It's been a while!

 It's been quite a while since I last wrote on my blog, a fact that I've been acutely aware of!  Like many other parts of Australia we've had various extremes of weather over the last couple of years, most recently extremely wet weather, though we've avoided the terrible floods that have been and are still affecting many areas of the East Coast.  Most of my work has been cleaning up fallen trees and branches, and with our grass growing at an unprecedented rate, lots of mowing!  I'm sure that nobody is interested in reading about that any more than I'm interested in writing about it!

A New Fence

A while ago I had a short section of post and rail fence built near the middle of our property and I showed this in the previous post.

Like most of my other fencing this one doesn't actually serve any useful purpose, other than it helps to define the area that it's in and also to display some of my collection of enamel signs!  Eventually I hope to construct an old-style machinery shed behind this fence and having the fence in place helps me a lot when planning exactly where to put the shed.  It's a particularly cloudy and drizzly day today and the tea-tree bushes in the background look unusually grim.

I have finally finished the installation of this sign, which I really like!  It's a reproduction available from a very talented signwriter, and is very hard to tell from an original.

This sign is 'The real McCoy' and is one I've had in storage for quite a while, it's very exciting to finally have it on display.  Being original it already has various screw holes for attachment, but these didn't really match up with the fence rails, so I had to figure out the best way to hang it.  I decided to build a hardwood frame to attach the sign to, which gave me the flexibility to attach the frame to the fence rails at the height that looks best.

Plume brand petrol was sold by the Vacuum Oil Company here in Australia, and was eventually re-branded as Mobil.

Hopefully, from now on, I'll be able to find some interesting updates to write about, and it won't be another two years until the next post!

A different year

 It's been nearly a year since my last update on this blog, and what a year it's been!  We have had bushfires nearby and a continuing ever-present threat of more, an on-going severe drought, a wedding on our property (our youngest daughter) which couldn't have been better, a funeral, a birth (second wonderful grandson) and of course this wretched virus.  In between all of that I've been focusing on improving the infrastructure of our property, generally tidying up, and finishing some projects on my long list!

We built a much-needed new entryway to the property in time for the wedding, but the gates had to wait.  They're now in place and I'm extremely pleased with them!

Although our main track through the property was massively improved for the wedding, it has required some fine-tuning to improve it's appearance and really integrate it into our bushland property.  So I've been chipping away at that and am very pleased with the progress.

Another project that I've wanted to do for a long time is to construct a suitable fence as a first step towards developing an as yet un-named part of the property further in, and this first step has now been taken!  I love all aspects of old machinery, old cars and associated signs etc. and have taken the opportunity to mount one of my signs on this new fence, photographed during a visit of a friend with an appropriate classic car, a Citroën ID19.

The trains and the Trainbarn generally have not been neglected, though progress has slowed a little with everything else taking priority.  One of my sons-in-law is a professional photographer and we've had several sessions in the 'barn photographing and filming the trains, which has been very interesting indeed! Here are a couple of close-ups, though the railway has advanced a bit since these were taken.

Although this year has been, and continues to be, an extremely difficult one for so many people, we have largely escaped unscathed so far.  Our daughters though are having to contend with various logistical challenges due to the lockdowns and limits on travel generally, but we've had the wonderful pleasure of having our two grandsons unexpectedly living close by and that has been a real blessing.  The eldest, now two and a half, is absolutely captivated by tractors and machinery generally, which I enjoy and appreciate very much, of course!  If this time has taught me anything it's to enjoy each moment, each day, and to try not to be too concerned about what the future holds, although that certainly isn't easy!

First Sod

Some of my O gauge layout has now had the final coat of paint applied, which opens up the opportunity to start laying the track permanently.  I've laid some of the track temporarily on the undercoated (white) table, which was easy to draw the appropriate centrelines etc. on, however this all needs to come up again in due course.  So today the newly varnished ballast board was nailed down and the first track properly laid!

Here is the Peckett contractor's loco, plus SE&CR van, on the new section of track.  I couldn't be happier with how it all looks and functions!

