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

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. 

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 1:40 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!!  Yay

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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. 

Fast Tracks - A dozen turnouts

 How a 2 week project has taken 2 months

Fast-Tracks turnouts are promoted as being quick to make, using their assembly jigs, PCB strips, and filing tools.  I don't believe the sales broucher.

Providing Train orders to the engineer.  I captured this image in May 1989 at Squamish, British Columbia.  It shows a southbound pair of BC Rail M636 (Alco) engines receiving printed train orders attached to a hoop held by the signalman.  Little did I know that the engines would be retired within the year.  The passenger train behind was part of the "Narrow Margin" movie being filmed.  What has all this got to do with Wagga Wagga? There is a connection, but you will have to get to the end of my post to see a tentative link.

As I mentioned way back in January, I ran into a rail issue, basically because I was not using the recommended Micro-engineering code 100 rail.  Filing the PECO code 100 rail flange to fit the Code 100 #6 turnout assembly fixture was a chore.

https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2025/01/fasttracks-turnout-construction.html

However, filing could be done if I had a spare 30 minutes or so "free".   The first step was to cut all the rail needed to length, as the full 3 feet of rail was too unwieldy.  The next step was to file the flange to size.  Once sized and filed, the rail was then placed in the filing jig, and shaped. 

Rail cut and filed down.  At the top, the rail has been prebent - and the eight pieces of rail placed roughtly in the shape of a turnout.   The stock, and point blades just grouped in a bundle - the frog and check rails fitted in small plastic tubs so they would not be lost

The process of filing the rail took over a month - which is an indication of the tedious nature of the task.

4 turnouts - prepared for the Show-n-tell at the March 15th NMRA meeting.  

12 turnouts, as "completed" by March 24th.  Yes, I did get more enthusiastic towards the end.

The turnouts are still not ready - I have yet to isolate the frog, and might have to add some wider PCB "ties" for screwing to the plywood baseboard.

My chalk drawings of the Albury staging yard has 5 x RH Turnouts, and 7 x LH turnouts.  Once I isolate the frog, and clear the baseboard of clutter, I can start laying the track. 

More distractions.

I get side tracked easily. (pun intended)

One of the reasons for my rushed trip to Melbourne in December last year, was to acquire a number of scratchbuilt On3 shay locos, from a craftsman modeller, who was retiring due to illness.  I plan to write an article in Narrow Gauge Downunder magazine, highlighting Ron's skill at fabricating unique models.  Ron had a party trick - being able to recreate the extremely rare prototype LH shays in miniature.

I am trying out model photography for the magazine article, and I am happy with the above, but will need to confirm with NGDU.  

Shay #6 on Ron's layout.  Ron's picture

More trinkets for the train room

Out of the blue, Les sent me a staff hoop.  It has allowed me to now properly display my only miniature staff

The staff hoop has 2 leather straps to hold the staff - in my case, the Walkerston to Paget #33 staff from Queensland railways.

Staff working is something I am planning to use on my Wagga layout - between Bomen, and Wagga.

Staff platform at Bomen in 1982.  This was abolished in 1983 with the introduction of CTC. My picture

Bomen earlier had an automatic staff exchange apparatus

It could be folded away.  Both pictures Pete Neve

The only picture I could find (and use)  in colour of a signalman holding a staff hoop - this image "stolen" from 100 mile House Project, facebook page, shows temporary working during construction work on Bethungra loop.  The hoop is held in such a way that the driver can put his hand and arm into the hoop, capturing it on his elbow.

 

On Feb 27th, 1972, the staff was being exchanged at Wagga Wagga. The train was #452 express goods.  The Signalman holding the staff hoop containing the staff to Bomen with one hand, the other ready to receive the staff from Kapooka.  This is another excellent picture from Pete Neve.  Another photographer, Graham Ball took an almost identical photograph of this event - that colour photo graced the front cover of AMRM issue 132.  I cannot use it here due to copyright limitations, but well worth checking if you have access to AMRM. 

And to celebrate the staff hoop acquistion, I thought I would install a block shelf in my train room

Lots of space for additions.  Although I might have to install some beading around the edges of the  shelf.

NMRA meeting.

I travelled to Stephe's at Murrumbateman for the NMRA meeting on March 15th.  It is always good to catch up with fellow modellers, as well as see some of the changes Stephe has made to his Kangaroo Valley layout.  (See April 2025 AMRM for a full article on the layout).  Stephe was installing a lighting valence above Voilet, to Osport, and it was great to acquire ideas.  

Lighting valence on Kangaroo Valley layout being installed

Next steps

Lay the Albury staging tracks, and attach all the Cobalt SS point motors.  Test electronics, and train running, and program the macros.

 (And the link - yes, it was the staff hoop exchange, but also as a bonus,  Fast Tracks is a Canadian company )

Until next time.