Its Just Not Happening - Yet

Well, we haven’t progressed any further – as yet. Raymond went back to work at the end of his August holidays and that was that. I have spent some time in The Shed just thinking about how we should move forward but that doesn’t get us anywhere. I have decided to narrow at least part, of the shelf along the back wall to 300 mm instead of the initially proposed 610 mm to allow easier access to the future air-conditioning unit. Raymond and I have also agreed to have the air-con unit installed before we progress the baseboard construction in this section – hopefully before the end of November.

We went over to Austral Modelcraft on Saturday 10 September where Raymond bought one of the newly released Bachmann 0-4-2T Porters. Unlike the DC only original 0-4-0T and 0-4-2T porters, these are fitted with DCC and Tsunami sound. He tested it when we got home and it has some issues. It tends to stall on the pointwork which seems to be a common problem judging by the discussions appearing on the Railroad Line Forum web newsgroup.

Raymond is still adding to his Garden Railway collection even though he has not got any closer to starting an outdoor layout. He recently purchased an Accucraft Michigan-California Lumber Co. No.2 2-cylinder Shay-geared loco in live steam. This came from Caboose Hobbies in the United States. It was a limited production model and they were sold out very quickly.
Another purchase Raymond made from Caboose Hobbies was three packs of four flat cars in On30. These are made by AMS and each have a different running number. Four of the cars are lettered for the Denver & Rio Grande Western, another four are lettered Colorado & Southern and the remaining four are Rio Grande Southern.
These AMS wagons certainly have a lot of detail. They cost a bit more but the detail and being to scale length they are worth it.
Raymond has also purchased some On30 model kits, this time from the UK. These came from Backwoods Miniatures through their E-Bay shop. He purchased the following –
• Bachmann Shay dress-up kit
• Bachmann Climax dress-up kit
• Vertical boiler steam loco GNAT to fit a Bachmann Davenport 0-4-0 gas mechanical
• Steam crane/loader to fit a Bachmann Davenport 0-4-0 gas mechanical
• Conversion kit to convert a Bachmann 2-8-0 into a 2-8-2ST
• Conversion kit to convert a Bachmann 2-6-0 into a 2-6-2T
• And just for some whimsy an Aero Car
Continuing his recent purchases Raymond has bought six large radius points for his Garden Railway from Austral Modelcraft and some special curves and short straights from Gauge 1 Gallery. The impetus for this being that we have decided to exhibit a Garden Railway layout at the Queensland Model Railway Exhibition to be held at The Workshops Rail Museum over the weekend of the 29-30 October. We will be doing this in conjunction with some of our fellow Garden Railway enthusiasts from AMRA. Raymond will be running live-steam as well as electric locos. The layout will be a simple oval with two passing loops (one at the front and one at the back) which will be built on the day on trestle tables provided by the Museum.

My present for Raymond’s birthday way back on the 24 September finally arrived last week. It is an O-Scale laser-cut wood kit of Ophir Depot on the Rio Grande Southern from Banta Modelworks.
Ophir Depot laser-cut kit by Banta Modelworks

We have quite a number of laser-cut wood kits to build so I have been looking for a suitable grey primer that is solvent based rather than acrylic (water based). The water will make the wood warp so it is a no-no. Once the wood is properly sealed then acrylic paints can be used.

Bill Banta from Banta Modelworks, has given me a few helpful hints following an enquiry I made to him. The guys on On30 Conspiracy also came forward with a lot more suggestions.

I bought a spray can of grey primer from the new Masters store at Springfield last week and a bottle of Floquil matt grey paint from Austral Modelcraft to try out. As a test bed I bought two HO Scale laser-cut kits produced by Northeastern Scale Models from Austral to use as an experiment. One is a small storage shed and the other a box and crate factory.
Northeastern Storage Shed laser cut kit in HO Scale.
Box & Crate Factory by Northeastern
Raymond has recently completed one of his four slate wagon kits by Slaters in the UK.

This is 16 mm Scale and runs on 32 mm gauge track. He has done an excellent job but I think it needs weathering.