So after about a six month break from the world according to some demented long haired train obsessed bikie with a part time business breeding sacrificial tennis balls for those REALLY obscure cults, it’s that time again where the more adventurous of you will join me on a gallop down Dopey Drive on a slightly broken wooden horse.
The honest truth about why there has been no real updates is that Bridget and myself have just been working with our unmentionables to the grindstone, lining up our ducks to produce a weird duck related calendar and some models that we’re rather proud of along the way.
Whilst on the surface of it, Wuiske Models have released some much needed bogies, a rerun of the popular HJS wagons and some track with Kieren…
We have been working very hard in the background on some more items that will hopefully start coming online in 2022. And will make a significant difference to QR modellers everywhere.
At the top of our list of priorities is our new Wuiske Models factory. This has been progressing fairly well considering that it’s 2021 and everything is in short supplies, cannot be produced or cannot be delivered. As always, we’re continually trundling along in our quest to manufacture and mass produce Queensland models right here in Queensland.
Obviously, the most important part of all of this “business related” construction is the layout room. I’ve touched on this in the past… briefly. Many of you have been trying to offer suggestions on locations to model, suggested ideal radius for curves and similar things.
In short though, we’ve got it sussed. Essentially, this is planned to be the layout I’ve been dreaming of since I was around thirteen years old… But with some actual knowledge added in. Well, maybe.
The basis for the “dream layout” was always Normanby Yard.
Those of you whom have seen the video I filmed back in 1994 at the age of 15 should be painfully aware of my desire to model this yard.
The only issue, I discovered as I learned more about operations, was that Normanby is essentially a “hidden staging yard” that’s not very well hidden and has had some static grass spilled upon it. Obviously, we’ll need to extent outwards from Normanby to avoid a layout with lots of track that is actually as boring as a pacifist’s pistol.
In parallel with my not so secret interest in Normanby Yard was my interest in Gympie.
The old Gympie station was at the Northern end of a bottleneck for Queensland Rail. The Blackall Range to the south delayed trains heading north for decades. The upshot of all this is that pretty much all photos of Gympie Station show a collection of trains waiting to “jump South”.
What a great idea for a layout right? Having a complete set of Working Timetables from 1990 in my possession, I was able to see the sheer volume of trains using this corridor on a daily basis and they worked around the clock! If you then start leafing through the Suburban Working Timetable, you come see just how many “trip workings” and “hospital trains” as well as light engine movements QR was running even in 1990.
So, having a rather stupidly large shed at our disposal and having produced enough HOn3½ track to sink a few scale models of battleships with holes drilled in their hulls, perhaps we should start looking at modelling from Roma St to Gympie as a layout.
This will include the Wamuran Branch, leaving the main at Caboolture station, the Mary Valley Branch running from Gympie and a fictitious “Western Line” running from Gympie. There will also be another branch running from Roma St to a version of the Pinkenba Branch.
Each of these branches will be around 90 feet in length with the Mary Valley Branch being possibly up to 180 feet in length. The main line will be just under 500 feet long. We anticipate that the layout should be able to accommodate around 20 to 25 operators with all aisleways being a minimum width of one metre.
But more of all this later, as the plan progresses further. It is customary at this time of year for me to make mention of that morbidly obese celebrity with the unusual reindeer and red pyjama fixation…
That’s right, after a strict diet of milk and cookies, the diabetic North Polite will be hauling his increasingly girthsome frame around the world racking up frequent flyer points with Air Venison to drop off some cool toys to all the good children.
Such thoughts bring back fond memories of the lumps of coal he would leave me under the tree on Christmas morning. Oh how my brother and I used to play. We would let our imaginations run wild and whilst they may have been mere lumps of coal to the casual observer, in my mind they could have easily passed for lumps of quartz.
So with my head swimming with fond memories of playing hide and seek with my lumps of imagined quartz, it’s time for me to extent a massive thank you to you all on behalf of Bridget, Aidan, Michael, Lab Matt, Hayden and myself for another wonderful year.
Whilst this year has been more trying than a midget judge being shot in the chest with an arrow, only to discover an electricity bill tied to it, we’ve still had an absolute ball and made some more great friends and seen the Queensland modelling community grow even more.
With any luck, all of you will have a VERY happy Christmas and a safe, prosperous and enjoyable new year.
We have many things planned for 2021, not least of which is our big move and even bigger layout. As always though,
we shall see how we go.