The iron age.... corrigated.(not quite)

The 'Victorian Cottage' has now received a good old fashioned roofing, with corrugated iron (made from aluminium foil), the creases and dings/dents add to the character that I like adding to this card model.

 

All roofed, now for the weathering 

 

 

I am also trialling the installation of fibre optic lighting on structures, mainly for external exposed light globes (the back yard light), as it is only a temporary set up for amusement a LED torch light is providing the light source at the moment, therefore the temporary set up.

 

 



fibre optic and blutac at one end...

 

 

the outside light at the back.

(a warm white LED will be used)

 

 

The front before the veranda.

It will have a porch light.

 

 

Apologies for the slow progress on this model, as I am having a lot of fun with my own 'Victorian Cottage', 1:1 scale. These houses are the high maintenance blonde of housing, they need a fair bit of effort and cash to look good, and if you do not lavish them, they can look 'trashy' very quickly.

 

 

From under the wires and in a heritage overlay.

 

Glenn

 

 

 

 

 

Behold the material of the future....fibro.

The washhouse got a make over on the 'Victorian Cottage', as in true post war suburban style, it received a clad of fibro cement, it may not rot, warp or burn but it takes paint rather badly and tends to look mouldy.

All it needs now is a smashed panel courtesy

 of a stray cover drive playing backyard cricket.

 

 

 

No real secret, office paper glued directly to the model,

strips of paper for battens, given a few heavily diluted washes

 of acrylic black paint to give it that mouldy fibro look.

 

Now to add the external plumbing and the weathered corrugated iron roof.

 

from the old inner suburbs next to the wires.

 

Glenn



The housing issue

After the refit of the man cave, one long forgotten kit has been found and now is in the process of being assembled, the 'Victorian Cottage'.

Now the definition of a 'Victorian Cottage' can start a civil disturbance amongst architects and historians, this card kit more leans towards the Edwardian era (1901-WW1), in real estate speak it would be marketed as....

'Position and Potential'

"this delightful Edwardian home, with subtle Victorian influences close to public transport, features three bedrooms, separate kitchen, laundry, toilet. Period features throughout (OFP), this unpolished gem is a diamond in the rough. Primed for renovation(STCA).

The collection of lean toos.

(note the criminal friendly louvered windows)

In the real world it should read....

'Position and Potential'

Positioned close to fire station, Potential fire trap



"this unrenovated Edwardian home, with unknown influences next to noisy public transport, features two bedrooms and a cupboard, separate kitchen, laundry, toilet.(all built in dodgy lean to style) Period features throughout (OFP) (open fireplaces that has no other heating), this unpolished gem may have asbestos throughout. Primed for demolition (STCA). (subject to lengthy council approval and heritage overlay).

It might need an old couch on the porch and a few

 Tibetan prayer flags before it can pass off as a university

student rental.

 

This kit looks a little too clean, while I do like its various 'lean to' extensions at the back, the house will need weathered corrugated iron on the roof and as for the wash house (right at the rear) will need to be retro fitted with a dodgy fibro cement finish and some external plumbing. This little cottage needs to be grubby to represent an era before the tide of 'gentrification' swept through the inner suburbs of my little part Melbourne.

This has so far been a fun little build, then I will have to build another module to 'house' it.

more to come from under the wires.

regards Glenn

Deutsche Straßenbahnen in Victoria Street

I had a couple of days off, so I decided to throw a decoder into an articulated ROCO Cologne Duwag that I picked up cheap off Ebay. Given that these trams are single ended with doors on one side only, and Victoria Street does not have balloon loops for termini, The modellers licence does get a fair bit of artistic extravagance.

Now these trams run on the right hand side of the road, the doors are on the their near (right) side, the trailing end may have basic controls for reversing in depot and other occasions. For Victoria Street this tram has 'doors' on the other side (away from viewer), the tram can drive from either end, and as for the scenario for this tram, it is operated by a museum in conjunction for an Oktoberfest at the racecourse. (now this draws an incredibly long bow)

The usual treatment of fibre optic marker lights and hazard lights, with saloon lighting and headlights. A fun and challenging retrofit.

