1. Never accept that any corner on a sheet of styrene … even a brand-new sheet straight out of the package … is an exact 90 degrees. Always check to ensure that the corners are square before you start measuring and cutting. Use a machinists square to check one corner and use the square to mark a line along the true 90 degree axis.

2. Always measure cumulatively … so if you have to mark out the front and back of a building that’s say 60mm long measure 120mm from one edge of the styrene sheet and then go back and mark the 60mm point. Never measure 60mm, mark the point and then bring the ruler up and mark another 60mm from the first point. Errors in length will always creep in if you do.

3. Always use a very sharp pencil to mark measurement points … the thicker the tip of the pencil the greater the chance of errors creeping in and errors that occur when you’re measuring lengths, widths or height always seem to have a habit of compounding.

4. Don’t use a pencil to mark a cutting line … not only will the line be thick and that can lead to problems when tolerances are tight but a pencil line can easily be smudged. Instead use a metal scribing tool similar to the one you can see on the left hand side of the photo … then lick your finger and rub it over the line the line that was left by the scriber. When you do this you’ll see a very faint line turn into a clearly marked line that won’t smudge.

5. Never try to cut right through the styrene with one pass of the knife and don’t apply a lot of pressure to the knife at any stage in the cutting process. Instead you should make anywhere between 4 and six gentle passes with the knife … depending on the thickness of the styrene that you’re working … with and none of them should go right through the styrene. You want to score, not cut with those passes with the knife and then snap the styrene along those cut lines.

One of those is Paul Tranter whose favorite prototype is the Commonwealth Railways narrow gauge system. Last week he posted some photos of some of his models on the Ausnarrowgauge list and he’s kindly supplied Model Trains n Things with some construction notes.

Construction of NSU and NJ Class Locomotives in S Scale
by Paul Tranter

Drawings.
Before commencing construction, obtain copies of the respective locomotive General Arrangement [GA] or Outline drawings. [See referenced list of publications for drawings.] Enlarge the drawings to S-scale [1/64] and make two copies of each drawing. Keep one copy as the master/clean copy and use the second copy as a working copy to make notes on etc.

Photographs.
Photographs go hand in hand with the drawings. The internet as well as books and magazines are a great source of photographs. Compare the photographs with the drawings. Look for changes, modifications and details that may not be shown on the drawings.

Donor Mechanisms.
Athearn SD9 locomotive mechanisms were used for the NSUs and Athearn PA1 mechanisms were used for the NJs. Both mechanisms are within 1mm of required dimensions. The design of SD9 bogie side frames is very similar to those on the NSU. However PA1 locomotive side frames do not comply with the NJ prototype. These frames can be pulled off and replaced with scratch built frames. This modification has not been completed on the NJs in the article.

Body Shells.
The body shells were constructed from styrene materials in six distinct parts:
• Two Side panels.
• Nose/bonnet.
• Internal Roof.
• Roof.
• Rear End Panel.

Each side was fabricated from 2-off, 1mm thick styrene sheets. The outer sheet had all the details, windows, doorways, doors, etc. The inner sheet generally followed the profile of the outer sheet except that larger openings were made to accommodate widow glazing etc.

In the case of the NSU, the front and top nose panels were made separately and then glued together as one assembly. Owing to the compound curves, the nose section can be difficult to get the correct look and several trial pieces were made before making the parts for the models.

An internal roof was fabricated from styrene sheet and strips. This fabrication joins the two sides together and forms the base for the roof.

The NSU roof was constructed from two rolled 0.5mm sheets laminated together and bordered with two “quad” styrene sections. The front windscreen panel was made and trial fitted to the body shell and roof. Again owing to the compound curves this can be difficult. Leave a gap between the roof and windscreen panel and fill the gap with Tamiya Putty and sand to the required profile.

The NJ roof is essentially flat and was constructed from 1.0 & 0.5mm sheet.

In both cases the cooling fan rings were covered with fine brass mesh. Note. Cooling fan mesh typically has 2” [50mm] square pitch. 50mm in S-scale is 0.78mm.

The rear end panels were made to fit under the roof and between the sides.

Body/Mechanism Adaptor Plates.
The body/mechanism adaptor plates join the body shells to the mechanisms. The body/mechanism adaptor plates are 1mm thick sheet stiffened with 4-off, 3 x 2 styrene strips. The stiffeners are glued to the top and bottom surface of the plate and positioned so that they fit around the mechanism frame and between the body sides. The plate has an open centre to accommodate motor, flywheels and drive train.

Useful References:
Australian Railway Enthusiast, Vol 33, No 4, Dec’95.
Locomotives of Australian National, Robert Sampson & Ronald E Fluck. A Mile End Railway Publication, 1982. [Outline drawings.]

