

Got a phone call to attend a meeting at Chiltern, so off I went to visit the million dollar renovated Chiltern Railway Goods Shed.

Its a cafe and facility for bike trail riders. I dont think I have ever heard of it being open. I know I needed to visit the toilet when waiting, and of course the inside facilities were locked up and so were the toilets outside.  A really nice building.

After a while the reason for the meeting was revealed, and I was presented with my $400 model of Chiltern shed for my railway.  To be sure I was stunned, as it just did not look like the pictures I was sent a few weeks ago. I was dissapointed, and when I said, the pictures showed better closed gaps, and inferred that this just did not look right I got a shrug of the shoulders and shuffled feet.. I think we both should be glad my medication held,  I had paid already, and he did not seem to care that I thought the model had been switched. The stain on the roof was recognisably not in the pictures. As it turned out I stewed over it for a few days and on the way to Caulfield decided to cop it sweet, and just sell it on E-Bay for what I could get. But when I showed these pictures to friends, I was met with laughter and Ha Ha Mr Near Enough strikes again! My anger increased and I headed for the stand and was unable to have a quiet chat, as it was busy, But I did check out the display model of Chiltern, and decided that was the one in my pictures, Blood pressure rising, I left the Exhibition at went away to settle down. I must admit that my imagination got the worst of me, and my image of the shed was deteriorating as my mumblings got louder. So I let it be
EDIT
When I got up after returning home (Monday) Sure I am not happy. But I attacked the paint runs with some alcohol on tips and removed the glue stain from the roof (it was a water stain, perhaps the budgie?)  and found myself looking at a shed which was no where near as bad as I had been descibing to my mates at Caulfield. However it was still a major dissapointment.

Monday addition
Here are the pictures after I cleaned up a little on the shed. I no longer wish to sell it, I will use it but I could have done a better job,myself. I paid a huge amount because I heard the builder did a good job, and probably this one was built by someone other than the one I thought had done the model.
Playing around with the Chiltern Shed

WTF?  Not sure what the ring around the chimney represents :(

These were all paint runs which i removed with a knife Ho Tennis balls ugh!

Very rough paintwork green humbrol gloss brushed on? Who does that any more? Door gap?

Massive gaps. A design flaw? Should the front overlay the side rather than this way? At least some attempt should be made to show the interlocked bricks?

Humbrol Gloss with a paint brush :(

Could not get the glue stains off completely, on the joins, but a water stain came off easily.

The roof and the cupola on top dont fit, perhaps because the sides of the building are so badly joined with huge gaps.

Gap top of cupola vents. No gutters roof adrift this end.

Bloody gloss enamel again :(

Thought it could go here with a modification to the track to leave clearance behind the shed.

It would be out of the way, but a Super Siding should be here.

This is where it will go. Wont be so bad when I relocate my JMRI computer. Just need to relocate the track a little and put another point in to allow storage for vans pushed through the shed.


Yeah  :( It was going to be the Diamond, but it quickly turned into glass beads.
Cheers
Rod Young