Nick Gough

Thanks Paul.

Inside the booking hall: At the road entrance is a very nice sign: I'm sure that I've seen that shape of loco somewhere before? Earlier in the day, during a tour of the city, we had gone to the viewpoint at the summit of Mount Victoria: Looking across the harbour the railway station can be seen, behind the ship, just a short distance from the harbourside and ferries to the South Island.

The following day was the opportunity to re-visit the, impressive, Wellington station in daylight: (Sorry about the focus!)

At last! The first length of track laid on the Wallingford branch curve: As this is a removable board a gap in the sleepers at the joint: For DCC concepts sleepers to be soldered at the joint:

Perhaps see you again then.

Thanks Brian.

Thanks Paul. GETS is a possibility. I also plan to go to the SilverFox show, at Milton Keynes, on 19th August.

What thickness plastikard were you trying to cut Chris?

Unfortunately modelling has taken rather a back seat at the moment due to other commitments. However, I did enjoy a few hours today at the Milton Keynes show. I also had the pleasure of meeting Brian McDermott for the first time, there, having only corresponded previously via the interweb.

Looks like green is correct after all.

Since starting to use my Silhouette I have also drawn up the rectangles with four lines because I had previously heard that this was a problem. I understand that the problem is that the cutter does one continuous cut for the whole shape, changing direction at the corners, so doesn't do this neatly. I had thought that the rounded rectangle shape would avoid this and have just started trying to draw up toplight coach sides using them. I will have to rethink this in view of your unfortunate experience.

Journeys end at the buffer stops at Wellington's terminus station, just after 7pm: One of Wellington's suburban trains can be seen in the background: The open-air viewing carriage: The coach we had travelled in: Then it was collect the luggage and off to our hotel - which was only one block away from the station.

Pleased to hear that you had a successful trip to Kew, Chris. There's nothing quite like being able to view these original documents is there? I've been quite lucky to acquire a number of facsimiles of relevant GWR through and local coach working books together with a couple of goods documents and station working books. They are fascinating to look through and very helpful. I can't help but think how basic (boring) and simple the modern railway is in comparison.

The next station stop was at Palmerston North, where there are extensive railway yards: Palmerston North is also the northern terminus for the 'Capital Connection' long distance commuter service to and from Wellington. This consists of one morning train to Wellington with an evening return. Its next station being: About 25 minutes later: Where we crossed the Otaki river in the fading light: By this time we were getting close to the western coast, where the railway runs alongside the sea for several miles. Unfortunately, we were about half an hour late, by this time, and with the autumn evenings we were pretty much in the dark for this section:

My retirement gift was City of Truro in that livery style - however did they know? By rights, it should be in unlined green, without the garter crest, for my modelling period though - never mind!

Luckily you won't have to paint the panel mouldings black for the toplights (or gold lines around the panels)!

Continuing with the journey, on the Northern Explorer, in certain places the route has been realigned as part of upgrade schemes. At Hapuawhenua the original metal viaduct was replaced in the 1980s by a concrete structure, but the original has been maintained as a tourist attraction and walking/cycling route: Timber yard and sidings at Karioi Forest, south of Ohakune: Thanks to a horseshoe curve, at Turangarere, we get a good view of the bridge over the Hautapu river, that we had passed over a couple of minutes before: We had travelled left to right over the bridge and were now travelling in the opposite direction. At Taihape although the station has gone the turntable is still in place:

Going back to the early part of the journey - what appeared to be a disused goods shed/wharehouse opposite Hamilton station: Then the first stop, about 35 minutes, after Hamilton:

Having climbed the spiral, the railway heads south across the volcanic plateau, one of the filming locations for the 'Lord of the Rings' series:

Looks just right to me Chris.

I hope that Charlie isn't on piecework. He's been working on the same component for a while now.

Turning out new coach bodies quicker than No. 4 Shop!

Ooh er, missus! Looks like we have the plot for a new Robin Askwith film!

As touched on earlier - the Raurimu Spiral: It can be difficult to appreciate these engineering features properly from track level: But it's always fascinating to see where you where, a couple of minutes ago, at a different level:

The North Island Main Trunk railway is mostly single-track. It couldn't be described as a high speed railway since it tends to follow the contours, so there are several sharp bends and steep gradients - the narrow gauge helps: One big plus point with the tourist trains is the windowless, open-air viewing carriages: Though they do get very busy in the more scenic sections. Also, being immediately behind the locomotive: When the loco is working hard there can be a lot of diesel fumes.