Rome wasn't built before lunchtime on the first day.............

It's been quite some time since I last 'blogged'.  I guess there are two reasons why people don't blog- a) nothing happening worth writing about, or b) Way too much happening and therefore not enough time or energy left in the day to be able to blog.  Suffice to say I am claiming option 'b' as my excuse!!


We have moved into our cottage, which is absolutely wonderful!!  While I expected there to be lots to do to settle into the cottage, it has taken a lot more time than I anticipated to do this.  And it is very much on-going!!  The weather is super- warmish with enough rain- which of course means that the grass is growing.  I've now finished all the mowing that I normally do, but like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, now that I've finished it's almost time to start all over again!

I absolutely love living here!!  It's interesting, though, that there is a slightly different dynamic now that "Whistlestop" is home.  Previously the main focus was on developing the property for the train museum, whereas now, perhaps, the main focus is for it to be our home with the train museum becoming secondary.  That may not be a bad thing, it's just different.  Certainly there is still a lot happening towards the train museum, maybe even more than previously.


A milestone today, finally, was the completion of erecting the "Whistlestop" name-sign at the front of our property!  I've had this sign, which is a reproduction of a QGR station nameboard, for quite a few years, but have never had the time to erect it! Now it's done!!  This sign was made for me by Southcoast Nameboards, who hold the original patterns for the cast letters used on QR signs, so the nameboard is extremely authentic!!

I am really thrilled that we can now call our place "Whistlestop", and for those readers who might be wondering why I have chosen this name I must refer you to an earlier post.  This was the name of a relatively short-lived nostalgic amusement park not too far from where we lived when I was growing up.  There was a superb steam train here, and I thought the whole set-up was fantastic!


Hopefully there will be another post soon!

One good turn deserves..............

Gradually the list of items that I need for my Standard Gauge Lionel layout is getting smaller.  Most recently I was able to buy a turntable, courtesy of eBay.  There have been a few available at various times, but not available to Downunder, perhaps because they are large items.  This completes the 'track' required for the layout, but there are still quite a few accessories required, or desired!  The turntable ideally should have what Lionel called 'Roundhouse Sections' around it.  Perhaps four or five.  These things are huge!!  It might be cheaper (and definitely more fun) for me to fly across to the U.S. and bring one or two back, rather than pay postage for them!


Here's a picture which I've shown before on this blog- but it's a favourite- taken on a layout which I have found very inspiring, of a turntable with five Roundhouse Sections around it.  This is a similar scene to what I plan to have on my layout.  The trains aren't bad, either!!

Some idea of size is necessary here.  Standard Gauge trains are Big!!  The turntable, in the middle is 17 inches diameter, although it seems to be dwarfed by the magnificent Roundhouse Sections which are 24 inches from front to back.  So the width of this scene is approximately 6 feet!  Hence the need to provide a relatively large building to properly display this, and the other, layouts.

One down, now, what's next??

Yesterday, November 2nd 2011, marked the official completion of our cottage, with the satisfactory Council Inspection taking place.  It is incredibly satisfying that it is now 'home', and indeed a very attractive and comfortable one.  Of course there are many, many things that now need doing, such as putting up curtain rods, shelves etc, but I enjoy doing that sort of thing, so no problems there.  And then there's the garden....................


We officially started construction of February 23rd 2011, with the breaking of the first sod.

So it's taken just over eight months to build, which while longer than expected, isn't too bad, I suppose.  Certainly it is built to a very high standard, which I am very grateful for.

We were officially handed the keys on November 4th 2011.


Pretty much the first thing that I want to do outside is to provide a driveway area from the front of the cottage, gradually working down towards the Trainbarn and front gate.  I'll do this in deco (decomposed granite).  The existing track is fine while it's dry, but gets terribly slippery and boggy when it rains, and we're expecting good rain again this coming wet season.  Forming the tracks in deco, with appropriate drainage, makes the place look so much more tidy and 'finished'.  It also reduces the area that needs mowing, and the tracks are often fairly time consuming to keep mown.  The main aim of Whistlestop, apart from being our home, is to display and run trains, so anything I can do to make maintenance quicker and easier is a good thing!  Another hope for Whistlestop is that it will become a venue for occasional events such as Vintage Car Rallies, and a good track system is essential for this.

The cottage is up to the left of this photo, and the track will run from left to right, swinging around behind these beautiful big trees (Tumbledown Gums), where we have a picnic area, and then off to the right for about another 500 metres, through the bush.  