Originally I had planned to paint the 'ballast' board a light grey, which I have seen on other layouts, but once I started working with the 3mm MDF I realised how good it would look with just a coat of satin varnish.  Obviously not a terribly realistic representation of real ballast, but it's a toy-train layout!  I nailed the MDF down with hardboard nails, positioned under the sleepers so that the heads can't be seen.  The Maldon Track is screwed down through the ballast into the plywood top so that everything is very firm.  The Maldon Track is superb to work with, I'm very happy indeed with the choice to use that.

Each step of building this layout is somewhat challenging, and I really never know quite how it's going to turn out, but I'm certainly happy with everything so far.  Cutting the curved 'ballast' so that it's a nice, smooth curve will be interesting, watch this space!

Flat top

There continues to be good progress on my 'big' railway, with most of the plywood surface now in place.  Installing the plywood is going well, probably better than expected, but it does take time.  I sand the plywood lightly first, then undercoat with a brush to get it right into the grain, then fill any damaged areas, then sand lightly again.  It can now be glued and screwed onto the frame, then the small pieces of plywood that connect it to it's neighbour are installed, all holes filled, including the joints, then all sanded again.

Once all the sheets of ply are installed (leaving one out of the middle for access) I'll give it another coat of undercoat with a roller to provide a nice white surface, ready for the topcoat of green.  Before that though I'll be installing the first oval of track, taking advantage of the white paint to draw the simple trackplan onto the surface.

I'm looking forward very much to laying the track!  And having a really good clean-up, as with all the sanding required the whole space has become very dusty, not something I take kindly to!

Coming along

My new railway is coming along well!  It will be O gauge three-rail and mostly will be based on British prototype, but occasionally other trains may feature!  The base is pretty much finished and I'm really happy with it.  Now the bearers for the table-top are being installed and all being well I hope to attach the first sheet of plywood for the layout surface tomorrow.

Initially the table surface will be left just in undercoat, which will make it easier to mark out where the tracks need to go.  I have been building the straight tracks, which come as a kit- basically sleepers and rails.  It's a fairly slow process, but the results are worth it!  The curves and points come ready made, fortunately.

Very happy with the progress!

A new railway starts to take shape

This week I have finally started on what will be the biggest layout in my Trainbarn - the O gauge three-rail layout.  One of the delays in starting this was a 'struggle' regarding which layout to build in the remaining available space.  I had always planned to build an American Standard Gauge layout there, but for a variety of reasons this has now been put on the backburner.  First of all I laid out some boards to the size of the new layout to make sure it will fit ok.

I'm using all the same techniques that I used for the previous two layouts, for building what is effectively just a huge table.  Here is the first long side, built in two parts.

This layout will use currently available track made by Maldon Track from the UK, which is superb track, though not inexpensive.  The locomotives and rolling stock will be mainly from ACE Trains, Darstaed and WJVintage, all basically limited editions and produced in small numbers.  They are all in the style of some of the great British model train makers of times past, such as Hornby and Bassett-Lowke, and hopefully the layout will have a 'classic' feel to it.

I feel incredibly blessed to have the space available to build this huge layout and while I'm certainly enjoying this stage of building the table, I can't wait to start getting the track down and running some trains!

A Summer Holiday Part 1

We've just returned from a wonderful holiday in Europe, mostly visiting family and friends, but also fitting in a lot of rail-related activities!

On arrival in Budapest, Hungary, for our first stop we were treated to an 'Oldtimer Festival' at the excellent Railway Museum, which I have previously visited.  As well as all the full-sized trains there I was able to take my little grandson on a very good miniature railway ride around the park.  We both enjoyed that!  There were of course lots of interesting old cars too!

We really enjoy Budapest, not just because of family there, but it's a really beautiful city! And it has trams.

Probably the most scenic route is the number 2, which runs along the Danube, and just happened to be close by.