South Australian Diesel Pictorial, Douglas A Colquhoun. A Mile Railway Publication. 1981.

Locomotives and Railcars of the Commonwealth Railways. Port Dock Station Railway Museum. 1996. [Outline drawings.]

Then you’re left trying to source a suitable mechanism and that can be almost as difficult as building the thing yourself so it’s always good to come across a source for small, reliable mechanisms and just this morning I stumbled across L G Thek Brasswork.

If you’re scratchbuilding in N … or even Z … then you’ll want to take a look at the mechanisms he builds and just to wet your appetite here is a short video of a working Z Scale Shay that he has built.

He details the construction here

The abandoned line that runs northwest from Townsville to the town of Greenvale is definitely an exception. The line wasn’t built last century … it was built in the early 1970s and opened for traffic in 1974. Although it did have a passenger service that had no hope of returning a profit, the it’s main purpose was to transport nickel from a mine at Greenvale to a smelter near Townsville.

And as soon as the mine ran out of ore in 1993 the line was closed.

Before the track was lifted there was an attempt to have the section through the Hervey Ranges … just out of Townsville … kept open as a tourist line but that fell through and the rail along the full length of the line was lifted and ultimately used on the line out to Mount Isa.

These days the old formation is still in place and appears not to have been sold off to neighboring farmers and there is some chance that trains will run on this line again for surveys have shown that there are mineral deposits along that line that are worth mining.

As recently as 2008 there were plans to reopen at least part of the line to serve a proposed iron ore mine and the mining company had even gone so far as to purchase four of the 1100 class locos that had once seen service on the Emu Bay Railway to work the line. Unfortunately the global financial crisis put an end to that plan.

When the line was operating there were two and possibly three ore trains a day running on the line however by 1989 the number of ore trains operating each day would have been down to just two. It was usual for one of those trains to be made up of 92 ore wagons hauled by four locos while the others were made up of 69 wagons and hauled by three locos.

Cattle trains also used the line and there was also rail motor that ran a fortnightly service from Greenvale to Townsville and return. The rail motor would run empty to Greenvale on the day prior to it’s Townsville trip … do it’s return trip to Townsville providing a same-day service for shoppers … and then on return empty to Townsville on the third day.

This less-than-economic passenger service remained in place until the line was closed.

The ruling grade on the Greenvale line was 1 in 40 and the longest grade ran for 15km and faced empty trains. There were also a number of tunnels bored to take the line through some of the ridges in the Hervey Ranges.

I stumbled on the Greenvale line and two of the tunnels during this last week quite by accident. I was up in Townsville for the press release of the new Toyota Hilux and part of the drive programme took us out to the Hervey Ranges Tea Rooms where we were split into two groups and sent in different directions.

Our group went down to the old track formation, along it for a short stretch and then through quite a lengthy tunnel (unfortunately I’m not sure which tunnel it was but it did have a slight bend in it). We were then halted at the next tunnel and turned back because of a rock fall at the far end. We were also told that the cutting at the far end of that tunnel was unstable and it was not safe to even walk through the tunnel.

Even though I was driving I managed to grab a few photos around the tunnels and at the turn-back I jumped out and took one looking through to the rock fall. Another photo in this set was taken by Noel McKeegan, editor of Gizmag, and shows us coming out of the tunnel at what I think was the Greenvale end.

Once we got back from the tunnels we were sent out to a look out and that’s where I was able to grab the scenic shot you see above.

You can see the state of the old track formation from the photographs … it was a bit rough in places but it was fine in the tunnel that we drove through.

My apologies for being a little vague about some of the details of where the photos were taken but on these press day drives the mind tends to be focused on how the vehicle is handling, how it’s handling the conditions and whether or not I’m going to be able to return the vehicle in one piece and not so much on where you’re driving.

My thanks to Arthur Shale, Peter Murray, Neil Farmer and the other members of the QRIG group who took the time to answer my questions and get involved in an interesting discussion about the Greenvale line.

If you’re interested in reading about the new Toyota Hilux then follow the link to  AussieMotoring’s intro to the new Toyota Hilux.

He asked if I could post them somewhere because some of the group were looking at the area as a modelling project so here they are … better late than never.

[Show as slideshow]

It’s really a nothing shot and I’m not quite sure why I took it. The loco isn’t really in the picture … Bathurst West signal box really isn’t in the picture … and there are a couple of poles in the way as well.

I was going to toss it in the garbage until I realised that this is a photo that’s full of detail … detail that would be of interest to modellers. So let’s look at some of that detail.

The lower back wall of the signal box. Now the signal boxes at either end of the platform at Bathurst were basically identical but the lower wall on the lower back wall in the photo is quite different to what I remember of the same wall on Bathurst East signal box.

