Kaleen Exhibition 2022

A short Exhibition report - Kaleen 2022 

Last Friday, I travelled to Canberra for a meeting with my financial adviser.  This timing was fortuitious, as the Kaleen Model expo was happening that coming weekend.

Queanbeyan station - as photographed by Bill Baggett in 1987.  I was once involved with a group that was building a layout based on Queanbeyan, and the Molongo gorge, and Bill had photographed a lot of the infrastructure.  With the vandalism of that layout, this is one of the few reminders.  I scanned in the prints that remained last year.  

Overnight, I spent my first night in Queanbeyan since I left in 2015.  Interesting what had changed in the intervening 7 years.  Of course, I headed to the railway station, and took a few detail pictures of the station.

Queanbeyan railway station was built in 1887, just a few years after Wagga's station.  It is a  Whitten design, so has a number of simularities.  Queanbeyan's design though is more of a gothic feel, rather than the classical lines of Wagga Wagga 

Kaleen Exhibition

The exhibition opened at 9am, and I was near the front of the queue.  Not having to drive 2hrs30 minutes from Junee, meant that I was more relaxed.

Goulburn, by the Gilford Model Railway club

Newcastle 1899 - By Ross Balderson.  Ross has been building this extensive N scale diorama for over 10 years.  This I understand was its first public showing.

Some N scale models under construction

Yendys layout, by the ACT Model Railway Society.  This layout has been exhibited for close on 12 years, and part of its longevity, is down to the construction of the benchwork by Neville Dodds. Neville has recently passed away, but his legacy lives on in the Yendy's layout.  Neville also built the range of shops on the right hand side

Another view of Yendys, showing the crowd

Bethungra Spiral - by the Epping Model Railway club is scenically superb.  Having more space, and resources was not something I had with my N scale version that I made for the Junee Broadway Museum 

Wooden locos, made and displayed by Geoff Isaac, and Bruce Sibson. These are 1/24 scale Victorian prototypes, made from Huon Pine.  Brilliant

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Gunning, by Robert Popovski, has recently appeared in AMRM.  This N scale layout is delightful in the details

The Coffs Harbour club made the long trip with their massive USA themed layout.  These pictures were stolen from the NMRA website, as I failed to take any myself

Burbong bridge over the Molongo River as modelled by members of the Canberra Monaro N scale group

Peter Dinham, also of the CMNSG, built a module of the Michellago Railway station - another Whitten station design

Even the Lego group was getting into the prototype swing.  Here an AD60 passes through Yass Junction

The Kaleen exhibition didn't disappoint - there were lots of layouts, (I have only shown a small selection), retailers, and displays. 

To me, the exhibition is a way of catching up with people and retailers, and as this was my first exhibition in two years, I had a lot of catching up. I also did a bit of retail therapy.  The following is my haul from the weekend.

Most of the above is not something I can use on my Wagga layout, but all of it fits in with my other modelling interests.  It is important to support the retailers, and traders that support your hobby by attending the exhibition.  I obtained my haul of models and books from Antons Trains, Pallas Hobbies, Casula Hobbies, Lyndons Trains, Kerroby Models, Runway 13, Train World, and Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.  Other retailers included IDR, Eureka, Johns Preloved Trains, SDS and Burfitt Tools.  Truely a great mix.

It is good that things are returning to a sort of normal.  Whilst I wore a mask all Saturday, and social distancing in some rooms was enforced; these are small prices to pay for continued enjoyment in model railways.

Until next time

Trouble kitten supervising me whilst I am preparing these notes.  Looking very regal for something less than 6 months old.

Wagga Wagga Station - The other buildings (2)

 Other platform buildings  - Construction continues, and some paint

The courtyard for the now Museum building has a security fence built under the "lean-to" roof. 

At the last end of the last blog, I had just started working on the roof of the Museum building.  After making this similar to my earlier method on the main Wagga station building, I needed a security fence.  This is something that would have been easy with etched brass - but I wasn't thinking this far ahead when I had the etches made, it left little option than to fabricate it from scratch.

