Model Trains and Things

Toni and I drove down to Brisbane yesterday to visit the 2009 Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition. We haven’t been to an exhibition in at least eight years so it was interesting to see where the hobby has gone in that time.

There were definitely some very interesting exhibits and the trade stalls were worth visiting too. I’ve posted some of the photos I took at the exhibition here. As you will see most of those are of narrow gauge displays featuring everything from HOn2.5 right through to some very large-scale models.

Here’s one photo you won’t find over there - it’s the O-Aust Kits 32 class - I rate it about a 10 on the drool-worth scale

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’re into scratchbuilding you soon begin to realise that there are lots of everyday things around you that can be used as the basis for parts. Even the humble Bic biro has its uses and here is how one guy in Italy turns the caps into headlights for his locos.

In just four simple steps he’s got himself the cheapest headlight you could find. You’ll find those four steps here.

Update: If you’re wondering about what sort of adhesive to use for this project Mauro used a two-part epoxy.

It’s sometimes hard for me to believe that there was a time when I scratchbuilt in N Scale. NSW S trucks, a BPV, a TME, an SAR SOC wagon … those and others all rolled off my hobby desk and onto the layout.

But that was backwhen I was in my 30’s and these days my eyesight just isn’t that good anymore so I’ve stepped up to On30 and the scratchbuilding will begin to happen again. Others though go much bigger than O and here is a link to a website that displays the work of a number of large scale modellers.

These models and layouts will blow you away.

Last week I posted a photo of a large scale model of 8172 that I took at an extensive live steam complex on the outskirts of Melbourne and you can find that one here.

Today I thought I would show you a couple more from the same location so let’s start with this exquisite model of a VR S class.

If you take a look through the cab window you’ll see that there’s actually some detail inside the cab.

And just to show you that there were live steam models there that day:

I would have loved to have had time that day to take a ride behind this one.

I was sitting here this afternoon wondering what photo I should put up next and decided that I should publish something from my years in Tasmania so I went through my photos and came up with this one.

It was taken during my time in Tasmania - but we were actually in Melbourne for a few days on business. This was probably taken during the winter of either 1999 or 2000 and the name Diamond Valley keeps popping into my head although I’m not sure if that really was the name of the live steam club where this photo was taken.

All I can remember was that both Toni and I were taken with the look and ‘feel’ of this beautiful model. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop and have a ride behind it because we had a plane to catch back to Hobart.