Volume 6, Issue 1 January 2015 The Flimsy - NMRA 6 Issue 1 Jan 2015.pdf · Volume 6, Issue 1 January 2015 The Newsletter of Division 2 of the NMRA AR ... install the most suitable

Volume 6, Issue 1 January 2015

The Flimsy The Newsletter of Division 2 of the NMRA AR

OUR JANUARY MEETING

Our first meeting for the new year got off to a flying start with an enthusiastic crowd of 19 of us at Malcolm Risby’s. It’s 2 pm and we’re all here so let’s get started. But hang on a mo, where’s Peter Dinham?

Peter’s running late, no doubt due to the long drive all the way from his distant home next door. But no, that’s not the reason. A written apology from Peter was produced, reading as follows…

“I have offered my apologies to Malcolm as I am running a Canberra-Monaro N Scale Group workshop today and I am unlikely to be at Malcolm’s. But my real excuse is that I have to maintain an image and so that everyone does not suffer from false expectations about my attendance in 2015 I decided to commence the year by missing the first meeting to set the tone.”

Aha! Now THAT’S the way to do it. You write an excuse knowing full well that it will not be believed, so, hedging your bets, you then admit

the truth as well. However we note that Peter only said he is “unlikely” to get here today, so perhaps we may

see him after all. We’ll give him until 5 pm.

Announcements Our Imperious Leader sternly surveyed his audience for several suspenseful seconds before uttering The Grand Announcement. In accordance with the decision made at our last meeting for NMRA Division Two to exhibit at Kaleen this year, our Valiant Leader has approached the CMRCI Exhibition organisers to see if they will accept a late entry. And yes, Division Two has now been allocated space at the Kaleen Exhibition on 28-29 March. Our space is big enough for two standard trestle tables. Today we need two more decisions. First, we need an exhibit co-ordinator. He may choose a fancier title if he

wants it, but the pay will stay the same. Second, we must decide on what we will exhibit. OK everyone, the doors have been locked and no-one goes home until these two issues are settled, so let’s hear your thoughts.

Stephe Jitts offered his Old Sydney 1872 layout for exhibition. It takes up 8 metres by 3 metres. For public operation it requires a minimum of 3 fulltime operators. Tony Payne offered his switching layout and David Low offered his World War One Western Front railway layout which takes up 3 metres by 2 metres and requires 2 operators.

After discussion, we all agreed on David Low’s World War One layout. Volunteer operators? We

already have a few. One or two more and we will have enough to run shifts over the whole weekend. And what about that vital Exhibit Co-ordinator? No problem said our Fearless Leader, I can do that. The meeting breathed an audible sigh of relief and the doors were unlocked. But there is yet another Grand Announcement!

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And thinking of points… The meeting’s attention was drawn to the latest Peco variable speed point motors and their advantages. This led to a useful discussion on the latest trends in points and point motors. The point was made (‘point’, geddit?) that once all the initial bugs have been eliminated from a new layout, the whole system then settles down with nothing more than routine maintenance being required. The experience of those present today suggests that 90% of track maintenance effort goes into fixing problems with points. Therefore it is important in the first place to install the most suitable points for the job. A bit of extra money spent here is never wasted in the long run.

John Bullen offered several hardback books and railway mugs for sale as a result of domestic downsizing in his forthcoming house move. John said his suggested prices were not fixed but were simply a starting figure. John indicated that he was amenable to haggling – either way – especially from anyone who thought he had underpriced anything. Examining the items for sale, David Low howled with anguish to see the excellent GWR 150th anniversary history marked for only $15. David reckoned he had shelled out $55 for his own copy. John consoled David with the thought

that he had paid the same himself for this book, but if anyone wanted to pay more than the haggle start price, then John would graciously accept it. It went quickly to a new owner who considered $15 a very fair price.

