Not dead nor sleeping! 

ESET's Big mining diesel at Fern Hill

I'll be the first to admit I've always been terrible at keeping diaries. It certainly hasn't gotten easier as I've gotten older and now having facebook groups, messenger groups, forums and youtube it's even harder to keep everything updated for that reason I'm going to abandon keeping this blog updated as a "blog" per-say (not that it ever really was. For semi up to date information I keep my gardenrails forum semi-regularly updated.) 

With that in mind I will now start uploading writings on the block about particular items of rollingstock or features on the line that can get clumped into their own sections much like Rik Bennets excellent blog. The original Rurr Valley and Sandstone and termite sites were quite similar and I spent many a long hour as a child pouring over them dreaming of something similar. 

So with that Since my last post I believe there has been 15 items of rollingstock enter service and at least the same changing hands. The Barclay like a bright star was finished, entered traffic and then moved onto pastures anew in Tasmania. In retrospect other then Alexanders stock (Melbournesparkes), 14, the MM and some of the Bachmann flatcars nothing in any of the pictures on this blog is part of the active fleet anymore!

                                                    DH 2 Runs around its train at Marysville

Thanks to the wonders of 3d printing there have been around 20 4 wheel wagons that Daz and I have put together over the last two years mainly from different thingiverse files. These have been augmented by wagons that have been scratchbuilt or designed in house. I offered the EBR C wagon as a kit and although I didn't advertise it broadly I'm quite proud there's now more 1:24th scale C wagons then real C wagons that were ever built!

A selection of QR, WAGR and TGR wagons in service. Just as I always wanted.

Motive power wise the bulk of the current fleet (as of writing) is made up of the BHP DE, The DH (Currently withdrawn for minor overhaul), A Bachmann Climax converted to RC, The MM and 14 as always in reserve. There are Bachmann Porters and a TGR DP railmotor as well but these see limited use. 

One of the lines DE's In "Safety Yellow" this scene with the harbour sheds is now a memory.

NEVR Stock joins ESET and a Tasmanian DQ visiting a railway in the Dandenongs

14 Rolls downhill with the evening pass

ESET Sparks sit at Fern Hill (Badger creek)

DH and DE await their next assignments at the port

The Railways new oil burning Sharp Stewart on trials before entering the workshop for works

You can also see some videos on the action on my Youtube channel @northeastvictoriarailway

Barclay Tank loco

A little project I'm banging out before we all get locked up at home. Based off an Andrew Barclay sent to Norway ive modified it to be 3' 6" and Australianised it as per Pozieres at Queenscliff. I was going to make it stephensons to use another chassies but this one was already cut up so thats sorted.

the prototype

the CAD drawing almost finished

Straight off the printer

 Testing colours

 After its first round of sanding and filling

With and without headlights

There hasnt been much news on the garden railway lately, Thanks to the great falcon incident of 2019 I've been fairly predisposed with talking to the insurance company. That said I came across a pair of large Radius LGB points which has given me a nice long storage siding near the balcony and a new 7 car long passing loop at the top of the line which will complete trackwork for the time being. Next I'll be focusing on buildings and rebuilding the elevated section of line with actual trestle bents instead of the current arrangement which was just so I could get some operation happening. I'm looking forward to the classic Melbourne weather settling in over the next few months it usually proves to be quite productive being forced into the shed.

I'm a bit torn on this. I do quite like the idea of having Duckets the only problem is it looks like a bachmann baggage car with duckets stuck on! The original idea was to convert this into something quite similar to Rurr Valleys EEP 4 but it was decided that I might as well scratch build if i was going to go that far

Both new cars repainted. Jury is still out on repainting my other bachmann pass car but this finishes acquisition of stock. everything else will be scratch built now.

TGR Y class is still slowly inching further forward towards completion. Power bogies have arrived for this and the other "big wheel" diesels so hopefully the painting process is finished soon

Another Shot of the Y in undercoat along with the QR DH, both models are 3d printed although only the DH is my work in cad.

