Tumut

Hi all

I figured if I start a build thread I'll be more inclined to keep the ball rolling!

As I mentioned in my intro, my interest area is in NSW railways in the 60's and 70's. Gundagai is a small town about half way between Sydney and Melbourne on the Hume Highway. The branchline from Cootamundra to Tumut ran through the town. Of particular interest is the magnificent old bridge that ran across the Murrumbidgee River (I might have bitten off more than I can chew here). For those interested, the local museum runs a nice webpage that gives a good feel for the area in general. https://gundagairailwaymuseum.wordpress.com.

The branchline closed in 1975, but it would be really cool to build the layout as if the NSW government changed their minds at sometime! Tumut is a town with a large timber mill and livestock industry and this would form the basis for the railways continued existence.

So at this stage, one side of the L will be Tumut and the other will be Gundagai. Space is limited as I would like to have some sort of staging area on the Cootamundra end. I suspect with the space issue that it might just end up being Tumut with a staging area and I would be happy with that.

I happen to have a pair of 48 class already 'in stock' and added another this weekend with a lovely Trainorama example in Indian Red livery. The plan is to have a few old steamers in the timetable in the not to distant future and a rail motor.

I was so inspired by Gary at the exhibition that I pit stopped at Bunnings on the way home and got to work on slicing and dicing my old 7 x 4 base board into a 2600 x 700 and 2440 x 700 L - Shape.





I bolted the legs and the braces instead of screwing so that the legs can be removed for transport (or an exhibit, god forbid...). It's about 1.3m high which is perfect for me as I'm quite tall and would like to look at the layout rather than down on it.

You can see the remnants of the old layout. Unfortunately there's some seriously permanent features that will require a sand before painting.

First question to the forum: I'm considering putting a layer of high density foam down on the board as a base (the all purpose style that can be used for insulating walls. Anyone do something similar? I figured it would make contouring easier, allow me to install uncoupling magnets and run the wiring in a sandwich style like Gary has on Industry Lane. Thoughts?

Reidy

 

Gary wrote:

That's the stuff, except Marsden Park had it for about $12.80 a sheet. Might be worth getting a few sheets if it's on sale. Will have to have a think. 🤔Polystyrene would probably turn in to a messy affair.

 

Toto wrote:

It's all new to me. After seeing all these layouts with all the sound and lighting, it's hard to ignore it. Especially seeing as it's a clean slate and the wiring is so much easier. I'll start looking into it. Was it an NCE unit you have, Gary?

The only issue is that I have 2x Powerline 48's and a Lima 44 that will need converting. They're noisy units and the 44 needs some TLC. It was running when it went into storage, but alas, no longer. I'm not sure whether it's worth moving them on and replacing with new models. They're looking a bit red faced with the new Trainorama on the block.

I was told at Liverpool that there's no replacement motor for the PL 48's but I know I saw one on fleabay with a Mashima on board. Wouldn't want the old motor to drown out the sound track.

Matt

 

Sandbar wrote:

Isn't it magnificent? I used to travel Albury Canberra all the time and could see the bridge but never actually got to see it up close.

 

I just opened up another box:



It's a small collection of vintage stuff. From right to left 2 Hornby Dublo passenger cars and a couple of four wheel cars and a Triang box car. Then we have a 3 car Lima passenger metro set and a Life Like passenger car (definitely not vintage). The two locos are a Jouef(?) in really good nick and a Hornby Dublo D90 that feels like is made of lead! Any of you Brits or Straylians' know anything about these.

I'll be moving these on shortly as they're not really in keeping with my style.

 

SMR CHRIS wrote:

Wow, how good are the 38's. I was lucky enough to go for ride from Albury to Culcairn on 3801 years back. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck seeing it fly past at Gerogery.

I might have to sneak one in to Gundagai when state rail decide to upgrade the branch 😉

 

Sandbar wrote:

Super helpful, thanks so much! I can cut away sanding the old residue away this way.

 

Hmm first small hitch. The peco points I had in stock I assumed we're all the same radii. I started laying out some points to get a feel for what I'm looking out. Turns out I've got some cheeky medium radii hiding among the more prolific short radii.



Took me a few minutes to work out why a crossover wasn't coming together!

Looks like I save a few centimetres overall using short (top crossover) but the trains don't look as good on the short. Medium seem to space the rails more nicely too.

I think I'll have to ditch the shorts and use them on the odd spur siding and start collecting a few more mediums. In the mean time I'll print off some templates and go from there.

 

I have about 10 metres of flex track. Unfortunately it's in odd lengths so I'll be having plenty of fun on the soldering iron. I see there's some good deals for packs of 25 on eBay.

Thanks for the links, Gary. I have some research to do!