May 2014 Volume 5, Issue 5

We had a good roll-up today at Steve and Lorraine Walker’s – no less than 19 altogether. Having had a bit of bother establishing his authority at the start of our last meeting, our All-Powerful Leader was taking no chances today, wearing his gleaming new NMRA name tag with the words DIVISION SUPERINTENDENT prominently displayed. Just to make REALLY sure we knew who’s boss, he wore his Fat Controller badge as well. OK, OK, we get the message.

As the meeting settled down, money was seen changing hands and going into the pocket of Graeme Hodges the First.

“Do you have to pay Graeme for coming?”

“No, we pay him NOT to come and we’re a bit short today – care to contribute?”

Announcements Our newest member Dallas Koch was

welcomed to the meeting. Our Ever Vigilant Leader drew our

attention to the changes to the NMRA AR Rules that have been required by recent changes to the NSW Fair Trading Act. At the same time, typographic errors are being fixed and other changes are being

made (e.g. voting online will be permitted) that will make the Rules easier to apply. It is therefore important that the revised Rules be adopted, and we should be supporting this by postal voting – if we have not already done so. To see the final draft of the Rules, see http://tinyurl.com/onec5qq

While looking at the NMRA website, do also have a look at the information covered under the heading of Education. To find it, go to NMRA Benefits on the NMRA AR homepage and then click on Education. Or, take a shortcut straight to http://tinyurl.com/nprq5ox Topics covered are 1 Getting Started, 2 Scale and Gauge, 3 Layout Planning, 4 Layout Framing, 5 Track Laying, 6 Wiring, 7 Scenery, 8 Maintenance, 9 Weathering, 10 Golden Spike Award. The meeting noted with concern the recent hospitalisation (in St George Hospital, Sydney) of Ian McIntyre with severe accidental injuries – not from railway modelling, we hasten to add. Ian is one of our fellow enthusiasts in Wagga Wagga and we wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.

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The Flimsy The Newsletter of Division 2 of the NMRA AR

A happy group at Steve Walkers May meeting. From L to R: Tony Payne, Peter Dinham, John Gillies, Fran Thomas, Brian

Thomas, Rob Nesbitt, Stephen O’Brian, John Payne, Dallas Koch, Dion Koch and Wal Pywell

A smug and well-badged leader with

a cheeky Mal Risby!

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Show & Tell Viv Brice passed around his recently acquired copy of

The Historical Guide to North American Railroads (3rd Edition), 320 pages, published by Trains magazine, 2014. See http://www.kalmbachstore.com/01117.html. It’s a useful reference book with a page or three on each of more than 170 ‘influential’ railroads within the USA, Canada and Mexico

Wal Pywell showed us the control box he has built for our club layout Kirkland. There are to be two of these boxes, one to be installed at each end of the layout, each of which can control all of the operating area of the layout. Wal has also designed and built a power supply for these control boxes and you can read all about it in the next issue of MainLine.

Tony Payne expressed the view that meetings of our club layout group needed to be more frequent if the layout construction is to maintain satisfactory progress. This suggestion received support and suitable arrangements are already in hand. It was again noted that without more volunteers to help, the future of this layout is uncertain.

Jess Brisbane informed us that the Rodney’s Marsh section of her On30 scale Innsmouth layout is now complete and can be viewed on Flickr at http://tinyurl.com/o2loxm5

Rob Nesbitt’s Model-Of-The-Month was built from a Berg’s white metal HO scale kit of a NSW 80 class diesel loco. A very nice looking model when finished, but, as usual, there was a bit more to it than Rob had realised when he bought it. The least enjoyable part of Rob’s job

was laboriously cutting all 22 windows to size. Rob also displayed a NSW 38 class steam loco. It

looks nice now, but Rob has rebuilt it from a model he

bought in very poor condition with much water damage. Rob had to fabricate several fittings and also had to fit a new motor. This HO scale model was originally a 1963 product from the Model Dockyard in Melbourne.

Peter Dinham displayed two G class interstate diesel locos in N scale, (not N class in G scale!!) both bearing the distinctive SCT (Specialised Container Transport)

livery. John Gillies passed around his book Colorful Colorado

Railroads in the 1960s by Ronald C Hill, 112 pages, published by the Colorado Railroad Historical Foundation in 1992. This book contains nearly 150 colour photos and is both eye catching and informative. See http://tinyurl.com/klfma9y

John Payne displayed two Kato N Scale trains – “The Lark” and the “City of LA”. “The Lark” model was nearly prototypically correct. It was headed by locos of PA-1, PB-1 and E9 classes, it being common on the Southern Pacific for the power to be mixed.

The "City of LA" had locos from classes E9A, E9B and PA-1 up front, hauling Pullmans from UP, Wabash, Pennsy and C&NW, plus two dome cars, baggage car, observation car, and business car St. Louis.

The appearance of these N scale trains led immediately to Peter Dinham pouncing swiftly to present a startled John with a membership application form for the Canberra Monaro N Scale Group. Just sign here John and I’ll do the rest.

Dion Koch displayed a Kato Union Pacific - City of Los Angeles passenger car set. These cars are no longer in production, but Dion chanced on an out of the way Hobby Shop in Los Angeles that happened to have two sets available, so he snapped up both sets.

