Great Train Show Model Railway Exhibition

[faulcon1]

On the 8th of June I went with my brother to Rosehill Racecource to have a look at the Epping Model Railway club's exhibition. There were a large number of layouts there and traders. It seemed a better set up than the annual one at Liverpool which is no more. It's been moved to one of the stadiums at Sydney Olympic Park. At Rosehill one could get a decent cup of coffee and something to eat available to both the viewing public and the model railway exhibitors. There was also loads of free parking close to the venue. At Liverpool it was a long walk from the car park to the exhibition. The layouts were all of a high standard with HO scale New South Wales predominating. 

One layout "Fingal" really caught my eye as it was modelled on Tasmanian Railways. There is no R-T-R in Tasmanian prototypes so every loco, coach, wagon, all line side buildings has to be scratch built. This layout was in OO scale or as the builders called it OO14 as Tasmania runs on 3'6" gauge and OO gives it a narrow gauge feel.

The 57 class 4-8-2 of 1929 seen on the Matelend, Blue Mountains and Rollingstock on the NSWR layouts had an operating Gresley Conjugating Valve Gear to operate the valves above the inside center cylinder. You would see these on the A3 and A4's if they weren't covered in. One 57 has been preserved No. 5711 which was withdrawn from traffic in 1961. They were designed to haul heavy slow coal trains. The 58 class 4-8-2 of 1950 looked similar but were meant for high speed goods trains like fruit expresses but they too were used on long slow coal trains a task they were never designed for and they were regarded as a failure. None have been preserved. The 57, 58 and 60 classes were the only steam locos on the New South Wales Government Railways that were fitted with automatic stokers. Oddly enough steam had to be raised using the shovel and a fireman was only allowed to operate the automatic stoker when the loco was coupled to a train.

The 30 class 4-6-4 tank seen on the Matelend layout are available R-T-R at around 300 pounds each. Ouch!!!!!. All the layouts at the exhibition were for sale.......at the right price for those who have deep pockets.

 

I took some amateur video. It's amazing what's now available in NSW HO scale considering our small population of 24m.

 

 

   

 

Edited June 14, 2019 by faulcon1
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