60012 Commonwealth of Australia

Whilst away on holidays, over the last couple of days I've completed the signal box, engine shed, and the two huts that come with the signal box. To allow an interior and lighting to be fitted to the signalbox, I've left the base, cabin, and roof separate. Below are photos of the signal box: And some views of it and the other completed buildings: The station and goods shed will be completed next week, and once lighting and interiors (where applicable) have been completed, will be placed on the layout so ballasting can commence. Peter

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent assembling the platforms. After some consideration and discussion, I decided to remove the distant signal. I may add an extra board on at a later stage, to give a bit of a scenic run, on which the distant and an outer home signal will be placed. Below are some photos of the platform construction. I also placed the part-built station building, and a Hornby goods shed down (the goods shed will be a Metcalfe item, as will the signal box and engine shed). Walls and bracing: Then the tops glued on: Then finally the edging strips stuck down, and some more stock placed on: The remaining buildings (goods shed, engine shed and signal box) will be purchased this week, and along with the station building hopefully completed in the next two weeks or so. Peter

Having two spare baseboards left over from an aborted P4 layout (Bonshaw), and a fair bit of Code 100 track (1 3-way, 3 left-hand turnouts and 2 right-hand turnouts) leftover from the original Skipton fiddle yard, I decided to make a small branchline layout. I messed around with some set-track points to see what I could make using what I had, and came up with this arrangement - The layout will be NBR, pre-grouping, probably set in the late 1900s early 1910s, and the name was suggested to me by a friend. I then got all the track for it, and started laying it on the board (there are two, one board which I'm using as the scenic board is 1.6 x 0.6m, the other for the fiddle yard, which is 1.2 x 0.6m). At this point the legs were screwed onto the boards. At this point I also decided I wanted to fully signal the yard, and bought Ratio kits for LNER signals. Two kits provided the parts I needed for the triple-bracket, two double-brackets and single post signal that I needed. I've used miniature arms (the same as calling on arms I believe, but used for a different purpose) for shunt moves. All arms move, and I'm trying to find a source for brass cranks to connect them up to servos - the plastic cranks keep snapping. I also built a double-bladed catch point, cut up from an old set-track point, for the goods road. \ At this point I marked out holes for point motors, drilled the holes, and then before I put the track back painted the baseboards brown as an undercoat for scenery. The track was then nailed down again, and I placed down the buildings and signals to see how everything went together. I have a Metcalfe red brick station for the station building, and red brick platform kits for the platform. When I can afford it they will be joined by a Metcalfe engine shed, signal box, and goods shed, and possibly a couple of terrace houses. Final thing for this post (as that's as far as the layout has gotten so far), is I drew up a signalling diagram for it, based on a number of Victorian Railways ones I have in my collection in terms of text, and track being represented by double-lines - most VR diagrams have single lines, but some have double-lines and I chose to represent this variant. I may at some point choose to replace it with a diagram using single-lines for track, but for now I'm happy with it. For rolling stock and locomotives, I'm looking to get a Hornby J36, and a couple of 52F kits for NBR locos, I'm uncertain as to which ones though. What few wagons are needed will probably be Parkside Dundas or other kits, and I'm currently looking for a source for NBR coaches. That's all for now, should have some progress to report on the weekend as I have a friend coming over who's going to help doing some work on the layout. Peter

Thank you. The next project will be VR again, I'm very slowly refining my ideas for Dunoon but given all the false starts I want to be absolutely sure before I spend/waste any more money on it. Also given I have a pretty large fleet of VR at the moment it makes more sense for me to do that and slowly build up the fleet for Dunoon. I suspect I will wait before moving out to start Dunoon, as given what I'd like to do with it it will likely be a very large layout, and given I'll have Year 12 next year I won't have the time or space to do a whole lot. Peter

It's been a very long time since an update. Since the last time I updated this, the layout was completed, went to 6 exhibitions, and has now been sold and is awaiting transfer to it's new owner. It went to the Caulfield exhibition in 2017 and 2018, the Croydon exhibition in late 2017, the Diamond Valley Railway Birthday Weekend in late 2017, the Diamond Creek exhibition in early 2018, and most recently the Sunbury exhibition, which was it's last exhibition. A video of it at the latter is available at my youtube channel, link to the video here: Skipton is at the end of the video, from 11:10 onwards. As there are too many to post here, I have posted the photos of Skipton from all but it's most recent outings to Flickr - the album is available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/145830718@N02/sets/72157701417459021 I'm currently planning my next layout, which will likely either be a small diorama style layout (with some operation), or a very large mainline layout - I'm still deciding which to go for! Peter