A number of 2.5cm lengths of fine brass wire were cut and rested on a scrap piece of corrugated styrene.  A 1mm x 0.25mm brass strip was then soldered to the ends of the wire.  Be quick, as the heat of the iron could melt the styrene if left in contact too long.  The spacing of the corrugations was 1mm, slightly more than 3 scale inches.

After 72 pieces of wire were cut and soldered (enough to fill the gap), additional lengths of 1mm strip were soldered to the brass wire for additional supports top and bottom, and cut off the excess brass wire.

Adding the roof enabled the "fence" to be secured without glue.  I only glued the roof at the main building walls, so the roof can flex slightly up.  This is important, as the fence has to be removed for painting

Some additional vertical 1mm strips to simulate the prototypes supports, and gate

The other side of the Museum building - showing the main roof, and the lean-to roof over the current library, and meals room.

Add some paint.  Looking OK, with just one coat of the cream

Gents Toilet roof

The roof of the Gents toilet includes a distictive cupola, containing a number ot vents.  I didn't have any measurements for this, so it was a bit of trial and error, using the above pictures for reference.

I made up the angle for the vents, by cementing 0.030 square styrene strip on to of the louvers, and repeat until all 3 louvers were in place. Note that I haven't fitted the flashing on the roof at this stage
 

The roof on the now spray painted toilet block.  There are 3 coats of red paint, and the colour is the same taubmann "streetwise red" sample pot that I used for the main Wagga station. 

Further styrene added to the cupola - just a fiddly task

The toilet block has a store-room in its courtyard.  

 

One coat of the Cream colour has been brush painted on the Toilet block.  The now completed roof is awaiting paint

I have made the storeroom walls, and roof removeable as a sub assembly, which will make painting the roof and adding the door easier.

Start of the diorama

As many have guessed, I am planning a station diorama.  When will this project ever be completed?

Wagga  Railway Heritage museum visit

On Wednesday, I picked up Pete Neve OAM from his home in Junee, and travelled to the Wagga Museum meeting rooms, housed in the old rest building within the railway environs

The Wagga Heritage Museum meets in the former rest building, which has undergone an extensive internal makeover.  This is another structure that will have to be made.  This is a recent picture showing the now reduced chimney height

I displayed the Wagga and Bomen stations, and Wagga Signal box.  The models were favourably viewed, and it was good to get some discussion going.  I asked about the original railway plans for the now museum building being different - and apparantly, the railway plans were wrongly sized, as there was never any changes to the very thick walls.

Peter Neve reminded the people attending, that this year is the 60th anniversary of the through running Sydney to Melbourne on the standard gauge.  

My model of the station was not the only Wagga station model.

 

This arts-n-crafts model as displayed at the Museum meeting room, contains many of the features of the real station, although compressed width, and simplified details.  

Until next time.

Wagga Wagga station - the other buildings (1)

 

Wagga Wagga Station Platform – other buildings..

I am fairly close to completion of the main Wagga Station building, however, there were two other buildings on the platform that were constructed at the same time as the station.  Of course, these have to be modelled.

Railway print showing the original plans for the Wagga station.  Both the side buildings are drawn similarly - gents toilet on the RHS, and the original per way office on the LHS.

Bob Stack (SCR blog) had supplied me with small sized plans of the station, showing these two buildings.  One was labelled the Gents Toilet, the other was a parcels locker – now the home of the Wagga Wagga Railway Heritage Museum.

The former matched recent photos, but the parcels locker was significantly different from the original pictures of the station. Don’t know when it was remodelled.   But, most importantly, the plan showed that both buildings were the same size. 

Gents toilet

This building is on the eastern (Sydney) side of the main station.  It was reasonably accessable for measuring, and photography.  

As per my method of recording measurements, after I got home, I printed the images on my B&W laser printer, and returned to the station with a pen, and measuring tape. 

So, I cut out the 4 walls from sheet styrene, and carved out the door and window openings.  This is the same technique I used for the main Wagga station, so I won’t give a blow-by-blow photo essay on this.  I will refer the reader to the main wagga station construction blog-posts.

