QRModeller

I’m not 100% certain on this and am happy to be corrected, but I believe only one loco is actually in use when hauling the Westie, the second is there as a backup in case of a breakdown once they’re beyond Toowoomba. Willowburn is the only depot on the Western Line now, save a couple of refuelling points at major stations, and it’s a 615km (382 mile) journey between T’ba and Charleville with the trip timetabled to take 12 hours, so it’d be an awfully long wait for a replacement loco to arrive should one be needed!

Thank you Duncan. I shall await publication of your article to learn what to do for the Minks. Cheers! Matt

Hey all, got a couple of questions about some Shop 2 bits. 1. Does the 2-522 GWR Iron Mink kit come with a roof? Can’t tell from just the description and photo in the shop listing. 2. What was item 2-337? It’s no longer available in the shop but is listed in the extras column for some wagons when reading the parts tables. Given it’s number’s closeness to 2-335 Steel Solebar conversion for 9’ wheelbase underframes, was it the same thing but for a 10’ wheelbase underframe? Cheers, Matt

Timber would probably be most likely, given era and location.

G’day Kevin, Thanks for that, just what I needed to know. Reckon I might take you up on the offer for a virtual ’how to’ as well, if I can remember to join the ZAG meeting in time! Cheers, Matt (originally from Brisbane but currently out West in the sticks at Dalby).

Hi team, new-ish Association member here. Joined in May (after first toying with the idea 8 years ago!), when I found I needed an away/distraction from my main modelling discipline of QR in HO scale as I now also work in that industry. Currently trodding the well worn path of 2FS newbies by building a 16t mineral wagon which is mostly complete, so have also started on the underframe for a standard van kit. I’d just like to know if there’s any standard for how far out from the buffer beam a DG should sit, as all my previous searches for this info have been fruitless thus far. Basically, is there any part of the coupling that should line up with part of the wagon e.g. the buffer faces? Cheers, Matt.

G’day, I haven’t been very active on here recently, so only just seen your request. These any good? https://www.wuiskemodels.com/prototype/index.php?sfpg=MDAzLS1ESUVTRUwgTE9DT01PVElWRVMvMjgwMCBDTEFTUy8qMjgwMF9DTEFTU18yODA5XzAwMi5qcGcqUEFHRSppbWFnZWZvcm0qKmE5NzY4NGY3M2E4M2M1OGFkZTA4OWZmZDNhOWIyY2Mz https://www.wuiskemodels.com/prototype/index.php?sfpg=MDAzLS1ESUVTRUwgTE9DT01PVElWRVMvMjgwMCBDTEFTUy8qMjgwMF9DTEFTU18yODE4XzIwMTAtMDUtMThfMDAxLmpwZypQQUdFKmltYWdlZm9ybSoqYTFiNGYyOWFiZWExYTliZGM2ODc2MTNhZjljYWIzNzQ https://www.wuiskemodels.com/prototype/index.php?sfpg=MDAzLS1ESUVTRUwgTE9DT01PVElWRVMvMjgwMCBDTEFTUy8qMjgwMF9DTEFTU18yODI2XzAwMy5qcGcqUEFHRSppbWFnZWZvcm0qKjUyOWUxYWJiM2JkMmYxMzc3YzI0MzYyNTgxODA0MzYw https://www.wuiskemodels.com/prototype/index.php?sfpg=MDAzLS1ESUVTRUwgTE9DT01PVElWRVMvMjgwMCBDTEFTUy8qMjgwMF9DTEFTU18yODI2XzAwNC5qcGcqUEFHRSppbWFnZWZvcm0qKjE1OTYyN2VmZmE2ZTdmYWE2ODcxNDM5NTZjYTc4ZmQ5 https://www.wuiskemodels.com/prototype/index.php?sfpg=MDAzLS1ESUVTRUwgTE9DT01PVElWRVMvMjgwMCBDTEFTUy8qMjgwMF9DTEFTU18yODMxXzIwMTAtMDUtMThfMDA0LmpwZypQQUdFKmltYWdlZm9ybSoqYmRmZjZiOTI0MDVmMjg2YTM1Y2MzM2NkOTBkNmM2NGY The rest of the 2800 Class gallery is here if you haven’t already seen it: https://www.wuiskemodels.com/prototype/index.php?sfpg=MDAzLS1ESUVTRUwgTE9DT01PVElWRVMvMjgwMCBDTEFTUy8qKioqKmNkMDc3YzdiMThlYzAwMjAzYjRmYTk4MDY4ZjA0ZGVj Hope these help. Matt

