Getting down to the 1 in 87

My last few posts have concentrated on stuff which is scaled 12 inches to the foot, but this one will head into the realm of HO scale modelling.  I am still a few weeks away from getting the final go ahead to use my new shed for its intended purpose, but this has given me time to get in a complete frizz about what to build.  And to work myself partway out.

When I got the keys in May, two things struck me - how big it was, and how small it was.  It was bigger than I had in my mind, which made me think I should probably do more with it than fill it up with model trains.  Then I realised how small it was when I started thinking about clearances and how things would go with cars and trailers and the rubbish a family accumulates.

As I have crawled around on my knees, blocking up little spider/snake holes and the like, I came to one of two basic types of plans.  The first is more 'authentic' to the layout of Dubbo, Eumungerie and the like, but limits scope for operating the layout other than out to the Coonamble branch.  

The alternative plan eats up a fair bit more car space, so it will just have to go outside (as if it wasn't anyway). This alternative involves a mirror reverse of Troy Junction, so the locals will be scratching their heads.  But it also means I can run more prototypical trains west of Dubbo to Bourke and Parkes (via Narromine), as well as east to Werris Creek.  In fact, trains will head off to Werris Creek and return via Narromine to Dubbo (how magical is that?).  

Plan B also gives me the option of a long loop which, if I can power it adequately, will end up being the thing I use more than ever as descend into being a lazy old coot.

So, Plan B it is. I dug out a copy of the 1962 Western Division Working Timetable. I was a bit gobsmacked by how much traffic went through Dubbo in those days. Six days a week it was between 32 and 37 mandatory trains.  Then of course there was all the grain, stock extras, shunting trips to Troy Junction and banking east of town.  That sealed it for me - Plan B it has to be.  How else am I going to justify owning all this stuff if all I do is run the Sunday timetable (8 trains)?

So, the surveyors are in.  First board is up and I am competing with constructors on the east coast who are very much better baseboard builders than this little old broken down public servant.  here is the first board for posterity!

There has been some off-site progress too.  It remains unpainted and unweathered and yet to sink into the Talbragar River, but my rendition/interpretation of the infamous Talbragar Bridge is ready for all of these things, plus rails. Next time it is photographed hopefully it will look a bit more like its inspiration.

 And finally, I bit the bullet on Dubbo's coal tower.  I have bought and built the kit version (of Orange - don't look too close). Dubbo's version was a bit taller, with a timber collar around the top of the bin.  I have also cheated with the stairs. They are ring-in plastic stairs which probably don't look as authentic as the stairs in the kit, but I don't have the skill, time or patience to construct according to the maker's instructions.  It too still requires a final coat of paint, dull-coating, some lights and a few other things, but I am happy with the result. So happy, this afternoon I evicted the little spiders who had taken up residence in the tower between coats of paint.

So that is about where things stand.  Now the mornings aren't averaging minus four and the torrents have subsided, I might even get out the shed!

Cheers,

Don

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100 not out

For my 100th post on this blog I thought I would do something a bit different - thank people.  I seem to be forever the lucky recipient of information, things and advice.  And it is no different with this blog and my endeavours to record a few things about the Coonamble line (and to model it).

Not sure where I'll start with the thank yous, but an early one probably should be the bloke who has hosted my/our HO version of Eumungerie for the better part of 5 years in his garage (with once mentioning the rent) - thanks Dad.

Then there are the family and friends who send stuff my way, or who don't mind being pestered by my questions.

There are a special breed of people, known as readers of this blog.  Looking back at the comments and advice I have received over 99 blog posts, I think you can see a pattern of people very patiently explaining to me what I had failed to observe or adding to the story.  These comments are like gold.

And then sometimes it goes to a whole different level. A mate of Dad's who is no longer with us handed over his Roundhouse version of 2103. It is always good to see a 21 in action at Eumungerie, about a century after the prototypes plied those rails.

And then we get to the most recent piece of generosity.  Here is a shot of the nerve centre of Eumungerie, around 1985.  

Overlooking all the fancy levers was a diagram, sadly somewhat damaged by the local hoons.

A second sign was affixed to the wall inside what became the safeworking hut at Eumungerie.  I never photographed it because it never occurred to me it wouldn't be there.  But then it was gone.

