faulcon1

Carcoar Tunnel is situated just south of the station and was built in 1886 and is a single bore curving to the right it's entire length. There are no ventilation shafts and because the timber sleepers have not been constantly exposed to all the weather they're in good condition. I walked through the tunnel (both ways) and a strong cool breeze was blowing through the tunnel north to south. Inside was a dead animal of some sort but I couldn't tell what it had been due to it's advance state of decomposition. Walking back through the tunnel the smell of the decomposing animal wafted on the breeze though the tunnel. I also met a small tortoise in the tunnel on the walk back. The first photo shows a close up of the tunnel date. The second photo shows the northern portal or the Carcoar end The third photo shows the inside looking north to south. The third photo shows the southern portal Some numbers stenciled onto the mouth at the southern portal.

Carcoar Railway Station is on the disused Blayney to Demondrille cross country line and it once served the historic village of Carcoar. The first photo show the rear of the station building. The second photo show the simple station name board. The third photo shows the platform side. The fourth photo shows the loop looking towards Blayney. The fifth photo shows the mainline looking towards Blayney. The sixth photo shows a steel sleeper. There are 120,000 sleepers between Blayney and Cowra most are wood and mostly rotted. The seventh photo shows the former dock platform at the southern end of Carcoar Station. The eighth photo show a steel frame with old pieces of rail between Carcoar Station and Carcoar Tunnel. The ninth photo shows a right hand leading point for the loop. The station was on the loop and this again looking towards Blayney. The tenth photo shows the crude but effective means of stopping people from operating the point lever.

Blayney is now an unstaffed station and is situated on the main western line between Bathurst and Orange. This station is partially disused as it was a junction station for the now disused Blayney-Demondrille cross country line. The line had two branches, the first to Eugowra branching off at Cowra and the second To Grenfell branching off at Kooratha. The only passenger train that stops at Blayney is the Central West XPT and when the train stops at the station the driver and guard become the station staff for the duration of their stop. The first photo shows the old sign. The second photo shows the still functioning mainline platform. The third photo show the back platform for the cross country line. The fourth photo shows the water column. Here the fireman would have swung the column over to the locos tender. It was the fireman's job only to fill the tender tank which he could operating the small wheel near to the spout. He could turn the water on and off with that wheel making it a one man job.

Going outside in DCC in OO is quite ok especially if you can use DCC radio or remote control. There are some manufacturers that have integrations with mobile phones meaning that all the expensive DCC hardware can be kept indoors and out of the weather. With OO being much cheaper than O you usually amass a large collection of rolling stock so an outdoor building is a great idea. If it starts to rain then trains can be quickly run under cover. As stated before mother nature doesn't recognise scale or gauge so whether you're running OO or gauge 1 outdoors it's all the same to mother nature. Peco code 100 streamline is the track to use and can be used with their set track range. I've used in the past code 100 streamline on curves and double length straights in set track for........straight sections of track. I'm not overly sold on the use of points outdoors as you can't easily get a waterproof lubricant onto the tiny steel spring which operates the Peco points. In time they rust and break and although replacement springs are available they're an absolute to fit and make work properly. All track joints are bonded outside and you don't rely on the fish plates to conduct the electrical current for the fish plates only align the rails. Don't solder the fish plates to the rails as you need the rails to move when they expand in heat and contract when cooler. Bond only to the outside of the rail side not underneath for bonds can drop off due to temperature changes which effects the molecules in the solder. If you solder underneath before laying the track you'll be unable to get at the soldered joint once the track is laid. Gradients can be done outside but it's hard to get an absolute 1 in 100 gradient. They often fluctuate between 1 in 90 and 1 in 110. DCC Concepts makes a power base which is stainless steel so it won't rust outdoors and that can be laid beneath the track. But it means fitting all locos with the tiny magnets and on some locos that isn't easy and there's no plastic keeper plate. But it allows far steeper gradients to be used without the loco losing traction and coming to a halt so 1 in 40 or steeper gradients can be laid. Station platforms can be made out of concrete if a garden level line is desired with a black pigment added to the concrete to represent bitumen. Scaledale platform sections can be used on raised level garden railways. Station buildings for both types can be from the Scaledale and Scenecraft ranges, in fact all buildings can be from those two ranges as they're made of resin and won't warp out of shape in the sun. Footbridges can be held down by magnets under their base so they don't blow over in a slight breeze in front of a speeding HST. Even station buildings can be made to stay put in a slight breeze. Add a separate permanent sub base to the building and line it up exactly where you want it to be then press it down into the wet concrete then withdraw it. So every time you place the station building on the platform the sub base goes down into the concrete leaving the building at the right height on the platform. You can make the sub base from thick plasticard and there's no need to paint it as it will never be seen. Tunnels must never be too long and only about one arms length so if a train stops or derails they can be easily retrieved. Cuttings are ok too but make them much wider and not narrow for if a train length of coaches becomes derailed and falls over they won't be damaged by the cutting's rock sides. Also with tunnels you will need tunnel mouth plugs and a piece of polystyrene is good to plug the tunnel when the railway is not in use. Natural wildlife will find tunnels a ready made home with bedding thrown in too in the form of leaves in sticks. Tunnels can be constructed from concrete using shuttering, plastic pipes if a single track straight tunnel or bricks with a large concrete paver top. Bridges are used on garden railways like the real railway where the garden path crosses the railway. Also with tunnels spiders can take up permanent residence inside but outdoor insecticides in trigger form can be sprayed around tunnel entrances and inside on the tunnel walls to deter spiders from setting up home. They have an effective deterrent power of around three months.

