faulcon1

An update on 3801's new boiler can be foundhttp://www.3801.com.au

Can anyone familiar with Victorian Railways broad gauge locomotives explain to me why the buffers have a chunk missing out of them. They seem to be the only locos with this feature as no other railway which has buffers seems to break the metal.

You're right about Bourton being hectic in the season which is why I headed to Lower Slaughter which was much calmer and welcoming to people who don't like the maddening crowds at Bourton. If the station has gone other than the model shop why would one go to Bourton.

I often find places like Bourton on the Water and Haworth is another are great places very early in the morning before the hoards arrive. They really have a lovely tranquil atmosphere about them. It's so nice to look into the shop windows when you 're the only one about. Being an early riser helps.

I have two 57xx panniers but THIS oh yes. It'll sell like "hotcakes" not to mention the Hawksworth auto coach which I've wanted for years.

I too have a BG and no problems yet but if I do have problems then back to the manufacturer it goes. I wouldn't be taking it apart as the manufacturer could say my unqualified attempts to fix the problem have rendered the warranty given by them (Heljan) null and void. I'm surprised at the many on here who attempt to fix the loco themselves. I've only had one other loco from Heljan which didn't work properly and that was Lion and I sent it to Denmark and they fixed it free of charge and it's been right ever since. So if my BG conks out I'll send it to Heljan in Denmark as Hattons is just the retailer and any faults in the loco are Heljans responsibility not Hattons. Also the possible binding valve gear is a thing to watch out for and could save a headache or two.

It got to 43 here in the mountains where I live. Thank heavens for air conditioning. Trying to lay new rails in this heat is to be avoided. The shiny rails heat up super quick and it's like putting your hand on a hot plate on a stove,( or how I imagine it would be). My track is all covered so that even though on extremely hot days one can easily feel the heat, the rails being covered are only warm. Peco track is able to take outdoor conditions but within reasons. One just needs to take sensible precautions.

I once had a honey bee land on an auto coach and ride on the roof until the train reached a Hydrangea plant which was in flower where upon it flew to the nearest flower.Naturally with the coach roof being white that attracted it in the first place. Ants often scurry out of the way from approaching trains and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos used to peck at the copper track bonds but only when the railway was out of use. Perhaps the current running through rails deterred them when the railway is in use. Dogs are no problem but cats seem to view model railway rolling stock as prey. I even found my pink tongue on the railway gently rocking back an forth using the rail to cure an itch on it's belly.

I did ask it's intentions but it doesn't seem to speak English/Australian and I don't speak Blue Tongue or the lizard language, so the conversation is a bit one sided. I should add that once "heated" up he/she is a whopper.

This crawled into my garden today and isn't he/she a beauty. Not sure how my pink tongue will react to his/her intrusion. He/she is in the flattened or "I can't move very fast in this condition state"

Unlike a lot of HD mini cameras which are just standard resolution this action cam has a variety of resolutions to choose from. Highest Resolution PS (Smooth image recorded at 2x frame rate) 1920x1080, Imaging and playback frame rate 60 NTSC/50 PAL. Highest Resolution HQ 1920x1080, Imaging and playback frame rate 30 NTSC/25 PAL. High Resolution STD 1280x720, Imaging and playback frame rate 30 NTSC/25 PAL. High Speed Recording HS 120 (Smooth image recorded at 4x frame rate) 1280x720, Imaging and playback frame rate 120 NTSC/100 PAL. High Speed Recording HS 240 (Smooth image recorded at 8x frame rate) 800x480, Imaging and frame rate 240 NTSC/ 200 PAL. Super Slow Recording SSLOW (Super slow motion recorded at 4x frame rate) 1280x720, Imaging frame rate 120 NTSC/100 PAL, Playback frame rate 30 NTSC/ 25 PAL. Standard Resolution VGA 640x480, Imaging and playback frame rate 30 NTSC/25 PAL. There is certainly enough choices there to keep most people happy.

