Mid winter and boy is it cold....

It's getting very cold isn't it. Where I am is averaging 3-5 degrees in the early mornings. Nippy!

I have joined the NSW N Scale Group and attended my first gathering last Sunday. The original location for the meeting fell through so we visited the Tram Museum at Loftus. If you're into NSW N Scale this is the group to join. There is also a Facebook Page called "NSW N Scale" which includes group members and others.

Wow! What a collection. The members of the museum should be very proud of what they have achieved. The fully restored trams (and there are quite a few of them) looked fantastic.

We were especially lucky as we were able to have a look at the "backroom" operations as well.

We  went for rides on a Sydney tram and a Brisbane tram. The Brisbane tram took us as far as the old National Park platform including crossing the highway. Great to see all those cars brought to a halt while we trundled across the road!

I had a problem with my Gopher 44 class and must commend Phil Badger for his interest. It included visiting my house to do a swap. How's that for service? The problem was a faulty front light, but when Phil tested it we discovered it was overheating as well. Apparently at least one other has had the same problem. Also I understand the seperately supplied front buffer plate is incorrect. This is being rectified. As I haven't got to applying the detail parts and the decals yet I hadn't noticed. I've been too busy running my 4 car set of FO coaches around the layout with the 44 at the 'point' as our Nth American friends would say.

I'm happy that the 44 is already fitted with Micro-Train couplers, as I recently had the task of converting one of my 48 class. While it appears a simple task, I had great difficulty in finding a screwdriver to fit the tiny screws that attach the couplers. I have a wide collection of  'tiny' screw drivers but none of them fitted the screw exactly. It would have been useful to state what size screwdriver was required in the instructions I think.


Previously I mentioned the "other" side of my Barra Town layout being a coal mine. This has now changed. The Walther's mine building has been removed and I am currently constructing an S008 grain silo from articles in the Australian Model Railway Magazine (December 1990 and into 1991). The plan is to also build one of those newer square grain storage buildings. So it shows you. It is worthwhile to keep all those magazines. You never know when you might need them.

And now a few more photos from the Epping Show.

Tomorrow I'm converting from ADSL to NBN. Hopefully everything will go according to plan, but if it doesn't there may be a  period when I don't have home internet access so fingers crossed. Once it's up and running we'll find out just how much faster it is than the current ADSL.

That's all for this time. I'll talk to you again in July.

Cheers.