Australian Vernacular

The next house for Hope St is a detailed LJ Models card kit of a quite typical early Australian suburban house. Once again, the producers' comment that some detailing lifts these kits is born out with simple detailing - real corrugated roof, cast chimneys, wooden steps and posts, cast window frames, etched cast iron work and wooden roof supports. I think it shapes up pretty well opposite the scratchbuilt pair of cottages, and is a very good result for a rather inexpensive kit.

Power to the People

Funny things telegraph poles, they are such a common feature of suburban streets as to be virtually invisible, however leave them out of a model and something is clearly missing, or put in some generic item, and there is something quite amiss! Hence these three poles have built in the style of the day and location and emplaced in Hope St, along with rudimentary wiring - just enough to garner the impression of what they're doing there. The means of carrying power under the overbridge is per prototype.

Un-rare Workings

One of the attractions of early era modelling is the enormous variety of workings that can be run. Beyond the typical (which by todays standards had huge variety), the following three workings have occured in the course of operations on Glenburn, and show just some of the working types that would have been less than typical, but far from rare in the period modelled.

E Class is called upon to working a rag tag assortment of stock back to Melbourne.

Twin swing door Motors power an Up short E train, crossing the outward bound midday Parcels Motor.
A Parcels Motor is called upon to run the Dn afternoon goods, here sweeping through Glenburn. This load will hardly tax her, single motors were rated for quite a few more wagons.

Another Celebration!

Like the E Class Electric, the D4 has been a long time coming, so I took some pictures to celebrate her arrival.

No.4 or something like that...

The second house for Hope St (not sure of the numbering yet...), built the same way as it's fellow though with room for an extension at the rear, more garden and room even for a chicken shed....just awaiting some chooks!

Set Up Celebration

To celebrate my acquiring the E Class, I set up a couple of shots. Keen observers will note the E does'nt yet have couplers, hence this was all posed.

Hope springs eternal...

Have started construction on Hope St, Glenburn. The first house here is scratchbuilt in styrene, card and wood with Ian Lindsay chimneys. This type of house is quite common around Glenferrie and Auburn stations, the prototype picture being taken near Glenferrie.

A bit carried away.

Completion of my first Tait Motor has led to a bit of a photo-shoot....

Figuratively speaking.....

I've lamented the apparent lack of interwar figures before in this Blog, however I recently found a supplier in Europe. Some of the figures are above, some will need repainting to dull them down a tad but I'm impressed overall. As such, I have finally been able to add some passengers to Glenburn, and replace the fruiterer who I've always thought looked a bit too modern. Signature elements for this period are full suits for chaps and cloche hats and low hemlines for ladies, and of course everyone wears a hat.

Strung Up!

Have extended the wiring a further section (only about 30 to go to circumnavigate the room...), this one a bit interesting in that it includes one of the crossovers between Up (left) and Dn (right) lines. As such I have strung a third catenary line between through the section covering the crossover.

Original Inspiration

Like any model railway, "Glenburn" had many inspirations preparatory to building. One of the more significant was inspired by a Rod Slogget photo of double swingdoor motors hauling a goods - a not-so-infrequent occurence during the interwar era. Here's such a train with two motors substituting for the regular electric loco which was called away....(I have'nt built it yet).

One scratchbuild looks at some others....

Louise holds up Rachel (5 months) for a spot of trainspotting - swing door set zooms into Glenburn

Up side of Glenburn

Work has started on building out the suburb of Glenburn in the Up direction.

LJ's kits note they come up well with a bit of work, and that was my experience - they're both relatively inexpensive and do respond well to some work - here this includes reversing the sides for a plain finish, adding corrugated roofing, a cast chimney and wooden landing and stairs

She's placed on the other side of All Saints facing the lane.

Hope St is bridged by another VR girder bridge, this time smaller girders per prototype practice for smaller openings.

Less detail on the "other side" of the line, but still needs some attention.

Behind the scenes.....

A change from the usual, a few pictures behind the scenes of Glenburn Operations:

A "Will-become-a-V-Class" on the Saturday afternoon Dn goods is held at a crossover as a D1 on the Up suburban pick-up goods crosses the Dn lines to the Up starting it's trip back to Melbourne.

The E and XYZ deputising as the breakdown train is stabled in Camberwell sidings as the crew go to work on the IA wagon nearest camera which dropped it's coupling while shunting in the yard.

Yard shunter E Class at work breaking up the weekend's goods workings, and reassembling them into new trains. I have established a sequencing pattern between the various goods services to ensure prototypical movement of wagons, continuing rotation of rollingstock, and that trains running on the layout have a reason for doing so. Low lighting is deliberate here simulating the nighttime shunting that used to take place in Melbourne yard. Passenger sets lay over between runs on 2 and 3 road.

Creating a scene at the back!

Some amateur artwork at the back of the layout looks a bit better than the plain white of before. (Nb. The above pictures can be clicked on for a larger version)