NEW BOOK

Book Title:  Modelling the 3’6” Railways of Western Australia 1894-1987, In Sn3½ Scale Vol 1

Author:  Stuart Mackay

This book consists of 94 pages in A5 format. There are 22 chapters which take the form of short articles. There is a detailed resource list as well as 73 photographs of prototypes and models, 64 of which are in colour. There are also six sets of relevant sample drawings drawn from the vast supply of outline drawings held by the WA branch of the Australian Model Railway Association.

This book was released at the recent AMRA Model Railway exhibition held in June 2012. It is the work of Stuart Mackay who has been modelling the WAGR and the MRWA since 1989.  The book is a personal account of how the author has scratch-built and assembled wagons, coaches, guard’s vans and locomotives of the 3’6” railways of WA. Stuart wrote the book to explain how he and others have been building railway models in the scale of Sn3½. 

The book attempts to promote the hobby of modelling the railways of WA while de-mistifying the process of scratch-built modelling.  It describes the tools and equipment needed and explains how many of the author’s models have been built. Stuart also touches on how he has used his scratch-bulding techniques to make and provide kits of his favorite vehicles to members and associates of the AMRA WA Sn 31/2 special interest group. He acknowledges the help and encouragement he has received from many members of the group.  

Stuart hopes to produce a second volume over the next year or so provided that he can recover the considerable publishing costs of this first volume.

The book is available for $20 plus $3 postage and packaging within Australia. Overseas postage rates to be negotiated. It is available from Stuart Mackay who can be contacted by email at mackays@iinet.net.au    

AZ 435 – A Variation

The choice to produce a model of AZ 435 was brought about by a desire to make a variation on my original AZ model described in a previous article on this blog.

 The requirements of the variation were that the coach needed to have survived in original car body form retaining all of its crown light windows and matchboard sides to enable use of the existing AZ kit without having to make too many changes. The next requirement was that it should have survived to the end of the steam era and be in the Green and Cream livery with Flettner Vents on the roof. The last criteria was that hopefully I would find a picture of such an AZ with a later version “Half Stable Type” centre door that would make it different to my previous model. That picture was found in the WAGR Carriage Bible in the form of AZ 435 as seen here in this picture from the Murray Rowe/Geoff Blee Collection.

And so armed with evidence and keen to add another carriage to my fleet, I set about building the WestOzModels AZ body kit, achieving body completion in a relatively short time.

During construction there would be a need to "kit bash" the centre door to achieve the Half Stable type door variant from the original door as seen in picture A below. This was achieved by carefully cutting away the centre panel and the frame at the top of the panelling between the frames of the door as can be seen in picture B. The next job was to gently file away the remainder of the beading to achieve a smooth door frame. Next a new middle frame section for the doors was cut to size from 20 thou styrene sheet and inserted in the correct position between the frames and then a section of strip styrene was added to show the separation of the two door sections as can be seen in picture C. A section of styrene was then cut to size to fill the gap in the lower door as seen in picture D. Picture E shows the finished result.

A “first” for me on construction of this carriage, was use of a styrene roof which I am pleased to say worked really well. This involved cutting a section of 20 Thou styrene, slightly larger than the size required for the roof, and then I grabbed my metal vacuum cleaner pipe and tightly bound the styrene sheet to the outside of the pipe with black electrical tape as seen in the picture below (left top). I then stood the pipe in the kitchen sink and carefully poured 2-3 full kettles of boiling water through the pipe. This action heats the metal pipe and the heat is transferred to the styrene plastic causing it to take the shape of the pipe. After removal from the pipe the styrene has held its curved shape. After matching the styrene to the coach and trimming to size, the roof material was held in place on the carriage simply using some masking tape and glued in place. The ends then had strip bargeboard added under the roof material and then the excess roof length was filed back to match the bargeboard.

With these jobs done it was onto the detail work under the floor which has some battery boxes, water tanks, a transformer box and of course the required brake equipment of Vacuum cylinders and V hangers, and the supporting taution bars as can be seen in this picture. Other detail including Concertinas, Flettner vents on the roof and end detail was also applied.

With all the major work done its onto the paint to really bring the model to life . The carriage is sprayed using a Holts auto spray grey primer and Humbrol paints (sprayed). Decals were then applied and the body finished with a Wattyl Estapol Matt spray. Windows were then applied using Micromark MicroGlaze.

