Model Trains and Things

There’s an absolutely outstanding collection of photos that feature steam locos in NSW during the transition from steam to diesel here.

It is not to be missed!

In his book on the NSW 59 Class steam loco Harry Wright mentions that some housewives who lived along the northern line between Strathfield and Hornsby complained about the mess the 59s were making of their washing.

I wonder what they would have thought of some of these British diesels. Just about any diesel engine will produce an exhaust when you throttle up from an idle but some of the locos in this video would put a steam loco to shame.

It’s running today in the Horn of Africa and if you’ve got the time here’s a video that runs for around an hour that will take you there to see the narrow gauge steam locomotives in operation.

Gary Gresham from the On30 Conspiracy group was at the World’s Greatest Hobby Show in Louisville last weekend and caught a couple of nice On30 layouts on film.

One of them was the Bachmann display layout.

If you never paid much attention in high school science you might have missed the bit about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and if you did then let me give you a brief explanation.

Darwin suggested that all creatures evolve and it’s the smart … the strong … the cunning of each species that survive and of course that means that it’s the dumb … the weak … the stupid members of the species who don’t get to breed and die out. And this morning Toni and I almost got to see Darwin’s Theory of Evolution actually occuring.

It’s cane cutting season at the moment and will be right through into December and there are signs along the highway that tell you this is the time of year that the cane is being cut and there are slow moving vehicles about.

There are also plenty of ads on the television warning that cane trains are out and about and a cane train can’t stop in a hurry so drivers should be prepared to stop at those spots where the cane trains have to cross the highway.

And just in case you haven’t noticed what season it is and you don’t know what a cane train looks like there are flashing lights protecting the crossings and these lights are triggered by approaching trains. Just like you see here:

At the front of the line is a Greyhoud bus (actually it’s an old McCafferty’s bus but Greyhound bought them out). Behind the bus is our prime example of why Darwin’s theory of evolution probably is the real deal … and then there’s us.

We’d been following this turkey for quite some time and he’d made some passing moves that … well an experienced and switched-on driver wouldn’t have made. Then we caught up to the bus and as we approached the crossing the flashing lights went off.

The bus started to slow and boofhead in the wagon went to overtake … just as I was about to drop my camera and reach for my phone to call 000 boofhead suddenly woke up that there really was a train approaching and that noise he could hear was the driver blowing the loco’s horn as a warning to motorists that there was a train coming.  Somehow he managed to get back in behind the bus and stop in time.

Unfortunately this guy has already been breeding and there were kids in the car … I’m so glad Toni and I didn’t have to get out and render aid … it wouldn’t have been the first time I’ve had to pull a bloodied child out of a smashed car and it’s not something I ever want to have to do again.

So guys … remember … at this time of year there are cane trains out and about and the railway crossings are used regularly so when the warning lights go off stop before the oncoming cane train takes you a long way down the track and you prove Darwin and his theory to be correct.