Here's my WIP - a cabless 0-4-0 industrial shunter from the Hornby 2005 Collectors club loco - purchased from Hattons and shipped to Australia for $21 AUD including shipping and bank international transfer fee. Unfortunately as delivered the motor mount was shattered - luckily I had a spare one floating around. Not sure where the motor or pickups on the spare one went though! First I cut the cab, safety valve and funnel off. Next, I built up a coal bunker front plate, footplate, and firebox backplate - extended out by a couple of bits of 1mm styrene to clear the motor. I also cut off the ridiculous looking tension-lock couplers. Next, I went through my box of bits and found a new safety valve and funnel from an old Alan Gibson kit (bought 2nd hand and missing a bunch of parts, so now used for spares), and a set of HO scale buffers (slightly small I know, but sort of achieve the cheaply-built look I want). These were all cleaned up and fitted, and that brings it to the point it's at now. In the next week or two I'll build up some sort of detail on the back plate, then paint it, add a crew and DCC decoder, and 3-link couplings.

Unfortunately I haven't found the issue with the Ts. However, I may well be getting a steam loco for Skipton soon, a VR K class as K160. Have done a whole lot more work on it today, adding grass, and painting the goods shed. I also had to replace a section of track in the headshunt that got damaged during scenicking. Turntable pit now grassed - Masked off the area where the goods yard is gravel, and grassed the remaining areas - Masking tape removed - Replacing broken track - Wooden parts of the goods shed painted - And finally, a bit of fun. An old Hornby Mk1 BSK repainted into Victorian Railways Wagon Red, fitted with Kadees, and with 'Rivet Counter Express' nameboards on it - Peter.

Thanks Mark Thanks, I'll have a look and see if that's the problem. Peter

Well despite the lack of photos, I've been working flat out to get Skipton ready, and with 12 full days left until set up, I'm starting to think I'm pushing it a little too close! I've primarily been working on scenery (grass, the tree, hills), however I've also done a little work on rolling stock - built a new wagon, painted 8 wagons, and just need to decal them. Today I also started on the first of two grain sheds. For Caufield they will be smaller than the real thing and photo replicas rather than scale models, however once that's over I will be scratchbuilding models of them as close to scale as feasible, due to the lack of drawings. Unfortunately though, my T class's (T320 and T333) have both developed faults - a ticking noise when they run - so unless I can find the problem very soon they will be unavailable for Caufield, leaving motive power at 3 Y class's, a Walker, and whatever motive power we can borrow for the exhibition. Peter

Here are some photos of my recent scenic work. Sorry for the delay, but it hasn't been letting me add photos. 3723.jpg] I have done quite a lot since these photos were taken, and I will upload more up-to-date photos tomorrow evening. Peter

Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes. I haven't posted recently, but I have been very busy. Skipton is now fully operational, having replaced the SEEPs with Cobalt motors. The track is now also ballasted, as can be seen in the photos below. There is now only a month remaining until it's first exhibition, which will be at the AMRA annual exhibition at Caufield Racecourse, on the 26th and 27th of August. I will be either at Skipton or around the exhibition for the entire weekend, so if any of you are around please come up and say hello. Subsequently, I'm going to be working my ar$e off in all my spare time to get it up to a decent standard! I'm happy with the runnning and ballast though, and the rails have been weathered, so it's coming along very well. I now also have my own team (sort of a club) of 5, and as they say, many hands make light work. After showing them all how to do it on the first half of the centre baseboard, they got the ballasting on the rest of Skipton done in an hour (three of them did the other board, and myself and another did the centre one). So hopefully this kind of thing will keep up. As it stands, the backscenes have been painted and will be delivered soon. One of my other team members are going to be dealing with the grain sheds shortly. The goods shed and turntable have been built and installed, however due to issues with the turntable mechanism it will not be operational for the exhibition - I've put timber baulks over the rails, and the story is it's been booked out-of-use for maintenance work. The stock race is also being built by me at the moment, and will be installed either tomorrow or Friday.The platform has also been glued in place and I'll be working on the landscaping around it tomorrow. I have also made 2 major rolling stock purchases recently, a pack of 6 Auscision Models GY grain wagons, and 2 Austrains Z/ZL guards vans. These complete the rolling stock needed for Skipton, once the kit built wagons (a mix of GY, I/IA Open Wagons, and a UB van) have been completed (painted and decalled). This will be done very soon. Once the final pieces of infrastructure (grain sheds, station, water tower and livestock race) have been built/painted/installed, it will then be down to doing the rest of the landscaping, and putting grass down. Going from my photos, there were no trees in the area of Skipton I am modelling in my era, so there will be no trees evident (I may change my mind and put one or two in though). Some of the landscaping will be changed though, originally Skipton left on an embankment and then went through a cutting, I will be making it leave through a cutting, without the embankment. This is as I want to have a number of variations in the land height, to make it look more like the Victorian countryside than something a parent made for their kids. I'm hoping to get the styrene down tomorrow, so will put photos up when I can. All the best, Peter

I know it's been said before, however the quality of the scenery and especially the backscenes that you put on is IMHO some of the best I have ever seen. Need to watch this more closely, have been gone for 3-4 days and already there are another 4 pages! Great work, and I look forward to seeing more. Peter

I also had my 16th birthday on Sunday week before last (18th of June). Lots of train stuff. From Grandpa, a Bachmann 9F as 92189, and 5 DCC decoders. From Mum and Dad, a Hornby J15 as 65356, and a Hornby D16/3 as 62530. These go nicely with my B12/3, and complete my ex-GER set (until the Oxford N7 is released) I also got an NCE Powercab from Dad as a replacement for my Hornby Elink, which stopped working a few months ago. This meant that I could use the DCC decoders from Grandpa to chip my 9F, D16/3, Class 26, Y class, and Walker. As T333 already had a chip, and wasn't working, whereas T320 was DC but fully operational, I moved the chip from 333 to 320, so I now have all 3 of my operational VR locos (31RM, Y145, T320) DCC Fitted, ready to run on Skipton. I will put up some photos of the layout when I get home tomorrow. Peter

Well the goods shed arrived, and was duly built last week (took 10 hours, but the best kit I've ever built. Laser-cut wooden frames, and scale metal corrugated iron for the corrugated iron. Cut to size and glued on with superglue.) This was then put up in the shed. I also bought a DCC Concepts ADS-FX8 Solenoid point decoder, to fix the polarity issues with the SEEP motors. Wire up all motors. Took about 10 hours. Working fine, no problems. Test frog polarity changing. Frog wiring seems to be reversed for 4th motor. Reverse frog wiring. All works fine. Done Saturday afternoon (that was a very late night, in bed around 2:30am) Come back next day, turn Powercab on. "Short Circuit Detected". Unwire the decoder. Another hour to unwire and ensure all wires are out of the way. Another 10 hours rewiring the decoder. This time only point 3 is switching (I replaced 4 with a Cobalt as the short circuit burnt out the SEEP, and I had a spare Cobalt, so it was working fine). Another hour unwiring it again. Feeling really disillusioned with it right now. The turntable arrived today so I went up and cut out the hole and installed it and the approach track, but I don't really want to go within 10' of the wiring for now. Even so, I have a deadline to work to now so I will have to do it soon. I have work experience this week at the Melbourne Freight Terminal, managed by Pacific National (the main rail freight operator in Australia), so I don't have the time to rewire it all, and next week (Week 1 of school holidays), I will be away. Which leaves me 1 week to get it all wired up, and then around a month to get all the scenics done. So that'll be fun (he said sarcastically)... Peter

Well done on the station, it looks absolutely fabulous! Peter

Well, Skipton has recieved an invite to an exhibition here in Victoria later in the year, so I had better get my ar$e into gear!! The name and location of the exhibition will be revealed closer to the time. The goods shed (VR 30' type) and turntable (a Frateschi 60'? one) have been ordered, and I will be getting Cobalt S levers for the points to solve the polarity switch issues with the SEEP motors in the next couple of days. Once it's all wired up it'll be time for scenery. Peter

