Horsham Station

Horsham has a brick station, currently used for adult education building. Recently refurbished, with a section of platform been upgraded for passengers waiting for the Overland.
The model was built from measurements taken a couple of years ago. One main point in measuring a building is to check one has all the required data before leaving, as there is nothing worse than preparing a drawing later to find you have forgotten an important measurement. Like the height of the walls. Four and a half hours each way is not on just for a stretch of the tape measure.
Lucky, I found a drawing of Talbot, through a search engine and guessed that most station buildings would be much the same height. This was later confirmed on  a recent pass through while heading to Melbourne by car, instead of flying.

 The real thing.

 This is a cropped photo of the station. The others I have of the building are on old fashioned film.

The model.

Model structure nearly complete. I have left off the toilet structure that was once on the right, as it has since been demolished. The curved top section of the roof yet to be added. I have test painted the verandah.

The model test fitted on the layout. Just as well no toilet block, as it has to sit right up against a garage support post. (Unfortunately this means the building will not line up with the end of the goods shed, and I can not move that either because of the track work required).  The doors are yet to be fitted. I have a scaled photo of the doors that I will probably use. Painting still in progress.

Overland departs Dimboola

December 2008. I have mentioned before in a couple of posts of the break in rain, during a trip to Dimboola in December 2008. This video shows just how wet it was, filmed from the pedestrian overpass, under an umbrella.

Lillimur Victoria

Between Serviceton and Kaniva, is the small town of Lillimur. If there was ever a station building at Lillimur it has long since gone. Now just a grain siding with automatic signalling, the siding services concrete vertical, metal bin and large shed silos.
Lillimur was settled in 1877, when thew railway was built through to Serviceton: and a court house was built just on the edge of the town in 1887. It closed in 1892. In 1913, the post office moved in, in preference to building a new post building. Next to the Western Highway, this building just still stands, not only needing restoration, but to be modeled.

Lillimur ex court house/post office.

Out the front, not illustrated, is a horse hitching rail: just visible to the right, and an old lamp post.
This photo was taken in December 2008. A dry moment on a very wet day.

A not 9am cross

Train waiting can be frustrating. After waiting for nearly an hour to see the Overland cross at Mount Barker Junction, I was giving up to go home, then the unexpected happened. A really late QRNational pulls into the Junction, to allow the Overland enter the loop, nearly a half hour late itself.
Usually this train would be down in the city heading to Dry Creek North yard at this time, and the cross would be with a Pacific National intermodal.

The Overland pulls to a halt before entering Mt Barker Junction loop. Up front is NR1.

 

Leading was CLF7 with 6007 and Interail 42206 (which was producing the most smoke), as they raced down towards Balhannah.

Curved turnouts

They say when laying model railway track, to stay away from double slips, (mainly because they are difficult to wire up), but this also applies to curved turnouts. We look for ways to have maximum length in our yards, and to put in a curved point can save almost a foot (30cm) in space.
Curved points may have a place, but not in spacing saving, as we try yo obtain geometry that usually pushes them out of gauge.

This is relay number 2. When originally laid, all worked fine, then my Auscision A class, with its finer tolerances started to derail. Relay number one, to change some of the turnout positions and straights in between. All worked fine, then it started again, same locos, always on the curved turnout. Frustration and it led to ripping it up again; only to have the PECO code 83 number 7 curve point fall to pieces.
A new number 6 straight, left hand was purchased and the yard result being a bit shorter. Yet to connect up the all the track, power and test.