Shepherds Siding

 A quick look at Shepherds Siding

Shepherds Siding was opened on March 10, 1893.  It is located at 270.3 miles (505.64km) from Sydney - between Junee, and Wagga Wagga on the main south railway.

Shepherds in 1997 - my picture taken from Byrnes Road

Named after the owner of a local property W.J. Shepherd, the name was shortened to Shepherds in October 1925.  The station was officially closed 19th July 1975.

3817 heads north through Shepherds in 1950. Note the loading bank platform on the siding

These two images "stolen" from the 100 mile House Facebook page.  They show a small timber platform, 2 sheds (purpose unknown) and a full size nameboard.  Imagine the size of the nameboard if they had retained the "SIDING" in the name

Philip Verigson captured this evening image in 1980, 5 years after the station officially closed. Note the change of platform design, station name, and one shed only

The arrangement of sidings, and points matches the 100 mile House project facebook images, but this arrangement changed later

In around 1982, I photographed Shepherds from a small plane.  Whilst my image is a bit blurred, the location of the former station near the level crossing can be seen.  There could still be structures standing, but that is guesswork.  Byrnes Road is the gravel road at the bottom of the picture.  Note that it does not run parallel to the main south line south of Shepherds - that will come later

The extension of Byrnes Road through to Wagga came later.  Initially it was gravel, but later improvements (by 1996) had it as asphalted.  The extension connected at Shepherds was roughly on the former station site.  Today, the road from Junee to Wagga parallels the main railway line, and is well worth the detour off the Olympic Way.  BTW, I photographed the sign just a few years ago - it is now hidden partially by bushes, but not vandalized or stolen

Recent pictures

The siding connection to the main line is now severed.

From the level crossing, the station location is now devoid of anything

The level crossing on the Shepherds Siding road is protected with booms, lights and bells.

Note the "Shepherds" nameplate - possibly the same plate as in the 1980 picture earlier

S016 silo on the now unused siding

Silo pictures

Modelling

I have a love of wheat hopper trains, and the chance to include Shepherds on my layout is too much of a temptation.  The space I have for it is a bit tight, being on a curve, and the siding will be similar to the current arrangement, with points at eather end, rather that the 1951 arrangement with a dead end siding for the silo.

The location for Shepherds is in the lower RHS of this plan.  Mainline radius is arouund 70cm, which will give just over a metre of siding, enough for a small train

As the station existed in 1970, I have another small modelling project going forward.  The other main structure is the S016 silo.  I have an Auscsion S024 silo, and was hoping to swap it for the smaller S016 - but it may be just as easy to kitbash, take off one of the large external bins, and modify the roof cupola.  Another option would be to construct one using a Kerian Ryan kit.  In the meantime, just using the S024 silo would save time

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And for those of you interested....

Train Room Progress

Not a lot in the last 3 weeks.   I did managed to get 2 coats of undercoat on the walls - roughly.  The wall area is about 80 square metres, so that took me about 3 times as long as a professional, and my efforts about half as good.  But, it was good that I can contribute something whilst my part time builder has more serious jobs to attend coming up to Xmas.  

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Timing is everything.  Whilst it was great to get the electrics in so quickly, I had not been able to prepaint the walls.  So, it takes a lot longer for the preparation

Display wall painted.  The door to the rest of the garage is very close to where Shepherds siding will go

Ensuite wall (and sliding door)

Below is a short video I took showing the present state of the train room, which also showsall the junk I have not been able to store elswhere.  Yes, it does get in the way, and I spend too much effort to move it.

And I mounted the pair of signs I bought at the Cootamundra swap meet on the outside of the garage, either side of the train room entrance.  Sometimes the junk gets used effectively.

To be continued...

Xmas 2023.  3 of the 4 kittens have now found new homes (Gunning, Canberra, and Wagga) - and I no longer have to spend hours a day supervising their play sessions.  Of course, Misty, kitten #4 is staying with us - very cheeky girl.  Xmas is quickly approaching, and whilst I had hoped I would have a completed Train room, I have more than enough other modellng tasks to continue.

 May all my readers have a great festive season, and I hope to be back and running next year.  Until next time. 

Let There be Light

 Progress steps up a notch

Over the last 3 weeks (since my last Blog post), quite a lot has occured

David's layout based on Goulburn, was one of the attractions at the NMRA meeting I attended yesterday (Nov 18, 2023) in Canberra. More pictures of this meeting later

Wagga Station master residence - Veranda posts

6 posts are needed.  The first 2 above, are 3 sided, the last 4 are decorated on all 4 sides.  There are 27 pieces of plastic per post - and quite a fiddly job to make.  The post themselves are Evergreen styrene 0.060 square strips 

The most critical phase was glueing all the posts to the support beam.  Not only were the posts square, they had to be correctly spaced to the nearest 0.2mm for the eventual attachment of the ironwork.  The veranda planks were made from a piece of Evergreen 0.060 V groove

The 2 wall support posts added to the front

Finally the veranda gets added

Even without the cast ironwork decoration, the residence is imposing

Not quite the same angle, but the real residence for comparision

Next stages are the pipework, windows and doors.  The veranda railing too, although that will have to wait until after painting

Train Room progress.

