Auscision N cars

Auscision Models recently released, in July 2013, their HO scale Victorian, N passenger cars. These cars ran to Horsham up till early 1993, when all services past Ararat ceased. These models are only available in sets of three; as when released to traffic, they ran in permanent sets of three. These were then increased, through rising demand, to four and five car sets. A luggage van is included, but are rarely used in traffic, today.
As usual, the quality of reproduction is of excellence. The only down side is that the roof is a separate moulding and is glued to the body.  On the orange versions, the join is noticeable, as the roof is all orange, or the grey (in prototype) did not round the roof curve far enough to hide the join. The 'Heritage' Mk 1 and 2 livery, plus the new grey and white livery, are, better suited the style of assembly of the coaches, as the roof colour extends down the to the top of the body moulding, thus hiding the join. The cars have full interior, with even luggage racks, and the interior has been moulded in the correct cream colour. (I should know, as I supplied the laminex color chip).
I  received my N set; in V/Line Passenger 'Heritage" red and blue livery. While no cars in this livery have every ran to Horsham, the beauty about model railways, is that one can do what they want, and as with prototype, with the N class locomotives, one can mix and match liveries.

 
Though: As reported by the ABC, Wednesday 19 June, 2013:

The Horsham council will appeal to Public Transport Victoria (PTV) in a bid to extend passenger rail services west of Ararat.

Councillor Tony Phelan successfully moved a motion at Monday night's council meeting to request the authority investigate integrating a V/Line train service with the existing timetable.
The council's Tony Bawden says while the different rail gauge east of Ararat makes it difficult to provide continuous services, there is the possibility for a connection.
"We did have a meeting with PTV a couple of months back where we floated this idea and so we'll be formally requesting PTV to reinstate passenger rail services to Horsham and other towns," he said.

Maybe, loco hauled services might return to Horsham, or would it be Vlocity High speed DMU sets.
 (V/Line passenger, today 'operate' a rail service to Melbourne via Great Southern Rail's Overland service. One coach is booked for pickup of road side passengers to and from Nhill. Up to 60 seats are available to Victorians at V/Line ticket prices to travel as far as Nhill. ).

AWM open top container models

AWM Automodelle is a German company that produces a wide range of European Road vehicles in 1/87 scale. They also have a range of container models, and while recently researching European domestic containers, I came across one that is of use for the Australian environment.
It is a model of a 40' canvas covered open top container.  AWM SZ 40ft open top Container MSC. While I have not seen one on the Adelaide Melbourne corridor, in Wongm's Rail Gallery, there is a photo of one, on a NQKY on a PN MA3/AM3 freight.

http://railgallery.wongm.com/wagons/pn-ma3-flats/E106_2586.jpg.html

MSC open top container. Could do with some flat varnish to take away the gloss look.

I purchased mine off ebay,  for the sum of EUR6.02, or at the time $8.62, plus postage. Go to http://stores.ebay.com.au/DS-AutoModelle?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 and search for containers. 
I also purchased some nice European 45' reefer units in Ferroverde and Unit 45.com liveries. (These containers, for interest, transport fresh flowering plants from Holland to Italy by rail. 

 http://www.gemeenteninbeeld.nl/GreenRail/beeldtaal_film.html 

The above video is in Dutch, but one can get the sense of what it is about. 

It is also interesting to note, that while Europe is generally electrified; cross border inter-modal services are hauled by diesel locomotives: though they use an electric in the video, and if you look closely, the loco changes between countires.
This is due to most European countries operating on different electric systems and voltages, so a Class 66/77 is able to travel non stop, while an electric hauled train has to stop at the border crossing to change locomotives. Strangely similar to Australia many years ago, before through running.)

Auscision UGL Ci43/44ci part 2

To be available 2014 (maybe). Art work for the liveries has been placed on their website. Those of interest for the Adelaide to Melbourne route are below.

QRNational 6000 class

The 6000 class are operated on QR/Aurizon intermodal services.

