5'3" Broad Gauge Modellers

[bill-lobb]

13 hours ago, Argos said:

 

Hi Robert, by reference to the standards chart on the association web site:

 

http://www.2mm.org.uk/standards/underframe.htm

 

"standard gauge" (9.42mm) had back to backs of 8.5mm, so by simple extrapolation 10.5mm gauge should have back to backs of 9.58mm. 

I tend to use 9.6mm I'm not convinced the 0.02mm (about 0.8 thou in old money) makes a difference even if could work to those tolerances! 

 

 

 

According to this http://www.2mm.org.uk/standards/basicstd.htm the BTB should be 9.59 (min) - 9.66 (max).

[VRBroadgauge]

 

RY wagon and an I wagon. Pretty much complete with Z scale microtrains couplers mounted. I'm happy with the results.

[VRBroadgauge]

 

The original Tallangatta (Tal-lang-gat-tah) yard before the enlargement of Lake Hume which covered this area (and the town which had to move) with water. Four roads through the station, goods shed, 10 ton crane, engine shed, 10000 gallon water tank, 50 foot turntable, ash pit and coaling stage. I'm making a scale model of this on four 1200 x 600mm modules. The stock yards are out of shot to the right (Cudgewa end).

 

 

 

Another shot of Tallangatta yard. That's a Leyland railmotor contemplating a trip back to Wodonga in the shed and a D3 4-6-0 on the turntable lead.

 

 

The turntable was basically in a hole in the ground. This one was a 50' version. They were later enlarged to 53' as the branch line lococs got a bit too long for the 50' versions. Sometimes N class 2-8-2's were turned and had to have their tenders disconnected and turned separately. The engine crews weren't impressed with this. The engine shed is 60' long with two annexes - one for a small workshop and one for an office.

 

 

The Cudgewa (Cud-gee-war) line was renown for it's timber trestle bridges. The tallest on the line (this one is the 2nd tallest) was a good 90' above the creek. Construction of these bridges was with poles (trees). These tall beasties had one pole fixed to the top of another as the trees weren't tall enough. My grandfather Bill Cook was a bridge ganger on this line.

 

 

One of the long timber trestles on the line over the Kiewa (Key-war) River flats near Bandiana (Bandy-anna). The openings are 20' and there was a lot of them. I'm stupidly building a model of the trestle at the Mitta River flats at Tallangatta which has 235 openings at 20'. That's about 9.8m long with approaches in 2mm scale. I have copies of the original engineering drawings with the centerline levels and a decent plan. I plan to cast the bents in lots of five. Shouldn't take too long. :)

[queensquare]

Great pictures Bruce and 2mm is the perfect scale to try and capture that huge landscape

 

Jerry

[VRBroadgauge]

 

Doesn’t look like a whole lot of anything at the moment but I’m hoping the end result will be cutting edge. This is module 4 of 4 of what will be an exhibition layout. I’ve printed up a bit of track which is 5 metre radius. This will be the main line and the loop will be where the painted wagons are. Goods trains will enter from the right and pull up at the bracket signal which is on module 3 of 4. 
I glued in some 30mm foam insulation to tough in the topography. I know it’s too flat but we’ll fix that. This is just to get the basic shapes and see the relationship between the scenery and the track. There will eventually be a row of district railway houses above the right of way. 
Module three will feature a gated level crossing and some etched lacework signals. I have to do some research on 1940’s level crossings.

 

[VRBroadgauge]

I found these photos by Weston Langford. This is what I'm trying to achieve with my modelling. These sorts of goods trains in this environment. These photos were taken in summer - note the colour of the grass.

I've made a model of this trestle to scale. I was able to find the original track geometry and centerline levels for the natural surface and recreate the rest off photos. The bridge is on an 8 chain curve on a 1:40 grade (up grade right to left in photo). There are 17 openings at 20 foot span.

If anyone is interested I'll post a pic. It's not quite finished.