The gas cylinder … it appears to have been placed there with some purpose in mind (it seems to be sitting on a purpose-built base) but it doesn’t appear to be connected to anything.

The piping on the side wall of the signal box … each of those pipes serves a specific purpose and notice where the rainwater downpipe ends. Adding all that piping to a building would be a bit fiddly but think of how plain that wall would look if there were no pipes there.

The stained paintwork on the corner of the building nearest the locomotive. It’s obvious that when that photo was taken Bathurst West signal box had not had a close encounter with paint brush for quite a few years.

Now we modellers often go to great lengths to replicate generalised weathering but when was the last time you added some heavy staining like you see there?

The walkway that leads from the door below the signal box. It runs right across the yard to the workshop that’s out of the picture on the left-hand side. It’s obviously heavily stained.

The trash burner … no one seemed to even think about pollution back then and if there was rubbish to be disposed off then the quickest way was to stick it in an old 44 gallon drum and light a match.

Obviously that’s what the workers around this part of Bathurst yard had been doing for years … just look at the rust on that drum.

The colour of the ground … look at the staining on the ground in the foreground of this photo and around the tracks adjacent to the locomotives. There’s no clean ballast or nice brown soil here … just years of dripping oil from both diesels and steam locomotives.

I hope this nothing photo gives you some detailing ideas for your layout.

Sadly because of trademark issues Austrains were not given permission to release the wagon with the correct lettering so they’ve offered it in three other Australian oil company colour schemes and from the photos it looks like a very decent model.

However this particular 4-wheel rail tanker wasn’t the only in use in New South Wales. Esso had at least one in their fleet and it often appeared at the Esso depot in Bathurst.

That’s where I grabbed these photos late one afternoon. Sadly I didn’t record the date but it would have been no earlier than 1978 when I was posted to Bathurst and probably no later than about 1980.

This 4-wheel tanker had a capacity of 3,000 gallons (approx. 11,246 litres) and was obviously painted black … although that had weathered to something closer to a rusty grey by the time I photographed it.

If you compare this to the tanker that was the basis of the Austrains model you will see that there are detail differences … the walkway is shorter on the Esso tanker and the access ladder is in the centre of the wagon rather than towards the end.

The Esso depot in Bathurst was located in Russell Street just beyond the underpass at the eastern end of the yard.

I should also point out that none of the 4-wheel or bogie petrol tankers that ran in NSW actually belonged to the NSWGR. Each tanker belonged to the fuel company whose name appeared on the tanker so the one in these photos was owned by Esso.

John Beckhaus … in his 1970 booklet ‘Railway Freight Wagons of New South Wales (long out of print) … notes that in 1970 the 4-wheel petrol tankers that were in use at that time had capacities ranging from 2,500 gallons to 5,000 gallons.

Small files, small drill bits, taps and dies in the smallest sizes … it didn’t matter what the item I might have needed because it was either in the shop or could be ordered in.

I’m certainly not that well served by the hobby shop in the town where I nw live … and frankly I don’t expect to be. Hobby tools … especially those that you would want to use if you were scratchbuilding in brass or nickle silver … or in N Scale … are specialist items and the demand for them is quite limited.

That’s why I’m always interested in finding an online store that can supply tools for scratchbuilders and one that I haven’t come across before is advertising in the current issue of the Australian Model Railway Magazine.

Hobby Tools Australia has quite an extensive catalogue of tools and it’s well-worth having a look at.

Well here is the perfect project for a whole bunch of things you just might have in your junk box.

This photo was taken not all that far from where I live in Hervey Bay and the subject of the photo is the front gate of a property on the outskirts of town. Now what’s on that property is interesting enough … old railway houses, an timber railway station, several old goods sheds … but the gate is definitley interesting too.

On the gate posts are two finials from the top of old signal posts. The gates themselves are almost certainly the sides and ends from a cane wagon. They look similar to the sides of cane wagons used at several mills quite a long way to the north of here but they could have been from as close as Childers or Bundaberg.

And then there are the wheels … they’re quite large and they have a flange on them so they could have come from a loco.

And there you have it … a perfect excuse to raid your junk box. You could put something like this just about anywhere you have a road on your layout … just have a track winding away from the gate and disappearing off into the distance and you don’t even have to worry about any farm buildings … and it would work in just about any scale.

If I needed a wagon that had louvres I either did without or bought one in kit form.

BUT now I’m not so scared of louvres because in the latest edition of Narrow Gauge Downunder … July 2011 … there’s an article on scratchbuilding a louvre van in O scale by Mal Carroll.

The way the author goes about building his louvres is simple and looks relatively easy … even in smaller scales and now I’m itching to find some spare time to get back to my hobby desk and give Mal’s method a try.

You can find Narrow Gauge Donwunder and better news agencies around Australia or you can order copies online at http://www.narrowgaugedownunder.com