Show & Tell Viv Brice passed around one of his Christmas presents – Great Western Railway Track Topics. This

fascinating and well illustrated book of 285 pages was originally published by the GWR in 1935. It has been republished in 2013 by Amberley Press, UK. See http://tinyurl.com/ku4wlfc. Viv also brought along his copy of Fifty Railways that Changed the Course of History by Bill Laws, published in 2013 by David & Charles, UK. This book spans 200

years in its 50 railways. It starts with the Merthyr Tydfil line and contains all the significant railways that a well informed reader would expect to find in such a book. Included among them are such railways as the Grand Crimean Central Railway, the Orient Express, the Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta Railway, the Sydney City Railway, the Auschwitz spur line, the Burma-Siam Railway and the Channel Tunnel. This book is broad in scope, covering a great deal in its 224 pages, so the author cannot reasonably mention such fine details as the Trans-Australia Railway terminating at Parkeston not Kalgoorlie before the standard gauge line was put through to Perth. It is a very interesting and well illustrated book. See http://tinyurl.com/otjjn3h.

Jack Child passed around some photos he took of an intriguing train he saw recently on the NSW main southern line near Yass. Very different from the usual trains seen on this line, it appears to be a works train hauling some interesting rolling stock.

Jess Brisbane displayed her final structure, Innsmouth station, for her On30 scale Arkham &

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Signalling for the local Town Band to commence, alas without audible response – no doubt because we are too mean to pay them overtime for a Saturday – our Noble Leader summoned Jess Brisbane forward to receive her NMRA award for her On30 scale Arkham & Vermont RR layout.

Jessica Brisbane – Golden Spike

Jess’s layout is now on the NMRA AR website, joining Stephe Jitts’s Kangaroo Valley Historic Railway layout (in its earlier form). Ken Macleay’s N Scale Cincinnati Union Terminal layout is still on the website, even though it is two layouts earlier than Ken’s current one and ceased to exist several years ago. However the photos of Ken’s impressive N scale layout are great to see and in any case a considerable part of it is incorporated in Steve Walker’s layout today.

Our Ever Vigilant Leader also brought us news from the Deep North. Queensland may indeed be in a high state of political excitement at the moment, yet life goes on just the same. Ken Macleay is alive and well, so is his rapidly developing HO scale VR layout and Ken is as fascinated as ever with double-slip points. (By Ed: See article later in this issue)

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squashing them – thanks for mentioning it. The meeting was called to order. Stephen O’Brien showed us his latest purchase of a handy pack of 5 pastel weathering powders from PanPastel. This is good stuff – no preparation, no drying, mixable to create any colour, no mess (well, not much), compatible with spray fixatives and flat finishes, easily cleaned off. Most important of all, the effect is realistic and doesn’t look as though it has been painted on. For further information, see http://www.modelingcolors.com/index.html. Stephen also passed around a set of magnetic clamps supplied by Proses Model Railway Tools & Accessories. These have small but

very powerful rectangular magnets. They can be used just as clamps but they also have other uses. For example, their accurate mounting on right-angled plates enables them to be used to hold two walls at right angles to each other while the walls are glued together. A slightly different product is adjustable for

gluing walls at any angle at all or perhaps for gluing a roof peak. The Proses website is at http://proses.com/ . For visual examples of the magnets in use for gluing, see http://tinyurl.com/leyy46n and http://tinyurl.com/oy86xzd.

Need a few tiny but really strong magnets for other modelling purposes? Easy! Just ask Telstra for magnets to use in your phone with your hearing aid. Audiologists have them too.

Graeme Hodges the First passed around his newly purchased copy of Model Railroads Go to War by Bernard Kempinski. Published in 2013, this 96-page Kalmbach handbook in their Layout Design & Planning series covers the subject of modelling military railways over the 150 year period from the US Civil War through to the Iraq of today. See http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12483.html

The Main Show Mal Risby brought us up to date on his model

railway and his future plans. He admitted that, when he got started in this hobby, he did not know all that much but he has learnt a lot as he has gone along.

