Volume 6, Issue 6 June 2015

The Flimsy The Newsletter of Division 2 of the NMRA AR

OUR JUNE MEETING

Today’s meeting at the Child residence in beautiful rural scenery outside Bowning attracted pilgrims from all over southern NSW – Rob Nesbitt from Junee, John Payne from Goulburn and several from Canberra. But among all these long distance travellers Stephe Jitts arrived from Yass declaring there was no way he was going to miss the only meeting held within a few minutes drive from his place. Altogether our total membership today numbered 13.

Looking around the room, someone brightly remarked that we had double glazing. But these windows are single glazed, aren’t they. No, no, you’ve missed the point. John Payne and Tony Payne are both here. Two Paynes = two panes = double glazing. Geddit? Big groan. Yeah, yeah, we goddit. Our Intrepid Leader called the meeting to order.

Announcements Our Imposing Leader grandly announced that he

had only one announcement to make today, namely that there were no announcements. Then he started to tell us about his recent and fascinating trip on the Rocky Mountaineer and his much shorter but not quite so successful trip on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. This aroused a flood of excited reminiscences from all those who had also toured in British Columbia and Alaska.

Eventually our Valiant Leader somehow managed to

make himself heard above the hubbub by aggrievedly bawling “Hey! It’s MY story!” OK, fair enough. But that’s Announcement No 3, by the way.

Announcement No 4 immediately followed, namely that our Illustrious leader will be resigning as Divisional Superintendent later in the year to migrate north. But will he be acceptable up there? Yes, he already has his

Queensland visa and he’s trying to look the part by practising in bare feet. Accent may be a problem though. Apparently he’s being sponsored by Ken Macleay and will be joining the advance party comprising the younger generation of the Brice family who have already settled up that way.

Continued on page 2)

Our host, Jack, in full cry in front of Matt Waterreus, Rob Nesbitt, John Martin and Stephe Jitts

2

failed to get the description right. Both locos are destined for an exhibition HOn3 layout that Rob is helping build in Wagga.

Rob also showed off a Footplate NSW 442 diesel loco that he bought cheaply at the Epping exhibition

second hand stand last year, after travelling down there with Jack Child. The loco as bought was suffering from a broken chassis. Repairs took around an hour, using low melt soldering to rejoin the broken parts.

Now living in Junee, Rob had a front row seat to Continued on page 3)

scale 4-4-2 loco, modelled on an ATSF 1480 Class prototype built in 1910. This Baldwin loco had a long life, lasting until 1950. It ran on the 2nd District between Los Angeles and San Bernardino, passing through Pasadena where John lived at one time. John mentioned that Jack Child lived at Altadena, not far away.

Jack Child showed us John Sever’s prototype of his new EziKit NSW loco No 6, introduced in 1855 and imported from Britain. To produce this model, John Sever has engineered a class conversion kit for his T14 locomotive, which is available from EziKits.

Rob Nesbitt displayed two brass HOn3 locos that he had recently acquired – a Key Models D&RGW C19 Class 2-8-0 loco and a PFM K27 Class 2-8-2 loco. The C19 has been extensively modified. A Tsunami DCC sound system had been installed by Bernard Snoodyk, and the decoder tweaked by Gerry Hopkins. This latter loco was acquired on eBay quite cheaply – the seller

So a casual vacancy for the Superintendent of Division Two will be declared in a few months time. In the meantime we should be starting to think about who is going to fill our Indomitable Leader’s oversized boots. The pay mightn’t be all that flash, but think of the POWER!

But we will also need a new Editor for The Flimsy, won’t we. Better start thinking about that one too. (By Ed: This is no longer casual, I plan to leave the area by end September)

Announcement No 6 was to the effect that Graeme Hodges the First is still in hospital. This is sobering news since it’s now nearly three months since he was re-admitted to hospital following his major lung surgery. Graeme’s slow recovery of his strength is a source of concern to us all.

Show & Tell Following our talk last month at Stephen O’Brien’s

place on the various means of laying electrostatic grass, using equipment costing from $300 down, Viv Brice showed us the electrostatic grass dispenser homemade by Tony Payne and himself for a total cost of about $20, as shown in Alex Danilov’s excellent article in the Winter 2010 edition of our very own Mainline magazine (http://www.nmra.org.au/mainline/Winter 2010.pdf). Tony and Viv made one to this design for a total cost of less than $20. . You need a Vegemite jar (preferably empty), some wire mesh, a wine bottle cork, a big needle, a handle, a toggle switch, a simple negative ion generator and some light cable. Oh yes, and some grass fibre too. Very simple and works well.

John Payne showed us his surprisingly heavy HO

(Continued from page 1)

3

gold tinge in the finish, which unfortunately doesn't match the latest cars with their much more realistic representation of stainless steel. As a result, John now has to repaint the small number of BLI’s original production run cars to make them match the much more realistic later cars. Such is life for the serious modeller. As if anyone would notice anyway. You bet WE WOULD! That’s what friends are for.

