mm issue 4

8/4/2019 MM Issue 4

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Issue 4

CONSIST

* GOVERNOR’S

CAR

* TREES

* CAR CARDS &

WAY BILLS

* MUSINGS FROM

THE ROOMS

* MEET THE

MEMBERS

* HISTORY

* HOME SIGNAL

Wagga Wagga Model RailroadersPO Box 6340 Wagga Wagga Business Centre

Wagga Wagga NSW 2650

Models and Model Making have been a large part of many peoples’ lives for a longtime. And not just the plastic, wood, metal and epoxy representations of planes, trainsand automobiles that we are all familiar with today. Before the days of CAD and evenblue prints, a model might be the only way that a prospective contractor could demon-

strate what he had in mind as far as design was concerned. Can you imagine that KingHenry 8th had any idea how to read a plan? Or for that matter that many of that timecould draw one? Of course brilliant minds like Leonardo drew many plans, but mostwere seen as some sort of lunatic scribble. Now a model of a proposed machine wouldshow the concept in three dimensions so that almost anyone could see the idea.Whether they understood the workings or not, did not really matter because they actu-ally could see it working, being demonstrated. Today, we still see many architecturalmodels and without them, most of the general public would still have little understand-ing of what was included in a set of plans. Models are even built of proposed new carsto gauge acceptance of the new design. Many models today spend their life as a deco-rator item, either singly or in large displays.

Young children are encouraged to build toys and other useful items at early school

levels. This is to encourage their imagination and to develop basic skills. In effect,helping them learn to turn something two dimensional into reality, to follow a plan.This teaching aid seems to stay with most of us for ever.

Many of us never stop being creative in one form or another and that is a good thing.Some grow up to be builders where their manual skills take a front foot. Some becomethe architects of our world where imagination comes to the fore. The rest of us buildanother world in the spare room or the back shed. Not necessarily model trains, butradio control planes boats and cars, slot cars or restoration of old machinery and vehi-cles. We are all in one way or other, striving to do something creative and be able tosay, “Hey, I did that!” and sometimes even, “Hey, mine is better than yours!”. I guesswe never get over the school yard bragging either.

Most hobbies have a strong social networking. Artists have shows, car restorers have“Show and Shine” and radio control boat enthusiasts have regattas. Of course, this iswhere we get to discuss the finer points of the hobby and share our research or experi-ences. Above all, we get to share our hobbies and that is the best part of all.

SUBMISSIONS:

To the EditorIan [email protected] in word formatand pictures in JPEG for-mat separately. A flash or

thumb drive may be usedor CD. These will be re-turned.

This document is provided free to share without modification or addition. The docu-ment remains the property of the Wagga Wagga Model Railroaders Inc. Where possi-ble, photos and articles used are with the owner’s permission. Reproduction in partwithout the permission of the owners may contravene copyright laws.

MURRUMBI DGEE MAIL

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T h e GOV E R NOR ’ S CA R(P r e s i d e n t ’ s Pa g e)

WAGGA WAGGA

MODEL RAILROADERS

INC.

PRESIDENT

GRAEME HEARN

VICE PRESIDENT

LES WEST

SECRETARY

STEVEN RAVENSCROFT

TREASURER

FLEUR WEST

PO Box 6340Wagga Wagga

Business Centre

NSW 2650

The Club meets so-cially, most Mondayevenings from around7.00P.M. at the BESTRESERVE HALL forrunning on the perma-nent HO layout underconstruction. Membersare encouraged to par-ticipate in the con-struction. Guests aremost welcome.

Nobody really likes to be judged but that is what occurs at an elec-tion. Your performance as an office bearer in the past year is on thetable for all to see at an Annual General Meeting. I enjoyed the chal-lenges which were met through 2008 by the committee and members.I think most were met well and we can call last year a good one. Per-sonally, I want to thank all of the members and friends for the hardwork carried out by them over the last year. A club is run for themembers and by the members so any praise and thanks are rightfullytheirs.

A major project for last year was the complete rewiring of the hallmaking it safer and ready for what ever use we may put it to. Con-struction has continued on the railway in the hall and I see that mostmembers are involved in that in a number of different ways. Severalmaintenance projects have been identified by members and these willbe tackled in due course.