 

 

This photo is approaching the first photo on a down Cudgewa goods. The line actually crosses two of those trestles in quick sucession - the second is higher than the one pictured. Just after that there is a climbing reverse loop that passes under the Murray Valley Highway twice before reaching Koetong (Koo-ee-tong) and then Shelley which was the highest railway station in Victoria. This was the top of the grade and trains stopped at Shelley and applied the handbrakes on the wagons to descend to Beetoomba (Bee-toom-bah). There were a couple of massive runaways and derailments of cement trains in 1964 on this stretch of line.

 

 

This is Beetoomba. It was the terminus of the branch from the end of WW1 till 1921 when the line reached Cudgewa. This picture is looking back towards Shelley and you can just make out the start of the grade back up the hill. The locomotive is a VR K class 2-8-0.

I'm building one of these and the drawings are about 75% complete. I'm still grappling with the valve gear (Walschaerts) and a couple of other details. Most of the 20th century locos of the VR had bogie tenders. The K is no exception. These locos were well loved by the crews and there are quite a few in preservation. I drove one at a heritage line until I broke it....

[65179]

It would be great to see how yours is coming along Bruce.

 

Best wishes

 

Simon

[VRBroadgauge]

 

You get the general idea. The lateral bracing and timber kerbs need to go on. I’ve etched the refuge and will install that too. I’m still tinkering with the colours but it’s reasonably accurate. 
The deck is timber and ballasted. These were pretty amazing structures. The piles are basically reasonably straight gum trees which in some cases are bolted one on top of another. They held up a mighty amount of weight and many still exist. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by VRBroadgauge

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, VRBroadgauge said:

I’m still tinkering with the colours but it’s reasonably accurate. 

I suppose the colours will depend on which season you are modelling. 

 

Jim 

[VRBroadgauge]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

I suppose the colours will depend on which season you are modelling.

Jim 

 

I've always thought that I'd go summer or autumn. The grass is the yellow you see in the photos but there are other colours coming through. Nothing says oz like this landscape. There was a modeller in the US that did a model of the Yosemite Valley. His landscapes were like the Australian summer landscapes and I always admired them.

 

[Caley Jim]

We've only seen it in the Autumn (Feb/March), so dried grass and bare earth, just as you have modelled.

 

Jim

[VRBroadgauge]

It's pretty green at the moment. It doesn't get England green but nice enough.

 

The trestle isn't finished. I've only put a bit of paint over the Sculpt-it and foam to try a couple of things out. There's static grass and foam for the extensive fern beds in the gully.

Edited July 20, 2022 by VRBroadgauge

[Jim T]

Hi Argos

 

The trestle looks fantastic as does your carefully coloured trackwork and scenery.

I was looking at the foam insulation board structure and wondered how that works and how you've ensured a rigid trackbed above it and on the trestle? Is there any timber / plywood in the supporting structure?

 

Cheers

Jim
 

[VRBroadgauge]

21 hours ago, Jim T said:

Hi Argos

 

The trestle looks fantastic as does your carefully coloured trackwork and scenery.

I was looking at the foam insulation board structure and wondered how that works and how you've ensured a rigid trackbed above it and on the trestle? Is there any timber / plywood in the supporting structure?

 

Cheers

Jim
 

 

There is no timber or metal framing. The base is just a piece of 1200 x 600 30mm foam. I basically used partial layers of foam as contours and glued them together with wood glue. I marked out the track geometry and contours on another 1200 x 600 piece of foam and did a sort of cookie cutter thing where each contour dropped down till I got to the bottom of the gully. The reason I took this approach is that I had the original natural surface center line levels and so was able to reconstruct the basic environment. It's not perfect but it's close. Fortunately there are a lot of photos of this spot as it was popular with gunzels in the past.

I've got another trestle in mind to do the same way. There's a bit more work in that one but the civil engineering is more straight forward.

[VRBroadgauge]

This is my shed. Currently it’s full of stuff - some train related but mostly not. This drawing is my initial design for Cudgewa 1940. It’s a point to point layout with a reasonable size dual gauge fiddle yard simulating Wodonga and Albury yards. There are also two loops (bg & sg) simulating South Bandiana. North Bandiana is on the other side of Bandiord. Moving clockwise we have Tallangatta down the right hand wall. Then there is a 12m section of track that runs up grade through Darbyshire and the first highway overpass.

