Well it’s been a while since we last took a little jaunt down Insanity Drive without a parrot, so completely off my own back (and without even the slightest bit of whisperings coming every 3½ seconds from the Bridget shaped object in the house) I’ve decided to do another corner. So here goes.
On our return from the Gold Coast show (wow it has been a while), we dropped in to our good friend Peter Krause’s new house in the beautifully leafy downtown suburb of that Place Near Ipswich.
For some time Krausey had been threatening us with our need to perform a visitation upon his house and shiny new shed. Finally we made it and I for one am REALLY glad we did.
Now, it’s at this point that I should take the time to warn, dear reader, of the horrific images that lay ahead in this chapter.
These images may be disturbing for some of you as they contain the following,
Images of O Scale!
Images of NSW models!
Ridiculously LARGE curves!
Perfect layout height!
And last but certainly not least…
Models made by or in conjunction with KIEREN HASKELL!
You have been warned.
That being said, I am told that a strange sound that remotely resembled an Adam style voice was heard saying “This O scale stuff is not bad”.
Despite my protestations of it being some form of native bird call, both Bridget and Krausey maintain it was me that made the noise… obviously, the jury is still out and whilst we await scientific verification of my bird theory, let’s get back to Krausey’s layout…
The layout itself is based on Tenterfield in NSW. The layout of the station yard is pretty well spot on for the area although it has been compressed in length a small amount.
When I say a small amount, I do mean a small amount. Just the station building is 3 FEET LONG!
This layout is just impressive, no matter how you look at it. The details are exceptional! There is no fancy rare or freak occurrences (like car crashes etc) to draw the eye, just a small slice of rural NSW.
from the station and yard, which still has a dairy, meatworks and other associated industries to be added to it, the trains round the largest curves, either Bridget or I have ever seen on a home layout… 8 FEET RADIUS!!!! No matter what you’re interested in, these are just impressive.
Adding to the wow factor on Krausey’s layout is the fact that he has it set at a realistic height. The amount of great layouts out there that actually look awful simply because they are set too low is ridiculous.
So it was very pleasing to see what is (in our opinion anyway) the perfect height for operating these massive trains and viewing the scenes.
Once around the curves, the layout arrives at an as yet incomplete station and yard. This will be where the traffic from Tenterfield gets martialled into it’s respective trains and other associated industries can do their thing.
Just before reaching this point, however, a rather interesting set of points has been placed, this is going to be the branch leading to Krausey’s version of Wallangarra. for those of you whom have never heard of Wallangarra, it’s the break of gauge station on the Queensland/NSW border.
Obviously, such a massive station precinct as therer was in Wallangarra will need to be compressed a little bit but it will house his staging yard and justify his rather extensive collection of O scale QLD models!
This was also the first time either Bridget or myself had seem some of the brass models Kieren had built in the flesh. first off was the NSW 44 class.
These were made as a partnership between Kieren, Krausey (when he owned O-Aust Kits) and Peter Berg of Berg’s Hobbies in Parramatta. These are a superb model, not to mention MASSIVE! and they run beautifully… obviously sound is a must for something like this.
These models were something the boys were working on right at the time that Kieren and I did the first RTR wagons for Queensland. So I’d heard a lot about them and was keen to actually see one in the flesh. Bridget was even more keen to run one… and she did.
Next up, Krausey appeared from the house with his CPH railmotor.
These were another model I’d heard a lot about and they were produced by Kieren in conjunction with Chris Harris and roger Porter (formerly of Warratah Models).
These, are an AMAZING model… Not that I am even remotely interested in the CPH, just the detail in them is stunning. My favorite part is the truss on the underframe. Just BRILLIANT!
Whilst Peter Krause and I have had a long association through Wuiske Models and O-Aust Kits, we made a lot of patterns for their kits. We rarely got a chance to sit down and run trains or even to admire the models. We’re happy to say we’ve rectified this.
Whilst I am still mildly annoyed with the existence of that place called New South Wales and have no interest in their railways personally, I can and will say that I kind of get it now. I can see the attraction towards O Scale and the NSW rural scenes.
So I think it’s safe to say that both Bridget and I had a Fantastic time with Pete and thank him for his hospitality. I think it’s also safe to say that we won’t be doing any more of this O Scale stuff again… Oh wait, Krausey has an O scale QR layout that we can talk about publicly now.
I guess we shall see how we go.