Crossing Paths

Crossing Paths
Model Melbourne trams

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Slowly but surely.....

"Lost; time to work on layout, if found please contact me."

To say I have been busy lately would be an understatement, unfortunately this business is not layout related. Work and family life are the reasons why the progress on Victoria Street has slowed to a crawl.

Therefore the works on the 'Ammo' Factory are progressing, but very slowly, with the paving and track ballast installed, together with span poles, it is now starting to resemble something.

 
Slowly getting there,
The span poles are coathanger wire, the blobs of blu-tak
are there so I do not open myself up.
 
 
There will be a mesh fence between the factory and
the terminus, mesh has been applied to the ground floor windows.
 
 
An overview of the terminus and siding.
The checkrail for the siding prevents
rollingstock climbing into the factory.
 
 
I know it needs more grubbiness and details, plus some overhead.
Points are thrown by wire in the tube method.
 
Now some artistic shots...
 
 
SW6 870 waits patiently.
 
 
X1 460 on an excursion sits in the siding.
Photo taken through perspex end plate.
 
 

From the other side the tracks, still not under the wires yet.
Glenn


 



 
 
 
 


 


Sunday 1 February 2015

Works at the 'Ammo' Factory.

As the tweaking of the track and rollingstock takes place with the new modules, the focus is shifting to the back scenes.  The Ammo Factory module will represent the industrial aspect of Victoria Street, with its open ballasted track and the new extra siding, it lends itself to more operational opportunities.

The building for the module is my rework of the classic Metcalfe Victorian warehouse kit, why reinvent the wheel I say, as with any other flat packed product, this offers a base from which you can start with, then it is a case of choose your own adventure, that is only limited by your imagination.
Therefore I cut off the bottom storey, and adapted it as an extremely thin low relief building (13 mm or so at the least).

 
A work in progress, poles, wire & ballast to come later.

Some of the windows were bricked up, some door places have windows, and an extra door was installed on the ground level.  The basis of the building is that the ground floor is workshop related, the next level is a light stores/technical area, then the top floor is for the administration/bureaucracy.

 
I made it up as I went along, the bricked up windows show the
retro fitted amenities/toilets, external plumbing to come later.

Like any bureaucracy, time keeping/wasting together with clock watching is a job in itself, this is why the 'Ammo' building has a clock mechanism provided from a cheap 'two bob' watch installed.

 
The tramways biggest bundy clock.
 
 
taking turns of moving the shift workers. 
 
 
An overview of the Ammo Factory module,
all 57cms of it in width.
 
As with most of the structures on Victoria Street, I only need a portion of the whole kit for my needs, the left overs will find a home in the 'asset register' for further use at a later date.

External and internal lighting will be installed, plus the usual debris of a working factory with weathering.

I could have wandered up the road to the West Maribyrnong terminus for more reference photos, but photographing government facilities in this day and age might land oneself in playing a game of twenty questions that maybe not worth the hassle, and definitely could not be considered as fun.

From the far end of the layout still not under the wires.
Glenn