On Her Majesty's Service

On Friday, the 9th of September I woke up to hear the news that Queen Elizabeth II had died. The world was in shock of the news although she was 96 years old it was still unexpected that she had died. 

She was the longest reigning British Monarch reigning for 70 years. She represented stability and provided reassuring presence in era that is constantly changing. She had enduring admiration across the world as she served her duty as Queen with integrity, resilience and humility. 

On social media, various tributes of the Queen Elizabeth II were posted with archive photos of her at various places where she made a Royal visit, at famous landmarks and posing in from of trains. 

The Royal Visit 1954

Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in 1952 after the death of her father King George VI. She was Queen at the age of 261.

In 1954, she visited Australia and it was an event that drew one of the largest gatherings across the country approximately 70% of the population of 8 million people. Cities and countries were adored with colours and decorations. Sydney Trams, locomotives (40 Class) and carriages were repainted or decorated to represent the Royal train. 

As my layout is set in the 1950s, I thought it would be appropriate to honour Queen Elizabeth II with a diorama of how she would of paraded around the streets of Sydney in a motorcade in 1954. 

I purchased a Preiser QEII and the Prince Philip intending to use them somewhere on the layout at a later date, however her timely death meant it would be appropriate to model a tribute to her. 

Above: A Tribute to the Late Queen Elizabeth II on her Royal Visit to the inner suburbs of Sydney 1954

National Day of Mourning of Queen Elizabeth II

The funeral was televised on the evening of the 19th September 2022 at 8pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time. It was formal but a solemn time of reflection of who the Queen represented and her legacy as I watched on the big screen. Australians received a full public holiday on the Thursday 22nd September where there was a funeral service to mark the Queens contribution to Australia over the past 70 years.

After hearing the service I spent the day reflecting and quietly modelling but that will be reserved for another post. 

RIP Her Majesty QEII. 

Above: Funeral Proceedings of the Late QEII

1.  Collis, Ian. Retro Sydney, Sydney, Australia. New Holland Publishers, 2013, p 76

Cornering the Scene

 It has taken me over 6 months to finally complete the far corner section of the layout where the Newtown road bridge stands and leads out to King street. 

Above: Looking south along the Newtown bridge. Early afternoon on a cloudy day

Concept and ideas

I basically started with a blank canvas but needed tall buildings or structures to fill in as much as the sky as possible. 

As this was a retail strip a set of shops rather than a factory or industry was needed and I wanted the illusion of the tram going out towards the horizon.

Right: This is a photo of the area to be modelled with the tram tracks along the street yet to be paved.

Buildings used:

I had a couple of buildings that I had built and used from my previous layout Bilby beach, a pub and I thought I could use that instead of selling it or discarding it. Rather than use the front I placed it with the rear facing towards the front of the layout so that I could include a painted advertising (homemade decal) on the rear. 

The other building I had was the Heljan drug store. I really like the Heljan Court House Square Series. These buildings although aimed for the US market are really good as early century Australian city buildings with a few modifications such as excluding the external fire stairs and repainting as well as changing the store type. Mine will be a typical corner store. 

I found ideas from Trove to search for corner stores that were typically seen around inner city Sydney before the advent of supermarkets. 

Other buildings used was to make another art deco apartments which I purchased from the Epping Swap and Sell meet some years back. I had used part of the building for another section of the layout so this was the remaining section. I really like the use of the bay windows so I wanted to have this feature stand out in the layout. 

 

The final touches to the scene was to add lights and billboards. To Australianise the signs I used the Blairline "Make your own sign"to make a Penfolds Wine sign. The same that use to sit on top of the buildings across from Taylor Square along Oxford street https://www.flickr.com/photos/29029178@N03/31052122238 

And Finally to give it more attention I decided to purchase one of the Miller Engineering animated billboards and try to choose a billboard that would of appeared in Australian cities. I chose the ESSO "Tiger in your tank" 

Here is the animated night scene

The Catenary Wires

It has been a while since my last post but all has not been stopped. Slow progress has been made with the Covid lockdown restrictions being remove over the last few months meaning less time to do modelling and more time with family and other commitments. 

I thought I provide an update on the catenary work that I have been doing since there was much interest on the Facebook Group- NSW Electric Multiple Unit Modelling Group. With the large range of Sydney suburban electrical rolling stock and motive units available I think it is appropriate that if these are on the layout that catenary wire is present. My 1950s Sydney layout Wardell needs to have the catenary wire to provide the realism. 

Below is my complete catenary gantry  representing the early style of catenary overhead used in Sydney when electrification took place in the mid 1920s.

Background

Most of the commercially available catenary overhead parts and supplies are from Europe mostly Sommerfeldt and now Peco. These represent the European prototype such as Germany and Switzerland. Southern Rail Models in Australia previously produced overhead stanchions both double and single track (Inside and outside) which provided a more modern look. All of my 1970s section of my layout, "West Wardell" and the area around Wardell Station uses these models. These are now no longer produced unless Southern Rail Models do a rerun of them. 

Above: Unopened pack of Double Track Overhead Stanchion by Southern Rail Models

Overhead Wires

Sommerfeldt have different length wires which can be purchased individually to be used for catenary wiring. I found on Ebay a couple of boxes of  Lima Golden Series overheads that were 33cm long (24 in a box). I purchased these years ago before I had my layout to provide the overhead. These are a bit thicker than the Sommerfeldt brand but more sturdier. To enable the wire to cover different lengths such as at turnouts and crossovers I just trim the wire on each side or cut it at the appropriate length.

Modelling the early Sydney catenary gantry

My basis of the overhead gantry used in Sydney during the early part of the 20th Century was a photo from Bergs promo of their U-Boat order form. I searched Ebay and google to find an appropriate model of the gantry that would represent this photo and found a laser cut one on Ebay from a UK supplier. I bought a pack of ten but these just sat in box of to-do-list for quite a few years. 

It wasn't until I was doing the double track section of my 1950s Wardell layout that I intended to work out how I could use these. After discussions with All Aboard in NSW I bought some Sommerfeldt insulators (#305) and extension for crossspan (#166) and cut these into lengths to provide support for the catenary wiring. I also used some of my off cuts from my Lima Golden Series catenary wire and held it together with super glue. To finish it off I painted the insulators white.