I love building tracks, it provides a solid 'structure' to the place.  The plans for Whistlestop overall divide the whole property loosely into themed areas, and it is the deco vehicle tracks and the eventual miniature railway line that will connect these themed areas together.


I had hoped to have the Trainbarn building completed to lock-up before the end of this year, but unfortunately that will not now be feasible.  Excellent progress has been made on the preparation of the site, so now with the cottage complete I would hope to be able to recommence work on the Trainbarn in the early New Year.  Realistically it will probably be next year's main project.  Which is a very exciting prospect!!


All in all, building our cottage- which is the first home we've ever built- has been incredibly satisfying despite the various ups and downs, and I am extremely grateful for having such a beautiful place to call home.

Driver for a Day

The minimal railway activity on Saturday was more than compensated for by the fantastic time I had on Sunday!!  For a birthday present Jenni gave me a Driver for a Day experience at Rosewood Railway Museum, which is operated by the Queensland Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society.  This involves both firing and driving the C17 class 4-8-0 ex QGR steam loco up and down their track near Rosewood for the day.  Needless to say, driving steam locomotives has been a dream of mine since boyhood, and to drive a full size mainline locomotive was an absolutely amazing experience!!

I was particularly impressed with the instructing crew, who are volunteers.  They were really welcoming, and offered some great information during the day while allowing me to drive and fire without hovering over me, which was much appreciated.  In short, it was everything I could have hoped for!  To say I felt at home on the footplate would be the understatement of the year!!

We 'started-up' the loco from cold in the engine shed, although it had operated the previous day, so was still warm.  I found it really interesting the amount of work the crew has to do with all the checking, oiling and greasing around the loco.  The crew is very familiar with every nut and bolt of the engine!  Once steam was up we headed for the 'main' line.

Unfortunately I didn't take any more photos as I was too busy having fun!  But it was an absolutely fantastic day, and I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone with an interest in steam.

Train Day

Saturday is traditionally a day devoted to trains around here, although today there was a bit less train content than expected.  The Southern Downs train to Wallangarra came down from Warwick and I had planned to follow it from Stanthorpe to our place, but it was running very late, so I gave up on that idea and got stuck into some work at home.  It was the first time this year that it has run down here, owing firstly to flooding and then loco repairs, so it was good to see it, even though late.  We heard it coming from home, and raced down to the nearby level crossing to see it.

It was a really stormy day again today, and I took a photo of a storm moving towards our cottage.  It doesn't look quite as bad as it actually was!

We spent some time at our cottage today as there were no builders around, had a beaut lunch on the verandah, and cleaned up the kitchen area.  I had built all the cupboards from Ikea parts, and it is fantastic to now see it installed.  I love the oak benchtops!!  We also installed the shelves in the cupboards, and I was very tempted to start packing them with food supplies!

I'm really happy with all the mowing and brushcutting that I've been able to do recently, and with all the rain we've had, the area around the cottage- the front yard- is looking very green and attractive!!


All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

Resleepering

A superb day today, absolutely perfect.  Good progress on the cottage, particularly the bathroom being waterproofed and the shower-recess defined.  The bathroom is minimum sized and I was a bit worried that it wasn't going to work well, but it's going to be fine!!  Some more painting has been done, so I took a few more photos this evening.

Below: Looking north.

In a previous post I mentioned that the railway line that runs beside Whistlestop, which is part of the Warwick- Stanthorpe- Wallangarra line, is being re-sleepered with approximately 30,000 new timber sleepers. Yesterday and today they were working right beside our place, with lots of action and a 'hornfest' every time they needed to cross the level crossing.  There are about 8 0r 10 machines, all with a different task, although quite what that task is isn't obvious just by looking at them.  This is a massive project, and we are so lucky that it's happening.

Here's to more of the same tomorrow!!

Grey trucks

As promised, here are some photos of a couple of the recent arrivals for the Trainbarn.  These are MTH 200 series Standard Gauge cars, dating from the 2005 catalogue, and are in like new condition.

Most of the trains that I'll either run or display at the Trainbarn will be grouped the same as the sets that Lionel catalogued in the 1930's.  With these cars though, I'm going to make up my own train which is going to consist of the red hopper cars (all the same), the caboose, and a grey steam engine, probably a 385E, or even a 400E.  There was a similar train set in the Classic era with 500 series hopper cars, but I haven't seen this done with the bigger 200 series cars.  Should look really good!