I thank the members for their vote of confidence in returning me asPresident of the Wagga Wagga Model Railroaders for a second yearand congratulate the whole Committee as all have been returned atour recent AGM. I look forward to the challenges that 2009 maybring……….Graeme

COMING EVENTSFilm night, “TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT” TBA

Plastics modelling workshop. TBA

LOCATION NAMES:-) One of the things about our group is that we like to re-mind ourselves of one another. For this reason we have the Andrew Browne Me-morial Trophy and the Barry Weatherall Encouragement Award each year.It seems though that one of our new lady members has managed to be the first tohave a location named for her on our permanent hall layout. The long bend on thedown end of the yet to be named South Mainstation, leading to the return road, has been for-tunate or unfortunate depending on your view, tobe named “Fleur’s Swerve”. It should actually

be a pretty good photo location. But don’t block the tea ladies passage!The naming occurred after modification to thesharp corner of the baseboard following track laying at the location and the member’s claimthat a certain part of her anatomy had been atrisk. The claim was that the baseboard may havebruised it.

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Trees For TUMUT

Materials and tools:-

Two pairs of pliers. one with curved ends is helpful

Carpenter or glazier’s putty.

Wire Cable. The type used for winches is what I used. I think it lifts up

to 1000kg.Your choice of colour of clump foliage.

A stiff bristle paint brush.

Paint.

1 Cuts some lengths of cable, depending on the

height of the tree you wish to make. I’m not sure

but I think when talking about wire, there are

threads and strands. Strands of wire make up

threads, and around 5 or 6 threads make up the

cable.

2 Unwind two threads for

about half of the length of

wire, or to suit and bendoutwards. This forms a fork

in the trunk. It’s a good

idea to re-twist tightly at the "trunk" before ven-

turing out to make smaller branches.

3 Repeat this step to form a second and subsequent

branches. Unwind a few strands from each thread/

branch and twist them onto the other thread/branch.

This helps hold things firmly as you build the rest

of the tree.

4 Working on one "branch" at a time, unwind and di-

vide the thread into smaller branches at several lo-

cations ending with branches of a single strand. From here you will see

the tree taking shape.Once you have twisted the wire to form a tree, it’s time to add the

putty.

5 Take a small amount of putty, work it with your fingers to form a thin

sheet large enough to cover your trunk. Wrap it around the trunk. press

it into the trunk and work up the tree. if you have too much putty, you

can use it to do the larger branches. If you wish, add more putty to bulk

up the trunk and the branches. Make sure to keep the outer limbs thin.

6 Dip the paint brush into some water. Use it to create bark texture on

the putty. Leave to dry.

7 Pick a suitable colour and paint the branches. Highlight with a little

dry brushing. leave to dry.

8 Again, working on one limb at a time, glue the clumping foam to the

sticks at the very end of the branches. You can add highlights to thefoam “leaves” with more dry-brushing.

9 To fit the tree to your layout, make a small

hole large enough for the trunk to sit in. Glue

the trunk in the hole and glue some sand around

the base. You could make exposed roots from

trimmings of the wire or shape them from putty.

For a more realistic and interesting appear-

ance..

You could add to your tree a rope and tyre

swing, some birds or a koala.... or try a cubby

house!

Andrew Lawson

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A NEAT TOOL!It pays to keep your eyes open, even within the ranks of modellers using different scales and working on atotally different prototype. Whilst visiting the work shop of a fellow modeller, working in 1/72 scale butbuilding boats, I spied a very simple idea. They say the best ideas are simple, and this one was. My colleaguewas building the superstructure for a model war-ship from scratch. Each panel was meticulously drawn tosize, cut, sawn, sanded, drilled and filed to shape. The panels were erected together on a work mat so as to beglued together. The simple idea was what was holding all the parts together while the glue was applied. Alength of approx 50mm angle of 4mm gauge steel had been cut into various lengths from 25mm to 75mm.

Each was held in position by its’ own weight and the outer vertical plane formed a right angle with the work surface. These were placed at various locations holding each corner square and true. So simple.

