A short lived idyll, Charity Street and a "Mustard Pot".

For me, modelling doesn't get much better than this -  A project underway, a cup of tea close at hand, a few evening hours free ahead and some good Test cricket (in this case The Ashes) chattering away from my old radio that my Dad restored. Something about valves makes it all sound right. The combination is just brilliant, wish I could bottle it. It could only have been better if Australia was playing better, on this night they were, but not for long.....

Fortunately the modelling presses on, and in this case as can be seen in the two pictures above, I have extended some of the scenery to an overbridge that I actually started building a year ago before realising there was a whole lot more work to do before it could be emplaced. The abutments are not equal and that's a factor of it's location which might be divined by the second shot wherein it bridges both the scenicked section and the "hidden" suburban stabling. The unusual shape will probably make more sense once I have built the next section of scenery, for now, trust me, I know what I'm doing.....I think......Anyway, this latest of "Glenburn's" streets needed a name, and I had been tempted to extend the previous thinking of Hope St and Faith St to name this Love St (per 1 Corinthians 13:13 for the ecumenical readers), however a discussion on the Victorian Railways forum had David Foulkes of Steam Era Models and Geoff Baxter of Hollywood Foundry noting Charity might work. Now, without the excellent products of these two people, Glenburn would be at least less and possibly not exist at all - Steam Era Models kits and parts are widely used throughout my rolling stock, and all suburban units are powered by Bullant or Steam Era Beetle mechanisms. So, as a thanks to them both, this is the Charity Street bridge.

As I mentioned above, there's quite some scenic work to go to complete this section however for a change of pace I took on the two vehicles to populate it with. Both are European models, modified to varying degrees to match local prototypes. I'm a bit pleased with the Yellow Cab (apparently "Mustard Pot" in their day). I had seen yellow cab looking vehicles in paintings of the day, and a little research showed there to be a good reason for this being the case. The previous Mercedes was thus changed a bit to better resemble one of the Fiats that were imported in the early 1920s to form a Taxi fleet in Melbourne. I skimped on the wheel covers which works at viewing distance on the layout but my quick work-around is way too obvious here. If you're interested, some more detail on these Yellow Cabs is here:
http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1660.shtml

For the bus I referenced a few pictures from here and there of buses in the era in Melbourne, including those included on the brilliant "Cavalcade of Transport" mural now at Southern Cross station, and a real boon for modellers of this era.

Some welcome visitors.

It's nice to be able to host other people's models on "Glenburn" for a spin across the rails. Peter Ennis and Iain Stuart dropped over again recently bringing and interesting selection of rolling stock. Peter is an excellent scratchbuilder and my average pictures don't do his work justice. The below are pictures of some of the items Peter brought:

 Two rare birds, the KM and IS, both of which were one offs.

Peter's J very nicely converted from an American kit

Peter's short Z, YZ and variations on the ZF here

Some nice tarpaulin work simulating the less commonly modelled oversize load. My basic camera failed to properly capture Peter's NN, a delicate and very nice rendition of the prototype.

 

By his own admission Peter is a fan of vans, and here is a bit of VR brass history, the one-off bogie ZZ produced some years ago by Precision Scale Models on the left, and a McBees (I think?) brass C van on the right.

 

If you're interested, "Glenburn" does occasionally host other prototypes, some of which can be seen on my "Other HO Modelling" page:

http://shelley-railways-other-modelling.blogspot.com.au/

A bit more polychrome, and some print

The second house up the cutting was generally based on that next door to the previous in Yarra Grove, this time having the polychromatic brickwork that is a feature of many older houses in Melbourne. The house was built up in Walthers styrene brick sheet with styrene, wood and etch detailing, the slate roofing again being approximated via Superquick sheet suitably weathered.

The picture below shows it now installed on the layout in a larger yard appropriate to this more wealthy area. My jury is still out on whether the tree at the fence is too large for this spot though I'm warming to it.

Completion of catenary through this area has opened up some new angles for photography also including that below.

As mentioned before, I detailed the build of this section of scenery in the Victorian Railways Forum:

http://www.victorianrailways.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10&start=20

While the layout is only about a 1/3rd complete, I was fortunate to have the layout featured in the June issue of Australian Model Railway Magazine (AMRM) as the first of three installments covering it. All I need to do for the other two installments is actually complete those sections!

