Friday on the Los Pinos and Toltec RR

Images from the Los Pinos and Tolec RR

     Our Friday round robin group headed down to Peters yesterday an hours drive east from my house and there was a lot more to see scenery wise along with a new Goose appearing on the roster.
    With permission from our host here are a few pics I took of the LP&TRR.

Enjoy.
Rod.

Time for a new Video

This new video is of my ON30 Narrow Gauge RR the Lost Creek

       I built this layout in a totally different shed to my SFRSD as I wanted to try something different. I guess this primarily came about from meeting Bill with his wonderful Sn3 RR which must have touched a nerve.
       One of the things I wanted to do is try something different hence the curved corners using off-cuts of Laminex curved to a 12 inch radius and glued in place with contact adhesive. John F a good friend helped me paint the top half of the room sky blue and with a lot of the turnout wiring by using push /pulls onto slide switches instead of Tortoise motors.
      I designed the fascia to have a shelf so operators had a place to lay car cards whilst switching.
      The other really big step was learning to paint all of the scenery and trees on my backdrops which took a while, however I was pleased with the outcome.
      I kit bashed two Bachmann Gas Mechanical Locos, weathered a Shay and a Porter and assembled quite a few English freight car kits that turned out okay.

     Building this layout was a lot of fun however the operational side did not work as planned so the Lost Creek RR became a fallen flag.
     There is no video clips of the layout however I did manage to take quite a few images which I have put together in the video.
     Hope you enjoy my journey into Narrow Gauge Railroading as much as I enjoyed building it.

     As usual thanks for stopping by and watch out for more videos as I add them to this Blog over coming weeks.
Rod.

Almost 2 months

Wow doesn't time fly by.

    It is hard to believe that it is almost two months since my last post. So much has happened since then. We have packed up and moved into our new house and still lots to do. Just got the landline phone in on Saturday, waiting for ADSL internet (using a mobile devise for a while) and Foxtel due tomorrow.
    I have done some work towards getting the double car garage up to my way. Two lots of high storage racks have been installed (one on either side) new small work bench in and my new spray booth is almost ready to fire it's first shot.
    Lots more to move once we get full title of the house until then its about as much as we are permitted to do.

These racks are on the L/H/Side some stuff seen here already gone to Salvo's

   So what have I been up to before hand. Making a few Rail Line and Durango Press kits for my upcoming HOn3 layout that will go around three of the walls. This should suit me I hope but never say never or Over My Dead Body.
   Here is a few picks of some progress.

    These kits look quite complicated at first however once you get underway they are quite nice to do. The Rail line kits (the box car) has preformed grab irons whilst the Durango Press Gons well you have to roll your own and the is a lot. Thank goodness I have The Wedge it makes making grab irons a breeze.

    On Saturday I finally got to Barry's place to paint the backdrop on his new HOn3 Layout. Boy is he doing a fine job, the layout looks fab. Whilst there I took just a couple of pics so see below.

   
    This is the main portion of backdrop I painted. Copied straight from a pic off the D&RGW.

    Well that's it for today as usual thanks for stopping by.
Rod.

Time for a HO Victorian prototype Layout

Graham Fraser's wonderful HO Victorian layout.

    I had the pleasure some time back to visit Grahams layout and just had to ask if it was okay to do a video.
    The amount of detail Graham is putting into his layout is simply amazing. When you take a look at the video take note of the scale linkage that runs from the signal box along side the track and over to the signals and turnouts. Then look even harder at the scale signals themselves which are a direct copy of those seen on our Victorian Railways. The station buildings and the pedestrian crossing are just a few of the details that have all been faithfully reproduced.
   Grahams layout as you will see is far from being finished but boy is it going to be something when he gets there.

   So sit back and enjoy HO scale modeling Victorian Railways style at it's best.

Thanks once more for stopping by.
Rod.

West Coast Mining in N Scale

 Noels N Scale Pilbara Mine RR

     This video was taken way back in 2014 on Noels, West Coast Mining Model Railroad.
      Large companies like BHP and RioTinto just to name two operate some of the worlds largest iron ore mines and longest trains in the world.
     Noel has created a miniature version of what goes on in Australia's far North West iron ore mining territory in half of his double garage. The room is sealed and the air inside controlled for heating and cooling. Special lighting effects have been employed to create the look of a hot 50C degree day or that of an operating mine site at night.
     Lots of unique N Scale locomotives can be seen as a result of Vics work in helping Noel create the famous Pilbara Cab by etching them in brass along with the radiators and fuel tanks. Special paint schemes have been employed on 15 locomotives that I had the pleasure of painting way back.
     Noel has then had a logo designed with decals being made and applied to these locos.
    The unique ore cars have been kitbashed by slicing Kato and other brand cars to the length required then sanding and painting.
    The layout has the ability to load and then unload real iron ore using a scratch built loader and unload-er. Unfortunately not shown in this video.
     Special work has been done on the couplers to allow each car to rotate whilst being unloaded without the cars on either side tipping by adapting fishing swivel hooks.
    I hope you enjoy viewing this unique model railroad.

Thanks to all for watching my videos. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy putting them together.
Rod.

Another N Scale layout

Graham Meyers N Scale Empire

     Over the past several years several friends have gathered each Friday to talk, drink tea and coffee have lunch and play trains. One such layout we get to run on is Grahams KCS Mexican Division.
     Many years ago when we first met at Grahams house he asked several of us that had been modeling in N for many years what he could do to improve his layout.
     As you can imagine suggestions came from all around the round table and within minutes a new track plan was drawn on a piece of paper and the rest is history.
    Graham has put a lot of effort into his KSC Mexican Division even going to the trouble of extending his layout room, adding carpet tiles, air conditioning and a crew room.
    I have not had a chance of late to video the newer sections of his railroad however the portion I have done is included in the video below.
    So sit back and watch as we follow a couple of trains on the KCS Mexican Division.

    I trust you enjoyed the journey as much as I have of putting this video together.

Thanks for coming by.
Rod.

Peter Suttons HOn3 Model RR Part 2

Part 2 of the Los Pinos and Toltec RR

    This is part 2 of the HOn3 layout belonging to Peter Sutton. With this video we capture several train movements on this beautiful layout.

    So sit back and enjoy part 2 of the Los Pinos & Toltec RR

Thanks for watching.
Rod.