CoastalRev's Jamberoo Railway in N Scale

Progress on T-Trak...

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:24:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Well with our big move to Lithgow set for 9 March, I'm suspending work on the Jamberoo layout. But operations are continuing. In fact, I've been enjoying shunting so much that work has been suspended for ages!

But Michelle (while I was out!) decided to recycle some old 'grass paper' I had from an old HO layout and glued it to one of my corner T-Trak modules.

I wasn't happy about her flat-earth approach to scenery, and all our modules for the time being will represent an urban scene. So I opened some magazines (like Railway Digest) to show her that grass doesn't grow right up to the tracks and there were oodles of photos in the December 2008 issue showing grass... right up to the tracks. Grrrr.

So the story of the module is that the 'inside' of the curve is a railway-owned 'waste land' -- I'll add some high-tension electric poles -- and the 'outside' will be a scrapyard complete with a 53-class boiler (courtesy of an off-cast casting from Phil Badger) and other bits of 'scrap steel'. A corrugated iron fence separates the scrapyard from the (railways-owned) dirt road behind it.

Here's the making of the basic scenery for the corner module in question:

Glenn sieves the dirt (taken from Jamberoo--from the site of a shed being "constructed" next to the Rectory--"constructed" means less progress than my main layout).

More sieving

Tipping the soil into place.

Spreading the soil

Final sprinkles of fine soil

Spraying with a water bottle with some detergent mixed in to act as a wetting agent.

Using an eye-dropper to put a 50/50 water/PVA mix to glue it all down.

The "finished" module... well, once it dries the power lines go up, the stanchions for the railway (it's to be an electric railway) go up, and the corrugated fence goes around the scrapyard--and scrap moves in!

I mentioned Phil Badger before in the context of a boiler I have of his.
He dropped in last Sunday... here he is researching a project by photographing the old school house next door:

Finally, a non-train person Brett stayed with us on Monday night (he is a ministry trainee down the coast at Huski) and he saw how much fun tail-chasing layouts are... NOT!!! He enjoyed shunting on the Jamberoo layout but like me bored easily of the tail-chasing T-Trak modules. But my daughter Zoe loves the T-Trak and can drive them very well (for a 3 year old!).

Well, after Zoe went to bed Brett and I worked out how to get my Tomix Thomas the Tank Engine to jump using the Kato re-railer in reverse as a launch pad... and to get Thomas to return to the tracks and keep running.

I showed it to Zoe this arvo and she was squealing with delight. I'll video it and stick it up on youtube sometime soon.

T-Trak for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:58:00 +0000

While not strictly a Jamberoo railway item of news, Santa brought me some T-Trak module kids from John Rumming's stable and the track kits from Aust-N-Rail. (The track kits were a bit mixed up in the Christmas rush so I'm waiting for the bits to complete the inner curve).

This shows the assembled and partly painted Rumming module kits.

A test run supervised by the nearly-three-years-old Zoe

The railway is moving... and work has been suspended!

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:49:00 +0000

That's right, work has been suspended on the Jamberoo [Model] Railway.

The last piece of work done was to cut the track where the two baseboards join, to enable the baseboards to separate.

That occurred on 20 November.

Then on 23 December the Archbishop of Sydney invited me to become the Rector of Lithgow... so now it's time to pack up and go. Good thing I'd already put the 'break' into the baseboard join!

We missed the fete!

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:21:00 +0000

Well, despite our best intentions, we missed showing Jamberoo at the church fete here in Jamberoo. 4 days in hospital and several weeks in bed following that put paid to any hopes of displaying something... anything!

Jamberoo from the air

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:11:00 +0000

Hi guys,

Thought it was time to give an aerial overview of our layout--overlaying the trackplan onto a google earth view of the actual town.

You can see that the bowling club and municipal pool are under the station yard--these both were built after the time when our railway line would have been constructed, therefore would not exist in a railway world!

From Jamberoo Rail...

Above: The railway yard and location of Freddos' General Store etc.
Click the image to enlarge it!

From Jamberoo Rail...

Above: The location of the fuel siding. It's a bit exaggerated because I had to stretch the photo to put everything in the right place!