Picture: Australian Model Railway Magazine

The AMRM team have done a great job of photographing and producing a diagram of the layout so I recommend it if you are interested in "Glenburn". AMRM has been kind enough to allow the layout to have some aspects covered by a couple of other articles to date if you want to read further:

* Victorian Railways in the Inter-war Years (mid 1920s-mid 1930s) - AMRM #285, December 2010

* A Double-layered Layout Room - AMRM #292, February 2012

1/3 of a House and some Shopping

Work on the scenery around the cutting has continued with the first house now complete, again this using mostly card with Tichy Trains windows and doors, and modelled quite closely on a property in Yarra Grove at the prototype location. I could only fit a relief building in the limited space but thought this better than just painting on the backscene in this location. Here's a couple of typical viewing lines:

In the above, Oops, I knocked the High Tension mast during works!

As mentioned before, if you're interested to read more about this current extension of "Glenburn" scenery, it's tabled in the Victorian Railways Forum here:

http://www.victorianrailways.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10&start=20
(You don't have to join it to read, however you will need to join it if you want to comment.)

Having seen some work with Adobe Photoshop in recent years, I was keen to have a go at seeing what was possible. I haven't built lights into "Glenburn" to date, and my backscenes aren't always as high as I would like for pictures (particularly as overhead stands high and requires alot of sky as backdrop!) so my first effort worked on these two aspects.

Here's the original shot: 

The below picture shows the result of my first session, mostly using the simple tools of darkening the picture, drawing in some lit windows, adding some spray painted smoke and clouds, then smudging to get it a bit more "real":

There's quite a bit written about the pros/cons of photoshopping particularly with identifying when it has been used with regard to prototype photography, however as far as I can tell, surprisingly little when it comes to model photography. For my part I reckon making a picture lighter or sharper is fine - ie. it doesn't alter the content of what we're showing -but when the picture is altered to improve the content it should be called out, and I will be doing so if I post any other pictures on this blog that are 'shopped.

Happy 5th Birthday "Glenburn"

For some reason I have kept a diary of my modelling for both "Cudgewa" and "Glenburn" as well as some other modelling. Having a look back at the Glenburn diary, I realised that while I built a couple of items of rolling stock in 2006, layout building began in 2008 and hence it is 5 years since I started this layout, the starting entry being:

"31.3.08
Following tidying up and reformatting the Cudgewa room, set up two supports for the Inner East Suburban layer, and have since laid out and built a baseboard for Glenburn station (the first module), and commenced measuring and lining out the tracks and station. Also last night commenced some of the under-gear for the Motor."

Celebrations aside, distractions from "Glenburn" continue both of non-era and non-VR modelling and also of the household variety, our recent painting of half the rooms in our house led to the "Cudge Room" being near full of pictures, toys and and trinkets we needed to have out of the way! But I did keep enough space around the modelling desk to keep it useful of course. :^ ) Nonetheless the extension of scenery has continued since the last post with a couple of midweek sessions adding the next layer onto the area underway - ground cover and ballast, so it looks a bit more like Melbourne and a bit less like the moon:

One thing that hasn't been interupted by distractions but was stopped by the house painting is train running. Usually confined to the larger goods workings, I gave the V a chance to stretch its legs on the Up Country Pass, a working that will become far more common once I build some stock.

As per last post, there is more detail on what's going on here on the Victorian Railways forum:
http://www.victorianrailways.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10&start=20

Forum outpaces Blog!

Way back in June last year I included in a post (http://vrlatestupdates.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/minor-setback-progress-and-some.html) some work on extending Glenburn's scenery to the next "section". This work has progressed since then, albeit a bit sporadically as I have interspersed some rolling stock building, some research, distraction from other prototypes, the usual myriad of modelling distractions! Anyway.....it has actually progressed and I have tabled both a detailed background to the build, and the steps along the way in a yarn on the Victorian Railways Forum to which I attend. Having worked on that I forgot to update the Blog accordingly, so here is how the scene looks today......

If you're interested to read about the thinking behind it and follow the step-by-step it's tabled in the Victorian Railways Forum here:
http://www.victorianrailways.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10&start=20
You don't have to join it to read, however you will need to join it if you want to comment.

Jesus.

.......Because again this year, as with many years hence, if I have any skill in modelling it is only because it's a gift from Him.

