Seven years between posts is too long

As the title says its been far too long between posts.

A lot has happened in those seven years much like my previous post, moved house again, this time to another part of the state, delved into some different career's, crashed a milk tanker and to top it all off the so called love of my life left me? That reminds me I'd best change my introduction.

Anyway I'm now living on my own in the south west of Victoria in a little town called Hawkesdale far away from all the crap of big city living and enjoying the peace and quite of country living. Im in the milk tanker business but now in the office as a supervisor which is a great job with 4 days on and 4 days off.

Now hobby wise I've really done nothing for the last 5 years as Ive had nowhere to do any modelling and the time hasn't been available either. I had a shed built about three years ago and started to build a room in that shed for a layout however with work and life in general it has progressed slowly. Then I had the crash which put me in hospital for about 4 weeks. I snapped my femur and broke my arm, the arm is all good but I have issues with my leg.

Then the, well the what I thought was the love of my life left at about 6 months after the crash which knocked me around pretty badly as it does for anyone who's not expecting it.

Moving on I'm in the house we ( now ex wife ) bought and now rebuilding my life on my own, I have met a lovely woman who is happy in her place as I'm in mine. Doing things I used to do is harder and now slower but I manage to get stuff done.

Okay now hobby wise I did a bit of modelling while I was recuperating and while I was elsewhere until the assets were settled, which was about 6 months ago. Nothing since but I have set up a desk in my spare room which is part office and part hobby room.

The shed I had built was partly built when we bought the place and I had another section built on, had all the walls filled in and concreted all the floor. It was originally a machinery shed with one wall and a skillion roof. I had another 6 mts added to the width which gave me a total of 13 mts x 12 mts. I had a hoist installed and sealed all the floor.

The original shed

The start with fresh concrete.

The completed structure

The future train.

I was extremely fortunate to obtain a well know layout recently which I was really excited about. Its exactly the same dimensions as the room I have laid out which is a total fluke. The layout has been in storage for a few years and is now in my other shed waiting on me to finish the train room.

The famous Monbulk trestle

Some of the trees in the cab for the trip home

The entire layout fitted into a 7ton 6.3 mt bodied truck

So if you asked me has my life changed, yes it most definitely has, however I have been blessed to be the custodian of the Master, Alan Rockets Puffing Billy layout and I plan to reassemble it in its entirety in the coming months. Watch this space.

Cheers Ollie

Spreading yourself around

I thought I would post a bit of what I've been doing during the colder months when its a tad cold to be in the shed working on the Corvette. Now the Corvette is becoming a long term project but I hope to see some action in the next 6 months as I head into body work phase. I also have another one ( Corvette ) which was recently delivered to my place so I can finish it off for a fella in the car club I'm President of.
In the meantime I've gotten my modelling tools out and doing a bit so to speak. Unfortunately or fortunately I model VRNG in On30 but I still like the old VRBG in HO so I'm finding myself torn between the two. Not wanting to spread my hobby dollars too far I have to go between the Corvette and model railways. Luckily ( for some but not for our budget ) my wife is into horses and spends as much if not more than me from time to time.

I'd never in all my time as a modeller of railways ever built an SEM W car. So I thought lets have a go at one. These are a wonderful kit and very simple to put together although I still don't like the bit you have to remove out of the window frame. A few more and I will have a complete passenger train.
I am finding however that as I have gotten older and now wear glasses its becoming more of a challenging if not difficult to do what I used to easily. That aside I do enjoy getting away from the idiot box and sitting within ear shot of the boss doing some finer detail work on the modelling bench.


Also I was introduced to Xtrack cad by a good mate which has allowed me to easily design a layout for the room I have built in the back half of our garage, which is nearly two cars long and two cars wide. I have ended up with a room that is 6mts long by 4mts wide approximately. In the room is a kitchen sink and cupboard along with a work bench area which I have built. Now at the moment my son is using it as his bedroom so he can game into the wee hours without disrupting the rest of the house. When and only when he eventually moves out, I will begin to build what I have planned which is a two level layout with one being HO and the other On30. totally separate from each other.