Operations Friday 15 August 2008

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:16:00 +0000

Today we had a day of operations (in my lunch break, of course). This was the first time trains had been run 'properly' since the mass conversion of rollingstock to Micro Trains couplers.

The first job was to run the three trains set up for Wednesday's photo shoot back to the staging sidings (aka the 'hidden sidings', 'fiddle yard' or 'Dunmore yard': the fictitious junction with the main line and the rest of the world).

From Jamberoo Rail...

Above: The three trains still in place after the photo shoot on Wednesday night.

70xx led its train out first, followed by 4520 and her train and finally 4421 with the "Rapido-coupled" train.

Above: 70xx leads its train past the dairy siding and onto the embankment above the flood plain.

Above: 70xx leads its train onto the main line at Dunmore and then into the yard.

Above: 4520 departs with its train after the photo shoot. It had to wait at Jamberoo until the 'line clear' notification came from Dunmore.

Above: 4520 passing the dairy siding, viewed from the dairy factory.

4421 kept stalling and needs some workshop attention, we feel!

Above: The currently-unreliable 4421 leads its train of Rapido-coupler-equipped wagons back to Dunmore.

After this, it was time to run the first 'revenue' train with Micro Trains couplings. This train had the following tasks:

Place three empty boxcars at the dairy siding for loading with Jamberoo's finest butter and skim milk products for shipping to the distributer in Sydney (who, we understand from the history of the Jamberoo dairy factory, would mix the product with output from other local dairy co-ops and market them under the Allowrie brand. Allowrie is an English version of the same word from which we derive Illawarra.)
Place the loaded oil tanker in the fuel siding for unloading.
Place a loaded boxcar at the read of Fredericks' General Store for unloading with the finest of General Store dry goods.
Place an empty cattle wagon at the cattle race on the end of the Goods Siding for loading.
Place an empty K-Wagon at the Goods Siding for other local output.
Place two empty K-wagons at the timber siding (formed by the extension of the run-around loop) for loading with timber cut in the Jamberoo Valley.
Return light engine to Dunmore.

The photos below show this all in action. 4520 was rostered for the run as it was quite a lengthy train.

Above: 4520 sits at Dunmore with its train awaiting permission to enter the main line before taking the branch to Jamberoo. This view is taken from the parallel stretch of the Princes Highway.

Above: Boxcars wait to be shunted into the dairy siding. The tanker (obscured beyond the roof of the dairy factory) needs to have its brakes secured first, then be uncoupled and left on the main line, while the rest of the train draws forwards, the points are changed, and the train sets back onto the dairy siding to drop off these three wagons for loading.

Above: With the tanker uncoupled, the rest of the train draws forward.

Above: The three boxcars are shoved into place on the dairy siding.

Above: The train, viewed from above, shunting the dairy siding.

Above: Having recoupled to the tanker (and released its brakes), it is now shunted into its own siding, blocking busy Allowrie St in the process.

Above: The afternoon school bus from Kiama waits on Allowrie St, on the outskirts of town, for the fuel siding to be shunted.

Above: What's left of the train (ie, that which hasn't been dropped off in the diary and fuel sidings!) arrives at Jamberoo in this scene viewed from Tates Hill, on the other side of Hyam's Creek and the floodplain.

Above: This nifty way of uncoupling Micro Trains couplers uses toothpicks (unused, of course!). This idea came from the Australian_N_Scale yahoogroup, wlthough they suggested the use of skewers. Toothpicks were substituted only because they were in the 'bits box' below the layout!

Above: 4520 runs around its train at Jamberoo Station.

Above: 4520 pushes the two empty K-Wagons into the timber siding to be loaded with the finest output of the region's old-growth rainforests.

Above: 4520 drops the last boxcar at the back of Fredericks' General Store. Freddos' is made from photo paper until we get around to making the real one! It's modelled on the colour scheme of Freddos seen in the 1960s when it was a SCOOP store.

Above: The railway yard with all the wagons positioned for unloading or loading.

Above: 4520, running light, returns to Dunmore. This is not normally a light engine run but as the yeard was previously empty, there were no wagons to return to Dunmore.

No progress but a photo opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:16:00 +0000

Well folks, today there was no progress on the railway (some of us do actually work for a living!), but I couldn't resist the opportunity for a 'photo shoot' in the railway yard at Jamberoo station.

