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.

Wagga Wagga Station Master Residence - in Styrene

 Wagga Wagga Station Master Residence - construction starts

Over the last month, I have not been able to devote more than a few hours to making my model, so things are progressing, slower than I would have hoped.  

Way back in 2009, I cut out a real-estate advert from the Wagga Daily Advertiser.  Yes, I had been thinking about building this structure for a while.  A suggestion from a mate was to see if there was any real-estate pictures on the internet that I could use.  A great suggestion, unfortunately, the only picture that came up was the one in the newspaper cutting

This post follows an earlier post, showing a plan, and photos

https://buildingwagga.blogspot.com/2023/07/wagga-wagga-station-master-residence.html

The build in Styrene

The SM residence build is quite similar to my earlier models, so I will only be posting a few photos of the process.  

6 walls for the L shaped building, and a base.  I had cut holes in the base to allow for later fitting of windows

Front entrance wall.  Adding all the decrorative flair is easier when the wall is flat.  There are 57 pieces of styrene in this picture

Walls assembled, and glued to the base.  I had also fitted (not very well) a 1st floor, to help maintain some internal integrity, and some strength.  The chimneys are also added.  This is the first building I have made for Wagga that had the chimney structure permanently attached. 

The 3 chimneys, made to insert into the main building.  Having these seperate allows the height to be accurate to the plans, and can be removed during later construction.  The awkward thing, was the tolerance.  Too tight, they don't telescope, too loose they flop around.

Chimneys added

The rear annex was made as a sub assembly.  I can't say that this idea worked out

The unfinished annex added to the main building to check for clearances, and size.  The off-colour styrene was a sheet of older offcuts I had - and it turned out to have slightly different properties from my other styrene used - most noticable, softer

The Annex build is not quite the same as the detail photo *(see later), but I am going to not worry too much, as when I cover it with an awning, chances are it will be invisible to all viewers.  

Some details from the Annex.  Note corrugated wall, guttering and reduced door size.

Another annex detail.  Note the wooden trim over the door/window.  And yes, the brickwork is not rendered.

Next steps will be the 2 story extension, and roof.

More trains

2 of the engines now used on the VISY container shuffle from Bomen in Junee Yard last Wednesday.  4497, and ex Danish Railways MZ1433.  The MZ is not liked by the QUBE driver I know - lots of the labelling internally is still in Danish.  A few manufacturers have made the Danish model, notably Roco, and as one of the few modern scene locos not to have been produced by the local makers, a kit bash challenge to australianise the european model

CLP09 (Auscision Models livery) resting in Junee Roundhouse

Junee workshop shunter.  Suspect this loco was once in the Newcastle steelworks fleet

It has been over 3 years since part of the roundhouse roof had been ripped off in a nasty storm. It is good to say that the repairs have finally been completed

Cootamundra Swap Meet

Curiousity secured me with some wall trinkets on September 3rd from the one retailer.  In addition, I managed to get 6 HO scale Road Ragers (1960-70s Australian cars) for $90

These will be ideal to attach to the brickwork outside my train room.  The steam loco sign looks unused.  Yes, $30 was what I paid for the sign - a bargain?  

Steam trains

Pete Neve had a steam up on Sept 14th for some guests from Canberra, and my presence was requested

"Torpedo" being prepared at Petes engineshed behind his home.  Torpedo is a Hunslet locomotive, ex canefields

And I will try something new.  A video.

Pete has a website.  Google "Petes Hobby Railway"

That it for now.  Need to get back to mowing, gutter clearing, building a train room.....and perhaps more of the SM residence.

Until next time.

Timber station platforms

 

Timber station platforms.

  Some prototype pictures, and a modelling experiment

 

Brian Wooley captured CPH7 at Tumbarumba in 1973. Whilst the platform is the focus of this blogpost, the details on the platform add much interest

Anyone modelling a NSW rural branchline, will probably need a timber platform.

