Christmas 2018

Happy Christmas to all the blog followers and all the best in 2019. Thanks for your support and 

remember to blast into Coles New World and get your Christmas hamper.

With the progress done this year the 1970s section  West Wardell (I have yet to confirm that this will be the name) has all the buildings completed with only minor scenery to finish. 

Hope to be back at Wardell in the 1950s in 2019. 

Die Schweizer verbindung (The Swiss Connection)

For the love of Trams

October was a busy month, with our family having the opportunity to return to Basel, Switzerland for a holiday. We hadn't returned to Basel since 2014 so it brought back memories of riding on trams, travelling on the superb train system and visiting our local neighborhood. I lived in Basel for 6 years from 2006 and this is where my love for trams was born as I heard the trams every day and found it an efficient means of getting around. We use to live in the Gundeli and our nearest tram stop was Heiliggeistkirche where we caught the 15 or 16  number tram. My time in Basel inspired me to do a layout on the Sydney tram system although I was not born during the time of its operation. 

Above: Picture of our local tram stop . Photo taken taken back in December 2006.

One distinct feature of the visit was seeing and riding the Basel City trams new low floor Flexity trams replacing the ageing Duewag GT6 trams. As usual, a trip to Europe is not complete without a visit to the local model train store to obtain those hard to get items not available in Australia. It was sad to note that two of the stores I use to visit have been closed. One being the main one in Basel city centre.

Above: a picture of my spoils October 2018

 Parting notes

 Whilst we knew it was a holiday it was very sad and difficult to leave Switzerland with our precious time with our friends in Basel and using my German. It gave me inspiration that I hope to return to Europe one day on a more longer visit so that I can become fluent in German and also ride trains and visit model train shops along the way.  Bis spateer der Schweiz

Modelling Basel town

Although there are no plans to build a model of Basel town with its trams and central station I did have inspiration to find and purchase a Duewag GT6 Model on Ebay. This is not in Basel Stadt livery but is close enough in colour. This is a ""Vestiche" German livery made by Rivarossi.  As yet I have yet to find a tram for the Baselland Transport (BLT) yellow and red livery.

1. https://www.bvb.ch/de/ more information on the Basel city transport operator
2. https://www.blt.ch/ more information on the Basel land transport operator

Groundhog day - revisiting the lighting

It is has been over a year since the lights have been working on the layout and it  was only finally finished yesterday evening. Below is the finished lighting with the added detail of a newspaper stand and added detail of figures.

Back to the wiring

Last year, I had a friend who electronics inclined view my layout and looked at the electrical wiring of the lights etc. I have a mixture of LEDS and bulb lighting installed , But both were supplied by AC power using a Tyco transformer I had lying around. 

However, he advised that the LEDS should be powered by DC and not AC. Using AC will reduce the life of the LEDS and they will flicker. He suggested purchasing a AC-DC rectifier which was about a dollar from Ebay. 

Above: Ebay rectifier.

He also tested the LEDS for voltage and suggested that the LEDS should be wired in two in series with a maximum of 10 LEDS per recifier. I had 25 LEDS on the Petersham (Wardell Section) of the layout. 

As I had to pull up platform and footbridge I decided to improve the wiring placement as well and include a newspaper stand.
Morning News
Before the internet commuters use to purchase the morning and afternoon newspaper. In Sydney we have the afternoon paper The Sun. I remember my mum, purchasing it. As I had set my station in the 1950s a newspaper stand would be appropriate. As I did not have a lot of space on the footbridge I needed a very narrow breath kiosk.
I found a Metcalfe OO/HO laser cardboard kit in Hobbyco in Sydney CBD as the basis of the newspaper stand.

Above: Metcalfe 00/H0 Platform Kiosk

Learning from previous mistakes I decided to test the wiring prior to installation on the layout. Below is the footbridge and ticket office.

After many months of wiring testing and installing three rectifiers which hold 24 lights between them the layout, the layout is now looking good for night operation.

Arts and Crafts

In high school, we had a subject in Year 7, Art and Craft it was never that interesting until the last semester were were able to do model making. At the time I was into military WWII model making in 1/72 scale and built a Matchbox Wellington bomber flying over an airfield.  Whilst I have ditched the military modelling, I continue to enjoy is railway modelling .

