Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? No, it’s a loco boiler.

​I have been dreading a certain bit of modelling. One distinctive piece of railway infrastructure at Dubbo was the sand tower. It was distinctive due to its height- being the second highest structure in the yard (and probably the city too). Here is a snap from the 1980s.

Thanks to a good mate on the south coast, I happen to have a plan of the tower. The sand container is 24 feet - 7.3 metres.  And it was hoisted 7.7 metres in the air. Yep, 50 feet is a long way up in the air in Dubbo.

The first thing you notice about the plan is that it isn't what got built.  But, with the Railways we all know plans were just to give you the vibe of things.  But I digress...

The sand tower was also distinctive because it was the only time a 57 class worked in Dubbo. To clarify, the sand drum was a condemned 57 class boiler, as noted on the plans.

The tower was also distinctive because it walked. Well, it moved, at least once that we know of. During the steam era it was located to the east of the loco shed, adjacent to the coaling tower. Once diesels needed sand, it the tower walked west to the other end of the shed.

I had resigned myself to not modelling the sand tower because I can’t afford to cut up a brass 57 class. And no one I asked would let me cut theirs up either. But yesterday something weird happened.

I was browsing a Canberra op shop, and did my usual ‘got any toy trains?’ line. In response the lady said ‘we have crates of them out the back’. Oh happy days! I was imagining Lassiter’s treasure trove, with Model Dockyard garratts and Trax 12s and good stuff. I was mildly disappointed therefore to find boxes of plastic British locos, molded to the rails. Yep, the collection of models which came with one of those overpriced magazine subscriptions.

I needed to hide my disappointment and, more importantly, I needed to buy at least one as an act of charity. Then my cunning plan hatched! While none of them looked like a 57, the 1918 Churchward 2800 class looked most like a 57 class.

Well, it sort of did look like a 57 class loco if you screwed up your eyes and pretended the lights were down low. So, No. 2861 became my boiler donor.  Remember, its the vibe!

Today I did some hacking and it may sort of work out okay, sort of, just perhaps. Well, there needs to be some filling and painting and weathering and a support tower need to be built, but or a dark rainy night it may just pass for something like the real thing. Here’s a sneak peak - just a location shot of the half finished water tank next to the half finished loco shed, with the not-quite finished coal stage in the distance, and the boiler sitting on a drill set (obscured).

But really, the sand tower is meant to be a thing in the background, which fixes the location as Dubbo. Here's a snap taken of 3649 hanging out of the western end of Dubbo shed in the mid-1960s (maybe as late as 1967). This is the typical shot I have of the sand tower in its original position - just hanging around as a blob in the background.

So, in that vein, here’s a shot of a hot day in Dubbo in the mid-1970s, where the near-new 4701 has been commandeered to work a trippy from Talbragar ballast siding (editor’s note: the IDR ballast wagons are simply gorgeous). The heat haze and the diesel fumes make it difficult to see the sand tower and coal stage as anything more than a blur.

See you in February!

Cheers

Don

Recycling is catching

Happy New Year!  I think I can say that still?

New year's resolutions are usually forgotten by about this time of year, or at least I seem to forget them until reminded in August or so.  So I have put mine into action, for once.

It is now three years since we escaped to the country, which also marks about three years since I hauled all my trains in their storage boxes into this part of the world.  And while some of these boxes have been disturbed since, several haven't and aren't likely to until I find evidence of Victorian Railway diesel locos hanging around Dubbo in 1968. 

In other words, finally having a layout which is pitched in a time and place has also finally focused my attention. 

I also discovered that, despite owning a lot of stuff I will never run again, I am in greater need of a whole lot of new stuff.  The immediate need is mainline rolling stock, of the bogie variety.  And there is plenty of 'new stuff' coming on the market over the next two years.  So, I hit the decision point - continue in my railway 'ark filling' approach, or get into recycling.

New Year's Day 2022 was spent finalising a list of items which need to go, and what needs to arrive, complete with estimated prices.  And, happily, they about even out! So I started listing and will continue to until the next round of purchases are funded.

The real winner in all of this activity will be a certain online auction site.  Happily a couple of locos have gone to people in a local club, while several hobby stores have already received the proceeds of sales made in January. And I have been on the same auction site, securing an abode for Dubbo's Darling Street gatekeeper and her family (thanks to a treasured reader of this blog).  So the recycling is going well at the moment.

Which brings me to a couple of mini product reviews. The On-Track Models TRCs and LLVs are just sublime. They run beautifully and look the part. They are so good I have to pair them with my kit built wagons to prevent them running off on my up-and-down trackwork, all on their own. The IDR BBWs are on their way and I suspect I will feel the same about them.  

Conversely, the Austrains FS passenger cars look the part and run like dogs - reminding me why I didn't buy them when they first appeared on the market a decade ago.  Their spoked wheels are going and hopefully that will improve the situation.  Several other bloggers have shown the way to reliable running for these FSs. Thank you to those who have walked this path before me, and written about it.

In all my website scrolling and drooling over what I may need, it became obvious that an additional 32 class was required at some stage.  As mainline rolling stock, rather than locos, is the immediate priority I wasn't really thinking I needed to act.  And then I read a post from one of the Ixion Models owners saying something like, "never say never, but we are unlikely to re-run the C32". Action time!

Within 24 hours, one of the few C32s remaining in the wild was purchased. It arrived last week. I only had the option of a green, maroon or a theatrically-lined 32 class. To remain consistent with the recycling theme of my resolution, I selected green.

Now, I know that even one green P class was unlikely to ever have made it to Dubbo, but now I have two. The Ixion low frame version sits to the right and front of the Trainorama high frame version, considerably brightening the view. 

I know, it is nearly a crime against modelling but both will go under the spray gun at some stage in the future.  I will probably need a cask of rose to get over what needs to be done, but weathered black is the dress requirement for all inhabiting Dubbo loco shed.

Until that dress requirement is enforced, watch for double green Ps on the Coonamble Mail.

Cheers,

Don

PS - the respraying will happen no time soon. It might be a New Year's resolution in 2027 or so.