One of the slightly unusual features of these cars is the grey painted truck sideframes.  Normally these are satin black, but MTH issued various cars with grey trucks in 2005.  That's why I'd also like to pull this train with a grey and brass steam loco.

Obviously these cars are reproductions of Lionel's, made by MTH, but for running on a layout I'd much rather buy these than the Lionel originals.  The standard of the baked-enamel paintwork is exceptional.  I might be biased, but I think these are stunning!

Really happening

It's been a while since the last post on this blog, but there is plenty to report!  The cottage is progressing well, and it is tantalisingly close to us being able to move in.  The huge difference now is that the verandahs are on!  And the front door is in place, although it still needs some trim around it.  And the ceiling is lined, ready for painting.  Some of the painting outside is finished, mainly the two sides.  The front and back still need some work.

I am very happy indeed with how it's looking!  I really like the colours that we have chosen, including the trim.  The outside is Dulux Hog Bristle. I have planned and dreamed about this project for a long time, and it's fantastic to see it becoming reality, and looking very much as I had imagined.

The weather wasn't great today for photos, very changeable and stormy, but anyway this is the back of the cottage, looking westish.  We plan to eat many of our meals at a table on this verandah, and of course, the barbecue will be here too.  The view from this verandah is looking straight at Girraween National Park, and no civilisation in sight!!

This is the lounge room, and the front door.  I'm really happy with how it is now, but it will be even better once it's painted too!  We're doing the walls Hog Bristle half strength, and the ceiling, including the rafters, Antique White.  We have a beaut fireplace and hearth ready to go in here too, and with weather like today (8°C) we may still need it!


So, that's the cottage, and I am incredibly excited about it!  I did some mowing in our 'front yard' today too, ie what you see when you step out onto the front verandah.  It took me at least two weeks of really hard work getting the grass down in this area when we first came home.  Now that it's down it only took me the morning to completely mow it, and it looks superb!!  Unfortunately no photos as I had to quit early due to a thunderstorm.  I'll take some in the days to come.  There is still a lot of long grass in the general vicinity of the cottage, and as I mentioned previously I can now tackle this in bite-size chunks, but it is very reassuring to know that the part that is mown is very easy to look after.  Mention should be made of my current favourite 'toy', my John Deere lawn tractor, without which I just couldn't manage this.  There's almost nothing I like better than mowing with Big John!!


Many of our overseas friends have the impression that Australia is a land teeming with snakes, spiders, crocodiles etc., which we usually dispel as being a myth.  Well, I have to report that within an hour of starting work again on Whistlestop I had a fairly close encounter with a snake!  It was either a harmless grass snake, or a baby big bitey snake, I didn't stop to find out!


The Trainbarn has been simmering on the back-burner for a while, as getting into the cottage takes precedence, but perhaps needless to say there has been a fairly steady stream of trains arriving for the various layouts and displays, mostly courtesy of eBay!  I'll post some photos in the days to come.


I look at the cottage taking shape, the beautiful property that it is on, all the plans and hopes for the trains at Whistlestop, even my current part-time work situation, and really, I have to pinch myself to believe it is real!  It is just so good!  Combined with the other aspects of my life, particularly our three daughters all leading very successful and interesting lives, and I just feel incredibly blessed.

A time to assess

We've now spent three months living and working at Whistlestop, and the other day I had time to look around and take stock of how things are going.  In short- Fantastic!!  Living here, and doing the things that I do each day, is every bit as satisfying and fulfilling as I could ever have hoped for.


Despite the slow and erratic progress on our Cottage, I am absolutely thrilled that it is coming together very well now.  It will, no doubt, be a truly superb place to live.  Now that the rendering is finished there will be steady progress until it's ready for us to move into, hopefully mid-October.  The verandahs are going on this week, which will improve it's appearance somewhat.  I'm really happy with the style of it too, exactly what I'd hoped for.  The views in every direction are outstanding!


I'm really enjoying the mowing that I'm doing in the vicinity of the cottage.  Now that a fair amount of it has been done- which was very hard work- I have now developed a system of doing bite-size bits of mowing, with each section improving the overall look without being an arduous task.  Each bit I do leads to another obvious 'next' bit to do.  Very satisfying to see it all looking so good.  I'm looking forward as well to the day when I can start planting new trees and creating some gardens in our rocky areas, too.  We're extremely lucky to have such a fantastic 'yard'.


