The LNER Encyclopedia

Always good to see progress, best of all when it's hand-made. Much more interesting than something ready-made, straight out of the box.

Is the Pacific bogie still free-standing? Looks a long way forward...

Nice cab edging there: did you bend it or cut a curve?

G'Day Gents

Graeme, the front bogie is just resting there at the moment, I've got to make a bracket for it, lot more fun making loco's for yourself, but I have to admit, I've just managed to pick up a brand new Hornby W1 Grey 10000 body, I'll build another chassis for it, maybe the SEF chassis !!

Chas, The beading was made up from quite a few bits, glued at one end the slowly bent to shape, good job the glue softens the plastic rod which is a big help.

manna

G'Day Gents

Well the tender saga continues, lol. The main body is good, the front plate was fudged, close but no close enough, (see pics below) which will be modified, being plastic it isn't to difficult, I'd would've hated to have built it in brass and been wrong. Also I have also built in the wrong wheelbase, 6'6"x6'6" instead of 7'x6', ah well, I now have a nice tender for a J3 or............. you can't have to many GN tenders.

manna

G'Day Gents

Another day another tender .The original tender has been modified, didn't need a lot to make into a Stirling tender for a J3. a new Ivatt tender, with the correct wheelbase.

The J3 is slowly creeping forward, with another tender to build.

In between all that, a short wheelbase cattle wagon is taking shape, I want to get all these project finished before I hit the road to Queensland again, only a month to go.

manna

Excellent multi-project juggling!

G'Day Gents

Well, I didn't finish any of those projects, but they are all wrapped up waiting for a resumption on modelling, with many other things on the go, modelling has taken a step backwards, I have travelled to Northern Queensland, and I've bought a house, am old house sitting on 1.5 acres of unkempt garden, it's had 'No Love' in 30 years, took me two weeks just to clear enough to get the van onto the block. Settlement took place yesterday. So it's now all mine. A lot of money will have to be spent to make it habitable, but long rests will be need between work on the house and land, the long rests will give me time to get stuck into my modelling.

Today will see my modelling bench unpacked.

manna

Nice photos Terry, wish we had that sun here! Hope everything goes smoothly

Terry - glad to hear you got the house - so that means this is where you'll eventually get around to building the next layout?

Hope to catch up when you come back for summer down south. One day maybe I'll get to visit you up north but not my next trip which is for our annual convention which is in Brisbane this year.

Andrew

G'Day Gents

Sorry if my replies are a bit slow, the internet is a bit intermittent at times.

Thank you Chas. Oh, plenty of Sun, mid 20's everyday, in the last three weeks, only two very light drizzly showers (10 mins) but it can get cold at night, down to 4c.

Hi Andrew. Yes you are correct. I will be building the next layout here, I'll be back down South by November. Catch you then. I Just have to decide when I want to put the layout !

manna

G'Day Gents

Sorry a long time since I've written any thing about what's going on. I've been slowly attacking the garden vegetation, with the help of my Brother-in-Law and a neighbour, who has access to a tractor and slasher, many hours have been devoted to raking all the dead grass up, it now looks a lot better, but we still have some way to go. One the house front, the Roof has been made waterproof, with a 'Patch' over the rusty bit, had a few heavy showers, no water has leaked in. Most of the old moldy carpets have been removed along with old 'Lino', nice hardwood floors were underneath.

The outside of the building has been covered in Cement sheeting, again to make it waterproof, (we're heading into the 'Wet' season) A septic tank was found under 3' of dead grass, this has now been cleaned out and a new lid fitted, the toilet has been refurbished and everything is in working order, Plastic water pipes have been installed (above ground) to supply water to the caravans, toilet, bathroom and washing machine, in the lean-to part of the house.

I have recently started to replace some of the timbers in the walls as the 'White Ants' have eaten them away, some of the walls are only supported from the Roof !!!!

manna

Hi Terry
Glad to hear you're making progress.
I'm currently on my way to Melb with my wife's cousin for a train weekend. We're going on Steamrail's Snow Train to Traralgon in Gippsland on Sat - should be double Rs! Then I get to go to the main Melbourne Model Train Show on Sunday.
But at the moment we're stuck in Petwood loop in the Adelaide Hills because a freight coming the other way has split its load - probably a coupling breakage! They're reversing apparently to see if they can recouple - I guess they carry spare couplings. We're told that hopefully the delay will only be an hour? So it's not only on model railways that we have coupling issues!
Andrew

Good stuff Terry! Restoring things - houses, machinery, good spirits - is always heartening and satisfying; hope you'll be very happy there!

G'Day Gents

Hope you've managed to get to your destination Andrew, or are you still waiting on the train !!!!

Thanks Chas, yes love building stuff.

Some more pics.

manna

Hi Terry
Yes we made it but about 3 hours late. They did at least give us a free dinner on the train but of course the delay was beyond their control.
Went to Camperdown from Melb on the Warrnambool train today - just for lunch really. VLine is very cheap, a return seniors ticket, a total of 380km only $5. $10 if I wasn't a senior.
Snow Train tomorrow with R761 and R711 - 14 cars apparently.
Andrew