Welcome ebbwjunc

Welcome to the forum ebbwjunc, looking forward to seeing your postings!
Ron

 

every one and thanks for your warm welcome. I am originally from South Wales UK but have been domiciled downunder for the past forty odd years due to me marrying an "Ozzie Sheila". That came about due to my first voyage to Australia was to Port Kembla just south of Sydney when being a ship's engineer with a Welsh Shipping Company. I started my working life as an apprentice with BR(WR) at Ebbw Junction Newport. I have always been interested in railways since before I started school and being the wrong side of seventy my interest has not waned. I am currently laided up waiting for a knee replacement but try to do a little modelling to keep me occupied. When mobile again I along with my good friend Chris will rejoin the exhibition circuit here in New South Wales and continue to meet people and see new ideas put into practice. I have recently been converted to the benefits of DCC and have some 7mm NG kits to build hopefully with DCC and sound for which Chris and I hope to build a new more compact layout which will be easier for us to manage. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and will have a very happy New Year.http://www.click
Age does not stop one from enjoying what's on offer.

 

G'day again, thanks once more for your kind words and yes I am looking forward to next year. Looking back I have always regrated not visiting Scotland the nearest I got was when working on ships sailing around the north of Scotland carrying iron ore from Canada to North East England mainly Newcastle. The run through the Pentland Firth from the Atlantic into the North Sea was really something if you caught the tide just right. I sailed a lot with a skipper from Aberdeen who had been lucky to marry a lady from Cardiff South Wales. Sorry most of this is off subject but I did get to see some interesting railway workings at some of the ports we visited. Early in the new year I will see my friend Chris and we'll keep you informed of our progress all being well.New years eve I will be helping my wife in anyway possible to prepare to see the New Year in, I have a great single malt just begging to be tested. All the best and same to all your members.http://www.click

 

G'day Gary, thanks for your concerns regarding my health. My first job on settling in Australia was at the steelworks and in short time I was in the loco shop. They seemed to place people at that time in places they thought they would have limited knowledge but little did they know that I had worked for BR assuming that coming from shipping I would be ignorant. There were still some steam working all American looking 0-6-0ST but I had little to do with them. The latest diesels were basically English Electric class 20's as used by BR but downrated and assembled in Brisbane and driven down on service goods trains. I left because of the ignorance of management most of whom had got their positions just after the second world war and being mainly in reserved occupations with the steelworks. I went and worked with an Anglo Dutch consortium deepening the inner harbour mainly to be able to increase the size of bulk carriers to load coal where I had first arrived. In fact it was during this job that I learned that my last ship had held the record tonnage of coal in a single cargo, just over 90,000T and we could have taken more but we drew too much water and would have been on the bottom.I live in Dapto and have been involved in the exhibition scene for quite a while so we may have met. Chris and I have exhibited "Put into Port" and "Half Pint Creek" both American back woods style layouts set in the fifties, sixties. The third layout that we take out very occasionally belonged to a very good friend of ours who died of cancer and called "Blagdon" which is an actual location in Somerset UK. IT started originally as a private line but became part of the GWR. The new proposed layout will be Ong and nondescript to enable us to run either American or British outline and will be more manageable as we are not getting any younger.All the best for now and will be in touch in the new year.

 

Welcome aboard ebbwjunc from another member down under.

I used to live across the road from the dairy farm in Dapto.

Andrew

 

G'day Gary, I thought we may have met before and I am glad that you remembered our appearance at St. Lukes as that was the layout's first show. It has been to several more since but because of my mobility limitations it could have been a lot more. Regarding Blagdon I forgot that it is on the GWR site at http://www.gwr.org.uk/index.html along with Dave's locos that never were and some rolling stock of mine. Definitely worth a look even if I do say so myself.
PS. To TOTO it is called half pint creek because we drank the other half. The layout is approx. 4.5 mtrs long and 1/2 mtr wide and all folds up and fits in the back of my Proton Exora wagon with room to spare.http://www.click

 

G'day and thanks for your welcome. Dapto had several dairy farms so I have been told and we live on what used to be one before being subdivided. It is the west side of Kanahooka and backs onto the motorway or carpark when you Sydneysiders are going to or from the South Coast. As with Gary if you are part of the exhibition scene we may have already met. Still all the best for the new year.

 

G'day Gary, I plead guilty as charged but you got the name wrong which is most surprising as most modellers I've met say I'm unforgettable. It's Norm and my wife reckons that the TV add made quite a while back was based on my rotund outline.all the best Norm. (life be in it).