Here's a load of Gary Delany Jokes from the TV show Mock of the Week.

Here's a couple from the UK who sold their house in the UK and moved to Australia. They got about 336,000 pounds for their UK place and bought a house in south east Queensland $590,000. This may give people an idea of what a small amount of money can buy here in Australia. I should mention that the man doing the video is a high school teacher who say he makes more money as a teacher here in Australia than he did in the UK. The family rented other house before buying this one.

There is another video of poor quality and silly effects of the same blokes doing a home made trike ride from Carlwood back towards the junction at Tarana.

For those of you who enjoy a cab ride well here's a cab ride on one of four C class locos hauling a wheat train from Gilgandra in north west of NSW. However we join the train at Rhodes and after crossing of the Parramatta River we then commence to climb the steep 1 in 40 grade to Hornsby. From there it's a fairly level run to Cowan where the cab ride ends. The driver on this loco gives a superb running commentary of how trains such as this are worked.

It would be nice to have her at Maitland Steam Fest in April is it does happen this year.

Here's something a little unusual a loco on it's 1st mainline trial. What's so unusual about that (I hear you say) well this loco was built for the 5'3" broad gauge railway system in the state of Victoria and after many hours of work has been overhauled and re-gauged to standard gauge. Seen here with 7344 a Bo-Bo diesel hydraulic which was a shunting engine in it's government service. Unlike all other NSW steam locos R 766 is an oil burner having been converted to burn oil whilst in Victoria.

It's all right he's just NEEDLING you.

Here's the same area as in the video above but in the early 1960's

I don't know if this film will be of any interest but here it is.

Here's a "Then and Now" aspect of some of the locations in the movie

It all depends what time frame you wish to model them in for the Aussie ROD's in the 1950's were kept gleaming clean even though they were humble freight locos. Later in the 60's and early 70's they became very shabby in appearance. I have a colour photograph in a book by Ron Selems showing ROD 24 pausing at Richmond Vale Junction to take water and another in B&W of ROD 16 in the same location. One B&W photo of ROD 23 dropping it's fire at Pelaw Main shed and all three locos are so clean you could eat the proverbial dinner off them. There was also on the right hand side of the smoke box looking forward from the cab the brackets for the Westinghouse air pump that was never fitted as all the trains of wooden hoppers wagon were non air hoppers. The Book is titled "Steam in the Fifties" and was published by the RTM.

We are now locked down in home detention so although I'd love to get some photos of my local area I can't and home detention is set to last for many more months. So here's a video of my local area off YT with wonderful drone footage. Leura is pronounced "Loora".

That was taken a coupe of weeks ago and i noticed last night there was a plane flying towards Sydney. The cloud effect only happens for a few minutes so I had to judge it right. Be too early and the colours are yellow and be too late and the effect has almost gone.

Trying to keep the thread on topic here's a photo of a sunrise in the Blue Mountains NSW

Oh I wouldn't say I'm a good driver just a careful average driver who's too old to take risks anymore. I find one trouble is that cars today have so much "safety" built into them that their owners get a false sense of security. Cars coming with 5* crash ratings and people think if they have a head on at 100kph then they'll walk away with cuts and bruises. But they forget that the other vehicle will likely being doing 100kph too and that's a combined speed of 200kph and they won't walk away from that. For crash tests cars are only tested to about 70kph maximum and anything above that is a roll of the dice.

