Night Moves

Since the exhibition, Victoria Street has sat on the shelf in the study undergoing a little bit of work, it required some mood lighting. Therefore a quick trip down the the road to the $2 shop (pound store) a set of cheap 100 LED Christmas light set was bought and stripped down.

Here are some of the preliminary photos of the work in progress.

 

The Railway Hotel Hotel after dark.

 

 

The Chinese Restaurant and Milk Bar.

 

 A quiet night in suburban Melbourne.

 

From under the wires

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 beach or on the road?

At the moment Victoria Street resembles the final scenes in the cinematic classic
 'On the Beach' (1959, MGM). A movie based on the book of Nevil Shute, a post apocalyptic drama set in Melbourne after a nuclear war (rather heavy themes, then again it was the cold war)

Victoria Street

Movie/DVD poster

Epsom Road

actual final scene from movie

No in reality, Victoria Street, is getting a good clean, and the trams a good shakedown before I drag the whole show down the road to Braybrook for the Sunshine model railway club exhibition next weekend (August 4th & 5th).

So all the punters and the road traffic are currently spending the next week inside zip lock bags as the fun process of dismantling the layout takes place.

From under the wires

Glenn

Whether to weather.

For quite a while the fleet on Victoria Street resembled the pristine operations of a museum, this did not truly reflect the cross suburban nature and theme of the layout.

In reality, trams get grubby, sooty carbon residue on the roof of car due to carbon insert trolley shoes, road grime on the trucks and bogies, some slight dilapidation in the appearance of cars heading towards the end of their running life.

Trams that seemed to be rostered on the very few cross suburban routes or running race/footy specials were like the small kid being picked last in sport teams. They are there to make up the numbers.

The next question, is how am I going to weather the trams, using an airbrush in the house would not go down well with domestic authorities, so therefore a water based, tidier solution would be needed.
Enter the use of watercolour paints, the bride has a vast collection of pallets and colours that could be experimented with. The other thing is if I go a little heavy handed with the medium, it could be washed off, the model, the bench and the new carpet if needed.

To alleviate the beading of the paint on an enamel painted or  plastic surface a dash of dish washing liquid was added to the solution to break down the surface tension.

SW6 964 working a football shuttle after some weathering.

(cigarette ads and yarra trams logo never actually co exist)

SW6 870 & W5 800 also show some neglect on the bogies and roof.

SEC Ballarat 28 shows its vintage

(This is a reworked Tyco/Mantua Trolley)

Overall I am quite happy with results, you could easily become slightly OCD with the concept and start weathering everything.

From under the wires
Glenn

Lights, Camera and even more distractions

Here is the video I was trying to create, using the small cab mounted video camera and the family camcorder, together with Windows Movie Maker.

The video features W5 800 travelling from the railway station to the racecourse and back again, the in cab footage was shot from Y 469.  Other trams include SW6 870, SW5 812 and SW6 964.

So sit back and enjoy three minutes that you may never get back again.

From under the wires, Glenn

Service Improvments

The W class fleet has recently been expanded, after acquiring two, 'motorised' Cooee Collectable trams courtesy of a 'scatch and dent' sale, both cars were deemed inoperable therefore offered at nil reserve on ebay.

SW5 812 & SW6 964

After delivery the faults were as follows, 812's bogies were separated from the body, and after 10 minutes of refitting them, ran like a treat. 964 looked intact on initial inspection, but on removal of the shell, signs of 'well intended tinkering' proved that the wires had been disconnected from the motor, a quick heat of the soldering iron, and 5 minutes later, another success

I have always been interested in these RTR models, but bauked at the full retail price ($220+ AU) per unit. So I bought the static version of these models and motorised them with the cheep and cheerful mechanisms from Bachmann Brill Trolleys. This allowed to create the myriad of variations that exist within the class range from W5 though to W7, with center doors, weather blinds, multiple marker lights, saloon window configurations and paint schemes.

Here is the How to video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POCHD_iE89g

The pair of SW5 812s, The RTR version at the rear with the wrong door,incorrect windows

and the 'filled with brown' to the window sill line. The Bachmann powered

unit highlighting the clear drop center section of the tram.



The pair of SW6s, with the similar issues as the SW5s.



 The inner workings of the RTR version.

The inner workings of the Bachmann powered version which

allows the drop centre section to be filled with punters.

W5 800

The RTR trams weigh in at 265grams (9.3oz) compared with the light weight Bachmann units of 187grams (6.5oz), also the RTR are fitted with directional and saloon lighting as bright as burning magnesium that would render any travelling punter as blind as a welder's dog, this will addressed in time. The RTR trams also negotiate both the crossing square and the bend on Victoria Street with ease.

W5 795 at Bylands

As for the future of the new cars, RTR 812 will become W5 795, and its mechanism will be swapped with my Restaurant Tram 939 ( as it has no window glass in the lower door), as for RTR 964 the doors out 812 will be installed and austerity retro painted and decaled with MMTB monograms and non pc (cigarette) advertising.

The roll call

W5 800, SW6 964, SW6 870, my SW5 812 & RTR SW5 812.

From under the wires, Glenn.