Whilst in Budapest I was able to visit the Roma Market on the outskirts of town, which is always a good place to find railway related items.  This time I found some old 0 gauge track made in Hungary by the PV company.  I was also able to buy a very nice four-wheel coach made by PV in a shop in Budapest.

We spent Easter in Slovenia, in a very beautiful wine growing area.  While there was nothing particularly rail-related I was very impressed by how beautiful Slovenia is.  And we caught up with more family!

We went by train up to Berlin, which was a really interesting journey.  The train was a Hungarian MAV one, and comfortable enough.  The section of the trip through northern Czech and southern Germany along the Elbe River is spectacular!  Passing through Prague I was reminded that my favourite toy trains are made there by ETS trains.  Must spend some time there one day!

Just a quick visit to Berlin this time, but we spent longer on the way back.  We particularly enjoyed the S Bahn system, which operates above ground, often elevated, and is a great way to see Berlin.  There is an old S Bahn coach at Tegel Airport set up as a cafe.

In the next instalment I'll give a brief summary of our time in Train Heaven, aka England!

A very big table

Some very good progress inside the Trainbarn this last month.  The 'table' for the Tri-ang 00 layout is now completely finished, which has been quite a big job.

In the post from last month this 'construction' was just three support sides, now it's finished!  I have copied the covers of several Tri-ang catalogues that I own and had them block-mounted and it is these that can be seen around the base.  I have nearly all the catalogues now, but the problem in our area is that no-one does block-mounting.  Eventually though, all the covers prior to the Hornby era will be mounted around the base.

As you can see there is some track appearing on the table!  I am working to a basic plan, from one of Tri-ang's track plan books, but much expanded.  I am also squeezing in some Minic Motorway roads so I need to optimise the space available, particularly the width.  Each piece of track needs to be cleaned and inspected carefully prior to being laid, as most of it has been used before and it is all at least 50 years old.  I am aiming initially just to get one circuit fully complete so that I can run trains properly, and then build on that as time and track become available.  Needless to say though that trains have already been run, for testing purposes!

With this year rapidly coming to a finish I've called 'tea' on any further layout building for the year, but will use the remaining time to finish off the many small jobs on the Trainbarn building itself.  I am really happy to be able to finally get a lot of my collected Tri-ang items out of their boxes and onto the layout.  I think it will be a very interesting layout to run and view once it's done!

A fort?

A quick update from yesterday's progress in the barn.  I've been working on the parts for the base of my next layout - Tri-ang OO - and yesterday, with the parts for three sides complete, I couldn't resist putting them together in the place that they'll live.  That also clears my improvised work area for side number four!

The photos aren't great quality, having been just snapped on my phone, but here's the new layout as seen from the entry archway.

And looking in a different direction with the TT layout in the background.  Incidentally, the TT layout has been progressing well, with the main station largely complete as regards all the required accessory items.

As my layouts don't need to be portable I like the bases to be fully enclosed, so I basically use house stud-wall techniques to build them, and then sheeted with wallboard or, in this case, plywood.  Most things that I build are massively and excessively strong, and these bases are no exception!  Once side number four is in place I'll build a simple table top on the base, similar to what is known as the L-girder technique.  Side four will have a small doorway for access to the electrics and, most likely, some useful storage space.

Seeing something so substantial come together like this was immensely satisfying!  I'm looking forward very much to the completion of the table-top and the start of tracklaying and the placement of accessories.

TT Station

Each system of model railways has it's own distinct character, and this is what I hope to show with each of the layouts in the Trainbarn.  With the Tri-ang TT layout that I'm focusing on at the moment the locomotives and rolling stock are mostly smaller sized versions of Tri-ang's OO system, however the buildings and accessories are completely different.  Apart from the smaller size it's these features that really identify this as a Tri-ang TT layout.

