Here's a collection of photos from the last 16 months, picking up from where layout construction had progressed to in early October 2017.

Layout construction:


Assembling L girders

The longest girder spliced together

Fitting leg assemblies to girders

Collection of assembled benchwork

Trial positioning of benchwork

The collection of stuff in the garage that needed to be sorted out

Strategic reogranisation of stuff

Proof that the 1200mm height would clear the spare washing machine!

Shifting the workbench & Brendan's layout to make way for the benchwork

All benchwork in position

Lukas & Jason at work making joists

The collection of joists

At this point (17-10-17), layout construction ceased and is yet to be resumed! The legs / girders were dis-assembled with assistance from Roy and relocated to storage at my parents' place two weeks later.

Locos:
4914 is a Trainorama 49 acquired from a First Monday Toy Auction. It wasn't advertised as being DCC Sound - sometimes you get a win! When I bid on it I was still a committed DC man.

At Woongarrah on Upper Hunter. I had a lot of pick-up related problems when I first tried it out.

Applying Ray Pilgrim's fantastic solution which he pioneered on Traino 44 class

Job done - no more decoder restarts due to pick-up problems!

4302:
This loco is a major kit-bash from a Lima 44. The original had some big issues with the chassis, so Roy donated a spare Lima 44 chassis for a rebuild. This also provided an opportunity to fix up the fuel tank which had never really been satisfactory.

Plating over the unwanted moulded detail on the Lima chassis with styrene

Fireman's side painted

Driver's side painted and fuel gauge added



Rollingstock:

The MRC had a 3D printed roof made some time earlier - but the resolution was somewhat lacking resulting in noticeable steps on the large radius section and roof hatches. The curve was corrected by application of "canvas" (masking tape), and the hatches were plated over with 0.005" styrene. Subsequently I have added hinge & catch detail to the hatches.


Showing the steps resulting from poor resolution with respect to radius of roof

Masking tape added as "canvas"

Plating over the hatches

RUB Set - adding details to the PHS:

Grab iron on roof

Handrails

Curved end handrail and steps

KP mail van:
This is an old Mains West kit (I believe) that had been mostly built before I acquired it from Roy. Adding some details such as hand rails, an improved roof finish, replaced the buffers, and new bogies.

Christmas 2017 - visit from my sister & family (Dad's funeral was just prior to Christmas) enabled me to start an education campaign for the next generation of modellers.

With my first train, a Christmas gift from Uncle Jim & Aunty Jean many years ago!

Gift to self! A work trip to China on Boxing Day gave me an opportunity to indulge myself - Bachmann China Railways RM Pacific

Callum was hooked on the DCC Sound RM!

My nephews Peter & Callum visiting Upper Hunter - a bit over-awed by the action packed into the club layout!

Callum soon took control of the RM, though...

SMR22:
I had seen a few examples of the excellent Southern Rail models product, and couldn't resist one. SMR 22 was the only one I saw in active service, way back in January 1987, so it had to be the one.

Crossing Paterson Bridge on Upper Hunter

Shunting the Coal Stage

Visits - a few enjoyable outings throughout 2017, including the FB NSW Disel Era Modellers group running day, other layouts etc.

Another FMTA acquisition, 1052 at Picton Loco on Paul Morcom's excellent layout

DEM running day - 4914 & X.207 on Mungo Scott's

DEM running day - 4914 at Binalong

DEM running day - X.207 shunting at Binalong

PRR 2-10-4 on Upper Hunter

The Texas at Bradfield on Roy Howarth's Langston Place layout

QJ 2-10-2 & RM 4-6-2 in Brisbane staging on Upper Hunter

O. Winston Link visits Bradfield!

In March, with my uncle Trevor, and Roy, I participated in a fund raising car rally for Beyond Blue. The event, known as Beyond Bitumen, traversed as many dirt roads & tracks as possible from Bathurst to Orange over four days. We raised $2,700 towards a total of $360k raised by the event.

Gunzel412 - complete with dragon (but without a St. George or Dragon Net) fanging along between Dubbo and Parkes

In October, with my good mate Glenn Ryan, I made a pilgrimmage to the Deni Ute Muster. Glenn took his WB, I took my caravan. We made a bit of a tour of it, including abandoned railway infrastructure and pubs along the way.

At the Royal George Hotel, Urana. Regrettably, no longer a licensed venue

Returning from the Ute Muster on the October long weekend, I spent the Monday at Liverpool on Keiran Ryan's clinic, building an RU wheat hopper from the ye olde Silvermaz kit. I don't like the new black material - too hard to see what your doing, and it melts, rather than cuts, when drilled.

Set up on the clinic, with RUs in various states of progress, plus tools, materials & references

Friday Train Model shop:
Purveyor of all that is good in Shanghai. I've managed three visits in four trips to China for work in 2018. Note he doesn't take Western VISA cards - go with plenty of RMB!



 

 

Last but not least - the challenge for 2019. The Shed. It's full (well, not quite as full as when I took these pics, but it's a massive job to sort & empty). When my parents bought the house in 1997, the shed was advertised as a "granny flat". No self-respecting granny would have lived in it, but I have grand plans! Some of the redeeming features (once you look past the fibro construction and necessary repairs to termite damage) are three-phase power, an instant hot water unit and a toilet & hand basin. The bath will go (as will the hand basin, to be replaced by one donated by John Curry from his ACM, ex the Werris Ck breakdown train).

 



From the entrance, looking to the left towards the bathroom

Looking right towards the far end

At the far RH end

 That's it for now - you're pretty much up-to-date with the fortunes or otherwise of Weddin Junction!