December 2013 Volume 4, Issue 12

OUR MEETING IN NOVEMBER We mustered 15 at Charlie Dearling’s place today.

Examination of the attendance book revealed that not all of us have taken our Imperious Leader’s stern exhortation at our last meeting to heart. Some of us are still not writing our names legibly. For serious crimes like this they would be dealt with savagely – if only our All-Powerful Leader could read their names.

But the carefully inscribed block letters ‘PAYNE’ showed that at least someone was trying to do the right thing. Well done, John! But then Tony Payne arrived. If they both do this, then how do we know who is who? Never mind, in time honoured tradition we’ll simply label them Payne the First and Payne the Second. Yes, but we still don’t know who is who, do we? And while we’re at it, who wrote “Foo was here” in the book? Legibly, of course. The meeting was called to order.

Announcements Our Convention chairman finally caught up with Mal

Risby and presented him with his ‘In Appreciation’ award for his contribution to the recent Convention where he provided a bus for the Ladies program at an extremely

competitive rate. Many of us contributed significantly to the success of the Convention and it has taken a bit of time to catch up with the lot.

Peter Weller-Lewis has drawn to our attention to the fact that John Kennerley has a very fine O scale model railway layout. But who’s John Kennerley I hear you ask? He’s Mister Kerri-Anne Kennerley, that’s who. Well OK, who is Kerri-Anne Kennerley then? The questioner was immediately accused of elitism and the meeting was again called to order.

Actually Mr K-A K has a very impressive British prototype layout, modelling the old GWR, and some pictures of it can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/jvqeyub.

By now a few memories had been stimulated and several other celebrities’ model railway layouts were mentioned, including those of the Little Aussie Bleeder (alias Norman Gunston alias Garry McDonald), Rod Stewart, Stephen Hawking, Douglas Bader and

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The Flimsy The Newsletter of Division 2 of the NMRA AR

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Hermann Goering. And let us not forget Benito Mussolini who may not have been much into modelling, though he did love indulging in complex operating sessions at scale 1:1 at Rome Central Station.

Checking over our meetings scheduled for 2014, we now have hosts lined up for most of them. Thanks go to all who volunteered – and thanks also to those who were subsequently ‘volunteered’. But we still have a problem. Our Intrepid Leader will be overseas for the January meeting at Mal Risby’s, so who is willing to run that meeting? Come on, chaps, now don’t be shy. With all mouths firmly shut and all hands firmly sat on, some reluctance to volunteer was sensed. Then – inspiration! Peter Dinham isn’t here today and he hasn’t submitted a written excuse, so he can volunteer to run our January meeting. Our Valiant Leader undertook to let Peter know that he has nobly volunteered for this dangerous duty. Another Achievement Award on the way?

Planning is now firming up for our Christmas dinner at the Delissio Restaurant in Curtin. Date is Thursday 12 December. For the start time, take your pick from 1900 or 7pm or 6 bells in the dog watch or when Mickey Mouse is on the 12 and Donald Duck is on the 7. For further details contact John Gillies or see http://www.delissio.com.au/curtin/

Graeme Hodges the First mentioned that he thought Fisher Discounts might be reopening shortly. Not sure about model railways but obviously it would be worth keeping an eye open.

Graeme also mentioned that Toys-R-Us have a Craft

& Hobbies section where they stock a good range of paints, etc.

Show & Tell Tony Payne passed around a list of HO scale rolling

stock from the estate of a deceased neighbour. He also passed a couple of the more interesting items around, including a World War Two railway gun train made by Lima.

Stephe Jitts passed around three items of OO scale rolling stock procured on his recent visit to UK. First was just a simple open goods wagon (Hornby catalogue no R6478) – nothing special really – apart from the railway station name along its side, namely Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Yes, that’s right! At least the spelling is correct even if the pronunciation had us tossed. If you doubt its existence, see http://tinyurl.com/ocg7sch for a photo.

