Welcome to my 100th blog post!! I've certainly enjoyed writing all these posts, my primary reason for doing so, but if others can enjoy or learn something from them along the way that's great too!
I'm currently in Ingham, northern Queensland, visiting relatives and generally enjoying myself!! Ingham is a huge sugar producing area (sugar cane) and also seemingly home to a large percentage of the world's snakes!! It's harvesting time at the moment and all of the cut cane is transported to the two mills by light railway of 2 foot gauge. The term "light railway" is something of a misnomer as although the rails are certainly narrow gauge the trains are massive!! One train I saw this morning- pulled by a large, powerful loco- had 61 bogie 'bins'. It's a fantasticaly effective way of getting the cane to the mill- long may it continue!!
I really enjoy seeing the light, narrow-gauge lines heading off through the cane in all directions, often only the tops of the rails visible in the long grass, and across creeks and through remnants of the rainforest vegetation. There certainly is something really charming about light railways!
Another very enjoyable experience was having a look at some old 50's Hornby O gauge items, still owned by the original recipient! A 1950 M1 tender loco whose spring had 'exploded' sending the body into orbit, and a no. 501 LNER tender loco in very nice condition, and still serviceable.
It was really enjoyable hearing first-hand of the fun that Hornby trains had given this gentleman when he was young, and I'm sure will continue giving pleasure to younger generations.
Here's to the next 100 blog-posts, hopefully including the completion of the Trainbarn building!!
It's another fantastic day here at Whistlestop, absolutely perfect. I've been outside doing some more clearing and preparation for building the Trainbarn. It's getting so close to being finished, another couple of runs to the dump will see the site all ready for construction. That will be a relief, it's been hard work! I still haven't received the plans from the draftsman, but expect them very soon. I'm sure the timing will be perfect.
Another new arrival yesterday was an ACE Trains tender in NSWGR livery. These locos/tenders were released in 2006 but I wasn't able to buy one at the time, and there weren't many made in the NSW paint scheme. I figured that the same loco in the British LNER green livery is actually the same colour green, and since the loco itself doesn't have any distinct markings, if I can get an LNER version- which should be easier- I can simply put my NSW tender behind it, and voila, a NSW Celebration series loco!
While photographing the tender on my new train-board I thought I'd get out a couple of the diecast cars that I plan to use on the railway, and photograph them too. I don't really collect model cars, but I usually can't resist buying any that look suitable for one of my layouts. These are 1:43 scale, ideal for British O gauge trains. The Dinky Austin is by Dinky, and the red Morris Minor van is by Corgi Vanguards. They're perfect for the era of this new layout, and I love the bright colours!
The second board is all but finished, and I can't wait to set it all up and give the trains a run!!
Another beaut day here at Whistlestop! The end board of my portable layout is now painted green, thus evoking an amazingly realistic effect of a grassy landscape. Or not!! But I think it looks good, and tomorrow will see a start on an identical table for the other end. Building this small layout is giving me a taste of what it's going to be like once the Trainbarn building is completed and I can start building the large permanent layouts in it, that I've been planning for years. It's going to be fantastic!!
I used the board as a base to take a photo of a couple of small items that have arrived here recently. They're nothing to do with the layout as such, though. Both are items associated with past Train Collectors Association (USA) conventions. I'm a member of TCA, but haven't been able to attend one of their conventions yet, but hopefully that day will come.
The small luggage cart I found on ebay, and it's from their 2006 convention in San Antonio, Texas. I have some porters and station-staff to put on my Standard Gauge station, and now they've got something to load! This item was made by Pride Lines, sadly no longer in business. The lamps are reproductions of old Lionel items made by the current Lionel Corporation, but the street names are appropriate to the 2012 convention, held in Atlanta. Long term readers of this blog will realise that I have a particular passion for accessories!
Today was one of those magnificent days on the Granite Belt- 16 degrees C, absolutely clear and sunny, with no wind. Perfect for being outside, which I was!
I've decided to build a portable exhibition layout for the Trainbarn, and the first section of it emerged from my workshop today. It's actually the first layout I've built in the workshop, all the others have been in other odd parts of the world and are now doing good service as kitchen tables!
Of course it is just a specially designed table. The idea is that there will be another identical one facing it, and then two 'bridging' sections- one on each side, between them. These bridging sections can vary in length, depending on the display space available. The first two will be about three feet, making the overall length ten feet, as that's all the room I've got spare inside my workshop. I've just got an undercoat on the plywood surface at the moment, I'll put the green satin topcoat on tomorrow. Green-painted plywood- hence Plywood Central!!
I've put some Atlas O gauge track on the layout here, and a very nice product it is too! I don't plan on securing it, although it may just need a screw or two. The advantage of this is that I can change the track easily, depending on what I want to display at the time. Any of my various scales/ gauges can be accommodated. Initially it will be British coarse-scale O gauge, hence the beautiful Pullman coach having a test run. This Pullman is named Michaela, and was issued to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Hornby Railway Collectors' Association, of which I am a member.
Building layouts is probably the thing that I most enjoy doing, so I'm having a very good time doing this! Probably my second favourite thing is travelling around to toy-train shows searching for 'new' trains, and I haven't done that in quite a while. I plan to remedy that situation soon! In the meantime, the Plywood Central is keeping me happily occupied!
Long term readers of this blog will remember that quite some time ago I explained why I had chosen to display mostly American-made trains in my Trainbarn when it is built. Basically, although I do have a reasonable collection of some of the smaller British-made trains, such as Hornby Dublo and Tri-ang, and some Hornby O gauge, at that stage I didn't feel that these were particularly suited to long hours of display running, and there was very little then available in recently produced British toy-trains, certainly not enough to anchor a display.
How times change!! While I'm still firmly committed to having the first phase of the Trainbarn displaying American trains, it is impossible to ignore the growing range of superb models in O gauge produced by several manufacturers. Maybe one day there will be a British train section of the Trainbarn (new name required??), but in the meantime I am very much enjoying learning about this section of our hobby. Rather than waffle on and try to give a primer on British coarse-scale O gauge, I would like to refer readers to a new free Newsletter dealing with this subject. A gentleman by the name of David Upton in the UK publishes this really excellent and informative Newsletter and an email to him at d.upton355@btinternet.com will bring a copy to your electronic doorstep!
To sample the latest issue click here.
Most of the main manufacturers are represented in the Newsletter, and many good references and links.
It is fantastic to have so much choice in this great hobby!!