This iconic Tri-ang TT art-deco style station arrived today, and I had great fun placing it on the layout.  It's approximately 60 years old, virtually 'as-new' and didn't cost an arm and a leg.  Some TT items are quite expensive, but the station is relatively common, so you can just wait until you find one in the right condition and a favourable price.  My (invisible) TT passengers are still in danger of falling off the non-track side of the platform, so the search continues for the attractive platform walls.  Also, the station remains anonymous, so one or more seat units with the station name needs to be sourced.  There was a considerable choice of station names, I'm not fussy at the moment, whatever I can find first!

Being a fairly short-lived system there aren't the wide choices of other non-train accessory items that there are with OO scale.  Wherever possible I try to only incorporate items that would have been available during the period the trains were being produced, which with British TT is quite limiting!  Researching old magazines to learn what was around in the appropriate period is great fun, but very time consuming!  Then you have to actually find the item!  For example, TT scale cars from that era are very few, but some of the smaller Matchbox and Minix cars can be used successfully.

Table Top

I've heard many retirees make the comment that they wonder when they ever had time to go to work!  While I'm not exactly retired as such, I've been incredibly busy these last few months, and find myself wondering the same thing.  Lots of things have been happening on many fronts, but the most relevant and interesting for this blog is of course the trains!

For many years I've been planning to build various layouts for different train systems when the space to do so became available.  One of these is the TT gauge system introduced by Tri-ang in Britain in 1957.  This was not really planned to be my 'first' layout in the Trainbarn, but the more I thought about it the more I realised 'why not'!  I have collected bits a pieces for this over the years but didn't really know what I had or what I still needed for this collection.  The obvious answer was to build a layout, which immediately showed up the gaps.

Tri-ang introduced TT, which stands for table-top, as a small sibling of it's very popular OO gauge system.  OO is 4mm to one foot scale, whereas Tri-ang TT is 3mm to one foot.  At the time it was released it was the smallest commercial scale, but was soon usurped by N scale which is smaller again.  The advantage of TT is that you can build a more comprehensive layout in the same space as compared to OO, or build a basic layout in a smaller space, ie a table-top.  Combined with the rise of N scale and the fact that many Tri-ang dealers disliked having to stock two complete systems instead of one, sales of TT soon declined.  It was finally abandoned by Tri-ang in 1968.  Incidentally, TT is still very popular indeed in the eastern part of Germany, though to a slightly smaller scale.

So, here is a 'classic' Tri-ang TT layout, built on a sheet of plywood 1200mm x 2400mm, though I would've preferred 4' x 8'!!

Of course it's not finished, how boring would that be!!  But it's a very good start and I can clearly see what I still need to look out for.  It is basically two ovals joined by points and will eventually have lots of sidings and an engine shed to display as much as possible of the TT range of rolling stock.

These little trains are amazing, they're so simple and well engineered.  I give everything a good check over and lubrication as necessary and they just go! And go, and go.  I really like this Southern Region 'Spam Can'!  It needs some more green carriages, the search is on!  One thing about Tri-ang TT generally that I'm finding is that being so shortlived - dare I say 'unpopular', there are lots of items available in either new or very good condition.  Many items seem not to have been played with very much.

For example this set:-

It has been carefully used, but not too much.

This 'Jinty' tank loco was probably the most common loco in the TT range.

The layout has been great fun to build and I've learnt a few lessons from it that I can apply to other layouts.  It is obviously still a work in progress, though even as it is now it's great fun to operate!  The contra-rotating trains don't seem to miss each other by very much on the parallel tracks, particularly the curves, but that's how it was designed.

As I develop this layout in the coming months I'll post some updates, meanwhile a start has been made on layout number two!

Scale and Gauge Revisited

Now that the Trainbarn is effectively finished I'm starting to install some of the 'permanent' displays, which of course I have dreamed of doing for so long!  The first is in the entry area and is what I call the 'Scale and Gauge' display.  Long term readers will have seen a preview of this display quite some time ago, but now it's complete!

The most recent addition to the display is the print on canvas showing the iconic image of the Santa Fe Super Chief, and I think this photo goes very well with the collection of locomotives.  I have collected a Santa Fe 'warbonnet' F 7A diesel locomotive in every model railroading scale, from Z to G scale.  In front of each loco and track is the scale's name, the scale proportion and the track gauge, the intention being to help clarify the often confusing terms and sizes for someone new to the hobby.  The photo of this display was kindly made by my son-in-law, who is a professional photographer and is way better than my usual snapshots!  