Preparation of the Trainbarn site was put on hold while I've concentrated on the mowing up top, but I'm really looking forward to completing that preparation soon.  And then, of course, the construction proper can start, which will be very exciting!  The Trainbarn garden is looking really good, and will be well established by the time the Trainbarn is open.  I'm enjoying the gardening very much.


I've pegged out the miniature railway alignment in the vicinity of the Trainbarn, and very much looking forward to laying the track in that area.  I'm as excited as ever about building and operating this railway!!


I've mentioned the potential of producing honey on Whistlestop, from our wild Jellybush tea-tree bushland, and we'll be placing some hives in a really suitable position very shortly, hoping for our first harvest of honey late this year.  I'm looking forward to learning more about this process, and sampling the results!


I'm also very pleased to be living in the Granite Belt  area generally, there is a lot going on and it's just a beaut place to live!!  


The future at Whistlestop looks very good indeed!!

Spring has sprung

A truly beautiful day today, the warmest we've had for ages.  It almost makes up for the disgusting windy weather earlier in the week!


Now that the mowing is semi under control, I've decided to finish off a few other things.  I've already mentioned installing 12 volt garden lighting in the Trainbarn garden- anticipating night visits to the Trainbarn- but I needed to install three more lights to finish off the job.  This wasn't easy with some of the existing plants already well established.  Anyway, it's now finished!!

I really like these HPM Garden Lights!  They're not the solar powered units that are often seen (or not seen!) these days, but 12 volt Halogen lights powered by a transformer.  Ultimately though, they will be solar powered, as the whole Trainbarn will be solely powered by solar panels.  Because there's quite a distance between the furthest light and the transformer, to avoid excessive voltage drop I've powered the three most distant lights on one circuit, and the five closer ones on another, powered by the same transformer.  I've also used the heaviest gauge wire that's available.


The only 'trick' to installing these is regarding the connector from the light to the cable.  Mostly these work well, but don't bury them before you test them out!!  Sometimes they need a little help to work properly.

There's also progress on the cottage, with the renderers returning to finish off the inside.  So hopefully, we'll see steady progress now until completion.  We've even set an approximate date in our minds for moving in!!


Everything looks so much better on a sunny day!!

Cottage progress

Excellent progress on the cottage at the moment, with the renderers doing a really good job, in every way. The outside render is a self-coloured product, although it will be painted, and looks fantastic!

Now, it's starting to look like a cottage!!  This picture is remarkably similar to a very old picture that I have of my Nanna's first home, in Ireland.  I'll dig it out to compare.


I've been trying to catch up with the mowing around the cottage area while the grass is  dormant, and I'm making steady progress.  I'm also mowing some areas here that have never been mown, ever, and they're pretty tough going.

Another small thing that I've been doing, although it certainly isn't necessary at the moment- is continuing to survey the route of the miniature railway line that I'll be building sometime in the future.  For years I've been 'visualising' the various curves etc, but now I can  see it very clearly, and identify the actual radius of the curve.  All trains have an absolute minimum radius of curve that they can negotiate without threatening to derail, and it's important to make sure that the planned track is nowhere near this minimum.  Mine isn't.  Another important result of this survey is to get nice, even curves of constant radius.  I'm certainly not a trained surveyor, but I invented a simple system to get the job done.  It is prone to various inaccuracies, but it's good enough.  It's based on Pythagoras- you know- the square on the hippopotamus..............

If you measure the deflection at the mid-point of a curve from the straight line connecting the two ends, you can work out the radius using a simple calculator. (square root function).  Here I'm doing the reverse- actually setting the furthest peg, which is 10' away from the middle peg, so that it is the correct radius.  I've clamped a ruler onto the mid peg at the correct deflection, so that when my string line touches the end of the ruler, I know that the peg is in the correct place for the desired radius.

The white pegs will define the centreline of the track.  At this stage this helps me to know what further clearing or earthworks are required to be done before I actually lay the track.  In any case it's fun, and a tiny step closer to construction of the miniature railway at Whistlestop.

Rendered alive!

After little or no progress on our cottage for nearly a month, the Renderers have arrived and are getting stuck into the job.  Nothing further can be done until this process is completed, so it's really great to see them hard at it.  They showed me what the finished result would be like, and I'm very happy- exactly what I had hoped for.  It's slightly rougher on the outside than in, and will be painted once dry.  The verandahs come next!!