John’s three cars on show today were… ...Amtrak baggage car number 1002 (built as CB&Q 903 and named Silver Bear) – BLI model 1535. ...Amtrak 10-roomette, 6-double bedroom sleeping car number 2652 which retained its original name Silver Butte – BLI model 1543. …California Zephyr vista-dome car – BLI model 1022. Not only is this model unlettered and unnumbered, but it is also from BLI’s first production run. This car needs work by John to repaint it and then to decorate it in Amtrak livery with number 9450 and its original name Silver Bridle.

For more information on the California Zephyr, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Zephyr

The Main Show Using his TV screen to excellent effect, Jack Child

gave an illustrated talk on the conversion of his HO scale model of the Baldwin 4-4-0 loco which in 1877 became the first NSW loco to be imported from USA. Following its appearance at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 in Philadelphia, it was brought to Australia for a trial demonstration run from Sydney to Lithgow, besting the times of the British competition which resulted in its subsequent purchase. It was the first NSW loco to have a 4-wheeled

pilot truck. Number 105 was placed into service as a goods train from Sydney to Goulburn, and later was used in passenger service. Baldwin locos continued to be imported from USA by the NSWGR until 1952.

To model this loco, Jack chose a Rivarossi 'American' for his kitbashing exercise. Most of the effort went into modifying the tender, which involved an extensive re-work. The twin-bogie chassis was discarded and replaced with a three axle chassis. The tender body was shortened and then fitted with the new chassis. The motor was changed, all-wheel electrical pickups were fitted to the tender wheels and the woodpile was replaced with coal. Brass rings were fitted to the Russian iron boiler and the loco was finished with a coat of deep chocolate, believed to be the livery chosen by Baldwin at the time.

Jack’s TV presentation helped us follow all Jack’s work on this model. Now finished, this loco looks good and runs well.

Time for an enjoyable afternoon tea, thanks Maren and Jack. Those of us who had to travel any distance to get here today – which is all of us except Stephe Jitts – were glad they made the trip.

.z

view the recently restored NSWGR AD60 Class Garratt loco 6029 in action at Junee and at Wagga Wagga over the Queen’s Birthday weekend. A far better choice as it turned out – the Epping exhibition this year was not as good as last year’s. Rob had made a picture DVD, which Jack Child played on his recorder and TV before an appreciative audience. The cold weather photography showed this mighty locomotive to

best effect with immaculate paintwork and clouds of steam. Making the most of this rare opportunity to attend a meeting within striking distance of the Riverina, Rob finished his show and tell items by passing around two framed stock certificates – one for the Southern Railway Company in 1918 and the other for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company in 1955. Full of fine detail, these

certificates are real works of art – alas, no longer produced in the computer age. The certificates were obtained at the Albury Model train show in May this year.

John Gillies displayed three Broadway Limited Imports (BLI) models of passenger cars built by Budd in 1948 for the California Zephyr. These models reveal the different methods used by BLI to represent the prototype's stainless steel construction. The first production run had a silver nickel colour with a slight

(Continued from page 2)

4

Letters to the Editor

With regard to the weight of a CHG wagon I missed the O’Brien meeting and so was unable to comment on the light-ness of the CHG. I direct members to my article (AMRM 279, December 2012, p60) in which I detail how to increase the performance of the vehi-cle. Regards Stephe Jitts

From the Editor:

As I’ve noted in the text, I now plan to be out of Canberra by the end of September, so there are just two meetings left to pick a new Super-intendent allowing time for a good handover. Given that the second of those meetings is in Tumut, where attendance is questionable, you all need to work out something by the next meeting, 25 July at Dion’s so that I can have a good handover to the incoming sucker, er sorry, courageous volunteer.

The Flimsy also should be passed on. Its prepared in Microsoft Publisher and is really very easy to do.

Since the meeting, I have heard from Graeme Hodges and finally he is out of hospital, and is feeling quite a bit better. Well done, GH1, we look forward to having you back at the meetings. While the photos are OK without you, your outrageous captions are sorely missed!

Happy Modelling Viv, div2sup@nmra.org.au

www.nmra.org.au

Disclaimer: Any resemblance between characters

in this newsletter and real model railroaders is purely

intentional but no offence whatever is intended. Every

reader has the right of reply and we look forward to pub-

lishing them! Views represented in this newsletter are

those of the contributors and do not necessarily have

any relation to those of the NMRA.

National Model Railroaders Association

Australasian Region

Division 2—ACT

Bringing model railroading to you

News

Next meeting will be at the home of Dion

Koch on Saturday 25 July at 24 Angell Place, Banks, ACT where we will select a new Division Superintendent.

Remember, the Malkara Model Exhibition is

coming on August 1 and 2—come along and support a very worthwhile cause.

Back Page Photo

Recently restored Garratt 6029 storms the 2% grade out of Wagga with the shuttle train heading to Uranquinty, 6 June 2015

Photographer : Rob Nesbitt

The stunning view from Jack’s veranda, looking generally North

5

27.2 x 17.3

2 Qbfpuamdox # #