Hosting an NMRA meeting

 Hosting an NMRA meeting - Div2 - July 2025

Shortly after I moved to Junee in 2015, I hosted a meeting for the ACT/Sthn NSW division of the AR region, of the NMRA.  There was no layout to show, but I dragged out my collection of slides, and gave a slide presentation of my pictures taken since 1980 of the future layout prototype locations.  9 members made the trip from Canberra.

QBX 005 arrived at Junee Roundhouse whilst a few NMRA members were visiting on the Sunday after my meeting 

Since that time, I was not prepared to host a followup meeting, until I had something to show.  The planets seem to align for July 19th, so I booked in the date early in the year on the Div 2 division calendar.   

Prior to the meeting

Stephen O'brien, the Div 2 Super had wanted a meeting in Junee, as he felt it important to conduct meetings outside Canberra, to encourage membership who can't get to Canberra meetings.  Div 2 is a widely spread geographic area, and travelling to meetings can be an expensive undertaking.  There is always a possibility of making the meeting part of a weekend short break. Junee is still a railway town, with an operating Roundhouse/museum, an original Railway Refreshment room cafe, and a Licorice and chocolate factory.  Nearby in Wagga, the miniature 7.25" trains run on a  2km track in the Botanical gardens, and they would be operating on the Sunday after my meeting.  There is also the Railway museum on the Wagga station platform.

I discussed the above options with Stephen, and the email asking for meeting acceptances was sent out 2 weeks prior to the meeting.

The presentation.

My earlier presentation was old school slides, but I wanted an upgrade.  Since then, I have documented my progress on this blog, and I had lots of computer images,  that would work with a projector.  So, in June, I purchased a HD projector from Amazon for just over $160.  I was very impressed with the service, fast delivery and the ease of setup.  Projectors have come a long way in the 17 years since I first used them at my workplace in the ACT public service

After the initial test of the projector, my next task was to totally clear the floor area of my train room.  Whilst this took an inordinate amount of time, it was great to finally consign the clutter to history.  

The test of the projector in the train room, using the previously painted light grey wall showed that I needed to fit curtains to each of the windows.  So, a trip to Spotlight, and $200 for curtains and mounting hardware.  The curtains worked to darken the room.

The VOPLLS projector, on the stand.  The laptop (not shown) is connected via the supplied HDMI cable, although it could work wirelessly with WiFi.  The lamp (Temu freebie) is so I can see the laptop keyboard when the room lights are off

Actual Image of the projection on the wall.  The long ramp (see last blogpost) of the layout can just be made out in the gloom.  Success.  Note, the image is my picture from a cruise to NZ in 2010 - Port Chalmers/Dunedin, where the tour train meets the ship.

Death by Powerpoint is the last thing I wanted.  Fill it with pictures, and limited text.  But what to describe?  I settled on 2 themes

 - Scratch building a real building - Bomen Station

- Modifying a kit to fit a prototype location - Kyeamba Creek Bridges

Powerpoint presentations created for both :- either one, or the other, or both could be shown depending on time

Acceptances. 

Div 2 membership is around 60 members, and I thought that numbers wanting to travel over 2 hrs to my meeting would be few in number.  I was wrong.  A week out there were 15 acceptances, and more were expected.   The total ended up at 20, but there were another 5 blow-ins who just arrived

Catering.

I am indepted to Tracy for her help with this aspect.  

Coffee, Tea, and biscuits stored in the train room kitchenette cupboard 

We started acquiring supplies in June, and as the acceptance, numbers started rising, she decided on the full afternoon tea aspect.  Hot fare would be  sausage rolls, little boys, spring rolls, plus soup and bread rolls.  In addition, dips, cheese, olives, cabanossi, loaded egg curry sandwiches, and pikelets, with cream and jam.  And we also acquired a second air-fryer, so as to minimize the time to cook the sausage and spring rolls.

Our weekly shop to Wagga bought much of the above, the bread/pikelets was purchased on the Friday in Junee before the meeting to be as fresh as possible.

