MORE ORBOST!!!

Gday All!!

WOW!! Paul has been living and breathing Orbost these past days. The following photo is proof of this. Just look at the amount of preparation work involved!! Paul traveled to Orbost with a GPS and the Google Maps printout to mark elevations and land detail on the print for as much accuracy as possible.
This hill will continue onto the third module. The railway will continue at the base of the hill for a short while before slowly climbing towards as it approaches the end of the module. These pictures will be posted in the next update.

The first module gets its MDF edging. I just love the land formation from all the angles taken so far. The edges have now been painted matt black and will have a black curtain to the floor drawing attention to the layout. A brown-grey was painted as a base before the sifted dirt and green ground foams are applied.
Note the elevation change in the MDF towards the bottom left of the photo. This displays where the highway passes and forms the edge of the layout. This was done to capture the feel of viewing the railway as if driving along the road encouraging viewers to look across the layout.

This photo shows the view along the long bridge and onto the station from what will be the peak of Grandview Rd. There is now a picnic area at this location so everyone can enjoy this view..... sadly minus rail and trains.

This bridge will look amazing when the trestles are installed. The trestles will vary from 9mm to 5mm high. Lucky Paul has great eyesight!!

That is the end of this update. Im sure it will only be a couple of days till im updating the blog again!!!

Take care and happy modelling.

Orbost progressing VERY fast!!

Greetings All!!

Its been a while since my last update. Unfortunantly ive been having issues with my intenet at home. In the mean time Paul has been putting a LOT of time into Orbost. This involving two trips to the actual location which is around a SIX hour round trip!!! The reason for these trips as you will see in the following pictures.
This first photo shows the progress made in the station area. The white styrene shows the road formation. During the trips many notes were made and photos taken detailing the geography of the land including water courses and distances.


In this photo Paul is demonstrating the length of the second, larger bridge. This photo also demonstrrated the use of the Google Maps overlay to ensure accurate scaling.

This photo Paul is demonstrating the length of the first smaller bridge just heading out of the station. I tried to capture the amount of work Paul has put into land formation. A lot of work has been put into this area of the layout.

This is the start of the larger bridge where landfill meets trestle. During floods the water rushes under this bridge and erodes the land underneath.

Finally here is Paul proudly showing off the progress of this extremely impressive layout, even at such an early stage. This photo does only show one and a half modules with another one and a half modules to complete to go!!

Now the internet is back ill attempt to update more often.

Take care and happy modelling.

Adrian

ORBOST!

Intruducing Orbost. This multi-module exhibiton layout is a scale representation of the yard and impressive trestle bridge that used to exist many years ago. Although the bridge still remains, the station and yard area are almost unrecognisable.
Located in on the Snowy river flooldplain in east Gippsland, Victoria, this was the terminus station that serviced a large area. There were plans for the railway to proceed further east and possibly into New South Wales however sadly this did not occur and like many other stations of its kind, slowly deteroirated and closed down. The railway currently stops at Bairnsdale however the formation to Orbost is preserved in the form of a RailTrail (http://www.railtrails.org.au/).
That is why this layout is so exciting. Lots of research has been undertaken to ensure the layout captures the feel and detail of the area. One of the resources used is Weston Langford's website (http://www.westonlangford.com/).

The site that has been most useful in the project so far would be Google Maps. Screen shot were taken and scaled to resemble 1:500. These shots were then pieced together using signwriting software, printed to scale onto signwriting vinyl and attached to foam. This was used as a base for scaling and sizing of the modules. I will post a photo of this at a later date.

This photo shows the amount of customisation required in the point work to get the track closer to each other like the prototype. The track was also masked up and sprayed to resemble rusty track.

This photo attempts to show the size of the station module. There is a smaller trestle immediately out of the station. There are two more modules, one for the long trestle bridge and the other for the long climb out of the floodplain.

This photo shows the DERM about to drive onto the trestle bridge, cough* without trestles.

This photo shows the terminus looking towards the station area.

This photo shows the size of the yard compared to my hand.

Take care and Happy modelling!!

Adrian

VR Flat Top T Class

Everything except the bogies and couplers on this locomotive are scratchbuilt. The handrailwas are 6-thou brass wire and the steps are hand cut and are glued from 5 thou syrene. The chassis is made from 40 thou (1mm) styrene, the body 10 thou styrene, and the fuel tank hand carved lead . The next group of locos Paul intends to use power pickup bogies and light locos. The Series 3 T is being built now and the VR Y class is next.




The hand-painted VR is located in a 0.7mm circle on each end of the locomotive.
The Series 3 Chassis, Series 1 T and DERM.

Yes it is T gauge!!

Have a closer look!!