Cheers Mark, They went together quite well, and the pieces required minimal cleaning up too! Matt.

What did I tell you?! An update that hasn't taken more than half a year to appear!! This time I'll be tackling two kits at the same time, hence this posts title. So, what am I building? Two FJS wagon kits by PGC Scale Models. These are/were steel bodied four wheeled wagons used to transport just about anything that could be loaded into them! Inside we find five sprus of three different mouldings, and a bag containing wheels, decals and white metal buffers and brake cylinder. Firstly, because I'll be using Kadee's I had to modify the ends to accept the coupler box. Three done, one to go at this point. Next, I made four sub-assemblies of an end and a side. Once the glue set, for the first wagon, I glued the two sub-assemblies together and then added the floor. On doing this, I found I'd possibly taken too much off the sides of the floor when cleaning it up so there are some gaps between it and the sides! Lesson learned, for the second wagon, I glued the floor to one of the sub-assemblies first, before bringing both together. There's still a small gap in places on the side of the floor that was glued second but none of them will be noticeable on either wagon when in use. Next came the two central frames. These had to be shortened to accommodate the Kadee couplers before being attached. Once these were on, I added the W iron mouldings, and at the same time, the wheels (although they can still be removed). Time to add the outer frames. Before doing this though, the door stops were supposed to be bent into a slight 'S' shape. However, I felt the moulded on ones were too thick and could bend back to their original shape over time, so I cut them off and made my own from brass strip which were then superglued on. Top is the original moulding, one below has been modified. With all four outer frames modded, they could now be attached to the wagons. I did have to trim the backs of some of the door hinges to allow for the extra width added by the brass strip door stops before the frames would fit properly. I also had to re-glue all of the door stops as they worked loose while the frames were being fitted. They're all stuck solid now though! The handbrake levers were next, followed by the buffers. That's where I'm currently up to with these. I've yet to add the brakes, brake cylinder and couplers, but before completion I want to add some form of brake gear similar to the Caintode A wagon from my last blog entry. As these kits don't come with materials for this, I'm going to wait until I've built a few of the other kits I bought recently to use the left-overs from their brake gear components. Stay tuned, next time I should be building something a little bit bigger and with more wheels! Matt.

Cheers Mike, I was amazed when I saw the peg bar on the fret, it was so fragile!! Doing the brake gear was actually quite fun, and even though it's been abbreviated, it was still interesting trying to work out how it would work for real on the full sized wagons! Matt.

Well, I may have had my fingers crossed behind my back when in my last entry I said I'd try and update this more regularly! Basically, I was hit by a lack of motivation a couple of weeks after said last entry, and have only just got my enthusiasm back, largely thanks to attending this years Brisbane show. So, what have I been doing recently? Up till last week, nothing! However, after practically doubling my rollingstock fleet with all the kits I bought at the show, I decided I should probably start building some of them! My biggest purchase was the second last Wuiske/DJH A10 kit available, which I've decided to build as my entry for this years RMweb challenge, and so to get my practice back up, I'm going to build a couple of these new wagon kits first, starting with this: Another A Class wagon, this time by Caintode Flats. This model depicts the last build type of these wagons of which there were only 10 built. Open the bag and this is what was inside: Main body, floor/underframe, bag of bits, bag with decals, and they're a bit hard to see but three lengths of brass wire. Open the bag of bits and we find: Whitemetal W irons, brakes, buffers and brake cylinder, delrin wheel bearings, wheels, another length of brass wire, solder, and a brass etch containing bits for the brake gear. Building it didn't require any special tricks or techniques, I just followed the instructions, although didn't follow them in their printed order. One set of W irons, both V hangers, brake cylinder and actuating lever glued on. Second set of W irons added as well as wheels. Brake rod and linking piece also added. Brake lever and peg bar added. Close-up of peg bar. Body, brakes and buffers added. Brake gear all linked up. Footsteps and T piece added. Finished! (almost!) Just need to paint, decal and weather it now, but I'll wait until I have a few more kits built and paint them all together. Also needs couplers adding but that will happen after painting. Overall, an enjoyable build, if a little fiddly at times (although that could be me out of practice!), and was the first time I've soldered something that wasn't electrical wires! I'll need a few more of these eventually so now I know how easy they were to build, they'll be done in no time (once I've got them!). That's all for now, and I can guarantee that the next update won't take six months to appear! Matt.