One of the interesting aspects of railway modelling is researching the topic and  its history. I wanted to model an Australian residential building that was part of the Sydney landscape that included a bay window. 

Search

I had been searching for ho buildings with bay windows but only found the IHC Homes of Yesterday and Today series to be the only one that may still be available. These kits are based on the Painted Ladies Cottages in San Francisco with the clapperboard look and narrow width. I did not find these kits available easily. 

Above:  IHC ho house kit 

And Find

Two years ago at the Epping Model Railway show in Sydney in the secondhand stand, I had found one of these buildings built up.  Since then it has been lying on my shelf until recently. 

I wanted to add an apartment on my layout that would be able to feature the front of this kit. 

Above: Start of the cut up the sides, rear and roof were scrapped.

A discussion with a friend as well as reference books being lent provided me with ideas for the building. 

I stumbled upon the architectural style Federation Arts and Crafts Federation Arts and Crafts

By cutting up the front and extending it's width made it a more grandeur building. I also added a high pitched roof and a circular window feature.

Above: Building prior to painting, Roof tiles are made from Noch self adhesive rubberised tiless that I purchased years ago whilst I was living in Switzerland.

Apartment  - Federation Arts and Crafts style
Below is the completed Apartment next to the Art Deco apartment. Both which are on Trafalgar St Wardell.

Sharpening my skills

My third building that I modeled along Trafalgar St, is another small business which is located at number 311. This previously housed the offices of Annandale Saw Works. An internet search has revealed that they were established in 1950 and had their office their even a a couple of years ago with contemporary paintwork of the building then the brickwork of the 1950s. According to the internet it has since moved to Villawood in Sydney's West. Today the offices have seen better days and houses a printing office

Completed Model

Above: Completed model based on photo as 1950s photo per my previous blog The little tram that could

The completed model was built using the Hardware Store Smalltown USA kit and various DPM modular wall system kits

Steps to build

I chose the Smalltown USA Hardware store as the basis of the facade of 311 Trafalgar st because it had three large windows for the first floor. 

So based on this front facade I cut the ground floor level off and then used various DPM modular wall sections to make up the ground floor consisting of a street level large door opening and a semi-circle door entrance as well as modifying the shop front sash window. 

Below is the start of the building facade, a bit rough that at least it provides the basis for the front of the building. 

Painting and weathering. 

I used a cream tone house paint that I had as the basis for the mortar and then used various shades of brown to represent the brickwork. Based of the photo I tried to used less dark coloured brown. basis as the foundation of the mortar 

Bases

Decals 
As stated previously, signage really assists in setting the scene for the model as well as assisting in setting the time period with period fonts and period businesses. I could not read the wording on the original photo per previous blog post as to what was written before and after the words of "Annandale Saw Works"so I used my modellers licence and included the year it was established and a 1950s phone number using 2 alpha characters and 4 digits LU-2346. The decals were homemade using the Testor decal kit and my  inkjet printer.

As it stands today

The building still stands but has seen better days with graffiti on most of the building. This was taken in 2012. 

Welcome to Trafalgar Court

One of the charming architectural styles of the inner suburbs of Sydney is the Art Deco style apartments such as those built between 1930s and 1940s. I have loved the old style features so much that I have lived in these style apartments in different times of my life and wanted to have a model this type of building on my layout.

Final Touches

This is the finished model placed with brick fencing and lawn I will also add lighting too. The car in the foreground is a kit bash car to represent a 1948 Ford Anglia Tourer

The search begins 

Having trawled through the internet looking for apartment buildings, most of them were either the European style buildings or New York style apartments. There was none commercially available that had a Art Deco appearance with curved frontal facade until I searched Shapeways and found and ordered the NSW small modern signal box https://www.shapeways.com/product/NSW-modern-brick-signal-box-small
.

Colour and Apartment Name

I painted the building a red brown brick colour with a touch of orange and also decided to give it a name since most apartments at that time were given a name to give some prestige. My apartment has Court in it so I decided to use Court and Trafalgar represents the road that it is on, so it is called Trafalgar Court. I tested a number of fonts on the computer to get an Art Deco type font. 

Above: Testing Art Deco font style