Paul hopes to begin modelling as many of the features and bridges on the Orbost line as possible. He hopes to recreate the feel of travelling from Bairnsdale to Orbost in 1980, on a tour special. But thats another post. :-)

Happy modelling!!

Adrian

Victorian T Gauge Video!!!!

Gday all!!

I have uploaded a video to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHDaQV11DU&feature=youtube_gdata

It shows the current rolling stock on Nowa Nowa. Note that this layout is operated by PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).

Enjoy

Adrian

Amazing Detail

Gday All!!

We had the opportunity over the weekend to catch up and photograph and video Pauls T Class chassis' operating on his layout Nowa Nowa. These are some of the results.

The bridge we know well, however the following photos are taken in actual sunlight so therefore casting more realistic shadows.

The leading T class rounding the curve onto the straight.

Sunlight reflecting on the carriage windows. Just reminding you all that this is T Gauge!!!


Dont believe me :-)

I have a movie in development and will post to YouTube and here when done.

Happy Modelling!!!

Adrian

Pauls AMAZING new project!!

Gday All!
Apologies for the lack of updates as things have been quiet on the Victorian T Gauge scene. Paul however has been very busy working on not one but TWO Victorian T Gauge locomotives!!! These T Classes are quickly taking shape and are fitted with scale steps and sanding boxes (on the non valanced variation).

These will be non powered units requiring the use of a powered passenger car to gain momentum. Anyway less talk and MORE PICTURES!!!

Click to enlarge for best viewing.

Ill post more pictures as Pauls project progresses.

Happy modelling!!!

Adrian

Briefcase Layout Update

Gday All

Here are a couple of pictures of my briefcase layout. As you can see I have put in a few things since the last post! The semaphore signal is scratch built with small pieces of styrene. I used the wrong paint therefore the paint actually was applied a bit heavier than I had wished so I might have to redo this at a later date.
The platforms are made from styrene and topped with fine sandpaper to give a bit of decture to the platform surface. I have started putting in fence posts to keep in the newly added paddocks of cows and sheep. I was in a bit of a rush for the exhibitions to get some buildings completed so the buildings you see (with the exception to the house on the hill) were built and painted merely hours before the exhibition opening. These I hope to replace with much higher detailed buildings at a later date.
For the road I have applied fine sand blasting grit to give that bitumen effect. The lines were also added shortly before the expo and need to be redone.

Its a continuing work in progress but I still enjoy tinkering with it.

Myself (left) and Paul at the Sandown Model Railway Exhibition, March 2009.

If you have any questions please dont hesitate to email me or drop me a line at the T - Gauge forums.

Happy Modelling

Adrian

Update at last

Gday All!! Wow it has been a while since posting here and I do believe its time to get this site up and going again. I have been quite busy during these past 10 months. My house and property in Callignee was destroyed during the Black Saturday bushfires (along with some of my model rail gear and a lot of VR antiques :-( ). We werent in the home at the time and were able to get a small amount of items out.


Directly after the fires, myself and my wife, my 2 children and my parents (who also lost their house) lived in temporary accomodation for 4 months. From there we moved to my parents new purchased home where we lived for 2 months before purchasing a new home of our own. We arent sure whether we will return to Callignee but for the moment we are comfortable and enjoy living in our own space.


Now enough blah blah about sad stuff. MORE ABOUT TRAINS!!!!


I did manage to save all of my N scale models and T Guage with the exception of a small bridge module I was working on. I also saved a lot of my VR memoribilia with the exception of the larger (rarer and expensive!!) items such as the original Leongatha ticket cabinet (complete with tickets and all 81 tubes), VR stretcher (rare red one) crossing signals and of course a moderate variety of signs. I have moved on and have started to collect memeroibilia again.


Along with starting collecting again I have also found time and space to start modelling again. :-) I now have a room in the house dedicated to working on the models and a 12x6metre shed for the larger stuff including a 4x6 metre dedicated layout room!!

I realised I havent posted up any pictures of our completed layouts. Ill start with Pauls.


Completed bridge
Scratchbuilt DERM
Ballast and cutting detail

Whole layout.

If you have any questions please dont hesitate to contact me at:

zomer_1@hotmail.com

Ill post up some pictures of my briefcase layout soon. Cheers.

Adrian

Update on Pauls Layout

Gday all!!

Sorry for not posting sooner. My house was burnt down as a result of the recent Victorian bushfires and have had difficulty getting online. Well enough about me let talk about TRAINS!!! Pauls layout is progressing at an amazing rate. The bridge is almost done and only requires the bridge deck, steel beams to lift and support central beams and the application of paint. Until then I will leave you with some pictures showing what has been done. Enjoy!!

Happy Modelling

Adrian