Albury Staging Yard - Track laying begins

Yard construction with Fasttracks turnouts

Finally, after 161 blog posts, I lay some track!!

4836 accompanied the Picnic Train to Junee earlier this month.  Not sure I like the new livery, but the engine was looking very smart.  Roof mounted A/C, and enhanced handrails were visual differences from the original Goodwin/Alco build from the 1960s

Last bit of preparation

I completed the painting of the plywood benchtops, using surplus ceiling white paint

The void in the corner of the room is the location of future operating position of train control/dispatcher.  It may look a bit tight, but there is enough room for a swivel chair

Part of the benchwork for Junee staging

Last year, I had drawn out the design of my staging yard on brown paper full size.  Yes, it could have been done more accurately with computer software, but having an actual plan helped with the benchwork.  I left the brown paper on the floor. 

The chalk sketches of the future staging yard trackage last year, before construction of the benchwork

Further preparation of the Fast Tracks turnouts

On recomendation from Pat, I added a strengthing tie close to the tiebar (It is wider than the fasttracks copper clad ties, as drilling this for a screw might be a future enhancement .  I also added some Peco sleepers to all ends of the Fasttracks turnouts - that will enable pinning the track in the time honoured fashion. 

Locating the turnouts

Using the chalk sketches, I did a test fit of the turnouts.  It is important to starting with the turnouts.  

Nothing pinned down at this point.  Note the Atlas rerailer.  The rerailer is there just in case of a wheel drop - this staging yard will eventually be covered by the Bomen station level, and access will become much harder.

After some fine adjustments, the track was pinned down.  Some might note that I have chosen to NOT use any underlay.  My reasoning is that underlay will take away a few mm of vertical clearance, there is a cost involved (both of money and time), and I don't feel that noise of trains running on the staging yard will be a problem, as the staging yard will be covered by another layer of layout.  It could be a mistake.  I have just read about a technique using asphalt matting (as used in automotive repair shops) as being a sound deadening base for track.  Hmmm.  Something that I might use for later.

A handy tool

A few months ago, a read about a tip on working with Peco track-connectors/fishplates.

A bent rail, with a peco fishplate attached to the end

Using the rail as handle, slipping the fishplate onto the flextrack end is a lot simpler, and far less frustrating than using pliers, or by hand.

Track laying

A conventional fan-out for one side.  I must make special note of the flex track.  It is "GT Track" brand - something I bought for $2 a length when the Sydney October long weekend train exhibition was housed at the Sydney Showgrounds in the Eastern Suburbs (that is over 40 years ago).  The track, and sleepers after 40 years were still in good condition.

Both sides of the (temporary), walk-in aisle.  You can see the chalk line guides on the paper underneath - the track above approximates the guide.  The Peco flex track used here is brand new - purchased from All Aboard at Bowral, before that hobbyshop closed.  I am using new-unused track for the staging yards, in an effort to reduce  any potential problems with re-using track from former layouts.  Note. The blue rag above is on the future Tumbarumba branchline deck

The final group of turnouts for the Albury Yard is over 3 metres away from the other turnouts - the linking track being the "middle" track.  I know this may seem strange, but I tried a more conventional arrangement with my chalk scratchings, and it reduced some of the length of some of the sidings.  So I am going for functionality, over form. 

To connect to the first Albury staging yard turnout, the track curves around on a 72cm radius from the double crossover and rerailer.  The reason for the double crossover, is to enable trains to be backed from Albury Staging, to Junee staging in preparation for the next operation session - without having to seperate the loco from the train.  I covered the theory of this in a blogpost way back in August 2017.  The disconnected  track at the rear is the one that will climb a ramp up to Shepherds Siding, and onto Bomen, and Wagga.

More track

A view approaching Albury staging from the 72cm radius curve.  The yard tracks visible are not yet been pinned down

Testing

Below is not the best video, but I needed to test a train being pushed into the sidings acorss the Fasttrack turnouts.  As I didn't have power, I was pushing the carriages with one hand, whilst holding the camera with another.

I bought these vans S/H, and I think they are On-Track brand. 

I am pleased to report that this test was carried out over all sidings successfully.  The only glitch happened when the tiebar moved under the train, and this should not be a problem when point motors are fitted.  I might however, make another modification to the turnouts - and fit some styrene strip under the middle tie of the turnout, to limit vertical flexing under the weight of a locomotive.

