139 L - COONAMBLE -CBL

Obviously located at the end of the Dubbo Coonamble branch is Coonamble with a population of approx 3000 its one of the larger centres on the branch line and also the terminating station.Opened in Feb 1903 and located 616.1 Kms from Sydney.
Its interesting to understand the Aborigonal meaning of Coonamble .One line of though says it means  "Bullocks Dung " or " A place covered with human excrement " They obviously have never heard of the tourism industry .( I dont make this stuff up it just falls into my lap )
Or from the local tourist guide " A lot of dirt " (Cleaned that up didnt they ) You can make your own mind up as to which one fits best !


                                                                    The end of the line

   

                                                              The yard diagram from 6-73

                                                             The working timetable

             The yard has been rationalized to leave only the basics for operation of the wheat loading facilities

                                                   The brick station building has been spared

                               

                                         The remains of the fuel industry once served by rail

                   As you can see Coonamble should be on your list of interesting places to visit .
                                                     Just be careful where you step !

139 K - GULAR - GUL

Gulargambone is a small village with approx population of 500.Situated on the eastern side of the Castlereagh  River in the Upper central west of NSW on the Castlereagh Hwy which runs from Walgett through to Lithgow.
The township dosnt actually have a railway station as such.But 3 Km west of town on the western side of the Castlereagh River is the station now known a Gular.Which is 573.4 Kms from Sydney.And forms part of the Dubbo-Coonamble Branch.
Originally called Gulargambone when opened on the 18-2-1903 the named was proposed to be  changed to avoid confussion with Girilambone to Galah but could of been confused with Garah so  it was changed to Gular.    
 Probably would of been easier to leave it alone !
I wont bore you with the Aboriginal meaning of Gulargambone ,Its just  "plenty of galahs " .Not a mention of any shit anywhere, its probably all up the road at Coonamble !

                                                               Yard diagram as at 6-73




                                                 Taken from Working Timetable Jan 1977

                                         

Theres not much to see in the yard apart from wheat storage and loading facilities,with a slight shine to the rails there must be a little bit of train movement.

2012 NEW ENGLAND CONVENTION

Well same Bat time same Bat channel.
The New England Model Railway Club will be holding another convention at Armidale this year on the 17th and 18th November. Following up on the success of the their last one held in 2010.
The venue is the same the Local Bowling club located in the centre of town where all the lectures,clinics,trade stands and display of modelling will be held along with the banquet dinner on Saturday night.
Plenty of accommodation is available within an easy walking distance from the club.Handy for those who like to wipe themselves out at the bar and then pour themselves into bed !
A tour of local members layouts will also be run.

Presentations will be the following

John Brown          Kitbashing Pratt Truss Bridges.

Ian Dunn               Researching the Prototype

Geoff Nott            The Australian Landscape

Gerry Hopkins      Servos for Signal and Point Operation

Ian Dunn               Painting Steam Locos

Laurie Green         Start to Finish

Laurie Green         Small Layout Design

Grant McAdam     Structure Modelling

Keiran Ryan          NSW Wheat Silos ( I would never of guessed ) you really need to move on Keiran.!

Stephen Ottaway    NSW Railway Stockyards

These presenter will also be on hand throughout the day in Side Show Alley for more one on one info

With additional presenters providing modelling clinics

Len Derkin            Whitmetal and Brass kit construction
                             Turnout construction using Fastracks Jigs

Rhett Herbert        Kit building and Detailing

Peter Boorman      Soldering Brass and White metal Kits

Rohan Fergusson   Military Modelling and Rail Transporting of Army loads
                             (This one sounds interesting I think I will go to it )
                             PLEASE NOTE:  IF ANYONE HAS ANY PHOTOS OF ANY MILITARY
                             EQUIPMENT ON TRAINS OR BEING LOADED PLEASE BRING THEM
                             ALONG .

Geoff Nott and Micheal Flack will also have on display their layout  Smugglers Cove.

If you have some interesting models bring them along tables will be set to display them.

As you can see its a great line up of quality and experienced modellers.And in a very good location both for venue and accommodation .And a great chance to catch up with everyone in a relaxed environment.This is fast becoming the convention of choice for many modellers.
Armidale can be reached by train from Sydney. Air from Sydney and Brisbane . Or car , approx 6 hrs from Sydney or 5 hrs from Brisbane on the New England Hwy..Another idea would be Train ,Plane or Car to Coffs Harbour and then car to Dorrigo to check out the Museum  http://www.dsrm.org.au/ and then on to Armidale .http://www.armidaletourism.com.au/
This weekend will be a modellers delight.Or if you hate Trains and Modelling probably the worst weekend of your life.