Mal had originally been attracted to the Burlington Northern RR because of a model loco he had bought in Melbourne. He liked its appearance so he did a bit of

research on that loco. Finding that interesting, he did further research into the BN and this led to serious N scale modelling based on a prototype which, thanks to company mergers, offers great variety in type and colour. For many years now Mal has had a nice N scale layout about 8 metres long with a double track main line winding through the undulating Montana hills, combined with extensive staging yards and reliable trackwork. The railways represented were mainly the BN and the Montana Rail Link. But in recent years Mal has toured overseas in northern America and has

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Vermont RR layout. Still under construction, Jess displayed the building plans and a couple of walls she has already built. When complete, the station will have 3 main rooms – a waiting room, an office for tickets, telegraph, etc, and a baggage & freight room.

Jess has set up her own Internet website for her Arkham & Vermont RR layout. During its first month it was viewed 2000 times. The main viewers were from USA 900, Sweden 500, Australia 400 and UK 300. But that adds up to more than 2000. Aargh – shut up will you. The meeting was again called to order. See https://arkhamandvermont.wordpress.com/

Somehow the quality of Dettol disinfectant as a highly effective paint stripper arose as a topic for deep discussion. Yes indeed, but it is equally deadly on some plastics, so do be careful how you use it lest you ruin a good model. And it’s REALLY deadly on cane toads too. Kills them very quickly. Ah, now that could be very handy – much less messy than

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option for continuous running. Mal also covered many other aspects that he is considering and an earnest discussion developed with much advice being offered as the result of practical experience. For example, should staging be in the open or hidden? Opinions differed, but everyone gave their reasons and this was most helpful. The pros and cons of single or double deck were discussed in depth. Size and design of aisles were also discussed. The discussion developed into an enthusiastic and fascinating debate as Mal went steadily through his Wish List. Much advice was contributed from experience, and many helpful suggestions were

offered. The collective wisdom that came out was well worth listening too and was quite fascinating to hear.

It was also an excellent example of the real strength of the NMRA where we all have different interests but we can all learn from each other’s knowledge and experience in railway modelling.

After this long discussion, eventually we drew near to afternoon tea time. This was the cue for the Risby home oven to die on us. But no problem. NMRA to the rescue! Next door, Peter Dinham was out but Sandy was home and most obligingly fired up the Dinham home oven enabling hot food to be provided without missing a beat.

Thanks to Marlene Risby with Sandy Dinham’s assistance we all enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea. Some of us then adjourned to the big garage for further discussion on Mal’s new layout.

Then, out of the blue and only running 179 minutes late, who should roll up but Peter Dinham, one minute inside the deadline we had set a few hours earlier. Welcome Peter! Better late than never. We’re most insincerely sorry we’ve eaten your afternoon tea. Right then, how do we record this? Peter has submitted a written apology but now he’s here anyway. Do we mark

him present now? No, leave it. That’s our Trusty Leader’s problem, not ours. (Editors Note: I, the Leader, decreed that, since Peter only arrived as I was leaving, and since I was not about to open the attendance book in Mal’s driveway for Peter to enter his name. he officially did not attend the meeting.)

Altogether this has been a fascinating afternoon and not surprisingly it finished somewhat later than usual. Many thanks to Mal and Marlene for their hospitality and thanks also to Sandy Dinham for that crucial help with her oven. And well done Peter for confounding the bookmakers by showing up against all expectations.

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also read a lot. And of course he now has many years of modelling experience behind him too. As Mal’s knowledge has developed further, his model railway ambitions have changed and he is now about to build a new layout to reflect his current and likely future interests. But first he needs to get his specifications clearly defined and this is what Mal discussed with us today.

Mal began by distributing two draft layout plans plus his “Wish List” of draft specifications, including specifications for his main yard, intermediate yard, and mainline scenic attractions. The two layout plans had much in common, namely a mainline running around three walls with two central promontories running out from the fourth wall. Mal also drew attention to a few important issues still to be resolved, namely... Single deck or double deck? Trains to travel through the scene once or twice? Operating system? Which DCC system – Digitrax or NCE?