Usually my locos face with the #1 end facing the buffer stops (ie, the DOWN direction) but I turned them around today.

So lined up we have my three NSW-outline diesels: from left to right, 70xx (still to be painted and numbered), 4421 and 4520.

They each had a lengthy train worked -- and shunted -- properly:

The 45's train came out first and, after running around, shunted into the goods siding out of the way.

The 70's train was next, again it ran around before shunting temporarily up onto the Freddos' siding.

Finally the 44 came out with my remaining Rapido-coupler-equipped stock and ran into the main. I rearranged some of the wagons and put the caboose on the other end before the whole thing was reassembled onto the run-around loop.

70xx's train then came back out of Freddos' siding and reversed onto the main.

I like eye-level shots - we don't look at real trains from afar, do we?

But this shot was taken by a fit young lad climbing up a power pole:

We finished the shoot with a shot of the noses of the locos, lined up, with Alwyn Fredericks' house seen atop the highest point in Macquarie St, Jamberoo.

We have some hills and scenery now! And 10 Micro-trains coupler-equipped boxcars.

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:19:00 +0000

When 'starting out' in N-scale some 12 months ago, I already owned one piece of N-scale equipment, albeit 1:150 rather than 1:160: the Ibertren 'World Series' Alco, painted locally by someone as 4421. I bought it second hand years ago on the off chance I might some day become an N-scaler and it was a 'grab it when you can' type of deal. I think in the mid 1990s it cost me about $119. I also had a second-hand N-scale US-outline Minitrix caboose... I had dabbled in HOn2 1/2 many moons ago and its chassis was to have been the basis of something for the narrow gauge.

I was aware from my days working part-time at Northside Model Railways in West Pennnat Hills (for the late Darrel Nelson) that N-scale US-outline boxcars were very cheap... so I went onto eBay and bought a few... I think I have about 15 or so now! I've also got two end-platform ('observation platform' carriages from the US and a set of Great Northern 'streamliner' carriages, plus a minitrix set bought off ebay.

So I planned that as soon as I got some of my aussie rollingstock converted to MT couplings, some of this stuff would follow.

So as of today: 10 boxcars using microtrains 1031s plus my 70-class (on the minitrix 0-6-0 diesel shunter chassis) now has microtrains couplings too.

I had a bit of fun shunting my growing micro-trains fleet with the 70 and the 45, before running several special trains to clear the layout:

4520 took several boxcars plus the 3 MT-equipped K wagons + my COR tank wagon to Dunmore
70xx took the remainder of the boxcars.
Thomas (now my only decent Rapido-equipped runner!) came and collected the Peco 4-wheel milk tanker and the 3 Rapido-equipped K wagons.

This was so I could build some hills to make the village of Jamberoo more, um, village like.

Despite Jamberoo being on the valley floor - and at the edge of the upstream end of the floodplain, our beloved little village is quite hilly: The main street only ranges from between 25 and 29 metres above sea level - that's not hilly. (The floodplain ranges is about 10-20 metres above sea level). But the highest point of Macquarie St, two streets back from Allowrie, is 60 metres above sea level.

So armed with the calculations of the heights of the various parts of Jamberoo (thanks to google earth!), we cut up some soft foam rubber using our 'spare' electric kitchen knife - a wedding gift I've rescued from being 'donated' to others many times!

This method is one I've never heard of before, but we had heaps of the foam lying around courtesy of a mattress that was 'trimmed' to fit in my daughter's half-size single bed. Once we have a basic form we shall papier mache the landscape.

The pictures show that the heights seem exaggerated; at one level they are: their vertical plane is to scale, but the horizontal plane is compressed. I got this idea on Saturday while sitting in a car on Tate Place (long story; has to do with my job as a minister!). Basically, from the northern end of Tate Place, looking south, one can see the houses in the part of Jamberoo represented by our model railway and they look 'compressed' and almost on top of one another... as they ascend the hill, there is a visual effect that they are closer to each other than they are.

And so we have deliberately compressed the horizontal while maintaining the vertical.

There is much more work to be done yet - but as the State Government says, "still a long way to go but we're heading in the right direction". Unlike the State Government, I expect to deliver.