Railway modellers usually attempt to run their trains with some semblance of faithfulness to the prototype. Tosome this means the “right” passenger car behind the “right” loco. To others it means running trains throughrealistic scenery. Freight operations excite many. Modern freight operations are generally “block” trains andmove from one major city to another, or from mine to mill and we simply model the train and have it passthrough our scenery. Now, if freight operations were more complex and to a point random, then the operationof the model railway might well become much more interesting. Shunting would also add to the experienceand test the driver skills as well as the machinery. The almost standard Kadee brand of magnetic couplers anda form of wagon management is what we need.

There have been many methods devised to create “switch lists” or to manage wagon movements over theyears. In the real world, the movement of wagons is dictated by customer demand. It would be silly for exam-ple, to provide 3 cattle cars at the local cannery when they need 4 container flats and 2 box type vans. Our

customers cannot ring up and tell us what they will need next week, we make those decisions when we designour industries and decide where to locate them. So how can we manage the traffic? Probably the best methodthat I have seen, is the “Car Card” and “Way Bill” system.

A Car Card is simply that, a card. On it is recorded all the required information to identify a particular wagonand a place to attach a “Way Bill”. Suitable cards of various sizes, we would choose one for ease of handling,are sold as “File Cards” at most stores where stationary is sold. Every car used on the layout needs one. Thecar type, Flatcar, Tankcar, Refrigerated etc, the car code and number, along with the owner’s name would allbe recorded on the card. Any special requirements are also noted. A pocket formed by taping a piece of cardover one half or thereabouts of the card, would accept the “Way Bill”.

The “Way Bill” is a smaller card which hason it up to 4 destinations printed, so that

when it is turned, the next destination be-comes visible while fitted into the pocket of the “Car Card”. The driver of a train wouldcarry with him the car cards, with way billsinserted, which belong to the cars in histrain. On arrival at a location or station, he

would check the cards, place any car destined for the location in the correct position as specified on the waycard and then possibly collect cars from the yard which can or should be forwarded by that train. He wouldleave behind at the station any cards belonging to the cars he has left behind and take cards with him for thewagons he has collected.

A series of boxes at each switching location would be used to manage the cars at that location and when a caror cars were removed from the layout, the cards would also be removed.

This is a very simple overview of the system, but the concept is very clear and the system is very simple. Thiscar management system along with a timetable can inject a lot of realism to any model railway with sidings.

45 class with freight on “Stockinbingal”

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Musings from “The Rooms”.

The last few Mondays have seen the track laid for our “South Main Station” and a good start has been made onthe electrics. There is now room and scope for scenery at both this location and the “City Station”.

Maikha has asked to be allowed to create a few buildings, amongst them the signal boxes, station rooms and

barracks for the South Main station. You can see the approximate locations of some of the buildings needed forthis area in the drawing below. For the signal boxes, he proposes to build models based on the boxes at Coota-mundra. These are a standard design and can be seen dotted all over NSW with a variety of details.

The design of the yard will allow for some main line trains to enter the loops and be stabled or indeed allowedto run around a train on the main. A branch train can depart from the platform using the centre crossover or

either loop and progressonto the branch-line. Thegoods roads at the rear of the silo may be used toswitch or store wagonsused on the branch. Abranch line goods would

be assembled on the mid-dle road in time forscheduled departure andwagons unable to belifted up the grades couldbe stored until the fol-lowing train was readied.

Just for fun, a friend of mine has drawn the dia-grams which would be onthe wall inside our pro-posed South Main SignalBoxes. These are incom-plete as yet but when yousee them, it becomes easyto imagine operations asreal. When complete, Iwill have these printed

and mounted. They willbe a nice touch in the hall.

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Here is the completed sig-nalling diagram for SouthBox.

Just as an aside, if some-

one has a spare couple of thousand, we could actu-ally have a pair of properframes assembled to drivethis yard.

From a modelling point of view, it may be some timebefore we are able to pro-vide the signals alone, but

what an aim? Some of thesignals can be linked topoints for partial proto-typic operation.

We can also by providinga row of toggle switchesand a pull list have all of this operational as simpleon off type operations. Itwould mean that to oper-

ate correctly, you wouldset any signals to stop asrequired, set your newroads and then clear thesignals required to useyour new choice of route.

You would also need thento set the signals back tostop as the train passes,

just like the big boys used

to do.