Love the look of the wagons just snaking through the curve in the 2nd photo there. It certainly looks much better now that it's been realigned. I'm not sure what it is about long, smooth reverse curves, they just look really good IMHO. Can't wait to see some scenery on it like on Pencarne! All the best, Peter

Love the idea of the colliery. Looks like it's coming along nicely. Will be great to see a Q6 with a train of hoppers going across that viaduct with another train on the one in the background! All the best, Peter

Alright. I will ask Dad about joining it when he gets back from Brisbane tomorrow. I've actually used PVA on the sleepers (and paper), both carefully weighted down to avoid the paper curling and affecting the positioning. So far no problems. Peter

Well, a new loco today. Unfortunately it won't fit on Dunoon Sidings (too long for the headshunt), but a beautiful model by Hornby, and may form the basis for a future layout. It is one of the new B12/3s, in BR Lined Black, with a late crest, as BR 61580. Below are some photos of it: I have also uploaded a review of this model to my youtube channel, and it is available here: All I need now is a D16 and a J15 to go with it! I'm still waiting for the call to say that the rail has arrived at Brunel, however when it has I can get some more work done on Dunoon Sidings. Peter

Despite having been born 10,500 miles away, and 33 years after the end of steam in the UK, I'd choose Kings Cross in 1960. Congratulations on 600 pages by the way! Peter

I believe a large number of interlaced turnouts actually survived into BR days, in fact I've seen a photo of one as late as about 1970 (also, according to this two partially interlaced turnouts survived as late as the mid 2000s - http://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?id=208) As this is going to be an industrial layout (anything else is too big and looks out of place), I'm making it so the company who built it purchased all the sleepers and chairs second hand from various companies at the time it was being built (I'm saying about 1921), to explain the two different sleeper sizes, and the fact they used interlaced turnouts with normal sleepers as opposed to normal turnouts. Are the Society Stores products available to non Scalefour Society members? I'm currently not a member, however I am planning to join sometime in the future. Peter

The first 400 sleepers have now been laid. I am doing the turnouts with interlaced sleepers, as I can not get proper 12" turnout timbers from Brunel Hobbies, and the C&L site have stopped selling things temporarily due to the change of owner. I have 500 chairs, however need about another 750, plus another 100 sleepers to finish off the last two turnouts. To get me to this stage has taken about 10 hours. 2 hours doing the track plan, 1 hour preparing the baseboard, 1 hour cutting out and gluing the track plan on, and about 6 hours laying all the sleepers. This is excluding the glue drying time. Incidentally, I find the process of sitting down on my bedroom floor and slowly gluing down sleepers is very relaxing, and I find an hour can go very quickly. I do about 65 sleepers in an hour (a bit over 1 a minute). This shows the layout as it sits so far. Other materials I already have for this are about 500 chairs, and 3 bottles of superglue for the placing down thereof. The rail is being shipped to the shop where I get the parts as I speak, and I am expecting a call sometime this week to say that it has arrived. Peter

This morning, I purchased my first OO/P4 locomotive kit - an Alan Gibson kit for a Midland Railway class 700, also known as the Midland Railway 3P. It is part built. I have done a little on it - fitted the remaining axles to the tender, and started fitting the axlebox covers to the tender as well. I will post some images of it's current state later this evening Sadly however, the kit is missing instructions (other than for the sprung hornblocks). If anyone knows where I can find a set, or who has a set that they can scan/email to me, it would be greatly appreciated (as this means that I can not do any further work on the kit - the axlebox covers were fairly intuitive and easy to figure out). Peter

I got the new kit today. It is an Alan Gibson Midland Railway 700 class (or 3P) 4-4-0. It is a part-completed kit, with a chunk of the tender completed, along with the main loco body. Luckily, it is to P4, with P4 wheelsets included. However, there is one major item missing - the instructions - which sadly means I can not do any work on it until I can obtain a set of instructions. If anyone can point me in the right direction (or scan/send a set for me), it would be much appreciated. Peter **EDIT** I have posted a new thread in the Kitbuilding/Scratchbuilding section of the thread to cover this build. It is available here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122749-alan-gibson-mr-700-3p-kit-build-in-p4/