More Buying and some Planning.....

The Tuesday Nighters met at Warren’s house on Tuesday, 12 July. The get together was very well attended. It was a good to see Bob in attendance as well after an absence over some time. Warren has been one of my success stories as he has turned to the “Dark Side”. He used to model HO Scale American and had substantially built a very nice layout with scenery completed on much of it. However, now he has changed to On30 and is adapting his HO layout to run the On30 rolling stock. He ran a Bachmann Forney (with sound) and also a Bachmann 2-8-0. He could not run through some sections of track as the cuttings in the scenery are not yet wide enough so he will have to do some “earthworks”. As usual the guys were full of suggestions as to how Warren might tackle this problem or that and the conversation was full of jokes and mutual friendship and respect. Bob invited us to his place for our next getogether on the 26 July.

PK delivered a huge carton to Raymond on Tuesday night which contained his order from M B Klein in the US. PK orders supplies regularly from M B Klein and others in our group tack their orders onto his. The box was rather large and we just barely managed to fit it into my car. Craig thought he might have to walk home. Raymond unpacked his carton the next night. He had purchased 3 boxes of trees (two trees in each) from Bachmann and a further 3 boxes of trees from Woodland Scenics (again with two trees in each box). There was also a flour mill which was ready made up and additional supplies of styrene and also brass sheet.

The O Scale Flour Mill Raymond bought from M B Klein and it cost only $60!!!! This Built-Up model is from a company associated with MTH Trains.
Some of the trees Raymond bought from M B Klein.
More trees from M B Klein
Raymond has been buying up from Gauge One Gallery in Sydney as well. During the week he received in the mail a 1:20.3 Bachmann 2-6-0 loco and two AMS Short cabooses. I have been pushing Raymond to get moving on his outdoor garden railway as he has so many 1:20.3 but nowhere to run them. Currently he is waiting on a set of air-brushes from the United States which should arrive this coming week
A recent re-release from Bachmann is this 1:20.3 Scale industrial 2-6-0 which was supplied through Gauge One Gallery.
Also from Gauge One Gallery Raymond bought two AMS short cabooses. This is the Denver & Rio Grande. The other is a Rio Grande Southern.
We visited Austral Modelcraft on Saturday morning where Raymond’s Debit Card got another working over. He bought an NCE SB3a power booster, a transformer pack to go with it and an NCE wireless throttle. That makes four NCE throttles we now have – two tethered and two wireless throttles.

We moved a cabinet fitted with glass doors into the shed today. It will allow us to display some locomotives and rolling stock as well as more storage in the cabinet underneath. In the long term it will have to be disposed of as it is occupying the site of one of our two helixes. This helix will be the last section of the layout to be built so the space is not expected to be needed for at least 12 months, perhaps longer.
The cabinet from our lounge room is now housed in the shed. Raymond wasted no time in filling the shelves with locomotives and rolling stock for display.
Here is Raymond's MMI K-27 No.455 which has been weathered by Ray at Austral Modelcraft. It is a real beauty.
Raymond has also progressed on his Foothill Model Works wooden gondola kit. He has built the body and fitted it to the bogies. He now has to add all the detailing parts.
The Foothill Model Works wooden gondola that Raymond has been building is progressing nicely.

I continue to consider the material requirements for the extension of the next section of our baseboard along the right-hand side of the shed. Hopefully, it will not be too long before we have the next section built, track laid and wired ready for operation. I would hope we might be able to get a small group together who are into On30 so that we can have a Tuesday Nighters style get together possibly on a Friday night which will eventually lead into a group to operate the layout. It is getting very exciting and, once we start running trains properly we hope to havethree or more operators plus a dispatcher and operate the railway to a timetable. If we can progress this next section to completion or near completion by the end of August I would like to start planning the construction of the main station and marshalling yard down the centre of the shed with construction to start in December. Here's hoping.