Much of this is in the fu-ture and we have tochoose between lights andsemaphore signals, but Iwould vote for sema-phores in at least one lo-cation and that would in-clude the branch as wellas our junction.

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M eet the M embers

Peter Parsons, one of our recently awarded Life Members, grew up quite close to

the New South Wales Short North. He could pretty much look out over his back fenceand check out the trains passing. It is not hard to understand his awe of the BeyerGarrett type locomotives, when you realise that Gosford was home to many of the breed(AD60), as well as for Peter.

Peter will probably slap me for this, but you could not classify him as a fabulous model-ler by any means. But, credit where credit is due, he will have a go at almost anythingsometimes doing quite well and he does not give up easily. He will ask for assistancewhen needed and shares willingly what he has learnt from this hobby as well as life. Heis never scared to try something different, even if it does end in disaster.

Coming to Wagga Wagga RAAF Base, Forest Hill, for the second time during the late80s saw Peter become a regular on our running nights and layout visits again, as well asour trips to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. His ownership of a large four wheeldrive made him the instant and obvious choice as the main prime mover of our ratherbulky trailer that “Stockinbingal” travelled in. We could all have a snooze, but as longas one person stayed awake to keep him company, he would just keep on truckin’ on. Itwas suggested once that when Pete grows up, he would like to be a Kenworth.

Peter was one of the “ring of three” who were directly responsible for the decision tobuild an exhibition layout. He was one of the first of our group to decide that he liked

the layout “East Mateland”. I am not sure if it was the layout he liked or the impressiveline-up of AD60 Garretts in “the Garrett Sidings”.

I would hazard a guess and say that his favourite layout was built by and belongs to alocal cow cockey, Jack Turner. Must say, it is a favourite of mine as well

Travels with the RAAF, (all over Australia and to Malaya and New Guinea) meant thata hobby like model trains would have to be made to fit to his life style. So “N” scale itwas. I remember his excitement at showing off a RUB set which was carved fromblocks of balsa wood. Yes it looked the part alright. I also recall him beginning to col-lect some HO scale RUB kits. Probably after he realised the little ones were hard to see.

It’s Ok Pete, I got glasses now too.

A keen enthusiast, if Pete had his way, he would have one of every retired loco, in run-ning condition, available for fans to ride in, on or behind. That and a model on his desk.

Now retired after a stint with Kendall’s Airlines in Wagga Wagga and the Royal FlyingDoctor Service in Melbourne, Peter is a member of a popular Melbourne Model Rail-way Club, Hobson’s Bay, and is still very active in this hobby as a collector and opera-tor and I know he still tries his hand at building. He visits Wagga every so often anddrops in to say G’Day and always comes back to work at our show in November, alongwith his wife Pam. I am sure a bed exists at their home just outside Melbourne, even on

short notice, if we silly buggers ever have the need for it.

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History Lesson: Road Trips were a big part of our hobby in the late eighties and nineties.

Short trips, Junee, Gundagai and longer ones, Sydney or Melbourne were regular. Wewould plan our year around the Camberwell, Liverpool and Bowral exhibitions. Melbourneand Sydney were both around the 5 hours travelling for us but after the first trip, both desti-nations became addictions. Canberra was an early addition to our diaries.

A trip to Sydney would begin around 2 or 3 in the morning, quietly getting up, showering,making a coffee and maybe a small snack for the road, scratching around looking for thatbag of lollies you had hidden in your cupboard for the trip and all the while trying not towaken the sleeping wrath that was the other half, while you ensured that you had not forgot-ten your “cunning kick” which was needed to cover the inevitable purchases later that day.

We would have already devoured every page of the last 3 or 4 Australian Model RailwayMagazines, but would pack the last couple of copies anyway for reading while travelling.

Once we picked up everyone and woken that one who had missed the alarm, we would berolling, sometimes 3 carloads. In the days before Highway Maccas, we knew everywherethat we could get a good hamburger for breakfast as well as where to avoid the crook ones.And we found out quickly when a favourite changed hands and the tucker fell off. CB radiokept us in contact along the way and decisions about the next stop were decided on air.

