Where Are We All?

[Jon Harbour]

Only just found this thread.I am currently in Willoughby but move to Turramurra on December14. Check my now defunct layout on http://www.rmweb.co....omsearch__1.The move brings the prospect of a new layout based on Manors BR(NE).Are you a member of BRMA?

 

Not a member of BMRA at the moment, but I am a member of the Hills Model Railway Society that meets in Baulkham Hills every Friday evening. I do intend joining BMRA, just haven't gathered my excrement yet...

[69843]

 

For us who don't live in the Shire, do you still need a day pass to get in or travel through....?

 

Cheers, Gary.

Day Pass? How about a passport!

[Gwiwer]

First you have to get there!

 

[gazmanjack]

First you have to get there!

 

 

Now, can somebody please translate that ad into English...!   Now in NZ tongue... Aw man, choice edd bro, me kuz and oi luved it, aint dat right suz.... 

 

Cheers, Gary.

[auxie22]

Hey Jon,

 

Not part of BRMA yet, but will be soon. I live in the south of Adelaide use to live in Seaford, Vic

 

Jules

[RussellP]

Well I'm new and i'm from Wellington!

Hello Jack.

Also in Wellington, in 0 scale - actually 1:48.

Like your work,

[bundeena2230]

Bundeena now in  Yowie Bay

[gazmanjack]

Bundeena now in  Yowie Bay

 

...Now that would have been a nice swim up the Hacking...!

[69843]

Ah, well it is slightly easier to access than Bundeena...

[faulcon1]

Hi all I'm Roy. I live in the Blue Mountains at Faulconbridge NSW. I model OO in the garden and as far as I know I'm the only one doing so and have been for the past 4 years. My interest in OO is British Steam outline to early green diesels and all with sound.

I only found this section of the forum purely by chance.

I'm a half and half, meaning I have dual nationality. I'm Australian born of English parents who never became naturalised Australians. One good thing is I don't have to wait with the hordes of people all with their aussie passports at Heathrow. I just show my British one and pass on through. So I also don't need a visa either.

I worked on the railways here at the Lithgow Loco Depot and was once told that for modelling British I was unpatriotic. But like the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office I've been accused of many things but never that sort of patriotism, heaven forbid.

I left the railways in 2000 and Pac Nat shut the depot in April 2003. The new loco depot at Lithgow only had a life of 20 years. It's now a wagon repair centre, and I work for Blue Mountains City Council and surprisingly along with other former Lithgow Loco workers. 

Edited August 2, 2013 by faulcon1

[Gwiwer]

Hi Roy

 

 

I model OO in the garden and as far as I know I'm the only one doing so

 

 

I model UK 1960s - 2000s favouring the earlier years and while I'm not actually in the garden the layout is outside and exposed to weather.  It's currently very windy here with all sorts of over-scale leaves blowing about on the line!  Link below.

[faulcon1]

Hi Roy

 

 

I model UK 1960s - 2000s favouring the earlier years and while I'm not actually in the garden the layout is outside and exposed to weather.  It's currently very windy here with all sorts of over-scale leaves blowing about on the line!  Link below.

It's windy here too with clouds threatening rain, sleet. It is winter here after all. I like your railway and the western. For me it's in the wrong colour but that's just me. Here to reduce the suns effects in our very hot summers I have hinged covers over my railway painted white except the new part which is close to the ground and is being built on Hebel blocks. So the covers will be dense pieces of polystyrene foam held in place by old bricks. You can't buy polystyrene foam in super hardware stores but there is a company in Penrith who makes it to whatever thickness and density you want.  

Edited August 2, 2013 by faulcon1

[faulcon1]

Probably doesn't have much timber. And maybe not even a creek most of the year

 

Gotta love the irony in Aussie place names. One place you'll seldom see a kangaroo is on Kangaroo Flat

I read an encyclopedia on the worlds railways written by an Englishman who called the central western city of Bathurst, "Bathers" and also said that one crosses the Hawksbury river before ascending the Blue Mountains.

Bathurst was named after Earl Bathurst the name carried by GWR Castle 5051 perhaps someone should tell them to rename it "Earl Bathers" on one side and "Swimming Trunks" on the other.

Edited August 3, 2013 by faulcon1

[faulcon1]

Mind you just thinking to myself if that daffy writer had been writing about the Kurrajong Branch then he would have been technically correct as the railway did cross the Hawkesbury River between Richmond and North Richmond. That line closed in 1952.

For those who don't know the Hawkesbury River starts at Yarramundi near the locality of Agnes Banks with the joining of the Nepean and Grose rivers. A bit like oatmeal and water joining to make porridge. Come to think of it that's not a bad description of the Hawkesbury.

Edited August 3, 2013 by faulcon1

[gazmanjack]

G'day Roy,

 

First of all welcome to the Aussie contigency ! I too have read a bit on the Kurrajong Branch, the book about 'Pansy', the Z20 Class loco that ran that line from Richmond to Kurrajong. Would be great to see the line reinstated, but that would be wishful thinking ! I do know that a small group had walked the line, with intensions of putting the line back. It would be great to have another heritage railway in Sydney and not to always rely on the RTM. But then again, look how the Zig Zag Railway ended up...

 

Funnily enough, I know of another Roy that resides in Faulconbridge. Roy who owns/operates Faulconbridge Earthworks...

 

Cheers, Gary.