Fitting micro-trains couplings to the Aust-N-Rail K Wagon

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:22:00 +0000

I tried googling this article when I couldn't find the printed version, so now I've found the printed version I thought I'd place it here for others to use when they need it.

I trust Graeme Goodsell is ok with this! If not, I'll write my own procedure. I've added a few comments to Graeme's article anyway.

Fitting Micro-Trains Couplers to the Aust-N-Rail K Wagon

by Graeme Goodsell

Aust-N-Rail's ready to run K wagon comes supplied with Rapido style couplers, but it is a simple task to substitute Micro-Trains 1015 body mount couplers.

Place the wagon upside down on a firm surface, being careful to avoid damaging the finely moulded brake wheels and steps. With a sharp hobby knife cut horizontally along the coupler pocket to remove plastic retaining the Rapido coupler. Remove the coupler and spring. Make two vertical cuts in the coupler pocket to line up with the width of the 1015 coupler. Remove plastic from between these cuts to the depth of the pocket. Glenn says: This means removing some body plastic as well as from the coupling box. Trim the slot square and remove the end of the spring post in the pocket (see photo). Test fit 1015 coupler (it should be a firm press fit) and check coupler height.

For a permanent fit, glue in place (with a dot of Selleys water based Kwik Grip or similar) being careful not to get glue in the Micro-Trains coupler box. Alternatively fix with shortened Micro-Trains screws.

These photos highlight the steps in the article above.

Converted to Microtrains Coupling and ready to go!

This is a beautiful RTR model which can now take pride of place in your wagon roster.

K-Wagons fixed; sky re-painted

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:04:00 +0000

Well, after complaining in my last post that my attempt to put Micro-Trains 1015 couplings onto my first K-wagon was a disaster (and it was!) I 'miraculously' rediscovered the "NSW N-Scale Group" newsletter that had the instructions. I'll post them here, trusting that Graeme Goodsell who wrote them would be ok with this!

I fitted two more K wagons with the couplings (this exhausted my supply) and refitted the original one and all three are fine now!

You can see the 'lighter' coloured sky in the background - still looks dark in this photo taken on a mobile phone camera. But compared with older shots it's much lighter!

From Jamberoo Rail...

I also repainted the sky - it was a vivid, bright blue so I attempted to put a wash of white paint over the top. Not as successful as I'd have liked, but it does the job for now. I can't put 'Saddleback Mountain' on the backscene until the scenery--at least in its basic form--is in place.

The next thing is to fix the track that is misaligned where the two baseboards join, but that's simple.

A good day for the Jamberoo Railway I'd say.

More Micro-Trains couplings (what a disaster!)

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Well, today I had my first attempt at fitting a Microtrains 1015 coupling to an Aust-N-Rail K wagon. I remembered reading that Rob Carpenter (the designer of the K wagon and Mr Aust-N-Rail himself) had designed the coupler boxes to take 1015s quite easily, so I hacked away. Everything went swimmingly except that my couplings are way too low! I discovered that Microtrains couplings are a little trickier than I expected--more practice needed.

Anyway, I had some fun with our little consist of three wagons. Zoë the 2.5 yr old train enthusiast asked if we could run 'her' Thomas (who has been purchased for use on our tail-chaser layout for the church fete display).

Here are some photos:

From Jamberoo Rail...

Above: 4520 has crested the grade from Dunmore and is easing its train down to the Minnamurra River crossing.

Above: Descending the 1:40 grade down to the river.

Above: Crossing the river and floodplain.

Above: The floodplain, with an old dairy in the background.

Above: Coming off the floodplain and approaching the Dairy Factory.

Above: 4520 has crested the grade from Dunmore and is easing its train down to the Minnamurra River crossing.

Above: Entering the village boundaries.

Above: Shunting the oil siding

Above: Running around the train.

Above: 4520's little train has been placed in the run-around loop awaiting the arrival of the passenger service.

Above: The passenger train arrives!

Above: View from Mt Saddleback.

That's all for now: Lunch hour is over and it's time to go back to work!

Glenn.

I assembled my first Micro-Trains couplers!

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:14:00 +0000

I'm very excited because I've assembled my first pair of Micro-Trains couplers.