Dallas Koch displayed a couple of Minitrix locos and freight cars but he hadn’t travelled quite as far as Dion did to snap up a bargain. Besides saving on travel, Dallas also paid a lot less by recovering his lot from the garbage tip. Later checking them online, he found a similar set on sale for approximately $400. See you all at the tip tomorrow, shall we?

Ross Balderson displayed his very realistic Newcastle Railway Gasworks building which will be adjacent to a

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gasometer on his Newcastle 1899 N scale layout. This led to a deep discussion on coal gas production (and the associated odour) and the function of gasometers. Remember that old gasometer beside Sydney’s North

Shore railway line just north of Balls Bay? And the gasometer at The Oval in London? The meeting now became quite passionate about the suggestion that this gasometer, already decommissioned and standing on a very valuable piece of real estate, might soon to be removed. Cricket just won’t be the same. This marks the end of civilisation as we know it. Gotta stop this! Our Fearless Leader gently reminded us that we are a model railway group, so we dutifully abandoned our hasty plans for violent protest at The Oval.

Graeme Hodges the First passed around two interesting books. Trains to Victory - America's Railroads in WWII by Donald J Heimburger and John Kelly, 380 pages, published by Heimburger House Publishing Co, 2009, is the story of how US railroads were transformed during the war. Copiously illustrated with 542 photos and 285 other illustrations, this book is comprehensive and interesting.

See http://tinyurl.com/msrfygl Graeme’s other book was FDR’s Funeral Train by Robert Klara, 272 pages, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010. A whole book – just about a funeral train? Well, yes, but it’s not all about just the train, remarkable though the train was – making a three-day journey through nine states. It also covers such sensitive matters as a Soviet spy about to leak a state secret and a newly widowed Eleanor

(Continued from page 2) Roosevelt, who had just found out that her husband's mistress was in the room when he died. Also on board the train was the entire family of incoming President Truman who was very busy on this train shaping policy to win the war. The former Vice-President had a huge amount to learn in a big hurry, seeing that he had not been informed that USA already had an atomic bomb and was planning to drop it on Japan. See http://tinyurl.com/mkozq9b

Graeme also brought to our attention the Tidy Track system of track and wheel maintenance now available from Woodland Scenics. This system is for O, HO and N scales. Importantly, it uses soft pads for cleaning powered wheels, thus avoiding microscopic scratches which can lead to further and more serious problems. See http://tinyurl.com/m2xmge6

The Main Show We adjourned to the garage where our host showed

us his very impressive N scale layout. To find the prototype, you only have to look on the wall for an excellent map showing the Burlington Northern routes in north-western USA which Steve has modelled, especially the region around Vancouver (in Oregon, not in British Columbia). At one time Steve had lived in Canada for 6 years, giving him ample opportunity for prototype study on the ground.

Steve has designed this layout for realistic operation of realistic trains. That meant a minimum of 20 wagons in all trains. Even in N scale a staging yard for trains this long (and longer) would take up too much precious garage space. So Steve had to think laterally, ie sideways. This meant knocking out one brick from the garage wall beside the layout, enabling smooth passage for trains between the operating part of the layout and the staging yard in the adjacent room where trains have no size limit (well, almost no) .

Steve mostly runs BN trains of the early 1990s, but he can also run more modern stock. The only steam loco hauls an excursion special consisting of a short rake of vintage coaches.

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The track is Atlas code 55. All turnouts have powered frogs. Control is by DCC using Digitrax equipment.

Operating sessions run best with about 6 operators, each having their own radio throttle. No cards are used. Instead, all trains for an operating session are shown on a master sheet which lists each train, its route and tasks.

The scenery is simple but well done and effective. Steve gained from Ken Macleay’s 2008 decision to change from N scale to O scale, thus obtaining several components of Ken’s very nice N scale layout of Cincinnati.

Steve led us through the design and construction of the layout and then we launched into a mini-operating session, enabling those unfamiliar with the layout to get a feel for its operating potential.

Finally it was time to go back indoors or else miss out on the feast lovingly created by Lorraine. Thanks to both Steve and Lorraine for a most enjoyable afternoon.

z

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18.4 x 13.6

www.nmra.org.au

Disclaimer: Any resemblance between characters in this

newsletter and real model railroaders is purely intentional but

no offence whatever is intended. Only the facts may have

been altered to protect the guilty. Every reader has the right of

reply and we look forward to publishing them!

National Model Railroaders

Association Australasian Region—

Division 2—ACT

Bringing model railroading to you

From the Editor:

In the last issue, I asked if anyone knew what

was shown in the photo of the railway track by the Rhine, and quick as a flash, I have not received a single response. Seems to be something nobody knows about..

And the response to a message from Stephen O’Brien inviting all members to take a look at the Kirkland layout on an ‘Open Day’ also failed to attract ant interest. We will however get around this by having it as the theme of our next meeting, to be held appropriately enough, at Steve’s place.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting

Viv div2sup@nmra.org.au

News

Next meeting will be at the home of Steve O’Brien at his home at 138 Nemarang Crescent, Wara-

manga, on Saturday 31May at 2:00 pm where is

theme will be the current state and future of the Kirkland layout.

2 Tbfpmox # #

Norfolk Southern power a long way from home on 26 Jan 2014. The consist is led

by the NS Heritage unit in Interstate Railroad colours. Photograph courtesy of John Gillies