For more info and to register go to the NMRA website
Register early to avoided disappointment.
Plus they need to know how many cups of water to put in the soup.

http://www.nmra.org.au/Convention%20NE12/Convention12ne.html

DARLING ISLAND SHUNTERS

Found an interesting clip from 1977, which won the AFI Awards , Bronze award for best documentery in1979 for film maker Tim Woolmer .It must of been funded by the Experimental Film andTelevision Fund / State Rail Authority of New South Wales.Produced by Tim Woolmer.
There was part 1 on Youtube but this has been removed .
Does anyone know of any DVD,s of the entire doco that are available? The entire film runs for 15 minutes.

Things to look out for !

FMW Walkers Aberdeen Grain Fed Beef Wagons

A single EVC carriage from a Technical Education set .These carriages where made from the underframes of LHG,s and painted in Deep Cream with a Silver roof,before being painted into TAFE colours at a latter date.

Also the interesting comment that the Safety Officer was complaining about someone standing on a flat truck while the train was in motion.He must obviously be very selective in his concerns ,or everything else is just fine.

                                             SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE 70,S   MAN !

44101

One of the more interesting locos that operated on the NSW rail ,if only for a very short time came about from the tragic accident  that occurred west of Parkes at Mellelea on the 26th October 1974 .
2  locos  where involved in a head on with the up freight headed by 4476 coming in to cross the stationary down freight headed by 4478.Both locos where No 1 end leading and the forces involved ensured that both locos where write off 's.
On removal from the accident site the locos were sent to Cardiff workshops where the they could be assessed and stored safely from the public's gaze, from what was an embarrassing incident for the Railways.
After inspecting the damaged locos the plan was to cannibalize the damaged locos for any usable parts from what where 2 relatively new locos with 4476 entering service on 18-11-66 and 4478 on 23-1-67 .
Then the staff decided it would be better to use the locos as the basis for a hybrid loco which would combining the two undamaged No 2 ends to create a box cab loco similar to the newly introduced 422 and 442 class of locos.
As the loco's had already been written off the project was undertaken as a fill in with work taking place only when time allowed.And also as no official permission had been granted for the project the work was a closely guarded secret in the Cardiff workshops.
The loco eventually became a reality and it was a very proud staff that saw the loco completed and numbered 44101 to represent a new class of loco if only one strong.
The loco shared all the same equipment and specifications of the 44 class from which it came from.
The trials for the loco had to be keep secret until its existence could be made official.So under the cover of darkness the loco ventured out of the workshops onto NSW rails for the first and what would be the last time .
Arrangement's had been made to trial the loco on the neighboring Richmond Vale Railway system .
The loco performed faultlessly reaching Minmi Junction. Before after some minor adjustments the loco set out for the return journey.Unfortunately the higher than normal axle load of the new loco had caused damage to the track on the outbound leg which had gone unnoticed in the darkness and as it retraced its path tragedy struck with the track spreading under the weight of the loco and sending it toppling off the embankment and into the waters on the Hexam Swamp.

                                                            Location of 44101

Luckily no serious injuries occurred (Apart from the results of serious attacks from the Hexam Greys ) and as the crew and Cardiff workshop staff on board the loco scrambled to safety,the engine began to settle into the  soft mud of the swamp ,finally coming to rest parallel to the tracks and laying on its side nearly fully submerged.
By next morning accident crews where on site where plans could be made to retrieve 44101 from its resting place.
Due to the narrow embankment ,lightly layed line and inaccessibility of the site, the heavy lifting cranes required could not be used .And as investigations of how to extract the loco became more complicated the 110 ton loco settled further into the mud becoming fully submerged and firmly stuck in the muddy bottom making any hope of retrieval impossible.
On a field trip to the site in Dec 2011 no trace could be seen of 44101 but small traces of oil or diesel could be seen rising to the surface marking its resting place very much like the USS ARIZONA at PEARL HARBOUR.During the drought the loco may have been visible but this chance is lost for the moment.


With this information I set about making a model of this unique loco.I haven't been able to uncover any drawing or photos so the model is based on what I think it would of looked like.
Using 2 Lima 44's cut and joined, detailed, painted an numbered then mated to a dummy version of the Lima chassis using the 2 unpowered bogies.