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Train Room addition

8 years ago, Tracy gave me a birthday present, which I have finally installed.

No doubt of who's room it is.  Before I could add the sign, I needed to repaint the entrance door.  The unusually warm days we are experiencing were ideal.  The paint I bought was tinted/prepared by Ian Alce, at his Dulux paint store in Cootamundra.  In a former life, Ian manfactured an extensive range of NSW injection moulded N scale rolling stock kits.  His Dulux store in Cootamundra, also contained a small hobby section, and I tried to visit every time I passed through the town  

The sign was specially commissioned from Deeg MetalWork of Rushworth Victoria.  It was handcut from mild steel sheet.  A work of art, and great to be finally able to display.

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The perils of Auction buying

At the beginning of most months, Trains, Planes and Automobiles of Katoomba conduct a Monday evening auction.  It is always worth a look, as they regularly list train items from deceased estates - and occassionly items sell for bargain prices.  

TPA picture -  copied off the internet.  Very blurry

In the auction in April 2025, lot 272 was listed as a Mansfield Brass 442, with a start price of $200.  Well, even with single poor quality photo, the painting looked superb.  The box was a Mansfield loco box, so with confidence, I then placed an absentee bid for this, and a number of other items.

Well, I was successful at the auction - the hammer price was $230, plus $45 in buyer commission, and another $35 shipping (I also won an NCE 05 cab handset).  $230 is an extremely low price for the Brass loco - in the past, I have paid over double for a Mansfield 442

The loco arrived, and I immediately saw that it was NOT as listed.

A side by side comparison.  My Mansfield 442 above, the "fake" mansfield 442 below.  The chassis differences are obvious.  And yes, one of the bogie sideframes had dislodged in the post - easy fix

The "fake" Mansfield 442 is actually a DJH/Footplate kit, that dates from around 1990 and cost $255 new then.  That kit used a K&M Engineer chassis.  

I sent TPA an email expressing my disappointment, and suggesting some improvements to their operation.  To TPA's credit, they offered me a refund on the model, and my postage to get it back to them.  (don't know if I would get a refund on the $35 postage I originally paid)  I actually declined, as the assembly and painting of the kit was superior to anything I could do myself.  And I also had an unboxed Mansfield 442, which now can use the spare box.  

It would take no longer for TPA to get a crisp image of the loco, than the blurred image they used.  This was straight off my phone camera, and cropped 

 It is not the first time that I have had problems with TPA, but overall in the last 6 years of participating in their auctions,  I am ahead.  But, one needs to really know the subject, (because TPA generally don't have much of an idea with HO trains), and the current ebay prices, because it is easy to pay too much for junk at a live auction, with little comeback if things go wrong.

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Next Steps.

The Albury staging yard will be to finish the sidings, wire around all the fishplates, and install the Cobalt SS point motors, the NCE Procab, and test with a live loco.  I will also have to acquire some more fishplates - I am close to running out.   

Until next time, build a model or two.

Kaleen Exhibition - 2025

The Canberra Model Railway Club's 2025 36th "Model Railway Expo" 

I remember way back into the late 1980s,  a new model railway exhibition started in Canberra, being run at the Wesley Churches Centre in Barton over Easter.  That exhibition  was organised  by a small number of enthusiasts, rather than an established model railway club.  Over time, the Canberra Model Railway club was invited to join the group, and it later became the primary partner.  After 2 moves, and a date change, first to the Lyneham Hockey Centre, and then Kaleen High School, the Expo has continued to florish as a major exhibition on the last weekend of March.

Standard gauge converted R766 rests in Junee roundhouse, just back after a weekend of picnic train shuttle trips at Albury, on the same weekend as Kaleen Exhibition.  This is the first time a Victorian Railways steam locomotive has spent time at the roundhouse.  I hope to photograph it again this weekend

Pete, and myself travelled the 225km across to Canberra for the exhibition, without Ben, as he was involved with the Albury picnic train that weekend.

