An aside

I've just recently taken time out from construction of my 'Railway Pier' module to build an NAB carriage to 1/4" scale as a gift for my Dad on his birthday (what a son!). 

The underframe has been scratchbuilt from brass sheet and section, bogies are from Ian Lindsay, and the body and roof were scratchbuilt from laminated styrene (I do hope Frank Kelly was wrong when he said it the styrene might warp in time!).

The eagle eyed might also notice that, in the absence of a 1/4" diorama, the model is featured on the deck of the under-construction Railway Pier.

Working to 1/4" scale was very rewarding (and certainly much less fiddly than 3.5mm!), and I plan to do more modelling in this scale in the future.  A possible future 1/4" VR broad gauge microlayout?

A holiday at the beach?

Well, just logged in and realised how long it's been since I last posted.

Between then and now much has progressed.  Work in the attic continues (it always does when you're doing it yourself!), but 1/3 of the flooring is in place. 

Given that converting the attic is a big job work has begun on a module which can both be used stand-alone (with a fiddle-yard) and form part of the larger layout once built.  The theme of the module is Railway Pier circa 1900-1910.  Since I didn't have 7.51 metres to spare the pier will be truncated to a 1.8 metre length with the intention of an 'atmospheric' re-creation showing the hussle and bussle of busy Port Melbourne during that time period.

More pictures will follow once the diorama starts to come together.

En-guard!

Having used the 6-wheel Z van underframes for the X/Y carriages, I was left to find a purpose for several spare Z van bodies.  The solution: 34ZH.  A shortened version of the iconic van, only four of these were ever made, and each was fitted with a booking office.  After use on the metropolitan system, 34ZH finished life as part of the Ballarat breakdown train from 1911 until 1956.

To make the van I have shortened the Z van sides to fit a Steam Era 10'6 underframe and added the booking office windows on both sides.  The usual details (screw link couplings, SEM buffers, Model Etch vacuum hoses) have been added, as well as the corrugated 2nd roof layer so widely used on VR during the earlier part of the 20th century.

Rolling Stock Updates

Whilst we await further layout space in the developing attic, progress continues with rolling stock construction.  Currently underway in the workshops is 54X, the final of 3 pre 1900 style 6 wheel passenger carriages.  A photo of the constructed (but unpainted and unglazed) carriage:

And now a photo of finished model 212Y:

Both models are made from a Steam and Things etched brass fret (ends and sides only), Steam Era 6-wheel Z van underframe (with altered brake configuration) and brass buffers, and Model Etch vacuum hoses.  The roof is scratchbuilt from styrene and Smith's screw link couplers fitted.  As with all my rolling the stock the painted model has been lightly weathered for artistic effect.