After cutting out, the architectural details were added for the doors, and windows prior to assembling the 4 walls into a box. 

Parcel locker – now Museum building

As the Parcel locker main structure was according to the plans, the same size as the Gents toilet block, I made walls with provision for the door and window openings.  I also cut the styrene for the small office add-on.  I didn’t have any measurements, just some photos, and the forementioned railway plan. 

However, try as I might, I could not get the doors, and windows on the small office to look like my photo.  Then the penny dropped – the parcel locker is larger than the plans.  Checking an aerial view – this is confirmed.

Sixmaps aerial view shows the Museum building, and the gents toilet.  Yes, the peaked roof is a different size on each.  So much for the Railway plans I was provided.  

After a lot of grumbling, and words best not repeated, I spliced in an extra 16% of wall to the existing cut styrene.  Yes, I probably should have cut new styrene, but I am thrifty cheap, and an almost invisible join fits that bill.  I am not going to win any awards with this building, so why waste anything?

See if you can see the extra 16% added to the walls?

Both buildings located on the platform in the correct orientaton to the main wagga station building.  The large plank that I am using now makes more sense

Decoration

Both the buildings included small “courtyards” for want of a better term.  I understand that at one stage, a kids playground was in the Museum courtyard.  Now both courtyards are used for storage, and the Gent toilet courtyard has part of it converted into a storeroom.  .  Adding the courtyards has taken longer than anticipated , as the level of trim seems crazy for what they are.  The trim involved lots of cutting strips of styrene to size, and fitting one at a time.

Gents toilet after lots of tedious, repetative work

Museum building, prior to the corbels and gettering

The process of adding the corner wall blocks is the same as for main Wagga Wagga station.  There however is a departure.  The measurements for the decorative corbels, and roof eves on these smaller buildings seems to be slightly smaller than the main Wagga station.  I am only going on photo evidence.  So, I have made a couple of adjustments.  If I get these wrong by a few mm, the building could look wrong, and I probably won’t discover it until I am close to finishing.

After the corbels had been added, here is the underside showing the quantity of the trim that was needed to simulate the decoration of the museum building

Once the guttering is on, it was time for the roof

 

The roof.

 This is where a lot of modellers come to grief, myself included, so making a cardboard template seemed appropriate.  Cardboard errors are a lot less expensive than making mistakes on the corrugated styrene

 

One only needs a simple bit of geometry to work out the angles.

I have added the guttering above the corbel decoration as part of the wall construction, rather than as an afterthought.  The technique I am using now is better than the one I used for the main wagga station building.  I am alway trying to improve my skills

A little bit of sticky-tape warping in the sun, the roof looks OK, and should fit fine

After ensuring the cardboard looked OK, I then cut out the corrugated styrene, and have made a start on the roof supports

My supplies

I have been asked how do I find the right size of styrene to detail my buildings.  Well, here is one of my secrets.  A few years ago, I took the deep plunge into the wallet, and acquired almost a full set of Evergreen styrene strips.  There were well over 150 packets, and whilst I did get an excellent discount, it still wasn’t cheap.  To save me having to look through the entire box, I grouped each thickness of strip together, in ascending order, and cabletied them  together. 

Having these has allowed me to select the thickness, to the nearest 0.22mm  – or 0.010 thou (approximately 1 scale inch).

14 litre clear container holds the entire stash of strips.  I have another container containing the sheet styrene

These are the 0.015 thou thickness strips - 0.020, 0.030, 0.040, 0.060, 0.080, 0.100, 0.125, 0.156, 0.188, & 0.250 arranged in order, and held together with a cable tie through the hole at the top of the clear plastic holders.  

During the process of building Wagga, I have accessed around a third of the packets, but only exhausted the contents of  a few, which I have replaced prior to actually running out.  Fortunately, Evergreen styrene is a product sold by many of the hobbyshops here in Australia, and it is easy to add a few packets to a larger model order.

 

 

Next stage is to compete the detailing, add the roofs, and paint.

 

Until next time.