The exhibition featured 34 layouts,  25 commercial exhibitors, plus a CMRI secondhand table, and various displays

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Glasson returned for its second year.  It is an O scale NSW prototype layout, recently featured in Australian Model Railway magazine.  The layout consists of a small terminus station, with a few industrial sidings.  A fiddleyard contains the trains "the rest of the world"  Operators run through a sequence of moves that takes well over half an hour, and can be very entertaining to watch.

Bogie and 4 wheel cattle wagons await loading.

A NSWGR 49 class shunts a HG guards van

I have more pictures of Glasson in my 2024 reports from Kaleen, and Goulburn exhibitions

https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-visit-to-kaleen.html

https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2024/09/goulburn-model-railway-exhibition-2024.html

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The Canberra Society of Model and Experimental Engineers display was quite interesting

A number of small steam engines were running on compressed air

Large scale rollingstock for the CSMEE outside track

A 1:12 scale model of the PS Enterprize, a paddlesteamer that steams on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra

A live steam locomotive in an inspection cradle, gives a good view of the chassis, for maintenance, and repair

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Rather Small Japan, by Chris Bertthold,  was a collection of small tabletop layouts, 2 of which are shown here.  Beautifully sceniced

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Electric Car Sheds by NSW Suburban Historic Electric Traction.  The layout shows in miniature, a Sydney electric train maintenance centre

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Yendys by the ACT Model Railway Society again was displayed.  I designed this layout in 2003, to represent a suburban Sydney railway, to appeal to audiences that had little affinity with NSW country railway layouts, that were dominating the exhibition scene at the time. 

The layout was spit into 2 main viewable areas - the LHS was an industrial area, with a small maintenance facility, to display trains as foreground scenery.

Half way, the topology rises, and in typical Sydney function, a bridge crosses the tracks.  Both buildings at the rear were built by me from DPM and Smalltown kits, and furnished with awnings.  The paling fence was also made with individual boards.  Further detailing from members of the ACTMRS have added to the effect.  Disappointingly, the gap between the layout sections has widened in the years since the layout was built - one of the disadvantages in using timber framing

The right hand side was to represent a town center, with flats, shops, parks, and an elevated station building.  The flooded drain, and roadways was inspired by Bardwell Valley creek where Bexley Rd crosses over the railway, to immediately decend into a flood zone. 

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Binalong by the Epping Model Railway Club is a miniature representation of the real Binalong on the main southern railway line, south of Yass.  The track layout, buildings and structures are fairly accurate on how the station looked in the 1980s, before being "modernised and improved" by the Railway department. 

A SMR 10 class with 4 wheel coal wagons approaches the Illalong ballast siding.  Not very prototypical, but many members of the younger public will love counting the coal wagons

The stockyards, and goods shed.  The backscene was a painted vinyl curtain, which is light, and portable for efficient transportation

A 36class steam engine, and goods train heading south, passes the station.  

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Tannochbrae by the Sydney N scale model Railway Society, was a simple layout, that could be built by the average hobbist, with a bit of imagination.  

What I liked was the attention to detail, scottish pipes played quietly in the background, scenery reminded me of the highlands, the name of the layout on the lighting valence, and the tartan curtin below the baseboard.  

Cockle Creek missed being listed in the handout booklet, but as a layout, it was well worth viewing.  It represents the 4 track mainline into the Hunter Valley, with 2 lines for the coal trains, and 2 for the others.  The N scale trains were running faultlessly, and were frequent

The mainline station has an architecture style that was common in the 1920-30s.  The coal trains are seperated behind the station

Differing bridge styles, and the offset tracks add much visual interest

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Eurobodalla by the Eurobodalla Model Railway Club.  A pleasing display of models, and trains, running DCC.

This layout was originally built as a smaller terminus to fiddleyard, but was expanded to a larger oval, which is more exhibition friendly, with fewer operators to maintain train movements

Eurobodalla were also giving away railway magazines, and catalogues - I picked up a tenshodo, and Akane catalogues that date from the 1960s.  Plus a light railways magazine.

I have more pictures of Eurobodalla on an earlier Blog post

https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2024/06/east-coast-layout-tour-pt-1.html

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Blue Mountains by the North Shore Railway Modellers Association.  This layout is evolving, and every time I see it, the changes are rewarding.  Many of the scenes are based on real locations

Katoomba station was a newly added module to the Blue Mtns layout, and was very impressive, with the prototype modelling of not only the station, but also of the street scene.