Stephe’s second item was a dainty little Brighton Works AIX Class 0-6-0T Terrier tank loco (Hornby catalogue R2406). See http://tinyurl.com/qh4vbha.

The third item was the famous Flying Scotsman loco, looking magnificent in its original apple green LNER livery but fitted with the smoke deflectors and double chimney that came during its later BR period. This apparent anachronism is consistent with the some of the changes made during the loco’s 50-year life in preservation. This model has the corridor connection at the rear of its 8-wheel tender.

See http://tinyurl.com/phdyv5o for photos of the Flying Scotsman loco throughout its long life. Stephe’s elegant OO scale model (Hornby R3081) is one of the Limited Edition of 1000 which are on sale exclusively to visitors to the National Railway Museum at York.

Newly returned from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Iran and other similar unpronounceable places, our hosts Charlie Dearling needed to prove to the doubters that he’d really been there, so he passed around tokens from the Tashkent Metro and a ticket from the Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Operation Company. OK Charlie, we believe you now.

Ross Pratt showed an intriguing photo of a 4-wheel drive vehicle equipped with railway wheels, photographed in 1979 on the old Ghan line. This was the vehicle which used to carry the ‘entertainment crew’ from town to town along the line between Alice Springs and

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Marree. Their job was to operate the often primitive cinemas along the route, taking about a fortnight for the trip.

John Payne displayed four cabooses (cabeese?) typical of those once used by the Santa Fe, including a so-called ‘drover’s caboose’, considerably larger than the more familiar ones. We should note that on the Santa Fe, these cars were known as ‘Way cars’

Graeme Hodges the First demonstrated his recently purchased digital wireless 4.3” LCD screen and camera kit. This would appear to be suitable for reversing a car safely, but also has obvious applications to model railways.

Somehow – not quite sure how – we got a bit off the track. And then a mile off the track as the meeting spontaneously developed into a fascinating and detailed discussion of level crossings and their dangers. This led into a technical discussion of electrical aspects of level crossings where tram lines cross train lines, common in Melbourne. This enthusiastic debate was both informative and entertaining.

Sighing patiently, our Noble Leader eventually called a halt while there were still a few minutes left for the Main Show.

The Main Show When invited to take over, our host declined on the

basis that there was no way he could match the entertaining crap that had just been going on. Altogether too hard an act to follow. He then admitted that he had planned to show us a video of the greatest train chase ever filmed but couldn’t find the DVD!

So we adjourned for afternoon tea instead. z

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The Trials and Tribulations of living in Cooma

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www.nmra.org.au

Disclaimer: Any resemblance between characters in this newsletter and real model railroaders is purely intentional but no offence whatever is intended. Only the facts may have been altered to protect the guilty. Every reader has the right of reply and we look forward to publishing them!

National Model Railroaders Association Australasian Region—

Division 2—ACT Bringing model railroading to you

From the Editor:

Getting near the end of the year, just one meeting and a Christmas party to go.

As usual at this time, the hassle of getting hosts for next year’s meetings in upon me and also as usual, I have most but not all slots filled. So come on guys, especially those of you who haven’t had a meeting in a long while, get onboard and volunteer.

Following an accident at this meeting where a model being passed around was damaged (dropped), and similar damage to Show and Tell items at several previous meetings, from now on, the meeting host will be expected to provide a table / bench dedicated to Show and Tell items and no item is to be touched without the owner’s express permission. Hopefully, this will encourage attendees to bring out their more precious models.

Viv div2sup@nmra.org.au

News Next meeting will be at the home of Stephe Jitts

at his mansion at 22 Glebe St, Yass, NSW 2582 on Saturday 7 December at 2:00 pm

Remember, for those of you who have con-firmed your attendance, our Christmas dinner at ‘Delissio’, Curtin, at 7 pm on Thursday 12 Dec

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Mount Lyell D2 on the West Coast Railway in Tasmania on 18 November 2013. Photographer: Rob Nesbitt