I then started the cleaning of all the coffee and soup cups.  Many had railway themes.  It all takes time

Layout room preparation continues

I do not have enough chairs, and the email sent out by Stephen, requested that people bring a portable chair is possible.  I had just 6 dining room table chairs, and Pete offered me some more plastic chairs, on the proviso, that they needed cleaning.

Stackable chairs - rated at 100kg only

My next task was to display many of my models created over the last 8 years.  I have documented the construction of each one in my blog, but seeing them live is better.  The below 30 second video shows them

Lastly I set up a tables for show-n-tell, bring-and-buy, and for the afternoon tea.

The meeting

Stephen had suggested that attendees have a light lunch at the Railway Cafe at 12 noon, before heading to my place at 1pm.  I understand, that they were treated to a train down at the station.  Other members started arriving at my place from around 12:30.  The meeting began around 1:10pm with normal NMRA business.

Stephe Jitts MMR about to award an achievement plaque.

Congratulations Craig

The meeting continued with a show-n-tell session.  I tried to encourage the assembed crowd to grab a coffee, and a few nibbles from items on my kitchenette, during the interval before my presentation, but this aspect didn't work out as well as I hoped.

I had told Tracy that 3pm would be the time for the afternoon tea.  I probably rushed my presentation, the only glitch happened when mid presentation, the projector suggested a firmware upgrade.  After the Bomen station talk, I still had another 20 minutes, so the Kyeamba bridge powerpoint followed.  Finishing at 2:55pm, members seemed to not know about the afternoon tea - and had to be ushered out of my train room.  They were either talking between themselves, or admiring my models.

Pete's picture.  The large module in the background is not my work, it was built by Ron Cullen, one of the items acquired in December on my rushed Melbourne Trip

Pete's picture, showing Bomen station, and at the back, the Kyeamba Creek bridge

The ones who arrived earlier for afternoon tea, demolished the pikelets.  And most of the rest of the food was consumed too - which was good, as I hate waste.  

Pete's picture of the crowd under the carport.  Dale is showing off his Freemo module

Dale's Freemo module.  Wayside signal box, and siding.  My picture

Pete made good use of the winter sunlight with these 3 pictures.

Long distance members

My driveway was not big enough, so many cars were parked on the side of the road.

Attendees came from most corners from Div 2.  Albury, Batemans Bay, Bemboka, Bombala, Bywong, Canberra, Murrumbateman, Wagga, and Junee.  

Sunday

Those staying overnight had options for Sunday.  Pete opened up his hobby railway for inspection at 9:30am

https://www.peteshobbyrailway.club/

From left to right - George, Ben, Ian (rear), me, Stephe and Robin.  Pete's had positioned his Ruston on the turntable, and his steam loco Torpedo closest to the engine shed.

After the visit to Pete, another 1km to the Roundhouse Museum

Conclusion

 Hosting a meeting is a significant commitment.  It involves planning, and expense.  Whilst there is a token payment for catering, it fell well short of the actual cost.  Possibly comparable to the cost of fuel when I travel to Canberra for a meeting.  And there is a time factor.  Even as I write this 2 days afer the meeting, I still have not finished cleaning up all the cups, and repacking the models I had on display.  I only returned the chairs to Pete this morning.  Mind you, I delayed myself finishing the packup with writing the blog post.

Thanks to Pete for his opening up his hobby railway for us, and for use of some of his pictures

I wish to especially thank Tracy for her help, without her I would have struggled.  She did tell me on Saturday morning, that I was trying to micromanage her, and if I didn't stop, she would go on strike!!  One has to trust the better half.

From my own benefit, it was good to get my room cleared, and to return something back to the organisation I have been in for 35 years.  And the train room worked, and that was encouraging for the future entertainment of the operating crew.  Unfortunately, there will be no further meetings in the room - once the benchwork for the central peninsular is built, the available space shrinks.  

Until next time, build a model or two.

Installing the ramp

 The long ramp installation 

After my ramp testing, it was time to install.

Still wearing reminents of Genesee & Wyoming livery, SSR CLF2 awaits in Junee for its next assignment - probably a grain train

The ramp is to go behind the future Bomen station area

A string line was attached to the wall -  rising from the staging yard, and extending to Shepherds

The brackets were just touching the string line.