On the far left of the picture above you can see a piece of OO/HO track (the same gauge- 16.5mm) with two British Brake Vans on it, which at first sight might seem a bit out of place.  Not so!  One is the 'normal' British OO scale (4mm/one foot) and one is the much less common (in Britain) HO scale (3.5mm/one foot), both running on the same gauge track, and the difference in size is very noticeable.

Here's a closer view from a different angle showing the sizes of the locos more clearly.  The smallest is Z scale, then N, TT, HO, S, O, 1 and G scale.

It is extremely exciting setting up these displays at last, which I've been planning for many years!

C'est fini

Well, it's taken a bit longer than expected, but the carpet in the main display area is now completely finished and it looks great!

We deliberately chose to do similar 'panorama' type shots, before and after.  Given the large area, the carpet layers chose to go with a commercial underlay glued to the concrete, and the carpet glued to the underlay, to prevent any movement or wrinkles.  It feels nice and soft, and reduces the 'echo' significantly, which I'm pleased about.

Let the layout-building begin!

And the winner is...............

After a monumental effort, and my son-in-law coming to the rescue, all the painting is finished in the main area!  Which is just as well as the carpet layers are arriving tomorrow to start, naturally enough, laying the carpet!  'We' also had to clean the slab as thoroughly as possible as apparently the underlay needs to be bonded to a nice clean slab.  And it's done, finished, complete!!  

The only other thing remaining to be done in this area is to stain and install the architrave around the two windows and then start building the layouts!!

Obviously I'm very excited that finally this stage has been reached.  I'll post some more photos once the carpet is down.

Coming into the final straight

As another month starts to wind down I can say that I'm quite pleased with the progress here at Whistlestop.  Usually February is a 'mowing month' with the grass growing as you watch it, but it's been abnormally dry here and very hot, so not a lot of growth.  Which is just as well as we had a ferocious storm late on Christmas day here last year which brought down vast numbers of trees and branches, making it necessary to tidy up before mowing any area.  I made a start, but it'll take months- and a bigger chainsaw- to catch up.

The focus therefore has been on getting the Barn finished, well, at least the main display area.

The only painting still required is on some of the wallboard, the chair-rail and skirting, otherwise it's done!!  What a mammoth job it's been, but I'm super happy with the end result.  I have the carpet booked to go in here soon too, which will make an enormous difference.  And once that's in the layout building can begin!  I've waited a lot of years to get to this point, and so I couldn't be happier!

This is the area that the Standard Gauge layout will go, and it'll be the first of several layouts that I'll build.  It will also no doubt be the most spectacular!  Standard Gauge is a very rare size in Australia, I'm sure it's quite unusual in it's home country- the US- now too.

There are still endless jobs to do, some big, some small, but we're certainly getting closer to completion.  I'm sure though that as most railway layouts are never really completed, so it will be also with the building housing them!

I'm very glad indeed to be getting nearer to completion though!

Detailed Planning

As the work on the Barn is getting ever closer to being finished I'm giving more than a little thought to the design and construction of the layout tables.  The track designs are pretty much confirmed, but there are always details to be decided upon.  Many people these days, of course, are using computer software to design railway layouts, and I'm sure there are some very clever programs available for people who like that sort of thing.  Being very much 'old school' myself though, there's nothing better than getting out a fresh sheet of paper and ruler and pencil (and eraser) and drawing what I have been mentally picturing.

Sometimes though there's no substitute for getting out track and accessories and putting them together to see how they fit, and this is what I decided to do on this cold and rainy afternoon.  There were two things that I wanted to check, firstly if the magnificent #128 Station Terrace would fit easily between two parallel tracks, and the answer was yes!  And secondly the corners of the table.  The corners will be cut off at 45 degrees as they tend to be just wasted space, but also to allow easier access around the table.  The question was how much to cut off, and this has now been decided.