Once in the big smoke, Berg’s, Casula and Yennora Hobbies were all visited along withPunchbowl and we became well known as a group. Remember, this was before we actuallyhad a formal club. Often, we would be waiting on the foot path for our first retailer to openthe doors. Sometimes, we would even be offered a coffee while we browsed. Our modellingreflected what these outlets had on the shelves. Roundhouse, Athearn, Hornby, Mainline

and Bachman were the predominant rolling stock brands that we chased and those alreadybuying Aussie seemed to get very excited about little things. Berg’s had a few wagon kitsand Joe had some at Casula but we Yankee modellers were secure in the knowledge that ourdollar was going further as we could get a diesel loco for around $30 and a wagon for about$5.

Once our whirlwind shopping tour was complete, we would arrive at the venue, the Whit-lam Centre, pay our entry and storm inside. We usually hit the retailers first, as Saturdaywas the day that we modellers got to see the new releases. This was before the internet andmost manufacturers would announce, or display the latest and greatest here. Once we hadcompleted our shopping, or ran out of money, we possibly grabbed a pie and would then

start looking at the layouts. By mid afternoon, we were in the cars again and heading back down the Hume. We would top up the fuel tank, grab another snack and head to Bowral

The Berrima District Model Railway Club was the host for possibly the friendliest showanywhere in this country. It was held to coincide with the Tulip Festival which just hap-pened to take in the October long weekend. Held in the school, it took a while to ensure youmanaged to see it all, as you needed to move from room to room and from floor to floor. Itwas here that we could be found until our tummies reminded us of tea time. I can rememberone year the announcement that the show was about to close for the day and all visitorswere requested to make their way to the doors. The Wagga group could have another 15minutes. Yes, we had become well known, and we were fortunate enough later to be able toattend this gem of a show several times as exhibitors. To be continued…………...

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Ne w P r od u c t s

A US T R A I NS ha v e

s t oc k n ow a v a i la b le

of t h e i r NSW R f l a t

c a r p a c k s , i n c l ud i ng

t h e M L E , T M E a nd

CM E .

HOME SIGNALHOME SIGNAL

Max Burke has kindly offered to host a sup-per at his home and allow us to operate hiswonderful Narrow Gauge Railway which isbased on various Australian prototypes in-cluding the short lived but very busy linefrom Goondah to Burrinjuck. This was a nar-row gauge line built to transport materialsinto the dam site for construction. Little ispreserved of the line which used 4 Krause

locomotives for motive power fuelled by lo-cal timber. As the dam wall grew, the linebegan to carry tourists as well who werekeen to witness this major civil work.Max is a wealth of information on this petsubject of his and has previously presented awell attended slide night and lecture whichwas to run for an hour and was stretched toalmost 3 hours simply because we were allvery interested on this long gone, out of theway, little known line.

A central feature of his model is a scratchbuilt version of the wooden Maroochy RiverLift Bridge. This bridge is well knownamongst cane rail enthusiasts. Max modelsin 7mm scale and runs his trains on track of 16.5mm gauge, the same as our HO counter-parts. Models of various 4 wheel locos clunk and clank their way around quite realisti-cally. A photo coverage is coming.

Annual General MeetingThe 2008 Annual General Meeting of theWagga Wagga Model Railroaders washeld at the Wagga Wagga RSL Club aftera good roll-up for a meal in the Club Bis-tro on Tuesday Evening January 27th2009.After the usual reports were tabled,Graeme vacated the “Chair” and Bev

Price (Barrie’s Wife) called for nomina-tions for the position of President.Graeme Hearn was returned unopposedalong with the balance of the incumbentofficers.I would personally like to congratulatethem for their hard work and wish themluck for 2009, especially after the diffi-culties that were a feature of their firstyear in office.

Aaron Denning of the Epping Model

Railway Club has proposed an onlineTank Car building project based on aunique example of the breed. He proposesto run the project through the Diesel EraModeller News-group on Yahoo as a co-operative effort and will produce whatcastings may be needed for participants.Numbers are currently being sought togauge interest. One would need to join the

news group if not already a member andregister your interest. Aaron is a modellerof some note and of late, he has special-ised a little in fuel tankers. He already hasone tank car kit released through his sideline, INFRONT Models along with vari-ous assorted detail parts. This would be agreat opportunity to not only learn from arespected modeller, but to be a part of thedevelopment of a great model. Even go-ing along for the ride and assembling themodel would be a great experience.

mm issue 4

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