The camera I used for these shots (and other shots in the future) is a Sony AS100V Action Cam. It is oblong in shape with the lens at the top. One of it's many features is a function called "Flip" which means that held the right way up the footage taken is upside down. But if you invert the camera the lens is now at the bottom and the footage taken is the right way up. I had an outtake of an A4 with the camera inverted at track side level and a OO gauge A4 looks like an O gauge A4 close up. If you are thinking of buying one of these cameras be warned it's not a cheap toy and for me here in Australia it cost me $600.00. It is WiFi controlled and you wear an small LCD screen on your wrist which acts as a view finder. The camera was held in place on the platform with nothing more sophisticated than two sausages of Blu-Tak. I also used the camera in the inverted position to film from the inside of an old GWR Autocoach. This is the camera the right way up. The camera inverted inside the Autocoach. The tape on the windows is to stop light intrusion on the lens. The view from inside the Autocoach but not level. The symbols clockwise are, no memory card in the camera, fully charged battery and camera in video mode. The camera is now level thanks to the sausages of Blu-Tak. It looks a bit Heath Robinson but it does work. That LCD screen can control 5 of those AS100V cams at once. http://youtu.be/oygg14h-sZA

Have you ever wanted to be a trainspotter on a OO gauge railway?, but can't because your too big. Well thanks to the latest action cameras we now can. http://youtu.be/7Nmcvez0an0 http://youtu.be/Zimo7K0hqiE

Here's two videos of Lachlan Valley Railways "Steam in the Blue Mountains" on the 27/28-9-14 http://youtu.be/x5YJFteVbaQ http://youtu.be/eb9p3CvQXqU The juddering is you tube also I filmed it with a brand new HD Camera. I thought after 16 years since I purchased my first video camera it was time for an update. Roy.

Whilst we're on steam trains have you ever heard of ACB productions Steaming back to the Sixties Parts 1&2 and Steaming South. They were videos I bought around 1985-88. I've never seen them in DVD and don't know if A Baird is still in the steam archive business. According to the ARHS they were only available from the ABC shops. The ABC shops no longer stock them. I've been thinking of uploading them to my you tube channel. Of all the archive material they were great as they showed far western lines long since closed with 30T's and 32's on long trains. Many of the archive films tend to concentrate on the main lines particularly the Short North.

I'm going to have to cut the shrubs down as they obscure the loco. A difficult job as they are on railway land and right next to the railway lines. Might have to do it at around 2-3am when there is little traffic and the sounds of an approaching train can be heard long before they come into view. That enables me to dive back into my place and not be seen by the drivers who would report me to the authorities. I have a LED headlight so lighting the bushes is no problem and enables me to work hands free. The camera I used for that shot is a recent purchase, a Sony action cam AS100VR. It's tiny so the shot was palm rather than hand held. Glad you enjoyed it.

http://youtu.be/YyqdLFFT88Q Took this on the 23-8-14. Sorry about the arrr kid.

The UK had Beeching and we had one of his hatchet men. Phillip Raymond Shirley. It was he who closed our branch lines although his coming "down under" and his reputation preceded him. He called all the rail unions into a large meeting hall in the transport HQ in Sydney to show the rail unions that he was "one of them". The rail unions out here had been forewarned by their British counterparts as to who was coming do a hatchet job on the railways. Shirley was called to answer a phone in another room and whilst he was out the unions took all the priceless railway silver out of the cabinets and left the room and never met with him again. I would think that Shirley would have gotten the message loud and clear. It's hard to turn our abandoned lines here into tourist lines as so many are in rural locations very far from habitation. Those near to the coast.....yes. But those far inland......no. Many of the lines are still there slowly rusting away. We once had a magnificent railway system here in NSW but successive state governments have plundered the rail system and continue to do so. It all started to fall to bits in the 1970's when railway born and bred people were replaced by uni graduates who hadn't the faintest idea how to run a railway. In New South Wales the passenger trains always ran at a loss and continue to do so. It was the freight that ran at a profit but the freight sector was sold off for a bargain basement price. The government was alarmed that the passenger sector was now showing losses of around two million per annum. The one passenger sector was split into two sectors and the country trains first CEO was a female who's previous job had been a check-out supervisor at a large supermarket chain. Her appointment was a political one. Years of no major investment by both Liberal (Tory) or Labor governments has reduced our once proud and once the safest railway in the world to a mere shadow of it's former self. Many lines lay rusting away in quiet locations buried beneath long grass, weeds and trees. Our roads are overcrowded with double B semi trailers which now move the bulk of goods interstate. The motorway between Sydney and Melbourne is one such road where the double B moves 95% of the freight between the two capitals. Airlines move around 3% leaving the railway to take the other 2%. The railway lines are still on their original alignment with sharp curves and steep grades. No attempt has ever been contemplated to straighten out or lay new fast sections of line to compete with the road dominance of the trucking industry. There is often a sign on the back of trucks which reads "without trucks Australia stops". Unfortunately very very true now. The hoary old chestnut called the VFT or Very Fast Train rears it's head from time to time. But it's only aimed at passenger trains. A new inland railway dedicated to freight haulage only has been suggested but it's well and truly bogged down in politics with nearly every country town wanting the line to go through or near to them. The line is proposed to be single track only with long passing loops. Typical thinking here where we think for the present not the future. The thought of a double track line with no bottlenecks is beyond the people who are planning this line. That and the thinking that the cost of a double line would make the project too expensive. So they do what they usually do, sleep on it and then forget about it.