But now it is back, thanks to a loyal reader. A call came out of the blue. Would I be interested? Oh, yes, indeed. Bob, thank you once more, you are a gentleman and a scholar!

Soon the sign will be back doing what it does best - assisting safeworking through the perils of the (HO scale) yard at Eumungerie.

So, thanks for sticking with me on 100 posts and thank you all once again for participating in my great folly.

Cheers,
Don

From the 4th estate

I have accidentally just rediscovered a slew of newspaper clippings I have downloaded from Trove over the years. They show that a quiet country town can have its fair share of tragedy, natural disasters and entertaining moments over the years. Lets see if I can cover off a few of the rail-related ones.

The first noteworthy incident occurred prior to the official opening of the railway when, on 11 February 1902, a Mr William Carroll was struck by a train from Eumungerie.  The two reports (from the Sydney Morning Herald and Broken Hill's Barrier Miner respectively) differ in the circumstances of the accident. Unfortunately for Mr Carroll, the outcome was his demise later that day. Apologies for the gruesome reporting - it leaves little to the imagination.

In May of the same year drama occurred closer to Eumungerie when the special train returning patrons from the Dubbo show broke down.  The entire train returned to Dubbo to obtain another locomotive.

In 1915 a rail-related death in most unfortunate circumstances occurred when a telegraph linesman fell to his death after the pole he had climbed snapped. The telegraph line ran adjacent to the railway, and through the railway yard. Mr Prince went out in a seriously unlucky way.

It wasn't all death but gloom was no doubt widespread throughout the village in early June 1931 on the morning after the Eumungerie Hotel was destroyed by fire.

Perhaps gloom returned a couple of years later when the local church was also destroyed by fire.  I do think that perhaps the correspondent was having a lend of us by offering the only 'reasonable explanation' for the fire.  I personally can't think of a less reasonable explanation than the one proffered.

Getting back to the railway stuff, Mother Nature played havoc with the line's operation at times.  On at least five occasions it resulted in the Sydney Morning Herald reporting washaways along the line - in March 1914, December 1920, December 1929, November 1950 and August 1952.  All five reports are reproduced below. I think the people impacted by the 1929 washaway, who were put up overnight in the Eumungerie Hotel, probably got the roughest deal!

1914... 

1920...

1929...

1950...

1952...

 

And now for the other dramas... it must have been a slow news day on 9 December 1933 as a minor derailment in Eumungerie yard was reported.

A potentially serious situation for the people involved in the following report in July 1935 has a fairly humourous backstory - the shadowy criminals at the centre of the story were most likely looking to tap beer barrels stored in Eumungerie yard.

The 'Mr Jones' in the preceding story is one of my paternal great-grandfathers. The other, 'Mr Hewitt', made the news for another effort in September of the next year.

I'll wrap up this post where it started - Dubbo - this time with a collision in Dubbo yard.  Hopefully the typeface is sufficiently legible to convey the circumstances of the accident, which caused another 'Mr Jones' to suffer a head injury.  Yes, another relative of your blogger, in this instance, a grandfather.

Until next time!

Don

1 sleep to go

So, bag packed, cameras charged, tickets purchased, weather forecast appropriately predicting rain. One drive and one sleep to go. Barring a medical emergency, a mechanical breakdown, what could go wrong?

I thought I would post just a few photos in a premature celebration of being able to head up the Coonamble branch line behind a steam loco this weekend. Each poses a question?

Will the railway bridge be able to take the weight of the train like it did this day in 1963 when 3088T nimbly trotted across it? I am not concerned about the Garratt making it across, but I am worried for those in car A if one of their travellers has pigged out on sausage rolls for breakfast earlier that day.
 

Next question: will it be as wet on Saturday as it was when the following photo of the approach to Eumungerie's yard was taken? The answer is, yes, of course! Every time I ever head to the country to photograph train I make it bloody rain, without fail. I should be rewarded for this talent. 

And finally, will we be as comfortable as these sheep seem to be when they were behind 3262 passing through Eumungerie? Answer: I hope so.

So folks, you may guess that I am fairly excited.  Will hopefully update this blog by the end of this weekend with the results of this trek.  By curious irony I won't get a photo of a Garratt at Eumungerie as we are there for a whole 4 minutes and (quite reasonably as there is no way to disembark), there will be no way to grab a couple of shots.

Cheers,
Don