It's been a while but there was some movement on Wallarah Creek yesterday when a mate brought his rollingstock over to "give it a run". Work on the layout has ceased as it looks like it may be sold now as I will be moving into a new house that i'm building soon. Depending on the budget, it remains to be seen if the Minister of Finance will allow a shed to be built. Until then I will concentrate on the backlog of projects that were started but not finished.

Lloyds 82 Class

This has been bugging me for quite some time so on went the thinking cap. The problem was my Lloyd's 82 Class was "bottoming out" on the fuel tank. This was probably due to the weight of the motor which made the chassis sag in the middle. I have two of these kits and both have the same dilemma. So after some thought I found a piece of scrap aluminium angle and modified it to fit on top of the chassis with the motor mounted on top of it.

I experimented with a flat piece of aluminium but it didn't have the same strength as the angle. With the body mountings fouling the angle, pieces were removed from each corner and filed to suit. Holes were then drilled using the existing chassis as a pilot then secured with the original 10 BA screws.

The motor, mounting, couplings and final drives were re-assembled and all re-wired.

A small piece of cardboard (yellow) was added to stop earthing. It was then tested.

A completed 8220 in the background with a straight chassis while an unfinished 82 in the foreground still being assembled. I have also added pieces of thin lead inside the body for extra weight as it is to light.

As for Wallarah Creek, well it's on an extended holiday but hopefully things will start rolling again in the foreseeable future.

Long time between drinks.

It's been over a year since I last posted as things have been pretty hectic in that time. Still I have managed to finish trackwork in the yard and currently in the process of fitting point motors and started wiring.

Also I have been building a few kits in the very little spare time I get. I bought a some Lloyds kits a few years ago and they have been sitting in the cupboard gathering dust. I have two EL, a DL and an Explorer kit with an intermediate car. The Explorer has been painted and only needs some flushglazing, decals and a bit of weathering to finish.

The DL is ready for the paint shop and I have sourced some decals from Al at AR kits. It will be in the AN livery as will both the EL classes.

That's it for now but I have a few days off work at the end of the month so more work will be completed...... Hopefully!
Cheers.

Slow Progress

Progress is slowly being made on the staging yards of Wallarah Creek. With being on holidays and taking the family down south for our annual pilgrimage to Merimbula, it has left little time for anything else. Also the Christmas decorations took a few days away from the "Creek" and the long list of jobs the wife had given me.

I also could not help my self when I saw Train-o-rama had selected 44 classes going for a steal at $150 and purchased the NCR 4488. All it needs now is a heavy dose of graffiti and weathering.

 So with Christmas coming up, I maybe able to get something up and running. I have two mates who are very keen to visit for a running,BBQ and beers day before chrissy. Sounds good to me.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Where it all began

Wallarah Creek began way back in 1998 in a spare back room. This was my first attempt to build a modular layout and as such had no formal planing except for the one in my mind. The layout is based on Wyee which is on the "short north" between Sydney and Newcastle. Why Wyee? Well I had always been interested in the operations of loading fly ash from the near-by Power Stations, which took place there until the early 00's. Also my father work briefly there in the mid 70's. The period that I decided to model was from the introduction of electrification in 1984 till when the bridge over Mannering Creek was replaced in 2004. It was also around the same time that the loading facilities were decommissioned. Wyee has been done as an exhibition layout before (WYE NOT) so I used a near by creek as it's new name.

 In 2005 I was told by the missus to vacate the room, so plans were hastily drawn to build a 6 x7 metre shed in the back yard. The only regret that I have with it is I didn't line the inside and include air conditioning and a loo. Anyway work slowly progressed and the base boards were completed. In 2006 all that halted as our first child arrived. Having to work in Sydney and being a father severely limited time in the "Shed" as the wife would say. I must be a glutton for punishment as child #2 arrived in 2008. Even so some work has progressed and a change in job location (40 Min's away) has helped the cause.

Welcome

Welcome to Wallarah Creek. In the next few week's I will be posting progress on my HO layout.