                                                A triple unit lash up American style A+B+A
                                This combo ran at the Canberra and Hobsons Bay Exhibition when
                                 BOLIVIA was displayed with no comment !
                       

                                          The loco used as a conventional loco on its own

                                      44101 makes an interesting addition to the loco fleet and as
                                      an ALCO would of found its way to Bolivia.

I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has any additional information and hopefuly some photos of this very unique loco.

CSX WAGON PART 2

Well I have done version 3 , No end plates or tarp supports using the same methods outlined in my previous post.With the help of some photos from Mark Bau's website .Which shows a wagon of coils using  3 different tarps  to cover the load.And an empty wagon with 2 or 3 rolled up tarps in the coil wells and 1 coil restraint per side taken off with the other still in position.        

               http://www.victorianrailways.net/freight/freight%20pages/csx/csx.html

 

I used a piece of  16mm  electrical conduit cut to 4 ft long to represent the coils and glue in place ,before covering with the tarps which I cut at 15 ft x 20 ft then colored with different dilutions of Tamiya Field Gray XF-65 and Khaki Drab XF-51 plus a yellow which was an artist tube to represent a VR tarp. 

                     For the unloaded wagon the tarp supports need to be cut off just above the side where the pipe shape starts leaving the square base in place.Place the coil restraints in position and roll up you tarps , colour then add to the wagon.

 

Once again it only takes 1 hour per wagon to change these wagons from toy world to the real world.

CSX WAGON

`Having a 4 pack of the the Auscion CSX coil steel wagons I of coarse took them out of the pack and marveled at the detail, smooth running and just thought how lucky we are now to have such good wagons available.
The one thing that did worry me was how terrible they look being so clean and stark.

                                               Fresh from the pack an almost surgical appearance
                                Note how unweathered wagon refuses to sit correctly on my layout


Not ever seeing these wagons in real life I set about researching the prototype and over time came up with some general idea of how the wagon looked  in real life.

Unloaded wagons with rolled up tarp in coil well and removed coil restraint dropped into each well.It appears only one restraint was removed to unload the coils and the coil restraints where wooden.with steel ends

                                All Black and White images from the ROB OREGAN COLLECTION
                           

 Note damaged tarp support this would have been a common problem and also common look for the wagon

                                                            The tarped wagon with one piece tarp.

The problem with the model is you must buy each pack to get each different version
And the tarps available look terrible.

 No 1 Tarped
 No 2  Empty
 No 3 No ends or tarp supports

But if you get the empty wagon pack with ends and tarp supports you can make the 3 differant versions above.
You can simply brake the ends and tarp supports off to make the No 3 version .

For the other 2 versions.I started by making the tarps. I used a section of cotton sheet "Ask your wife for some as cutting a piece out of the bed sheets will cause trouble".They notice stuff like that.
I made the piece 34' x 21'
 Shown is the piece ready for painting with TAMIYA FIELD GREY XF 65           And a rolled up one with a dot of superglue on the end to keep it rolled up.Both can be painted now and left to dry.

                                            A quick coat of FLOQUIL RUST on the wheel discs

Next remove all the pieces used to restrain the coils from the wagon .These will just pull off with no trouble

Next weather the wagon to suit your style.I used a light dry brushing with FLOQUIL GRIMY BLACK and RUST and paint all the timber supports in the wagon cradles and the coil restraints with RAILROAD TIE BROWN .If your doing the tarped version dont worry about the inside painting as you wont see it on the finished model
.

                                 The wagons weathered for the tarped and untarped versions

For the unloaded and untarped version.  Position your rolled up tarp and glue down and then glue each coil restraint into position.Its about this time I decided to deform some of the tarp supports with some heat from a lighter "You only need a little bit or you will end up with no support"

 

 For the tarped version position the painted tarp on a bead of superglue run along the edge of the wagon with equal amounts at both ends.

                                           When dry attach to sides of supports and end plate

                       Repeat for all sides untill you get back to the other side and glue along edge to finish

                                    The ends are folded in and glued in position with the sides first.

                                                                 

                                                                  And then the top

 I gave the finished tarp a coat of diluted Aquadere in water to try to depress it between the supports and weathered it at the same time with some weathering powders.

THE FINISHED WAGONS

2 wagons being sent back for more loading

                                                       2 wagons loaded and on there way

Some other things to do would be the tie down ropes, Stenciling on the tarps, Different coloured patches on the tarps .The work turned the wagons into really good looking models and only took about 1 hour per wagon.Next to do is the No 3 version with and without coils .But I ran out of wagons.