A recent Google street view of the James Building corner of Bathurst Road highlights the excellence in modelling the town surrounding the station. 

The former station at Clarence is modelled.

Valley Heights engine facility was another new (at least to me) module added into the Blue Mountains layout.  The coal stage was designed with a zig-zag approach, necessary due to space limitations of the prototype, and the 1:33 grade ascending the mountain

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Oberon to Hazelgrove, by the Georges River Model Railway Club.    This is a reasonably new N scale layout, and it was good to see that it can be shortened or lengthened to better fit in with the exhibition hall requirements.  I saw and photographed the full layout at the 2024 goulburn exhibition - the link to those pictures mentioned earlier in this blog post.  

Hazelgrove station with a short train

Oberon is the terminus of the branchline from Tarana.  The sign gives no ambiguity with the location.  Lighting is simple, but quite effective in lighting the scene

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HEXHAMish by Stephen Curry.  This is primarily a display layout to showcase Stephen's scratchbuilt N scale locomotives, which were running faultlessly. 

The coal railways of J.A. Brown in the Hunter Valley, used a lot of private 4 wheel hoppers to transport the coal to the waiting ships in Newcastle Harbour.  The lack of trees is reminisent of the Hexham swamp

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CLUG by Canberra Lego User Group.  I will be honest, Lego trains are not my scene, but I do appreciate them, and so do the kids, and that is important for the future of the hobby.  There is a lot of skill needed to turn the bricks into something that is unique, and representative of the prototype.

A NSW Whitton station building in Lego!!  Nice

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Goulburn by the Guilford Model Railway Group.  This NSW HO layout was running trains of various eras.  I again showcased this layout, and the impressive station building, in my Goulburn blog post (link mentioned earlier), but this time I thought I would take pictures from different angles

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Muttama by Peter Beyer, is a small wayside station on the Tumut branchline between Cootamundra, and Gundagai.  Peter has done a lot of research on the location, and has scratch built accurate structures to match the prototype

A Casula hobbies Z12 class trundles through the scene with a short goods train 

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There were 25 retailers supporting the exhibition.  A few manufacturers had nice displays of new models they had for sale, or under development.

Wombat Models showed off their variations of the C30T

IDR models had their new Queensland railways passenger cars displayed, as well as their earlier produced  models

On Track's display.

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Summary

 I had a great day out, although some things could have been done differently.  Apparantly, there was a catering issue on Saturday (I went Sunday), a fire alarm (false alarm) on Sunday meant a 30 minute evacuation.  The CMRI second hand area was chaotic, and potentially dangerous, in the proximity to stairways.  And, I am not sure that having 25 retailers is good for the retailers, in that the public has limited funds to spend, and that would be diluted across the trade stands.  And from an exhibitor viewpoint, there simply is a lack of new large layouts - those shown, whilst excellent, are all getting long in the tooth.  There are reasons for that, but not for this blog.  On the positive side, the exhibition utilised rooms that have never been used for the exhibition before, and most layouts were nicely displayed and not crowded.  The 60 page, A5 size exhibition booklet in full colour makes a good reference.  I have a few extra items for my layout, and a TAM car interior - another project for the future

Until the next exhibition, build a model or two. 

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Postscript.  After I posted the blog, I was successful in my quest for getting more pictures of R766

The picnic train from Wagga to Cootamundra close to cresting the hill heading north out of Harefield.  Approx 9am, April 5th

The crisp cool autumn air, and full sun made for a good show

I was joined by over a dozen fellow photographers in an impromptu photo line.  

After passing me, I chased the train down to Junee station, where, after parking the car, I arrived just as R766 was departing

The rear of the Picnic train was the obligitary diesel, however, 42101 was superbly restored, and presented

On Sunday (April 6) evening, the Picnic train returned from Wagga, after the Wagga-Uranquinty shuttle trips - R766 trailing  The sun had just disappeared, and so did the army of professional photographers. I was almost alone on the main Junee platform as the R class decoupled from the rear of the picnic train

Sunset over the Iron Horse

Running a picnic train is a good "surprise" extra train to add to an operation session.  More thoughts for the future.  Hope you enjoyed this short indulgence.