I'm going to kick this off now, I'm going to start putting together (or trying to) one of these plank layouts. Which seems to be a great idea for a starting attempt due to the overall size. And the visuals of Industry Lane were stunning, with the design, layout and detail in such a small area. Which means I have a great example to learn from. I mentioned that I'd love to do a large model of the Main North Line from Sydney to Newcastle, which in my current vision would be split into three distinct areas, Central Station, Hawkesbury River Crossing and Newcastle Station. Now other than my grand vision, centred in my mind's eye, there isn't much else to say or show. That will come in time, I'm notoriously slow with progress and/or updates. I think that a rough design on AnyRail, followed my a mockup for scale is a good start. Only had a skim of the other sections and projects that are featured here, so after work tomorrow morning, I'll get some time to really dig in. Model: Main North Line - Sydney to Newcastle featuring HawkesburyDesign: Three separate plank layouts - connectable.Theme: Steam period, 1940s perhaps. That's mostly it for now, I'm off to bed as I currently work 3x 10hr night shifts a week and I still have tonight remaining.
Hi Veers sound like a good plan of action The Short North has plenty of interesting aspects to model. Sounds like some selective compression is needed, but C38's will be right at home. Looking forward to the planing stage Anyrail is great once you get a hang of it. I'm planning my next O scale at the moment it's based on Newcastle Station this section to be exhibitable, I'm not going as far as the Hawkesbury or Cenrtal station, a branch Line to Toronto is Planned as a second terminus and the rest is going to be an out and back with parts of the hunter lines featured just need the Big Big shed working on the location for that at the moment. Keep the posts coming and if you need any help or info just give us a yell if I can supply only to happy to help .
I haven't the chance to start going through my books yet, but where else do you guys prefer to search for resources, images, and the like, if you are designing a layout based on a real area? I'm not turning up as many resources as I'd like via google for "Sydney Central 1940s". Just curious. EDIT: So fiddled around with Any Rail a little more. Here is a rough idea of what I'm thinking for Sydney Station. Nothing majorly excessive (I hope). Size pending, everything pending actually. The first ruler there is set to 1:1 and reads 329.93. I believe it is in centimetres as well. Second ruler is... in HO 1:87 scale and reads 28731.23. I have no idea about them at this stage so taking those measurements with a grain of salt. A small grain at that. Attached files
If you wish to look at aerial views of NSW etc, try SIX Maps : https://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/ It's a great site, much like google maps but with a larger time stream. I'm sure you would be able to find an aerial pic of Sydney Central in the 1940s no worries, let alone the whole Central Coast ! We use it at work to find certain locations where roads have changed the environment. Libraries and books are also a good start, a little old fashioned yes, but at least you have pics and info in your finger tips. Try the ARHS book shop in Sydney : http://www.arhsnsw.com.au/current/cat.pdf NSWrail.net is also a good source of information : http://www.nswrail.net/ Track diagrams such as this below are found on NSWrail.net. Somewhere stored away I do have a copy of the track diagram Central Railway Station circa 1970-80, before they removed a lot of the points around Central. If I knew where it was I would copy it for you. Look out for cheap videos (not DVDs) that occasionally pop up on ebay. Always a good source of reference material. Cheers, Gary.
Eureka seems to still have the NSWGR HUB sets in Tuscan & Russet available. Has anybody else purchased any of theirs? I also believe they have the C38 on re-run and a C30 due next year. I've got a Lima 3801 with 3 of the 3801 Limited Carriages by Powerline. Finally managed to find them in the house. Although I swear there is another around here somewhere. EDIT: Correction. While Eureka has a C30 listed as coming soon, I was referring to Austrains. Someone should revoke my posting privileges after work nights... http://www.click
Hi the eureka Hub cars are nice the lights draw a heap of current for some reason. And you need to modify one bogie on each car to allow then the run nicely, in effect they have 4 point of contact with the bogies so they can lift a wheel set and derail at any imperfection the mod gives 3 points of contact and they run perfectly after that. Keep working with the planning you have made a good start Very similar to "Camron's" plank similar idea. Some ideas for the other end of the line Attached files
Great pics Chris. You could say Newcastle is the Aussie version of Paul's Victoria Road ! Cheers, Gary.
Gary wrote: Yes your right Gary a couple of platform roads goods/carriage sidings to one side and on the approach a siding that was used as a head shunt then a rail motor storage when the yard was removed. Plenty of operational possibility's
Oooo...., now I need to focus on Sydney first. Thats where I've decided to start (who knows why), so that's where I should focus. I did manage to find these though, still got stuff missing that is stored somewhere. The boxset here should have a 422 class with it. But dunno where it is. Can someone tell me though, the boxes here say these are Tuscan cars, I was under the impression that they would be indian red cars, with the double stripe on them. Attached files
I'mg oing to start using an image hoster instead of attaching to the forums. Should make them a bit easier to keep and use. Now, I won this box set as a kid. We've never used it, not sure if there is supposed to be a second part to it or not as it says it should have track, instructions, and the 422. None of which are there. Apparently there are more blue carriages in the shed, but will take time to locate them. So perhaps the 422 is there. But as we've never used it, it's odd that it isn't in the box. Especially as we held this as a very important prize. 3801 runs beautifully however, only been ran about 4 times or so. Attached files
Veers wrote: Hi Veers Common mix up Veers with the colour as the Tuscan is the lighter version and the Red (Indian Red) is the darker richer Chocolate seems wrong. The cars in the first post red powerlines boxes, are what is called Tuscan a more Orange/red than brown The Indian red was classified by the railways as a Red even though it more represents as Brown in its base form however if it is done with a hi gloss finish it dose come up as a deep deep Red. The 3801 passenger car in the next post would be the closest to the Red (Indian Red) Have a quick look at these explanations at this web site by my friend James, current AMRM editor as a railway employee before being a mag editor he knows a little about the subject. http://www.oocities.org/james_mcinerney2000/L.html
My Eureka Tuscan & Russet stock arrived this week as well, already weathered. Unfortunately two of the cars have been warped from heat. Shame, but not completely unrepairable I believe. Should have some photos here, new flickr album for rolling stock. https://flic.kr/s/aHskMoQJtQ
Great to see some good Aussie prototype progress Veers. It seems like you have jumped in the deep end too! I have a soft spot for the C38. Mate, if you can't find the 422, there's a mint condition Lima model on eBay sitting at around $60 with 3 days remaining. (You might have to outbid me!) Reidy
Would you mind linking it to me Reidy? I'm quite happy to say I've blown my budget for a while now. Next step is to start laying down some actual plans for Sydney and starting on building the frame. All this stock just happened to be available.. and I went mostly crazy. Mostly. Have put down deposits on further C38s or C30s however. Much to the relief of my bank account.