As always I'm far faaar behind the 8-ball with updating this blog. The railway has been expanded to double its length and has gone from 1 RC powered loco to 5! without further ado lets have look at whats been happening...

Fyansford lime hopper, these came in 4 and 6 wheel Versions. I printed the doors for it too but i have to redesign it wasnt rugged enough and the actual ones tipped

A9 prepares to push an empty ore train back up the Wye to the loader

Alexanders steeplecab does its thing

The railway built its first and second set of scratch built points on the last day of the year, point number 2 seen here was installed at 11.58 on near years eve!

Alexanders steam tram departs

D1 and 14 come off the new leg of the wye

D1 grinds uphill with an empty ore past the new 3d printed signal box. This design is off thingyverse by badgerbreath. I scaled it up to 1:24 and then made a roof from bbq meat trays from bunnings crimpted

Point 2 at midnight new years eve!

Alexanders battery electric

D1

Alexanders Baldwin 2-4-2 brings an empty log train around viaduct number 1

The grade drop is more noticeable here. The steeplecab, AD3 and D1 are all visible here along with the railways Caterpillar D8H which can be seen clearing a pad for the railways new engine shed. A proper railway workshops has always been planned for the railways port base of Hastings but this will take care of the locos engaged in shunting the mine and doing branchline trips in the Yarra Valley area

3 Baldwins!

A down empty Tea and sugar is seen here traversing the loop on its way up the hill. The inside leg of the Triangle is yet to be built in this picture.

the D8H doing some damage to the yard with D1 Behind! I bought this kit on a whim and I've become extremely attached to it despite it not being rail related. it still needs some weathering and some more painting but I'm generally pretty happy with it.

this is the current track plan in scale to my house, the new passing loop still needs to be done but as it stands its an extremely effective track plan. Last run day saw 4 trains running concurrently without really running out of room which I'm very happy with considering theres under 15m of track!

Theres plenty more news but you'll have to wait till next time.

Happy new year!

More progress??

Some unexpected extra energy over the weekend and a chance acquisition of an extremely large lot of secondhand Peco track meant I could finally finish the extension off. 

It needs a bit more work but this allows me to focus back on some more Australian rollingstock and to finish the mine triangle/loader.

 The second and third trains into the new loop!

Both of the railways Porters are finally together running on RC! Alexander was kind enough to leave one of his controllers here which allowed dad and I to have a short running session.

 D1 the railways boxcab waits for Alexanders Steam tram to enter the loop.

 D1 having a well deserved rest between work.

 Load test!

 D1 runs a combined empty ore and supplies train back to the mine (D3 and the mystery EE featuring in the background)

 The future mine interchange. the siding to the left will be for empties to be exchanged for loaded ones, behind the guards van is a point that will eventually join back to the siding on the right creating a triangle. This area will require its own dedicated shunter eventually, most likely one of the lines 3 porters.

second passenger service to the new station.

A rare ray of sunshine.

And finally heres a drivers eye view of the entire mainline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-wn9ECwP3Y&t=46s

till next time.

Future plans (Pt.2)

 Construction begins!

Tools of the trade.

Gently "finessing" a rock to fit the track through!

 took me about 4 hours to get everything level, unfortunately because of the material the stakes are made of they bend quite easily and after a bit of thought I decided to leave them the way they were, eventually I plan on planting plants or something underneath them so hopefully you wont see the posts

 Another view of the future formation

 Thanks to melbournesparks (yes him again!) I was able to source some old decking material that once cut up was quite a suitable bridging material.

The loop on the left and right hand sides you can see the points for the future wye, I have about 6 sets of points still to construct so these have been "locked" out of use for the time being

 the finished extension!

 First train over the full loop

The new arrival... Converted from one of the railways Steeple cab electrics this box cab was one of the lines early experiments with dieselisation. I'll go into this loco a bit more in a future post.

The boxcab hauling a train over the extension, unfortunately shortly after this photo was taken it lost RC signal at the high end of the loop and ran off the end (lesson leant, if you're running always have the bridge in) and destroyed an end beam, broke both bogie mounts, smashed the cab and broke out most of the windows. Just another thing to fix.

Till next time.