The line then turns back toward the door and finishes at Beetoomba. I’ve taken the liberty of modelling Beetoomba in 1920 when it had a station, turntable, engine shed and coal stage. This will also feature an 18 opening trestle and the timber tramway that was bringing cut timber to the station.

I’ve managed to get these locations modeled to scale. Bandiord was fortunate that I obtained aerial photos that were taken in the 70’s. I was able to scale them down and make the appropriate drawings. Tallangatta was designed from construction drawings and land titles that I was able to get. Beetoomba is about 500mm too short. I ran out of space.

I’m hopeful that construction will start by the end of the year.

[VRBroadgauge]

Tallangatta 1941’s eventual home. A model of the model so to speak. The wall at left is a stud wall inside the shed. This serves two purposes. 
1. To seal off the roller doors for insulation purposes. 
2. The space it creates will house my workbench (for timber and larger metal work) and my paint booth. There will be access to the train room through some doors which will be mostly snibbed shut. 
I’ll be constructing the bench work to scale out of card to see how things look. Any changes are easier to make at this stage. It will also show any problems sooner than later.

[Sithlord75]

All great layouts have a model of the model.

 

No finer example than this, snapped at Derby in June:

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Sithlord75
Hemispherical Distortion...

[VRBroadgauge]

3 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

All great layouts have a model of the model.

 

No finer example than this, snapped at Derby in June:

 

Truly sent from the southern hemisphere....

[VRBroadgauge]

This bit of bench work is as follows. Up the left side is the fiddle yard with broad and standard gauge yards. The broad gauge complex (Wodonga) will need a turntable to reverse locos. The standard gauge (Albury) will not as locomotives in the down direction were engine first and returned tender first. Trains to Bandiana had two guards vans for ease of shunting. 
Across the top is Bandiord with both north and south Bandiana represented. This is dual gauge with three rail gauntlet trackage and mixed gauge diamond crossings. I was able to obtain some 1970’s aerial photographs which showed the tracks and warehouses still in place (as I remember them). 
Down the right side is Tallangatta (old). This includes a double slip switch to the stock sidings. There is a 50’ turntable, single stall engine shed, coal stage, water tank and water column, gangers shed, station building, goods shed and a couple of houses at the down end. 
All of these benches are attached to the walls and reinforced so that there is no need for legs. This section is level although there should be a slight down grade through Tallangatta yard. The datum bench height is 1200mm. Valances will be provided to the front of the bench work and point levers will be bracketed from this. I propose the use of servo motors for the control of points and signals. 
The fiddle yard may use mechanical throws. 
More to come. 

[VRBroadgauge]

Some photos from the Australian National N Scale Convention in Goulburn NSW.  A great time was had by all. A big thanks to Phil Badger and crew for a well organised and informative weekend. 
I particularly enjoyed the tour of the roundhouse and catching up with old friends and making a few new ones. 
Kevin Knight and I flew the 2mm Finescale flag from our broad gauge flagship and received more interest than we anticipated. 
I have to say that Kev’s build job on my wagons is spectacular. Some got it - some didn’t. 
I managed to put together 82 axles of wheels to go with the 41 completed wagons that Kev brought down from Queensland. 
I’m glad I made the decision to model in 2FS broad. 
We’ll be ramping up some exhibition work in the near future.

[VRBroadgauge]

My latest etches. VR tri axle Z (guards) van and a WT water tank. 

[VRBroadgauge]

Whilst not broad gauge this is equally as interesting. Anyone hazard a guess?

[2mm Dabbler]

As I was in the ZAG when it was discussed and can read the description on the etch I'll say naught. Looks good though.

 

Michael

Edited October 26, 2022 by 2mm Dabbler

[queensquare]

On 26/10/2022 at 04:35, VRBroadgauge said:

Whilst not broad gauge this is equally as interesting. Anyone hazard a guess?

ooh is that another horse box😊

Jerry

[65179]

On 26/10/2022 at 04:35, VRBroadgauge said:

Whilst not broad gauge this is equally as interesting. Anyone hazard a guess?

 

That D326 deep case wagon is a weird looking thing! How long did they last? How robust do you think the complete wagon will be Bruce?

 

Regards,

Simon