Layouts are only 10% materials, the other 90% is Men/Women

With apologies to the late Harold Clapp! I reckon individuals who seek to make in three dimensions a scale operating version of what exists in the real world are special. No matter how good or bad the result, I "dips me lid" to anyone who has tried to model a layout. And I know I am guilty sometimes of forgetting that behind layouts are real people all with their own interests and challenges of time, resource and capability, as has been my own experience. It's been a real pleasure to meet and have some of these people visit "Glenburn" since starting a few years ago, particularly as many of them live far away, so the opportunity is rare. Earlier visits to this far flung outpost of VR modelling up North have included John Dennis, Bruce McLean, John Page, Bob Gallagher, Ian Weickhardt, Graeme Houghton and Grant Djung.

............and I wish I had taken a picture on those occasions to include here!

Here's a couple of visitors over the last few weeks:

James McInerney & Louise Smithers of AMRM
- James is the builder behind the seminal "Lambing Flat" layout, and Louise is his very patient Production Assistant for his AMRM work. Here they are during a short break during a fairly intense photo session for an upcoming "In Progress" article on Glenburn in AMRM.

Brett Whelan and family (and one of my children!).
- Brett works mostly in Proto48 and is one of the finest modellers I know. Pretty much a 100% scratchbuilder, the quality and precision of Brett's work is literally astounding. Ian Weickhardt put us in touch when he realised we were modelling very similar fields, albeit in different scales. People who model this aspect of the VR are pretty thin on the ground, so it was great to spend some time with him and his family while they were passing through Sydney recently.

In early December Peter Ennis and Iain Stuart, both long time VR modellers, dropped over for a general cud-chew on matters VR, and to share some of our modelling. Given we're all many kilometres from people of like interest, this was a rare and enjoyable treat. Here's the three of us:

L-R: Peter Ennis, self, Iain Stuart

And here's Peter's PSM DDE providing a window into a "What if" earlier era on "Glenburn": 

         

An I for an I

Like many modellers, occasionally I like to find rare and extinct rolling stock and pick up the tools to try and recreate something long lost. However, try as I might, and build as much varied rolling stock as I might, there is no escaping the bare fact that in VR's suburban runnings, as in so much of it's operation between the wars, one wagon type dominated train consists - the open I wagon. Whether with tarpaulin or no, built of wood or iron, with swing or drop door etc., I's in all their variants were used by the VR for many if not most of their goods traffics (by volume). Now, this widespread use of open wagons wasn't uncommon in this era on railways around the world, however the VR used open wagons for many load types that other railways used other types of conveyance - flat wagons seem to be an example. So to try and ensure some decency in my stock I have a rule that "every 2nd rolling stock item I build has to be an I wagon" Easy you say? Well, sort of, thanks to their relatively straight forward construction allowing ready scratchbuilding, and Steam Era Model's provision of excellent kits of both chassis and whole wagons. However with at least 50 modelling moves to get one of these beauties built with a modicum of detail in the early era (not including decals to replicate VR's penchant for markings), I'm still happy when another is finally ready for the road as these two recent examples are now......

The picture below thought to be from the late 1940s is typical and illustrates why my more exotic wagons are regularly scheduled in country goods trains, and only some of them occasionally get called up for suburban work.......

Picture: Australian News & Information Bureau via John Buckland Collection.

Another day, another Portal & complete Faith

 

It's been quite a long time between overhead portals, so it was good to find some time recently to form the next one and emplace it just beyond Faith St. The siting meant this portal differed from those currently on the layout with an extension to cover both the main entrance to the Yard and the siding into Qualmann's Warehouse. Until the next portal is placed and the catenary extended, the lines are bent upwards enough to engage approaching pantographs as can be seen in the picture. Finishing this area also needed another derail to protect the Dn main from the yard exit, and also an appropriate signal. I really like the VR lattice and disk combination so it was great to find this was an appropriate type to place protecting again both the yard exit (right disk as seen above) and Qualmann's (left disk above). I built up a two disk signal from Heritage's intricate kit - not the simplest kit I have ever built, but it does yield a nice and true result.

Another benefitof the further extension of catenary is completion of the view through Faith St allowing views such as that above, quite different from the previous "steam only" view as seen for example in this earlier post:
http://vrlatestupdates.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/its-not-over-til.html

V into service.

Here's the recently completed V Class formally entering service on "Glenburn" taking the Up Country Goods in it's stride. If you are interested further, there are some pictures of the V and a link to the log of the build on the Rolling Stock page: http://vrsuburbanrollingstock.blogspot.com.au/

A Minor Setback, Progress, and some Spring....Ermm Winter Cleaning.