Speaking of which, we bought two Adirondack chairs and a table for the front verandah.  They were Jenni's (belated) birthday present, and are a really nice product.  We bought them whilst down in Melbourne from a company called The Porch, and I thoroughly recommend them.  The chairs went together well, and I was very impressed by their general quality.  Here's Jenni testing one out.

The armrests are great for placing a cup of tea on!!


I'm concentrating on mowing the grass in the general area of the cottage at the moment, both for looks and fire safety.  The grass is the longest and thickest I've ever seen it, and some of it was mown not too long ago.  I'm also mowing areas that have never been mown before, ever.  (Boldly going where no mower has gone before)  That's hard yacka, but the result is certainly worth it.


In Australia we have lots of 'Big' tourist attractions- the Big Pineapple, Big Banana, Big Mower, Big Prawn............. you get the idea.  Well, I'm thinking of opening the Big Grasspile!! Because the grass is so long and thick I have to rake it up, and put it on one of several piles.  They have become Huge, and there's still lots of mowing to do.  Maybe the Big Mower and I should join forces!!  In time (a millenium or so) it will decompose and perhaps make good compost.


On census night (August 9th) we spent the night at the shed and it reminded us how beaut it is living at our own place.  Ok, it was REALLY cold!!  But beaut nonetheless!!  Can't wait to move into the cottage!!

The Winelander

A really beaut day today, topped off by seeing a passenger train pass Whistlestop on it's way to Wallangarra.  It was the Winelander, a QR train chartered by the Australian Railway Historical Society.  The Granite Belt region is well known for excellent wines, including some unusual varieties.  Most people got off in Stanthorpe for the winery tours, but the train needs to continue to Wallangarra to turn around, as Stanthorpe doesn't have a turntable or turning-Y.  We went down to the track just below our cottage, and I took a photo, but unfortunately my snap and shoot camera wasn't up to the task and the loco is blurred.  Oh well, it was fun, anyway.

I've made a good start with mowing up the top of our block, near the cottage.  Our favourite picnic area is here, under some big old trees, and it is now nicely mown.  We had Christmas here in the year 2000, and plan to do the same this year with all our family.  Jenni had to have a small fire today, which was also helpful with burning some of the  dead sticks etc.

While I was mowing and raking this area I was amused by a couple of magpies who thought all their Christmas's had come at once, with all the insects that the mowing stirred up.  They didn't seem to be frightened of me at all.

Saturday afternoon for me is traditionally 'train time', and it was very enjoyable indeed seeing the Winelander today.  I hope it's not too long before we see another one!  

Workin' on the Railroad

Somewhat appropriately, given the current activity on the 'real' railway that borders Whistlestop, a new arrival in the mail yesterday is a Work Caboose, courtesy of eBay.  

This Standard Gauge caboose was issued by MTH Trains in about 2001, and I tried hard at the time to buy one, but to no avail.  So I was very pleased to find this one on eBay, from a seller that I have bought from before.  It's brand new, and it's never been run before.

Work cabooses were used on the rear of construction/repair trains, such as I'm seeing on our line at the moment renewing the sleepers.  I bought a motorised crane some time ago, which is green and cream, and thought this caboose would be a perfect match, so I'm very pleased to finally get it!  I'll need a green gondola and a searchlight car for this train, also.


In other, perhaps more important news, the Renderers are supposed to arrive tomorrow for the cottage, which will be a very big step.  Once this is done there are lots of other things that can proceed, and hopefully they will happen quickly!  I'm really looking forward to seeing the verandahs go on, which will really improve the look of the cottage.  We bought our kitchen at Ikea last week, and I've been busy putting it together.  I'm really enjoying that!!  All the fun playing with Lego and Meccano as a kid is finally paying off!!  It seems like a really good quality product.


I'm also concentrating on mowing up the top near the cottage at the moment.  The weather has been extremely dry, and the long grass is also.  Lots of people are burning off (which I hate), so I thought I better do my bit for fire prevention.  The grassy top area is starting to look great!

Asleep no more.

Somewhat amazingly, our property- Whistlestop- is bordered on two sides by the QR railway line that runs from Stanthorpe to the border at Wallangarra.  This was once part of the main line from Brisbane to Sydney, but unfortunately no regular trains now run on the line.  It is, however, used by various organisations who run Heritage Railway services, such as the Southern Downs Steam Railway, Australian Railway Historical Society and Downs Steam.  I think it is such a blessing that QR are willing to maintain the line to a high standard for these heritage services.