When I modelled HO scale I had no troubles assembling Kadees (the HO equivalents) but the N-scale ones are a tad tinier! Rory's advice to assemble them on the plastic sprue saved me from buying a jig and I fitted my first pair to the C.O.R. tanker that's been waiting for couplers for over a year! It's pictured here sans coupling:

I'm very excited... and now I can run my 45 class (see previous post) with two wagons!

No progress but we have a new loco!

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:39:00 +0000

From Jamberoo Rail...

Well, there's been absolutely no progress on the Jamberoo Railway since the last post in March.

But yesterday I received my long-awaited ready-to-run Aust-N-Rail/Peter Boorman's Workshop 45 class fresh from the 'factory'.

She's fantastic!

I only have one wagon running at present with Micro-Trains couplings--so only the TRC Wagon from Pallas Hobbies is running with MT bogies/couplings. So that's all we've been running with for the time being.

What a great loco!

Here are some low-quality snaps taken with my mobile-phone camera.

And yes, it's inspired us to resume progress on the layout... so has the 'deadline' of the church fete in October!!!

From Jamberoo Rail...

The track plan

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:29:00 +0000

All this time and I've failed to provide the track plan!

Here 'tis:

Click the image to enlarge it.

The colours represent the electrical sections (this was my electrical plan). Also note that the lowest track of the staging area has never been laid (my father-in-law started track laying for me and somehow missed that one). Also, the kink in the goods siding is not reflected on the layout; my wife couldn't get it out of the software version!

All these references to wife, friend Kate and father-in-law may lead one to think that I've done nothing on my layout at all... well I guess the stuff I do just doesn't get photographed! But I did the bulk of track laying, all wiring, most of the wiring 'harness' and the complete control panel.

I'm quite proud of my control panel, it uses RJ-12 connections (the modular telephone connections) to connect the controllers to the panel and the panel itself is made out of a cheap aluminium briefcase from Bunnings.

March update

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:50:00 +0000

Lots of progress on the railway so far!

The track has been 'rusted'.
The sleepers have been painted grey in random spots to 'age' them.
With the help of Phil Badger my Minitrix 0-6-0 diesel shunter has become an as-yet unpainted NSWGR 70 class (thanks Phil!).
The baseboard was cleaned of all the junk it had accumulated.

Jamberoo 'running sessions' are taking place but all rolling stock still uses the silly Rapido couplers as I haven't gotten around to Kadee-ising everything. And the rolling stock is all overseas stuff except the 70 class and the 6 K-wagons from Aust-N-Rail. I have the TRC ready to roll but it has Kadees. My oil tanker hasn't got any couplings yet!

Next stop: ballasting the track.

Trains are running!

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:13:00 +0000

We've got trains running to "Jamberoo"... no scenery, but all wiring is complete.

No Aussie wagons or locos, but we're running to a schedule using predominantly US-outline wagons and locos, with the odd German thing here and there.

Rolling Stock Update

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:34:00 +0000

Here are the first two kits of NSW stuff I've built:

The Real Jamberoo

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:31:00 +0000

Here are some scenes from the REAL Jamberoo in 2007. The railway we are building would have paralleled Allowrie St (the main street) for the street's entire length but behind the houses and shops, right on the edge of the floodplain.

Building a railway to Jamberoo

noreply@blogger.com (CoastalRev) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:17:00 +0000

Jamberoo never had a railway but in 1892 (about the time the railway opened to Kiama) there were proposals for a branch to Jamberoo. I understand this was a serious contender until about 1907.

So our idea is to build the "what might have been but never was" railway. Jamberoo is the site of the country's first dairy co-operative and because transport was an issue it made butter (Allowrie brand I'm told) and very nice cheese... the town is also the place where the Illawarra Shorthorn was developed and first bred.

So our fictitious branch line will serve the thriving dairy factory on the aptly named Factory Lane. We're setting it in the 1960s because that's when the most recent time when goods would still have been shipped on the line, and it suits the availability of Australian N-scale rolling stock, as well!

We will have facilities to serve the cattle sales yards, the dairy factory, Fredericks' stores (both of them, the grocer and the supplies store) plus a lumber yard and general goods.

So far we've made a 1:1 printout on paper and bought some kits... and I've made some cardboard mock-ups of the various buildings in town.

Pictures of progress to date are here:

I'm going to research it with some older folk from town.

Watch this space!