The white plank was then secured to the brackets with screws from below.  Easier said than done - very awkward to drive in the screws 

A wooden block installed at the bottom of the ramp. This block is also sloped with spacers. 

Track on the ramp is just placed prior to securing the track to the double crossover (out of sight).  

Preparing the track.

Electrical connections around track joiners is one of those tasks that is mind numbing, but to rely on just the track joiners for electrical connections is a recipe for frustrations later.  So, before the track on the ramp was installed, I soldered a wire jumper to the ends of the rail, around the joiner.  

This was on the staging track, but the process was repeated for the ramp track segments

The wire I used. Flexible, and rated at 3Amp

Wire stripper is essential.  I have owned this for over 30 years

Foam roadbed

At the bottom of the ramp, there was a need to raise the track from the double crossover to the wooden board.  I had some scrap blue foam, which I sliced into strips, and glued into position

I needed to pin the strips with nails whilst the white glue dried

Never have too many clamps

After shaping and sanding, track installed off the Atlas rerailers.

DCC Concepts Power base installed under the track starting at 2 metres up the ramp.  The 6 lengths of flex track prewired with jumper wires, placed onto the power base.  There are a few rail expansion gaps between the lengths of flex track.  The contractor engine pictured is a tribute to days of olde. 

My test train at the bottom of the ramp.  The curve ended up being over 1 metre radius, with some transititioning off the straights. The train successfully climbed the 3% grade

Close coupled looks great. Pity this scene will be later hidden by the benchwork.

 The upper end of the ramp is just shy of 17cm above the staging yard, but will continue upwards around the Shepherds loop.   Something that I hope to start before I host the NMRA Div2 meeting on July 19th

Some other activities

Whilst I had the bench saw out to reduce the width of one of the white planks, I cut a shelf from surplus timber, for one of the cupboards for the kitchenette bench. 

There were no holes in the cupboard for the shelf supports, so I made up a height jig, and drilled the 5mm holes at a consistant height

Some essential supplies stocked, ready for the meeting

Conclusion

This post should should have happened a few weeks ago, but a combination of non railway activities, and a bout of Covid has delayed things somewhat.  But progress, is progress.

Until next time, build a model or two

How steep is too steep?

 Experimentations for model trains climbing grades

I am at the stage of adding the ramp behind my staging yard to climb to the lower scenery level.  This ramp will be hidden, and hard to access, so I thought I would check that my longest train would climb the grade before installing the benchwork that will be extremely hard to fix later. 

The ACT ARHS 2413 transfer train approaches North Jindalee heading towards Cootamundra on May 24th 2002.  I found my prints whilst looking for something else, and I knew the Junee Roundhouse Museum would be interested in 2413, (one of their exhibits), so I scanned the prints for them

Track design

The ramp runs from the double crossover, up to Shepherds.  It is about 6 metres in length

I had drawn these diagrams a few years ago, and doesn't reflect the extra sidings in the staging yard.  But it is good to show the ramp location in relation to the rest of the layout

The ramp location is closer to the wall than the Albury staging tracks.  Click on an image to enlarge

Now, I had hoped to gain 20 cm clearance above the staging tracks, although a 2% grade would only give me 12cm.  I still have the option of extending the grade around Shepherds, and into Bomen, although this being on a curve would require grade compensation.  

So maybe, a 2% grade could be increased to 2.5%, or even 3%. 

This headed me down the rabbit hole of locomotive hauling capacity.

Test ramp.

I made up a 4.5 metre test ramp, and fitted it with 5 lengths of peco flex-track 

Ramp made from 2 lengths of surplus timber.  The blue metal angle was just right to ensure that the ramp would not bend at the join.  I set the ramp angle at 2%

The meaty end of the ramp.  Many decades ago, I made a transister model train controller, and fitted it into a cyclops brand train control, utilising also the cyclops transformer.  It is my go-to DC controller, as the output is smoothed DC at higher voltages. 

Testing the train up the ramp

The first non-dcc loco I located was the Auscsion VLine X class.  

My longest train that I anticipate running, is the 10 carriage Southern Aurora with one or two diesels.

