Something's going on

The punters and traffic have been removed from the layout and are stored at the moment, rollingstock is in the process of getting a once over and a tidy up, track and infrastructure is being cleaned and tested, all of this can only lead to one thing, an upcoming exhibition. 

All is quiet on the western front.

 Playing the numbers game.

(Because you need to know what tram to call up)

Complete with pigeon holed up punters.....

 .....and take away traffic.

There is nothing that lifts ones enthusiasm than an impending exhibition date, as I have done some extensive work on Victoria Street since its last outing at the AMRA Caulfield exhibition during August 2014, I have accepted an invitation for the Sunshine MRC exhibition at Braybrook secondary college, the first weekend in August.

While I do get a few invitations to exhibit throughout the year, the combination of work/family commitments, exhibition dates and distance are the factors I consider, also I try not to over expose the layout on the exhibition circuit. The Sunshine exhibition works better for me for two reasons, one I have already been rostered three days off that weekend, and secondly, the venue is only a five minute drive from home. 

As I have exhibited at Sunshine before, it's will be nice to head back again, as it was here that Victoria Street made its debut as a small/micro layout in 2010.

My, my! How much has changed since then.
(Sunshine MRC exhibition 2010)

On an important side note, the curse of windows 10 has played merry hell with me posting updates to the blog, but somehow has not affected the operation of JMRI as far that can be determined, however I anticipate either some little issue before or a huge drama during the exhibition.

I know there are few followers of this blog will be pleased that Victoria Street will be out and about and have an opportunity to experience it first hand.

Looking forward to sharing Victoria Street from under the wires.

Glenn.

Stepping out of the comfort zone

Occasionally you can get a little bored of running on your own layout, so when the opportunity to give my girls a gallop in greener pastures came up, I thought why not.

The crew at Melton Model Railway Club also have dabbled into the NCE DCC/JMRI wifi caper, together with the Free-mo Au mob have had a couple of run days on their collective temporary layout.

So myself with a road case of DCC fitted trams and my NCE Powercab, hit the road and headed west to Melton.

 The city and the bush.

 Running away from home.

 Hunting in packs.

Loitering with intent.

Mixing it up.

 Even the old X1 went for a run.

 After some dramas with wifi router, everyone went retro with power/pro cabs plugged into the layout.

So all in all, a great day with a fair minded concept of a modular layout that gave the girls a good sustained run higher than half throttle over a decent length of track, thanks again to Adam and the crew at Melton for the opportunity to have a cracking run.

Not from under the wires this time.

Glenn

A little more Sunshine

As I stated in the previous blog, there is never enough time to take decent photos at an exhibition when you are exhibiting. A fellow exhibitor has proved me incorrect, Adam from the Melton Model Railway Club who was exhibiting their Free-mo concept modular layout managed either to delegate minions to run their layout or abandoned it completely to take these photos.

http://www.wolfpacfotos.com/index.php/Braybrook-Model-Railway-Show-2012

because most of my photos somehow ended like this....

It's either time for a new camera or new glasses for the operator.

From under the wires
Glenn

Two days of Sunshine

All is reasonably well after two solid days of running at the Annual Sunshine Model Railway Club exhibition, conducted at the Braybrook Secondary College Hall. As this venue is just a few kilometres (couple of miles) down the road from home, and this is the third time that Victoria Street has been exhibited there, it made for a rather welcoming and familiar event.

For the first time I could recall at Sunshine, Victoria Street was not the only model tramway exhibit in attendance, the crew from the broad church that is the Model Bus Association of Australia also had their layout 'The High Street' running a few trams together with an assortment of Faller powered buses and trucks.

This meeting of kindred folk allowed the free transfer of trams from one layout to another such as ....

Their A2 276 in The Met livery pauses at Railway Station

A2 276 on approach to the Racecourse terminus.

While Victoria Street was being dragged into the mid to late 80's, my trams such as SW6 870 and Restaurant Tran 939 were plying their trade in the very British surrounds of The High Street.

The other aspect of the exhibition was that I could reconfigure Victoria Street by setting the modules in a different sequence to that at home, so an entirely new 'feel' and operating system became Victoria Street for the weekend.

So from top to bottom for the weekend was, fiddle yard,

the bend, the railway station, the crossing square then the racecourse.

Therefore offered a different view of the street scape.

 Another angle of the railway station.

Now for the drama report, Bendigo Birney 29 decided to toast a motor, then an hour and half before finish on the Sunday an electrical gremlin made the racecourse terminus difficult to operate, so as per prototype, all trams were 'short shunted' at he Railway station before the gates, with 'bustitution' allowing punters to continue their journey to and from the racecourse.

Here is the link to the Sunshine/Braybrook thread on railpage, has some chatter plus some good members have uploaded photos of the exhibition, (because you never have enough time to take decent photos at an exhibition when exhibiting!)

http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11369827.htm

So, All thanks to the Sunshine Model Railway Club and their hospitality, and thanks to all those who follow this blog and all its links to other sites such as Youtube, Flickr, Micro/small Layouts and Railpage who helped put faces to names, and offered encouragement and appreciation, plus those who maybe inspired to have a crack at modelling trams. Thanks again.

From under the wires,

Glenn

On the road @ Sunshine

Roughly every first weekend in August, the Sunshine Model Railway Club conduct their exhibition at the Braybrook Secondary college (High School) hall.
For the last two years I have disassembled and recreated Victoria Street on site at this exhibition.

here are a few photos...

"Racing at Feehan's Farm"

"Just give me a moment, and I'll finish this bit of shunting"

"Am I wearing something of yours, mate?"