Of course it was great fun getting out all these fantastic bits and pieces!  The thing I really hate though is putting them all away again.  One day, soon, that won't be necessary!

Cité du Train

We're on holidays at the moment, on our way to visit our daughter, who lives in Budapest Hungary, for Christmas.  We flew into Paris firstly, spent a couple of days there, and we're now catching trains across Europe to Budapest.  The chance to spend a few days in Mulhouse, eastern France, was one not to be missed, as this attractive city also contains two of France's best museums- the Cité du Train and the Cité de L'Auto- both of which are absolutely outstanding museums.

The Cité du Train is France's National Railway Museum and contains some absolutely amazing items.  Overall I'd say it represents the vast history of France's railways very well.  The museum is really in two parts- the original part and a newer part built for the Millenium.  The newer part is where you enter, and significantly at this time of year it is heated, the original part is not!  As a museum 'junkie' I definitely liked the newer part better, although the original part contains vastly more items.  Effectively it is a very large metal shed, with no windows, and the interior is completely satin black but with very effective spotlights highlighting the exhibits.

The first train that you see is the superb 'Micheline' railcar (Autorail) which I am very fond of.  The only other place in the world that you can see one of these is in Madagascar!  For me it symbolises French engineering generally- a willingness to try out different, hopefully better, ways of doing things, albeit not always successful !  In this case, as the name alludes to, the wheels are actually pneumatic rubber tyres, while of course still having steel flanges, an idea that ultimately didn't catch on.

In this section there were all sorts of sound effects, including 'conversations' by 'passengers' which I'm sure were quite amusing, though my French wasn't good enough to understand them.  There were mannequins, which I usually detest in museums, but these were caricatures and were very effective.

There were many details that were highlighted, and which as a collector, really fascinated me.

Moving into the original section was something of a shock as it was seriously cold!  Mind you, it was snowing outside too!  There were windows in the roof as well, which made photography a real challenge, if not impossible.  Despite this, though, there were some truly amazing locomotives on display, including all my favorite Hornby O,  AcHo and Jep HO prototypes!

It was a 'fantastique' day out, I can definitely recommend this museum, though perhaps not in winter!  France can be very proud indeed of it's railway and engineering history, and it's railway museum.

Within sight

Some good progress recently on the Trainbarn, and at our property 'Whistlestop' generally, though nothing particularly photogenic!

The Trainbarn

The interior of the main display area of the Trainbarn is now two-thirds complete.  I decided to tackle the chair-rail (belt-rail) and skirting boards around the area that has been painted, and was really amazed at how much difference this made to the look of the area.  The chair-rail was easier than expected to install on my own, made easier by the nice, level floor and the fantastic Makita compound-mitre saw that was a gift a year or so ago.

This is the area just to the left of the archway, where initially the Classic British O gauge layout will be.  The layout here will be 25' 10" x 11' 6", which is a really great size!  I have used Australian Dulux paint exclusively, the wainscot is Hog Bristle, the plaster walls Hog Bristle Half, and the ceiling Antique White USA, and I couldn't be more happy with the end result.  This is about one third of the display area and just behind where I'm standing, taking the photo, the second third is now also finished, however the final 'third' of the area is still unpainted plasterboard, but certainly I am feeling that the end is in sight!!

Slowly the entry area of the 'barn is evolving too.  Something that I enjoy enormously is getting things out of boxes that have been in storage for many years, and this Bachmann G scale loco is a typical case!

This is the Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidation in 1:20.3 scale, which accurately represents a 3 foot gauge prototype on G scale track (45mm/ 1 ¾").  I bought it online many years ago in a 'close-out' special but it had never been out of it's box before now.  I'd like to run it some day, but until then it looks great on the entry area wall!