Years ago Railscene Videos had model railway videos but they only ran to three VHS cassettes simply because it took too long to film model railways but one model railway that they did film was Mike Sharman's 4mm mixed EM gauge model railway. Mike has since died and lets hope the railway didn't end up with all the scratch built stock in the proverbial trash skip for that would be a real shame.

I like the painstaking work you've put in models a real professional and the rainbow looks pretty good over the cemetery too. Working for a local council I was once asked by a lady in one of the councils cemeteries if I worked there. I told her nobody works here for it's a cemetery. I also told her that she could talk to those who lay here although I'd doubt she'd get much out of them and you'll find the conversation a bit one sided.

I remember everyone getting turned on by the supercharged Falcon but in the movie where the police mechanic is explaining to Max about the car nobody noticed the yellow plastic bucket in the engine bay. That bucket covered the electric motor that ran the supercharger for no supercharger can be turned on and off at will. The sounds of the supercharger were added in post production and the one on the car didn't do anything for performance as it wasn't connected to the engine. Of course fans of the movie have fitted proper supercharged 5.8 litre V8s to XB Falcons which were the pick of the XA, XB and XC Falcon models. The XB was an improvement on the XA and the XC although supposed to be an improvement, because of extra pollution gear actually lessened performance of the 5.8 litre or 351 V8. The XC Cobra is another iconic car from that era but other than it's unique paint job it's just a XC hardtop (never a coupe) . As for the Ute or Utility vehicle, that's an Australian invention. The story behind it was that a farmers wife wrote to Ford Australia and asked would it be possible to have a work vehicle with car like qualities so that her husband farmer could carry sheep around in the back during the week but it would still be smart enough to drive to church on a Sunday morning and that was way back before 1934. Utes were used by tradesmen for years usually overloaded to the hilt hence the use of a live rear axle and cart springs. Later they became part of the "look cool and go fast set" but they had a drawback in that in the rain with such a light rear end breaking traction with the wet bitumen was very easy and would often see the car doing pirouettes down the road. For the inexperienced they can prove to be a real handful on wet roads.

I went to my local model shop here in Australia and the owner said that getting anything out of Hornby was a waste of time and that he'd have more luck getting blood out of a stone. He seems to be phasing out Hornby products and has gone for locally made products and companies from other countries namely the US who aren't picky like the Brit suppliers seem to be. He used to have a huge range of Hornby products which sold well, but not anymore. It may this new "tier system" they've introduced where they can't see his shop for they can't get into Australia and no he doesn't manufacture his own range of products. If Bachmann and Heljan go the same way then a lot of people overseas won't buy British outline models as buying from a model shop is still preferable to buying online. If a loco is a dud you have to send it back (at your expence) to the manufacturer and if you're lucky (very lucky) they may refund the postage costs but only if you're lucky. Buying from a model shop you can get the loco test run right there in front of you so you know it's a good runner or a dud. Humbrol paints are selling less as people buy more Tamiya paints instead.

Here's another Peter Wherrett car that he tested, the XD Falcon with the now very rare 3.3 litre straight six and you can see on Ford's own proving ground on the corrugation section just how rear ends on Falcons used to dance around. Peter would always put cars he tested through extreme driving tests. Not to break the cars but to see if the car could take an extreme maneuver when a less experienced mum and dad driver had to take evasive actions.

Boy I hope you got a good price for the XB as you can pay many thousands just for a plain rusty body shell. One of the very rare XA GTHO Phase Four sold at auction of over two million dollars. If someone told Ford Australia back in the seventies that these cars would sell for a king's ransom in the 21st century they would have had them sent straight to the local mental asylum. Even the most hated Falcon ever the AU often gets 54,000 hits on Google and I'll bet Ford wished when it was released that many people could have been interested in it. I used to have an EF Futura with a solid beam rear axle and cart springs and on dirt roads the rear end would do a merry dance all over the place until I fixed it by putting two 25 kilo bags of cement in the boot. With those in there is kept the rear end on the road and if you took a corner a bit fast the rear didn't try to overtake the front. I sold it and bought the FG I currently have. We were a Ford family with dad having Fords and even when he was working and he had to go into the country areas of NSW he'd always get a Fairmont Ghia from a car hire company. His boss didn't like going away from his family so he got his underlings to do it instead but they always got a top of the line car to drive either a Fairmont Ghia or Calais and he put them up in the best motels in country towns. Once when dad went down to Melbourne on business he took mum and his boss paid for a suite in the Hyatt Regency hotel. The taxi from the airport pulled up out the front and dad said to mum wait here this is a mistake and went in only to find that yes there was a reservation for mum and dad there and a rental Fairmont Ghia would be waiting for him in the morning.