[faulcon1]

Hi Gary, after the trouble that Zig Zag got into with the accident they were so close to getting their operators license back when the State Mine fire dealt them another blow. They lost a set of coaches and some signalling components have been destroyed. Apparently a relay cabinets insides got so hot that they melted and evaporated so the cabinet is now empty.

 

Roy.  

[Gwiwer]

Losses to the Zig Zag Railway are significant but not catastrophic.  The destroyed sheds and tools can be replaced.  So can computers though some papers have been lost.  One coach of the Queenlsand rail motor was gutted but might be salvageable from the frames though its twin was spared.  All the wooden-bodied sleeping cars used for staff accommodation are gone but the main carriage set was up at Clarence and is untouched.

 

Signalling has been lost but by the swift action of one individual (tipped off by another who heard it from another … but that's how things often work in these emergencies) the signal box was just saved.  That would have been a far more serious loss had it been razed.

 

There is enough rolling stock to run trains once more and the operational locomotives are unaffected.  Some items in the long-term restoration queue have been lost however.

 

The site has been locked down with a request that no-one attempt to visit until further notice including ZZR personnel unless specifically authorised.  Enquiries and assessment are ongoing and there is no guarantee that the fires will not return.  The emergency has diminished but it's not over yet.

 

Anyone motivated to offer assistance should contact the ZZR via their website.  Already they have received substantial offers of help from local businesses and a national bank along with many individual donations and offers to help out.  The ground is scorched but the beauty will return; it only takes a few weeks for the first green shoots to show after a bushfire.  

 

What has become apparent from photos and comments publish by those inspecting the site is that something - possibly a helicopter water-bomb drop - suddenly arrested the spread of fire at the depot and saved a complete wipe-out. For example there is a very evident line where the scorched ground meets unburnt ground and the QR car which was gutted was separated from its unscathed partner only by a flexible rubber gangway.  We may never know who or what was responsible but someone somewhere was taking as much care as they could at that moment in time to prevent a total loss.

[St Enodoc]

Hornsby Heights 2077. I'm currently Sydney Area rep for the British Railway Modellers of Australia (BRMA), so if anyone in Sydney Metro is not a member but thinks they might like to find out more, let me know.

[Gwiwer]

Hornsby Heights 2077. I'm currently Sydney Area rep for the British Railway Modellers of Australia (BRMA), so if anyone in Sydney Metro is not a member but thinks they might like to find out more, let me know.

 

But from the Camel estuary originally with a name like that?

[St Enodoc]

But from the Camel estuary originally with a name like that?

No, London - but see my topic "Who is St Enodoc" on the New Members forum!

Edited December 1, 2013 by St Enodoc

[Y Ddewin gwyn]

Hi all; my username means "the white wizard", and I live in Toowoomba (currently), though as I am in the Army, that is only temporary; so the local club is unlikely to see much of me. I have been a member of the BRMA, but I left British outline modelling for a long time to pursue other interests; mainly German outline HO. I have no returned to modelling British railways, in particular the Brecon and Merthyr Railway and the Rhymney Railway in O scale. I haven't had a working layout in 7 years now, but I am working through designing one that can survive removal containers! We shall see how that goes.

[Gwiwer]

This seems a good enough place to make mention of the fact that, as per my layout thread, Penhayle Bay is "open house" this coming Saturday 1st February between 2pm and 9pm.  There's one or two here who might be within range and not already known to me and aware.

 

PM for directions if you wish.  45kms SE of Melbourne CBD as a guide.

 

Being fixed outdoors in Oz means the layout doesn't get visited as often as some others so this is a rare opportunity and will be the only general invite this year.

[kevinlms]

This seems a good enough place to make mention of the fact that, as per my layout thread, Penhayle Bay is "open house" this coming Saturday 1st February between 2pm and 9pm.  There's one or two here who might be within range and not already known to me and aware.

 

PM for directions if you wish.  45kms SE of Melbourne CBD as a guide.

 

Being fixed outdoors in Oz means the layout doesn't get visited as often as some others so this is a rare opportunity and will be the only general invite this year.

It also means that the weather could well be a tad warm, with Saturday being no exception!

 

I don't believe we've met Rick, but have a great day, anyway. I won't be able to make it.

[faulcon1]

Had hoped to do some more work on my garden railway this weekend but it's blowing a gale and dark clouds are coming up. I went to Lower Mountains Landscape Supplies this morning to buy some "Sandstone Flagging" stones to complete the decorative part of the ground level part of the railway. I have sandstone (dug out of the ground) but it's only odd shaped bits. I thought that the Flagging Stones would have had flags on them like the Australian flag and the Indigenous Flag. But no they're just plain thin blocks of sandstone.

I have recently done a bit of adding to the present installed high level railway in the shape of more lines and points. I had Peco plastic platforms which whilst they didn't warp in the heat (being undercover) I did have great trouble in keeping them in place. So they all came out and I installed my own scratch built platforms made out of hardwood and even managed to make out of hardwood the end ramps with the aid of a circular saw.

 

Roy. 

Edited July 12, 2014 by faulcon1

[Peter Beckett]

This seems a good enough place to make mention of the fact that, as per my layout thread, Penhayle Bay is "open house" this coming Saturday 1st February between 2pm and 9pm.  There's one or two here who might be within range and not already known to me and aware.

 

PM for directions if you wish.  45kms SE of Melbourne CBD as a guide.

 

Being fixed outdoors in Oz means the layout doesn't get visited as often as some others so this is a rare opportunity and will be the only general invite this year.

Hi Rick,

Would love to come again but (in bragging mode) I am in Skagway, Alaska at the moment

 

Cheers

Peter