QR have just started replacing many of the worn-out wooden sleepers on the line, ensuring the line's survival for many years to come.  All along the line are new sleepers ready to be installed. They're not the traditional ironbark sleepers, but probably stringybark, which is not quite as durable, but nevertheless there's some very nice timber sitting around!!  I took some photos of the line immediately adjacent to Whistlestop.

I'm a member of the Southern Downs Society and look forward to one day helping run trains along this line!!  Apart from that, I really want to tie my Toy Train Museum in with some of these Heritage Train Services, and am really excited that this line has a long and interesting future!! Many thanks QR!!

King of the Rails

As mentioned yesterday a new locomotive has arrived for the Trainbarn.  It's an MTH Railking Gauge 1 Santa Fe F-7a diesel locomotive.  This is a little different to the 'normal' items that I seek out for my Toy Train collection, but long-term readers of this blog will recall that one of the displays that I'm planning is to have the same loco (Santa Fe F-7) in all the common model railroading scales.  This will hopefully help to unravel the mysteries of scale and gauge for visitors.


Interestingly, this idea was also adopted by the fantastic California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.  Not that it matters, but I'm claiming to be the originator of this concept, although that's a long story!!

They're missing two sizes which I have- TT, between N and HO, and now Gauge 1, between O and G, however I'm still missing the two common sizes O and S.  It's a wonderful display, and I'm sure it's very popular.


Anyway, my new Gauge 1 loco is absolutely amazing.  It's the first loco that I've ever had with modern electronics and sound.  I obviously bought it just for static display, but it is so much fun to operate!!  It runs on 45mm/1.75" gauge track and is the correct scale for this gauge at 1/32.  The photo below shows this new loco (front) next to my LGB G scale F-7 which very confusingly runs on the same gauge track (45mm/1.75") but is much bigger, being an incorrect scale for the gauge.  It's designed for operation in the garden and is sized to match other garden trains.  G scale (again very confusingly ) can be anything between 1/20.3 to 1/29 scale, and the LGB loco is about 1/26.

So, that was really exciting- discovering what this Gauge 1 loco can do, although I haven't got enough track to really give it a good run.  At the moment it's set up on our lounge-room floor!

Fired Up

It was a seriously cold and unpleasant day on the Granite Belt today, as it was also on most of the east coast.  Fortunately the icy wind dropped by about lunchtime allowing some progress at Whistlestop.  To combat the cold I decided to light a small campfire, burning some of the rubbish which would otherwise go to the dump.  What a good idea that was!  Not only was it nice and warm, it really added some 'atmosphere' to the day.  The light smokiness somehow made the day more pleasant- perhaps bringing back memories of other campfires.

So, some good progress again, as well as the general enjoyment of working in the Aussie bush.  Two more boxes arrived for the Trainbarn also, one of which is probably the most awesome model train I've ever had!  More about them tomorrow!

I claim this corner in the name of.................

Another small step for mankind today, with the northwest corner of the Trainbarn clear, and pegged out!  Now it's 'just' a matter of heading southeast, ie back into the Trainbarn site, which, unfortunately, is no small job.

We had about 11mm of rain over the weekend which has settled the dust nicely.  As well as putting in this post at the corner I put a stringline on it to get a rough idea of the fall of the site.  I always find slopes to be deceptive, and this one is no exception.  The fall turned out to be about 3' 7".

I plan to build concrete block walls to support the slab, to cope with this change in levels.  Until then, lots more clearing......................

Leptolanche

I reckon that if it's ok for other industries- such as IT- to create new words, then I can too.


My submission is 'leptolanche'.  Meaning:- If you spend all day loading assorted scrub- but mostly Leptospermum tea-tree- onto your trailer, getting scratched to pieces in the process, then, just before you are able to tie it down it all comes cascading off the trailer back onto the ground. A leptolanche.  If the leptolanche happens at the end of the day (almost by definition it will) when, combined with the scratches there is a general feeling of fatigue, well, a leptolanche is not a happy occurrence.


I hasten to add that when working alone in the bush every day digging tea-tree, one's mind tends to wander in strange directions.