For something so common, I have found very little in the modelling press.  James McInnerney did a fine review, almost a mini article of the Rail Central brand (supplied by Casula Hobbies) way back in Issue 276 AMRM (June 2009). The other resource, the Greg Edwards Data sheet B11 is quite informative.  But I do not know of any prototype article, like when they were first used.

In any case, the branchline to Tumbarumba had many of them

 Pictures of platforms

In 1980, my picture of the abandoned station, shows the length of the platform

CPH #7, at Humula in 1973. The platform is significantly longer than Tumbarumba

My 1980s picture of Borambola shows the loading bank timber platform. It is slightly higher than a station platform, but the basic design is similar.  The  G2 goods shed, and the A1 station building are in the distance.

Coreinbob station platform in 2020 has almost disappeared. Coreinbob is one of the intermediate stations that I unfortunately will not have space to model

Forest Hill platform, after the station building was removed.

Rod Smith, and his son accompanied me in August 2020 to visit a number of the remaining relics of the Tumbarumba line. Here are the remains of Umbango, which is north of Humula. Note the use of rail as the bracing support for the platform post. Another station I will be unable to model, although Umbango's station was similarly sized to Borambola

Ladysmith station after being leased by the Tumba Rail volunteers. The platform used to extend a far distance to the left hand side of this picture, truncated in the 1970s by the NSW railways, possibly to eliminate the need to repair.

This is what happens when the platform is removed, after the line was abandoned in 1984. It is Gundagai, on the Tumut branch in 1997.

Fortunately, grant money was found, and a replacement platform was built by 2000. Both these images are mine

The experiment

I was recently given an RTV rubber mould of a NSW platform.   After some advice, I thought I would try my hand at casting a platform out of plaster.

The RTV mould.

I used a disposable plastic cup to mix up the minute amount of plaster into a slurry

My casting plaster was bought when phone numbers were 7 digits long. the heavy plastic kept the contents fresh.

I pre-wet the mould with dishwasher soup, and then poored and prodded the plaster into the cavities of the mould

Before the plaster went off, I removed the excess

After allowing the casting to dry for a day, time to extract from the mould. Unfortunately, the top rail of the castings was weak, and I lost many of them. Not helped by the few air bubbles. Plus there were a number of the castings split.

White Glue will fix the broken castings (to a point).

Another batch was made - with slightly better results. 

 Of course, if you need to model a platform that is starting to decay (see Borambola above) it is OK.  There is certainly enough good bits across both castings to make a full platform, but that was not the intention.

I thought I would try to replace/repair the missing top rail, using a strip of styrene. 

To get a better comparision, constructed some platform faces with other methods

Nothing models timber better than timber?  I should have used a square when gluing the uprights, but it probably will pass muster once installed in scenery

 

Another platform, fully out of styrene. Yes, there is a gap. What isn't visible, but the top rail and the platform timbers have a rebate to facilitate the platform surface to be supported when added later 

 

The conclusion

Well, whilst the casting process is repeatable, my lack of being able to extract the casting out of the mould without damaging the casting, is frustrating.  Yes, I can add the top timber board from styrene after cleaning up the cast, and a styrene edge will take the odd knock better than straight plaster.  The plaster is also rather brittle.  Maybe a change to a resin may be superior to the plaster?

The timber model was far too fiddly to repeat.

Making the platform out of styrene has the advantage of working with just a single material.  This may be better in the long term.

And all models will need to be painted (or stained).

A bonus extra

 

A large scale model?  Two of Petes Hobby Railway volunteers, Phil, and Josh, constructed a platform for Pete's 2 foot gauge line, running in Junee, about 1km from where I live. It is scaled approximately 50%, to look like a NSW platform 

Pete's Hunslet loco "Torpedo" passes the under construction reduced size NSW A1 station. This is the view you will see from the public viewing area (roadside). The stationname of Loftus has a double meaning. It is where Pete lived before moving to Junee, and the original railway construction name of Junee was "Loftus".  Pete has a website. Search for "Petes Hobby Railway" with your favourite search engine 

This has been another fill-in project whilst I wait for the etches for the Wagga Wagga station.  The advantage is that I can store them flat.

Until next time.