Had some friends of mine who had relations out from the UK staying with them. Once they saw several skink lizards that was enough they decided that Australians had too much wildlife in their gardens. What a bunch of softies.

http://youtu.be/oygg14h-sZA Here's a driver eye view from a GW auto coach. I should add this was a test to see how it worked and yes it works rather nicely. I was going to remove the thick plastic windows but decided that if I did most would think that the camera was on a flat wagon with a false auto coach mock up in front of the lens. The person racing around and shutting covers is me because it started to rain. The camera was totally protected by plastic film so it didn't get wet. Once I'd got everything pack and closed up............ the sun came out again.

I saw on the telly someone giving Vegemite to Asian tourists and didn't they turn their noses up at it. I think they may have put on a biscuit far too thickly for a first time taster. Us true aussies can handle a good thick dose of Vegemite.

Just today running some trains as although it was chilly it was fine. I saw a baby pink tongue sunning itself or warming up and inflating. Went indoors to grab the camera but it had disappeared when I got back........damn. In the photo of the adult pink tongue that's it's warmed and ready to go form. When it first emerges it's as flat as a tack. It can move but only slowly, just like most of us first thing in the morning. I also have loads of Skink lizards and once saw one that had caught a Bogon Moth. For those who don't know they are as big as an adults hand. I say caught but the moth was still walking as the lizard held on tight to a wing tip.

This Pink Tongue Lizard has live at my place for over 12 years. He/she lives under the house in the winter time and in summer lives in an agricultural pipe near the garden shed where the photo was taken. For those who don't know Pink Tongue Lizards are members of the Goanna family and are like Blue Tongues although smaller. They can climb but can't dig. This one was cornered by me at the back door once and opened it's mouth and hissed at me. I bent over hissed back very loudly where upon it closed it's mouth and ran like the clappers. It also startled a carpenter when he was doing some work inside the house with the front door open. It just wandered in to see what all the noise was. I don't know if it's a she or he as I don't speak Goanna and he/she doesn't speak English. I too get red back spiders but a quick squirt with household insecticide has them dead in a few minutes. Oddly they're called red backs but the red stripe is more orange than red and as they die it fades. Female funnel webs are the most dangerous and when she mates with a male he has to get away very quickly otherwise she turns round and gives him a lethal bite then eats him. Hardly worth all the trouble of "courting" her in the first place. The difference between a male and female is that she has a glossy body and he has a matt one. As for snakes I've never had one. But snakes will generally try to get out of your way. People only seem to get bitten when they pick up a stick and start jabbing at the snake who can't say "please don't do that as it hurts" so they bite in self defense and yes once warmed up they can move a hell of a lot faster than we can.

In reply to an earlier question, I see no reasons why coaches designed for train sets would not run on code 100 rails. I live on the other side of this planet, Australia, and Peco code 75 is hard to get hold off not to mention being much more expensive. Peco code 100 is freely available here by the box load. I know of many Australian modellers who ask why would you bother buying code 75 for what is only a 25mm difference in rail height. Buy code 100 and you can run anything on it from scale to coarse. I once bought a box of Peco code 100 from Hattons. It had to be delivered by a private courier due to being too big for the postal services. All up it cost me $250.00 ouch!!!.