Another Bunnings delivery.  Yellow tongue sheeting, more trim, and the kaboodle kitchen flat packs.  I had to move these  further under my carport as rain was expected.  The Yellow tongue boards are extremely heavy for one person - and there were 13 of them - enough to finish the walls.

I rolled primer undercoat on the ceiling.  over 50 square metres, it took me a full day.  Top coats will come later.

Sheeting (and insulation) in the train room continues

Sheeting in the garage area was a lot easier.  The insulation batt width fitted the panels without any additional trimming

Never assume your floor is flat.  There was almost a 3cm fall over a short distance.  This view from the garage side

Doorway from garage to train room

Doorway from train room, to outside.  Note the openings for the electrical cables

Door between the train room and the garage hung.  The door knob was something re-used after about 20years of storage after being replaced in my previous home in Queanbeyan

Ensuite sliding door

Room Lighting is being supplied with LED batten lights.  The colour switch inside the fitting is shown.  I will have to change the colour, as warm white is too yellow for my liking

The support plate for the Daikin airconditioner was simply screwed onto the yellow tongue sheeting.  You cannot do that with gyprock

I insisted on a switchboard to be installed inside the train room.  The advantage of this, is that I can turn off all power points for the layout with a single switch.  There are 5 circuits: Lighting and Tastic, Kitchenette power points; Hot Water; Air Conditoner; & Layout/room power points

Airconditoning fitted.  The outside unit is visible through the window

Tastic installed in the ensuite.  Heat, light, and fan

Light battens installed.  There are 4 in total - the one for the Kitchenette has a separate light switch

Circuit Breakers fitted

Let there be light!!

External Air conditioner in the passage way between my workroom, and garage.  Not much sun gets to this location.  There is also not a lot of space, but this is not a walkway that is used much. 

Next step is continuing with the painting - there are over 80 square metres of wall to prime.  Further work is the tiling of the ensuite, assembly of the kitchenette, plumbing completion, septic installation, and flooring.   Cost of room so far is $27,500.  

Kittens

Very unexpected, but Tracy found a litter of feral kittens just over a week ago.  Three were well hidden in the weeds that are around my unused swimming pool, but the meow and wandering about of kitten #4 was a giveway.  And we also discovered a den under the rotten wood planking that surround part of the pool. 

We think the kittens were about 4 weeks old,  and looked malnourished, and looking for their mother.

Well, all 4 now are thriving in our house, and Tracy has found homes for three of them.  The fourth,a long haired little girl, who I named Mystique, or Misty for short is being kept  As you can gather, entertaining kittens is a time wasting exercise (as well as expensive - I have spent $230 so far on food, litter, bedding, worming tablets, toys).  I am feeding them 5 times a day, breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and late supper.  They are growing quickly

We set up a kitten enclosure - using 6 panels of a dog pen, and 4 planks that I had put aside for the future layout.  Works quite well.

"Leo" named by his future owner, contemplates some mischief.  Photographing kittens is a lot of misses to get one hit.

Div 2 NMRA November meeting in Canberra.

Yesterday, I made the 5 hr round trip to Canberra, to attend the NMRA meeting at David's place.

David was offering to demonstrate weathering, and as David is also extremely skilled in Military modelling, it was something I wanted to see.  As my builder Brett was not attending my trainroom build on Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend

David attacks a wagon, surrounded by the curious.  David rarely uses an airbrush for weathering.  Instead, he  makes up a lot of washes using oil paints, turpentine, and white spirits

Subtle weathering.  The NODY wagon is only half done to show the difference

An additional bonus clinic was using the phone application "Engine Driver" on Davids home layout, which is Goulburn station.  Using a Raspberry Pi, with appropropriate software can extend a DCC system to accomodate a number of mobile phone controllers.  Certainly an option for me when it comes to running my layout.  The hammerhead NCE throttles are quite a deal more expensive then old cell phones

The station of Goulburn is mostly scratchbuilt, using plans.  David's modelling work has appeared on many layouts, and was one of the inspirations for me to improve my own modelling standards

David hosts operational sessions on this layout.  The basis is making up trains for the branchlines to Crookwell, and Canberra/Cooma/Bombala.  With mainline trains also coming through, Goulburn can get quite busy.  

Control panel

Summary.

Getting the walls finished, and completing the electrical aspect of my train room has been a major step in finishing the room.  The A/C cooled the room down in around 10 minutes, and then idled at under 500 watts.  With the extensive installation, I hope the room will be a welcoming environment for layout construction, and later operation.  

Until next time