Also in the entry area is my temporary display table, currently with various N gauge items set-up on it.  We had some international visitors come to our place, minus a translator, so I wanted them to see something other than N gauge, as I didn't want them to think that the whole Trainbarn was only going to display these tiny trains!  As the two operating Japanese locos were electric, I decided to get out other electric catenary-equipped locos of different sizes.  So, out came the Lionel (MTH) 408E in Standard Gauge, the Lionel O gauge GG1, and my Auscision HO Victorian Railways L class.

Not a very convincing display, I'd have to say, but hopefully it conveyed the effect that I wanted.

With the immense amount of wall area that I have available in the main display area, much of which will ultimately have train display cabinets on it, I also need to hang some appropriate, as-large-as-possible, pictures etc, to avoid the very bare look that it currently has.  Of course there are many posters and prints available, but I want everything to be as relevant as possible and one source that I've 'discovered' is jigsaw puzzles.  I have found that I really enjoy doing them, particularly when my wife- who sees things very differently to me- helps out.

Not a good photo, but this 1000 piece jigsaw of a 1926 Lionel catalog cover is exactly the sort of thing that I was looking for, though it was extremely difficult to do, as every piece was a different, odd shape.  Unfortunately we both did this while away from home and to transport it back it needed to be partially disassembled, but with all the odd shapes it didn't come apart well, so might effectively need re-doing.  Anyway, we'll get it whole again, glue it together and get it framed, and it should make a great display.

Whistlestop generally

About half my time recently has been spent outside, mowing and generally tidying up the property, which I enjoy immensely.  There are still a few areas that are infested with African Love Grass, which have never been cleared or mown, so I'm trying to gradually chip away at that.  Every little bit that's completed really makes a difference, and also seems to lead into what needs to be done next.  Once mown the Love Grass actually makes a reasonable, if somewhat lumpy, lawn, and looks quite presentable.  Mowing it down also allows the other native grasses to get a look in.


It's been great to have the time to get some of these jobs done, some of which I've been 'planning' for many years.  It is really great and encouraging to see good progress!

A visit to Herberton

I had another birthday last weekend and to celebrate we decided to combine a visit to my in-laws, who live in northern Queensland, with a trip to an open-air museum that I have long wanted to visit- the Historic Village Herberton.  We visited this museum in the early 198os not long after it had opened, but the much developed Village of today is significantly improved, though it still honors it's early foundations.  I love open-air museums and have been to quite a few both here in Australia and in the UK.  Each one has it's own character and Herberton is no exception, and we absolutely loved our visit there.  It is very easy indeed to spend the whole day there, which I did.  I made lots of photos, but here are a few which give some idea of what the museum is like, and what I particularly liked!

A feature of the Village generally is that there are a huge number of 'as found' cars, trucks, tractors and other machinery, which would not normally be on display in most museums.  They have been given a protective coating to prevent further deterioration and most are identified regarding their make and year.  I'm not sure if there is any intention of restoring any of these one day, but I'd have to say that they do make a very effective and interesting display just the way they are!

They certainly have an enormous quantity of exhibits, probably more than I've ever seen elsewhere, but they are all clean, well displayed and well lit.

My grandfather ran a Chemist shop in Melbourne in the early part of the last century, and I've always been fascinated by displays of all the pills and potions sold in earlier days.  The Chemist's shop in the village was really well set up and like everywhere else contained LOTS of interesting items!

One of the owners of the Village has a passion for early John Deere tractors- can't blame him for that!!- and there's a very nice display in the newer part of the village.

This newer section, on the other side of the Wild River, is bordered by the former Queensland Railways line that used to run through Herberton to Ravenshoe.  This line has long been disused, but is now being restored by the Atherton Herberton Historic Railway  and rides on restored section cars are operated between the museum and Herberton station.  It worked out better for us to join the ride at Herberton, which we did on Sunday.  The track runs through some pretty spectacular terrain, and the plan is to restore it in stages right through to Atherton.  Anyway, we had a great trip and a good chat with the volunteers operating it.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and a very memorable birthday!  I would thoroughly recommend a visit to the Village and a ride on the 'Tinlander'!!