Jesus.

.......Because again this year, make no mistake, if I have any skill in modelling it is only because it's a gift from Him.

Best wishes for the Christmas Season and the New Year in 2020.

From the River to the Mountains

One regular thought over most of "Glenburn's" life has been connecting a country branch (with some credit and respect to Bruce McLean’s connexion of Mildura and Bright) in the same 1925-35 era. The possible VR/NSWGR connection at Tintaldra was one of the hundreds of wished-for extensions, though it got a bit further with the NSWGR surveying the line down from Tumbarumba to the border crossing it seems (the Germanton/Holbrook approach doesn’t seem to have been surveyed). Having driven over the plateau down to the Murray it would have been quite something. The small mine at Pine Mountain nearby supplied flux to BHP which may have helped though the volumes were small before BHP found other sources. The VR at that time was still railheaded at Tallangatta with Cudgewa authorised but nothing further and of course that’s all that happened.

So the potential branch station is a dual-gauge VR Tintaldra as it may have been with the yard layout type a much-simplified version of that used at Oaklands. Above are a couple of artefacts including my rough initial diagram of this little extension (though will now be three roads, not four) and a map from a 1912 Sydney Morning Herald Article.

The Fluospar traffic out of "Tintaldra" (SG via NSWGR) requires a rake of opens as likely the most regular traffic. Given my era I have chosen to build these up with a mix of D and steel S wagons which will be sheeted. Having near-finished (final detail to apply post painting) the Ian Lindsay NSWGR D Wagon I'm now working to get the Redfern Models D's to better resemble the type. The base model seems Ok for my needs with most of the change in the peripherals. Above is a WIP picture of the two so far.

This shows the fit of the new section into the room, the two large baseboards at right having been assembled to provide for most of the station, and also a section for my modelling desk.

The next step is off the wharf....

Commenced work over the Christmas/New Year break on the next section of Glenburn which will resemble parts of Melbourne city rather than the suburbs. Key elements are a (reduced) Spencer St viaduct, a small section of the late Fish and general Markets and a wharf on the Yarra such as those at the previous Queens Wharf and Australia Wharf. First job are the baseboards which are done again with Marine Ply atop cedar ladder framing, back scene boards and something a bit different - a diagonal extension across the layout of the back scene to help separate the suburban from the city section - works from many but not all angles, but is the best I can do in this limited space. Some pictures of these works follow and as always, more detail of the build and Glenburn updates can be found at this Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AndrewCollierModellingHOVictorian/

Suburban "side" of the scenic break.

Scenic break before repainting and bridging.

The double track on the right will be the reduced-viaduct, the lower section the wharf and ahead in the distance the extension toward the Mid Circle Line