And so here is the finished product built from a WestOzModels AZ bodykit using detailing parts fromWestOzModels and Railwest

The real AZ 435 (pictured near top of page) entered service on the WAGR on 29/9/1928 working as a first class sleeping car on the long distance expresses. After cessation of the overnight express services in the early 70’s, the car saw use on tour trains before being written off in March 1984 and was sold to a private owner for use with Hotham Valley Tourist Railway where it remains today.

More Hovea

a couple more shots

start of Hovea on Parkerville layout

whilst working on my layout for this years exhibition i have started to add Hovea  halt to add a bit more scenic detail to break up the layout.

still needs 2 more palms to go on and fence rails and platform to be blended into ground and asphalted.

June AMRM - WAGR B & N Class Tank Locomotives

The June 2012 edition of Australian Model Railway Magazine will have an article written by Phil Knife on techniques he used to build his WAGR B and N class locomotives.


http://australianmodelrailwaymagazine.blogspot.com.au/

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AY / AYL Carriages

In 1924, the WAGR built a new type of Second Class Suburban Car at the Midland Workshops. AY 26 was 59’ long with an open saloon arrangement and could seat 82 passengers with access to the car via three sets of sliding doors on each side of the car. Due to the popularity of this car another two were built (28 & 29) to the same pattern in 1927. In 1928 AY 26 was converted into a lounge car and fitted with corridor access for use on RESO trains retaining the AY classification. In 1938, #28 & 29 were also converted to lounge cars for use on the new Westland Express service.

In 1942 the WAGR supplied an Ambulance train to the Commonwealth Government and all 3 AY lounge cars were included. The seats were removed and they were converted to Ambulance Ward Cars, painted white all over with red crosses on the sides and roofs.

In 1945 a new set of six suburban cars including 4 AY’s (#452 – 455) and two AYB’s were built. In 1946 another 2 AY cars (#460 & 461) and 2 AYB cars were built supplementing the ageing fleet of sidedoor/dogbox style cars predominantly in use on the suburban network.
AY 452 is seen here below modelled in the "All over Green" livery

After use during WW2 as Ambulance cars for the Commonwealth, AY’s 28 & 29 returned to WAGR service in 1946, being reclassified AYL and converted back to use as lounge cars seeing use on "Westland" and "Kalgoorlie" services. AY 26 was returned to service as a AYL in 1947 joining its sister cars on the expresses, but with the conversion of AV 314 in 1958 into an AYL, AY 26 was once again converted back to its AY suburban configuration.

After 1962 the remaining AYL lounge cars were much modified with the onset of the modernisation program seeing the matchboard sides being replaced with plywood panelling including covering/filling in over the door areas. The AY suburban cars also received the plywood panelling treatment during workshop visits when their time came due.

The AYL cars saw use on the “Westland” until 1969 and “Kalgoorlie” services till 1971 when “Standard Gauge” services commenced and they were no longer required. Some use of the AYL cars were made on Shopper, Bunbury Belle and Tour/charter trains until being written off in 1975. The above picture of AYL 29 shows the livery it carried in 1962

The AY suburban cars were used on loco hauled sets until 1991, being displaced by new Electric railcars.

The above pictures show the prototype models for the AY Second Class Suburban Car and AYL Lounge Car “Body” kits which are now available from WestOz Models. The Kit parts seen here above, are formed from patterns produced by Brian Norris . WestOz Models has produced this AY "Body" kit in polyurethane and comes with a aluminum roof - AYL kits have Concertinas included. All other parts are available from Railwest Models

Information complied from “A History of WAGR Passengers Carriages” by A. May and B. Gray

Some new S scale items

The April 2012 AMRM has a review of a laser-cut church kit in N scale, but the same kit is available in S scale from American Model Builders "Laserkit" range. The kit for the "Crossroads Church" is for a small weatherboard church, typical of many small towns both in Australia and USA. The AMRM reviewer added a corrugated iron roof to his N scale church to make it look more Australian.

Here is a photo from the manufacturer's web site.

The same company has quite a few other structure kits in S scale and, although some are clearly of US prototypes, others would be at home on an Australian layout.

According to AMRM, Model RailRoad Crafstman in Sydney are dealers for LaserKits, but I don't know if they stock or can order the S scale kits, and their web site does not provide much help.

I also noticed in the April 2012 Model Railroader, another US kit by Frenchman River Model Works for a barge. Although this kit is HO scale, the magazine notes that is also useful in S or O scales as real barges came in various sizes. Here is a photo from the manufacturer's web site.