I managed to lose another point this week. Before any aspersions are directed toward Peco please be aware that I choose not to wire up my electrofrogs, installing them as plain insulfogs instead, so in time some loss occurs. Between 10 years of "Cudgewa" and 4 years of "Glenburn" using approx. 40 points I have had only 3 fail, so providing one is ready to replace them there's no big deal, other than that sinking feeling on Friday night when one is looking forward to running one's trains! I was particularly fortunate as can be seen above, the point was at the limit of overhead wiring, and most of the ballast chose to remain in situ so replacement was simply a drop-in. (Not sure how to straighten that picture though).

For those who keep an eye on "Glenburn's" rolling stock developments you will know I have spent a fair bit of my recent modelling time converting a RTR loco into a VR V Class. That project having come to a temporary stop while I await some parts, I commenced the next section of scenic work, the long cutting on the Up side of Faith St. This cutting is based on the first section of the prototype cutting that starts just beyond the Up end of Hawthorn Station and continues toward the Yarra crossing. This was a favourite area when I lived in Melbourne. I had stockpiled white polystyrene for a while for this kind of work but culled it a few months ago as I had too much......of course, on arriving at this point found I had culled just too much.......So, I looked into whether I would use cardboard formers for the cutting as can be seen above. Not thrilled with this approach, I decided to use some Noch foam walling that I had spare and cut and bent it to shape then applied a thin cover of polyfilla. This method was much simpler and cleaner than I expected and I will use it again. Much more work to go here as you can see, but it's a nice change to be doing something as rough and robust as this after the recent precision required for the V.

For some time I have also been meaning to give the layout its' first decent clean, it not having been dusted or vacuumed, nor the track cleaned for the last three and a half years. So for the first time in the layout's history all stock has been removed as can be seen above and the cars etc. removed also for a good Winter Spring clean. The list is the things I know need fixing, which grows as one moves around knocking bits off while cleaning, unfortunate friendly fire! Glenburn Rd hasn't been this quiet before. I'll give the rolling stock the once over also before restoring it all back to an operating semblance of the interwar years.

Fact vs. Inspiration.

I don't know about you, but for me there are often images that help motivate the path from thought to the reality of recreating a slice of miniature railway history. One I have mentioned before that was really inspirational (mentioned in an earlier post: Original Inspiration), is the shot below. This was taken by Rod Sloggett and published in an old ARHS Railway Museum guide booklet, and I have since been given a copy of the original. It shows the quite common (in earlier times) working of two Swing Door motors as a "locomotive" on a goods, passing through Flinders Street station.

Picture: Rod Slogget, ARHS Williamstown Museum Guide

Not sure whether this is how it goes for you also, however the reality has been quite different. Firstly I realised that the Moonstone/Red scheme didn't look that great on models compared to the earlier "Crimson Lake" elegance so that piece changed. Secondly, in practice I found that while running twin motors on goods was Ok, shunting was something else altogether. The reason is modelling compromise wherein we don't have scale curves. As mentioned before my curves have a minimum radius of 3ft and I use Medium points but even so, the outswing from a Swing Door motor due to body length is sufficient to cause some challenges in shunting smoothly. Now, I could fit fillets to the 2nd Motor buffers to remediate this, but time has brought about other motive power to handle the goods workings so in fact this has turned out to be a less common working on Glenburn. Hence the occasion for a picture, and this entry.

M-AM combination works 25a Dn Suburban goods through the "through roads" bisecting an unscenicked area known as The Yard (one day I will work out a name for it). Nb. As with most pictures on this Blog, clicking on the picture will bring up a larger image.

Two E's on "Glenburn", for now.....

I have struggled for a bit getting used to modifying my PSM E Class as required to backdate it to the interwar period. The modification work isn’t difficult, the issue has been the gravitas of changing a pristine, excellent and rare model (100 produced). My solution was to find a second equivalent condition PSM E to provide an “insurance” while I make the changes to the first.

I have had feelers out for some time and have recently been lucky enough to find and acquire a second PSM E. Like the first it has excellent provenance being purchased from the original owner. Also like the first, it is in mint condition and actually appears to possibly never have been run, or perhaps even taken out of the box.

Once the conversion of the first E is complete, I will likely sell it. As such I am not using it and have test run it only to make sure it works – am happy to reports it runs as sweetly as the first.
Given the rarity of the circumstance, I thought it appropriate to set up the two for a photo session on “Glenburn” before I put it away for storage, two model E’s under wires is just something we’re unlikely to see too often it seems. The 2nd (new) E doesn’t have couplings so it is posed in the shafts.