Mal’s presentation of his specifications began with his intention to model a free-lance version of what was to be found on the BNSF and the Montana Rail Link in 1998-1999, with particular focus on the grain and lumber industries. Despite his study and his visits, Mal feels that he still does not know the country well enough to model a particular prototype in fine detail, so his layout will be free-lance rather than an exact copy of a particular location. However it will be very typical of the prototype.

The layout is to be planned for operation of long freight trains by several operators. The main line is to be single track with 5 or 6 passing sidings in addition to those in towns. Its design will be point-to-point with an

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a beautiful piece of typical VR trackwork as shown in below. And it works. Indeed, this particular layout was

installed by VR at Dimboola, so Ken keeps to the prototype. It’s put together with bits from Shinohara.

Another feature of Ken’s new layout is that everything is on or above the baseboard, to preclude

any expeditions under the layout; something us older members love to avoid. The following photo shows how he is incorporating Peco Smart Switches. These are essentially a small servo motor with driver board that allows the point travel and speed to be adjusted. They also have a frog switching board, but Ken has used a micro switch as it's much cheaper. They work well, and fit nicely in the track base above the baseboard as required.

Ken also told me that in his advancing years, he is becoming bored with constructing switch control panels and he has been looking into touch screens and

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Tales from the North by Viv Brice

Ken Macleay is indeed alive and well and living in Brisbane! From what I saw when I visited him many months ago, his HO layout of Dimboola, Vic, in the transition era of Victorian Railways is progressing well. Indeed, it was here that I first saw an R class operating (sorry, Rob).

As those of you who knew Ken when he was a member of Division 2, he has a morbid fascination with complex trackwork. He almost drooled over double slips. Well, he hasn’t changed and he has built

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From the Editor:

A good meeting to start the year, with plenty of attendees and a good discussion. The division may be fairly small but it has a wide range of tastes and experiences and has great team spirit. However, the one title that I have not yet received from our outrageous reporter is “long suffering” - one day perhaps.

A special bonus for being the Division Superintendent is awards, and the opportunity that handing these out allows me to publicly acknowledge the efforts of fellow modellers.

The CMCRI exhibition is a chance for the NMRA to showcase its talents and to engage visitors and perhaps encourage new members. I hope we can all support this cause.

Happy Modelling Viv [email protected]

News

Next meeting will be at the home of Tony

Payne at 24 Darmody Street, Weetangera,

ACT at 2:00pm on Saturday, 14 Feb when

Jess Brisbane will give a presentation on “Cool Tools”.

On 28/29 March, we will be exhibiting

David Low’s WW1 layout at the CMCRI Ka-leen exhibition. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements on how you can help.

Back Page Photo

On 18 September 2007, an ICE–3 enters Cologne Hauptbahnhof (central station) off the 6-track Hohenzollern Bridge.

This bridge across the Rhine is the busiest railway bridge in Germany, and it only handles passenger traffic! Visible on the left is one of the four statues of Kaiser Wilhelm I, one at each corner of the bridge.

Photographer : Viv Brice

JMRI. I mentioned Martin Canteros-Paz and his efforts in this direction and pointed him to the YouTube presentation by Nicolas.

Since then he has produced his first screen, as shown. It allows route setting using enlarged sensors (for clumsy fingers!), as well as individual turnout setting, either from the screen or using a smart phone. (The blue numbers are for NCE throttle macros). My last message from Ken was that this panel works both by touch and by smart phone.

Keep up the good work, Ken, and I look forward to another visit to Dimboola later this year. All the best from your mates in Division 2.

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An Oldie but a Goodie

This notice was once posted by the Station Master on

the notice board of a small station on the line between

Delhi and Agra…

“The 2.50 train from New Delhi has suffered a Flood

and has been consigned to Complete Damnation. It is

with Great Reluctance that I am confronting you with

this Shattering News.”

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27.2 x 17.3

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