Strath Hobbies HB hopper

Infrastructure trains rarely seemed to be modeled, (on our layouts, track never is in need of repair in a miniature prospective). I have always wished to have a consist of ARTC AHWX wagons, which all originate from the SAR H/HB hopper.
In the early days of ARTC, these wagons ran in their AN livery, till they were refurbished with hydraulic operated discharge doors and were painted in ARTC yellow. When they were release from the maintenance shop, they were permanently coupled as a continuous rake, till one day a derailment happened outside of Whyalla, and all the wagons ended in the dirt, as they were all couples together. Since the repair they now all have their own couplers, but technically run in pairs as a A and B units.

In converting the Strath Hobbies kit, extra work is required, as their is a good deal more pipe work, and air tanks. Also, it should be noted that almost none are the same, where they have different ladders, tanks, brake wheels, or even bogies (often of mixed type).
My first unit was modeled on  AHWX 48K, which has a Victorian style brake wheel and bogies, with original ladder arrangement. It is painted in VR wagon yellow from Steam Era, and looks about right (a bit washed out in the photos, due to the flash). The logo is a from  a side on photograph scaled down to fit.
PS: the black air hoses are from North American Railcar Corp, and are High Performance Magnalook air hoses (series one), so when I have more units, these will couple together. They have a tiny magnet on the end of the rubber hose. Their series two hoses, now have a round magnet, instead of the square ones.

  

The bogies included in the kit are of no use if modeling a more modern unit. I also will not be using the load, (would have been better if this was available as extra part, as when I test fitted the load sit really high). Plus, around the discharge door casting, I ground back the casting to remove unwanted material, as I was not using the manual door operating wheels.
Just another eleven units to go, plus a ballast plough and for somebody to produce some decals for the ARTC era..

Postcard from the USA

For something completely different. My daughter, on her travels in the USA took a bus tour to the Grand Canyon. Along the way, they stopped at the Grand Canyon Railroad at Williams for lunch.
There, ex Spokane, Portland and Seattle, 2-8-2 Mikado O-3 class 539 is "stuffed and mounted" or on display, non operational, with some items of rolling stock.

Strath Hobbies HB/SH/AHWY hopper kit

Sunday, having ridden from Goolwa to Victor Harbour, and while waiting for the pickup transport, called in at Endoftheline Hobbies. While looking around, noticed a sample of an up-coming kit for the SAR SH/AHWY ballast hoppers.
Originally built for the South Australian railways as a ballast hoppers, they were also fitted with a roof during the grain season for grain cartage.

They began life in SAR grey, before Australian National repainted in Green and Gold: now classified as AHWY. (Four units were transferred to Tasmania as QN/HQ class). At the end of AN, these wagons were transferred to ARTC, and refurbished with automatic door operating systems: repainted into yellow: classified as AHWX wagons.

South Australian Silo Verticals

After a reminder about posting drawings for South Australian concrete vertical silos: its time! These structures are spaced about every forty miles along from Tailem Bend to the Victorian border ( about the distance a horse and cart could travel in a day, from farm to station/silo; before the days when farmers had trucks or contracted freight companies to haul their grain).
There are two basic types, the twin vertical: similar to the Victorian silos, and a four cell plus design, that is, the smallest, like at Keith, is a four cell, or South Australian Bulk Handling added extra twin cell to increase capacity. Same design, just more cells. (The silos at Roseworthy are different).

Sorry, slightly off center, but the edge of the scan is the edge of the cell,

The height of the cell from ground to top is 325mm, the total height is 464mm and the cells are 110mm in diameter (same as PVC piping).
Bunnings sell PVC pipe by the meter, and if you are careful you can get a near straight cut. At least one end will be square cut. My model is not (will post photos soon). I found it was easier to screw to pipes together with some self drilling screws, top and bottoms, but make a wooden block to hold them in shape.

Coonalpyn has ten cells, plus two steel bins.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Coonalpyn_silos.JPG 

Tintinara has 8 celss.

http://www.johnnyspages.com/classic_pictures_menu_files/classic_present_day_pics_files/south_line_stations/wolseley_line_stations/tintinara_4_wayne_31-08-2010.jpg 

Drawings for two cell silos. (I have left these a larger file size).

PS If anyone is modelling QR, they have silos that almost the same design as the SA ones. The first link is for Dalby, and the second, Wandoan.

http://queenslandplaces.com.au/sites/queenslandplaces.com.au/files/imagecache/watermarked/exhibits/slides/UQ160806.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandoan#/media/File:Gain_silos,_Wandoan,_2014.JPG

Norfolk Pine crafting

Horsham Station is dominated by a large Norfolk Pine tree at the eastern end of the station, in a garden area. Having searched the model tree world, nothing came close, so began the saga of producing the tree.

I started with a pine dowel trunk, originally carved for an S scale pine tree, so this a cut to an approximate size and further carved. Next come the branches. A quick study of prototype trees showed they have branches coming out from the trunk with a few smaller branches at the ends, on which the 'leaves' are formed. These were made from twisted wire, and lots of them!

Thin wires being twisted for branches.

Branches being added.

These were then planted into the trunk, after a many a hole was drilled. Next step, was to cover all the branches with No More Gaps. The trunk and branches were then brush painted with a matt brown paint, then very lighting over sprayed with silver.

Tree covered in No More Gaps

Tree in place, in the garden, also been modeled.

The adding of the 'leaves' was the next problem. The tree stayed leaf less for some time, as the leaves are thick needle like, only on the top of the end of the branches. Finally I decided to spray glue the outer parts of the branches, then use static fibers for the leaves. This worked quite well, but I thought I had stuffed it, when the whole tree turned green. Luck had it, most of them were excess and a good blow removed them. I think I will need to add another layer of longer green fibers. to bulk up its appearance. Does not quite look like the real thing, but it is getting there: really, I just want a model tree that looks like a Norfolk Pine. One thing I had not realised was that the real tree is actually a twin: that is, it has two trunks from about a third of the way up.

CGAY to AHAY grain hoppers

On the 23 September 2015, all the Chicago Freight Car CGAY grain hoppers were transferred in ownership to G&W. They are to recoded to AHAY. These wagons have been used by G&W, on lease since they were built in 2001, and have operated in many South Australia, but also through into Victoria. (81 of these M100 series units were built. There is also the CGDY, M92 series hoppers: 42 built; with a lower handling capacity, operating in the eastern states.).
Nine of these wagons were also built for Freight Australia in 2001, coded VHKY 1151-59.

More information: http://www.anicassociates.com/files/maxis_brochure.pdf

Hopper recoded AHAY 900Y. CF markings removed, but remains in original livery.

Ontrack 80 class

Ontrack models have announced that their next locomotive will be the NSW class 80. This loco is already available from Austrains, but it was their first RTR locomotive and the tooling must be close to 20 years old, and does not have any of the detail that is expected today. Generally I am not into the NSW locos, but as the 80's ran into Horsham during the 2012-13 period, so I might be interested in a QUBE and Greentrains livery.

Ontracks

According to information available, all the design work has been complete and tooling has commenced. 13 liveries, over five different car bodies. (Both QUBE and Greentrains livery is on their list, so it is highly likely that two will join the Horsham layout fleet).