The Auscision Southern Aurora, purchased in 2016.  Each carriage weighs in between 142 and 148 grams - making the whole train just under 1.5kg.  Auscision have rerun this set  

However, when I tried it out with the full train the X class stalled, with wheels spinning.  A reduction of 2 carriages allowed the train to climb the 2% grade.

This was a disappointing result.  

My immediate options then:-

    - Add weight to the locomotive

    - Double Head

    - Reduce the grade

    - Run with fewer carriages

All the above come with some disadvantages.  The double heading option though was the most likely, although that would mean increasing the length of a couple of staging tracks - one at Albury, the other at Junee.

Another suggestion from the NMRA members in Canberra was to try out the DCC Concepts Power base, which was something I knew nothing about.  A link to a video showed a huge improvement in hauling capacity of an Eureka AD60 garratt climbing a 1:30 grade.  WOW.  I ordered a starter pack from Australian Modeller store.

But the delay did allow me to check out the train length, and test some other locos

One loco - length of train is 2930mm.  Add another 210mm for the second loco.

So, a doubled headed Aurora train would need a staging yard siding length of 3.3 metres.  Fortunately, I have a siding that long.  

The next non-dcc loco I chose happened to be a Victorian G class.  This locomotive weighed in at a hefty 558 grams.   The X class by comparison was a lightweight, just 301 grams.    The G class pulled the train up the grade easily.

DCC Concepts Power Base

Australian Modeller must be recommended for excellence in customer orders, as my starter pack arrived within a few days

The DCC Concepts Power base - 2 packets of magnets (12 per packet), and one packet of metal strips, enough for 5 metres of ramp

But how to fit the magnets to the loco?  All the you-tube videos I watched showed magnets fitted under steam locos, none showed a bogie diesel.  One of the on-line forums mentioned about attaching magnets into the fuel tank, but that is not an option with Auscision, as the fuel tank is the location of the lighting effect slide switches.  But there was space just behind the pilot, and below the coupler pocket that would be suitable, if one was able to make a bracket.

Magnets loosely placed at the ends of the loco, behind the pilot of the G class

Making the bracket

I made the bracket out of styrene strip.

The bracket is made with evergreen styrene strips - 20 x 250 thou, and 60 x 250 thou.  The gap for the kadee coupler mount is 7mm, the bracket wings are 6.5mm, and the height is 11mm.  Screw holes are to match the chassis holes.  This bracket could be an ideal 3D modelling project

The X class chassis with the styrene bracket positioned over the kadee mount.  

The chassis mounting screws hold both the bracket, and the body securely

The 3.2mm thick magnet is glued to the bracket with 2 part epoxy glue.  The magnet is positioned to be at pilot height above the track

Testing with the magnets

Well, success.  There is a noticeable magnetic attraction when the locomotive is placed on the rails, and the X class happily pulled the full train - only slowing down at the end of the video when the front of the loco ran past the end of my temporary installed DCC Concept Power base track plates, and started wheel spinning

So, I increased the grade of my ramp to 3%, and again, the X class hauled the train.  So did the G class without magnets.

Of interest was the power draw.  220mA for the X class, and 300mA for the G.

Possible problems.  

The magnets will pick up all manner of ferrous stuff from your track, and cleaning the magnets may be troublesome.  Also the Auscision chassis mounting screws are magnetic, so getting them into the bracket hole might be quite a challenge.  And unsure if the magnets will affect the Kadee operation. 

Summary.  

I will fit the power base metal strips below the ramp trackage, and continue them onto the section of rail track near Shepherds.  Whilst I don't expect too many locomotives will need magnets fitted, having the strips in place will future proof the ramp.

DCC Concepts Power Base is a great product.  And I will probably install the power base under my helix tracks when the time comes to build the helix.

Another purchase

Acquired off the well known auction site, this power supply will provide power for future non DCC accessories

Formerly owned by a radio amateur, this superceded Jaycar brand switching power supply will supply a lot of power for the future layout accessories.  I am testing the voltage with my trusty ancient Tandy brand multimeter.

Until next time, construct another model or two