 

Yes, even side hazard lights were fitted.

 

 

The Oktoberfest shuttle waits for 870 to proceed

before using the station crossover.

(Note the new headlight fitted to the 'trailing' end)

Die Deutschen wissen, wie man ein Modell entwickeln
(The Germans know how to build a model)

Unter dem Kabel,
für Glenn

Service Changes (again!)

"Service changes will be in place for Victoria Street all day Wednesday 29 January.
This allows us to allocate the six trams that normally operate this route to other areas of the network in order to provide a more balanced service.

• Buses will replace trams between The Railway Station and the Racecourse. Where possible replacement buses will stop at existing tram stops. At the Railway Station, buses will use a temporary stop on Victoria Street, opposite the tram stop.

Tram replacement buses will operate to the normal service frequency. However, they may not arrive at the scheduled time. The Tramways suggests you allow extra time for your journey."

The bustitution continues as in life

'Didn't this happen the other week?'

 

 

From under the 'decorative' wires,

 

Regards Glenn.

Some street theatre.

In my time I have observed some unique behaviour around trams, and considering they have been plying their trade for over the best part of a century, one would think that most locals (Melbournians) would have figured out how to interact with them by now.

So, as a form of community service, (not imposed by a court as part of a sentence), I have uploaded a etiquette guide for tram passengers, utilising the punters of Victoria Street.

Here are couple of photos from behind the scenes...

 

"Places please people, and rolling..."

 

The old Ricoh takes a lovely macro shot for a point and shoot.

Here is the video on Youtube, take notes there may be a test 



 

From under the wires and if anybody wants me, I'll be in my trailer.

 

Regards Glenn.

 

 

 

What we have here is a failure to comunicate.....

While all is well and good with the physical refit of the man cave, then one thing came along and bit me on the arse. The magic that consists of a whole heap of ones and zeros failed to come to the party.

As someone who spent most of his working life beating machinery into submission, the dark arts of data transmission along a couple of pairs of wires has me stumped.

For one reason or another, I could not for the life of me get the engine driver on the smartphone to communicate with JMRI on the computer via Wi throttle on wifi. Which in theory proved that my initial set up for smartphone control of Victoria Street was pure luck, of the lottery kind.

The original setup using the antique laptop that still runs windows XP, that now requires plugging in an external monitor as so to actually see information on a screen, While I could call up a throttle on the screen and use it, therefore the JMRI was working, but the wi throttle sent out server and port information the smartphone could not pick up, even when the numbers were punched into the smartphone (REPEATIVLY!!!!). This also applied to the bride's I phone and I pad.(ARGH!!!)

The smartphone was connected to the wifi, yet neither were playing the game. I phaffed about with firewalls, tried to use set port numbers, googled inane requests for help, and nothing worked. What really sent me spare was that I could use the internet on the ancient laptop via the wifi router!

The original set up.

 

 

What went haywire

 

 

So in a moment of genius, I thought, what if I loaded up JMRI on the 'good' laptop, brilliant! The program was loaded, a few tweaks, here and there, and bingo, under a trial operation before plugging in the DCC-USB interface, the wi throttle was transmitting server/port details to all available wifi devices.  However, some clown who will remain nameless managed to stuff up the loading of the driver for the DCC/USB interface, so therefore communication between the good laptop and DCC/USB interface no did not work.

 

 

From the frying pan and into the fire

 

This is where a normally very patient man, who can drive in peak hour without an even raising an eyebrow, and follows a football team that has not won a flag since 1954, is about to lose his mind.

 

Enter the IT guru, (the Bride) with questions like, "Did you read the instructions?" and  "Have you ticked the compliance boxes?"

 

Within two minutes, the bride has done something that certain clown did not do, and as I witnessed a wry smile on her face, she pulled out her smartphone, connected to wi throttle, ask me what tram number to enter. (812) then proceeded to 'cut a notch' and 812 trundled off along Victoria Street. 

 

Yes, she is a keeper.

 

 

The improved set up

 

So now I use the ancient laptop for programming DCC, and the good laptop for the occasional  multiple running with wifi.

 

From one very happy household under the wifi,

 

Regards Glenn