Good progress again today, although it was extremely hard.  A lot of today's scrub was old/damaged/dead/hard tea-tree, and it was very hard to remove, or even handle.  But it's now at our local green waste collection centre (aka the dump), and I am now 12 metres (yes, metric) along the northwest wall.  The width of the Trainbarn will be 14m, and another couple of metres clearance, which all adds up to the fact that I'm getting very close to finishing the preparation of this side.


I think I'm going to have to do something completely different once I've finished the preparation of this site!!  Which I guess will be required anyway.  Something like building a toy train layout!!

A Winter Wonderland,.............or just cold!!

The weather recording station for the Granite Belt recorded a low temperature of -6.4°C this morning, but I think it was even lower in some other parts of the district.  That's seriously cold!!  It caused a few problems- not just frozen pipes and no water, but a couple of burst joints............ and no water.  Also, instead of just a light frosty coating on our cars, there was serious ice!!  Had to scrape it off (not easy), whereas we would just normally throw some water on it.  Driving through Ballandean everything was white, almost like a light snow covering- hence the title of this post.  It looked very pretty!  From inside a heated car!!


I arrived at Whistlestop about 8.30am, and the temperature was still -1°.  It did warm up quickly though, and I could easily have just worn T shirt and shorts at lunchtime.  It was a truly magnificent day- the bluest of blue skies, and no wind at all.


The plumbers have placed all the pipes in our cottage, and have done a very nice job.  We're just waiting for the electrician now to change a couple of wires, and switch positions, then we can render the bricks- both inside and out.  This will be a very big milestone!  It's getting close to the point where we can start to think about living in it!  Oh won't that be nice.


Preparation of the Trainbarn site is progressing well, too.  And perhaps just as important as the result is that I'm really enjoying the process!  The site is very dry and dusty, but there's a chance of some rain later in the week which would be quite nice, as long as it doesn't hang around.

It's all about the Trains!

While there is a lot happening at Whistlestop as seen in recent posts, there hasn't been a lot happening as far as trains arriving for the Trainbarn.  A different 'season', I guess.  So I thought I'd take a photo of the latest Standard Gauge item to arrive- a 500 series Tank Car from the Lionel Corporation.  This was shown in the 2009 Lionel Corporation catalogue, and I wanted to buy the whole set pictured, however this is the only piece I've been able to obtain, so far.

The 500 series cars are slightly smaller than the 200 series, and in their heyday were slightly cheaper, but retain the same level of detail as the 200 series.


So, the hunt is still on for the rest of the cars in this set, and the superb 390 steam locomotive that pulls it!

A trailer-load of.................

It was a really cold, windy day again today, and really not very pleasant outside, but I still managed to get a lot done.  The main achievement was to get the Trainbarn garden mostly covered in fresh tea-tree mulch, to limit weed growth, and retain whatever moisture is in the soil.  It looks good too!   Previously I had been buying this mulch in small bags, which obviously wasn't very economical, but I discovered that our local landscape supplier sells a similar product by the trailerfull.  Way more economical.

I really like doing this sort of work, perhaps just as much as I enjoy my trains!  My aim with Whistlestop is to create a total environment which people can enjoy, and nice gardens are very much a part of this.  Like everything else at the moment, there's a long way to go, but it's certainly getting there!

The new mulch will eventually weather to a grey colour, and blend in better with the existing mulch.  It will also get a good covering of leaves and twigs, which will be the on-going mulch.


I've put HPM Garden Lights in this garden (even though there's no power here at the moment), anticipating visitors to the Trainbarn at night.  I felt it was better to put them in at this stage, rather than have to disturb the plants at a later stage.  I really like these lights, they're a quality product.


I'm mostly planting new native plants in this garden, however wherever possible I've kept original plants here too.  Not sure what sort this one is exactly, but it's a very attractive, healthy native.

Now it'd be really good to have just a small shower of rain to settle all this in, and put some moisture into the soil!

A Metrestone

A cold, windy day today, but some good progress at Whistlestop none-the-less.  Not quite a Milestone, and I'm trying to use the 'wonderful' metric system for building the Trainbarn, hence the title of today's blog.


Anyway, after some productive time clearing part of the Trainbarn site, today I pegged out the position of the front wall, and the verandah.  I find being able to mark my progress in these small ways very encouraging, and of course it helps to keep me heading in the right direction.  I don't want to clear any more than necessary!

You can't read the markings on the (metric) tape of course, but it's 21.6 metres long, which includes the 3 metre (10ft) verandah at the other end.


There's still a lot more to go, but I'm very happy with how it's going!