6000 class updated livery

G&W GWU class

The GWU are used extensively on G&W grain trains to the South Australian border with Victoria.

Pacific National 93 class

The 93 class are beginning to show themselves on PN intermodal services, and are tipped to take over from the NR class as their numbers grow with new builds.

Finally caught sight of my first 93 class; only just. With the bad weather here in Adelaide, saw 6AM passing through the Mount Barker loop, 22/7/2013 at just past 9.30am. Leading was 9301, and managed a rushed photo as I had only just arrived, to await to see 5MP trailerail. (Which did not turn up as scheduled at 10.15am).

Reach stacker in OO scale

I have been holding off posting about English company; Oxford Die-Casts' up and coming model of Konecranes SMV 4542, OO scale fully 'posable' reach stacker. Due to be released before the of this year; it will be available initially in Konecranes light blue, and be the only OO scale model on the market.

In relation to HO scale, this unit would be only about 10% bigger than the Kibri kit, which therefore, could be made to represent a larger reach stacker unit.

Adelaide Model Railway Show 2013

It has been and gone for another year. A good selection of layouts. Greater Portland won the vote. been a large N scale layout, with nothing else that bid, it was not surprising. It seems that the exhibition is becoming a get together for the enthusiasts, a catch up; while the general public had a good look at running model trains, from Lego to fine scale.

Avoca, a Tasmanian OO scale layout, using HO scale track to represent the 3'6" narrow gauge track.

Demonstration on building pine trees. These are for an O scale layout. The branch/foliage is furnace filter, which is unfortunately not available in Australia. The material for these trees was imported from the USA. I seen this method written about before, and if you Google furnace material, nothing like this comes up.
Another favorite, was Stewarts: a South Australian Ho scale town with grain silos. With recent releases, there was more rolling stock running.

A new, and unfinished layout; again South Australian, was Bridgewater: running a nice 620 class steam engine.

VLEX vans

Even though this model was released during 2012, I decided to acquire a Powerline Models unit during the Adelaide Model Railway exhibition 2013. These wagons worked across the border from the time they were built, till the end of Australian National, and for SCT in Freight Australia green livery, till 2005.

  VLEX wagons stored at Dimboola.

I was actually after a VLNX, marked for news print only traffic, but none were available. These vans brought newsprint over to Adelaide for News Limited newspapers, from Tasmania, via Victoria. Powerline, currently only have these vans available, marked in VR livery. But as lettered a VLEX, it can be run with V/Line marked vans.

The main draw back with this model is that the under floor is painted black, when it should be wagon red, same as the body. As seen, in the photo, the body unclips from the floor, and will be repainted using Steam Era models wagon red. If one really wanted to model one with a door open, (sometimes seen when running) the doors are a separate piece, which clips in. The wagon is also a bit light, and could do with some extra weight.

Underfloor now painted in VR wagon red. I added a bit of black to try and match the body which was a bit darker in colour.

On Track Models, also produce these wagons. These are slightly more accurate, and also more fragile, as they are virtually an assembled, ready to run kit. (Meaning, as the Powerline body is one piece, the On Track body is made up of sides, end, floor and roof, all assembled). yet to obtain a set of these.

Victorian Grain Board Silos 2

My Victorian silo bins now have a hat. The roof structure is now complete, but not yet painted. I made the windows 'solid' behind the window framing, and will paint this black, as no light can been seen through them anyway. Still to build the discharge shoots and walkways/ladders.
I also have completed the little landing a the front. Unfortunately, I found that I had originally set the silos too far back from the track, and the silos had to be repositioned. The idea was to save as much as possible, but I had screwed down the piece of MDF that was the apron around the structure, and the screw was completely hidden. This resulted in the total loss of that area plus two lengths of flex track, which stripped away from the sleepers in the demolition process.
As seen, I have relaid the track and tested with running trains, still to be ballasted, and return of the weeds by static grass. The silo bins have yet to bee attached to the apron area, as they have yet to be fully painted, and final details to be added.