The layout above is the VRNG in On30 which can utilise the entire room as the sink and work bench is underneath the layout at the right hand end.

The HO layout will be lower and probably require mechanics type stools with wheels to make it easier to operate, where as the On30 will be at chest height for me and I'm 6'5" so if your short and come for a look you may need a step ladder to view the VRNG.



Happy modelling or whatever you like to do?




Cheers Ollie

Its been too long

Where do I start, its been 5 years since my last post and I have no excuses , except I'm sorry.
A lot has happened in those five years, I've moved house twice, bought a project C3 Corvette to restore and watched all my model railway gear gather dust whilst its been in storage.
The layout I had has gone and I've started to plan a new one for the spare room I will have once No1 son moves out but they tell me these days they don't move out? I don't even have an area where I can sit down and model in our current home as it too is to be in the spare room as part of the grand plan. So really I have nothing I can offer at this point model railway wise to keep yo all amused.
I can however offer a few photos of the Corvette in progress if that will do.
This has basically kept me away from model railways for the last 5 years.


Cheers Ollie.






1974 C3 corvette Stingray



Body removed and the strip down begins



Lots of repairs to the fiberglass under that primer



Caillen my apprentice busy welding in new frame sections

Replaced a fender which Im going to do again as its damaged on the lower section.

LH trailing arm completed and ready for the spindle ( axle )

Finished LH trailing arm installed with overhauled brake caliper



Fully rebuilt 350 small block chev

Setting up the differential with new gears, 3.55-1

Completed diff ready to install

Diff, drive shafts and trailing arms installed

A rolling frame for the first time in three years

Rolling frame with motor and trans fitted

This is how Gwendolyn looked when we moved to our current residence. I've since removed the body to continue with getting the chassis finished.

Another NBH update

Hi all,

Ken and I got together last night and with the bits we have so far from AMK. The NBH now has seating for the passengers and is nearing completion.

We are over the moon with the level of detail the milling process can achieve. Bogies are our next hurdle and at this stage they may also be milled from abs with brass pin point bearings.

Have fun and happy modelling

Regards

Ollie



NBH kits

I have another update for the NBH kit as AMK engineering are pressing ahead at full speed with the components for the kit.
Below is a photo of the first sample of the seats for the NBH, that are based on the original design from the VR plans.
The legs cross at the corect angle as well as being checked out to fit correctly as per the prototype.
I have glued some scrap abs to the short or end seats so it can sit straight as these will be glued to the end of the car body.



What is hard to make out is the slats that have been machined into the seat base which the next photo will show.





If you want to be a rivet counter, don't bother as it has the correct number of slats as per the drawings and photo's of the few original ones at puffing billy.

Regards

Ollie

NBH kits

Hi fellow bloggers,

Just a short note to show some of you who might be interested in an up and coming kit for the VR Narrow Gauge On30 NBH excursion cars. It is being milled in ABS plastic and from what we have so far, well I'm impressed. There is still alot of work to do and parts to be made . Below is a couple of samples.

NBH body

NBH roof



NBH floor

It's very early but as you can see the detail is very nice.

Regards

Ollie



Whats lurking in your backyard

Hi all,
Well as the title says what is lurking in your back yard.  Recently I was privy to some information that lead to a surprise that is about 75 years old. Located amongst a holiday shack in the beach side town of Ocean Grove was two VR narrow gauge passenger coaches that were part of a complete structure. Now usually a demolition crowd come in and disconnect all the services then set to the house with a claw which completely wrecks the house. This structure being made of asbestos had to be pulled apart piece by piece and fortunately it did as they started to pull it down the coaches were revealed. The demo mob were smart enough to stop proceedings and contact someone who contacted someone else and so on until The Puffing Billy Preservation society had found there way down south and bought the carriage's.

Something we don't see in our politically correct world.



From what I can find out so far they came from Colac around 1936 and the house was built around and over the two coaches. The end platform NB is apparently no 6 but it is unknown what the swing door NB is. Puffing Billy have rescued these relics from the past and one day we will be able to ride in them.

Cheers

Ollie