That'd be chart used by the J. Clarkson School of Engineering then. Matt.

They'll probably need that many for the 150th specials! Matt.

Given it's Halloween today, in keeping with the spirit of things I thought I'd resurrect this blog from the dead! Not a great deal of modelling has happened since my last entry (just under a year and a half ago!), mainly because when I switched from uni to tafe at the start of last year my workload more than doubled, up from three subjects a semester to seven, causing a severe lack of interest in my own modelling. Luckily, I'd started volunteering at the the Workshops Railway Museum at the same time so my one day a week there has meant I haven't been doing nothing. Out of the two projects I've posted about on this blog so far, one hasn't progressed and the other has gone backwards! The goods shed is the stalled one - I'd held off painting it until I found out what colour scheme the one I was modelling had. However, I later found plans at the Queensland State Archives for it and found there are some quite significant detail differences to how I'd built it, so eventually I'll finish the current one and either sell it or use it on a diorama and build a new 'correct' one. The A wagon has gone backwards, literally! It rolled back off my outback diorama and turned itself back into a kit! Not too big a problem except for the fact that the metal weight I glued inside has come unstuck and getting the underframe off to re-glue it will be a pig of a job to do because it's superglued on! Will probably just have to live with that one! Now, to the modelling I have done since my last post. I built trees! My 'job' at the museum is to help with the model railway display, so that's fixing damage, making it look presentable and just generally keeping it going. In addition to that, I've been making some replacement trees for some of the scenes. For gum trees, I've used the twisted wire method, covered in watered down gap filler, then painted with acrylics and 'greened' with teased out foliage matting. The four stages Twisted wire (florist wire here but would prefer to use copper wire, much kinder to the fingers!) Watered down gap filler stage (this one was an attempt at a small jacaranda tree) Painted (this could have done with a bit more gap filler!) 'Greened' with Heki foliage matting This was my first finished tree. Didn't like how dark I did the trunk so tried to turn it into a wattle by hitting it with spray adhesive and sprinkling yellow scatter material on it. Crap image courtesy of my phone. Here's the rest waiting for their leaves to grow! These have all since been finished and are waiting to go onto the layout. I've also made a few palm trees from kits (Prieser IIRC). These I took home with me after finishing the first one so I could get them done quicker. Again, all since finished, but waiting until I have a few more to build before putting them in the Kuranda scene. That's this blog revived then. I'll try and keep the posts a bit more regular from now on (I'll aim for at least bi-monthly!), which should be a little easier now I've decided to give tertiary study a break for a few years. Add the fact I've now also got my small QR layout under way and a certain NSW broad gauge wagon to build, I should have something to talk about for a little while at least! Cheers, Matt.

Bloke is at work one day when he notices one of his co-workers is wearing an earring. Knowing his co-worker is of the conservative type, he's curious about this sudden change in fashion sense. So he walks up to him and says "I didn't know you were into earrings." "Don't make such a big deal, it's only an earring", his co-worker replies sheepishly. His friend falls silent for a few minutes, but curiosity gets the better of him and he asks "So, how long have you been wearing one?" "Ever since my wife found it in my car." Matt.