Run of the Mill

The main building feature for the Newtown section of the layout is the large flour mill and the accompanying silos of Crago Flour Mills. The modelling of the silos has already been detailed in July 2019 Blog Post so after over 3 years this section of building is way overdue. 

Above: Frontal view of the completed kitbashed Crago Flour Mills

Background and Prototype

The Crago Flour Mills siding and buildings has been part of Newtown since 1896. It was a working flour mill until 19881 so it would be appropriate that this would fit my period of 1950s as an operating flour mill and siding with hopper.  Various fields trips were made over the years to view the flour mill from across the road and whilst on the local suburban train to get an idea of the area and building size and features. 

Above: Photo taken from a moving suburban train taken in September 2015. The mill has been repurposed as art studios and the silos as apartments. 

Above: Siding Diagram of Crago Flour Mills sourced from ARHS.

 Modelling the Siding and Flour Mills

In the prototype there a quite a number of sidings that were part of the mill. However, due to space and the fact I did not find a source for the sidings diagram until after I laid the track I only have 2 sidings. Modelling of the Crago Flour Mills was the most difficult challenge as there was no ready made model of the building so scratchbuilding or kit bashing was necessary. My modelling skills are not as professional to tackle a scratch build and I would require detailed architectual drawings to do a thorough job. Instead I opted to do a kitbash and search for various buildings kits that have curved window buildings and large rectangle windows to give the look of the Crago Flour Mill 

The Models & More Bradbury building laser cut kit fit (no longer available) the bill whilst the DPM rectangular window design bulk pack was able to give the look of the 3 storey building. The Bradbury building facade required alot of plaster/polyfiller to raise the level of the walls I also need to fabricate the curved brick sections that are raised around the windows. Brick plasticcard was used to layer over the plaster to represent brick rather than the wood look of the kit. 

Above: Plaster was used to raise the level of the Bradbury building wall facade in order to sit proud  rather than indented as the kit.

Above: Brick plastercard glued on after the plaster.

Above: Open kit of the DPM Designer Bulk pack 

Roofing was made from model corrugated iron sheets and the loading dock was made from a spare peco station platform facade. 

Detail and scenery

Even though there is a siding area there is still a large amount of work to detail and do scenery to bring the models to life. One feature that is timing consuming and tedious is building the chain link/factory fencing. I used a combination of LJ Factory Fence and Gates Kit (no longer available) and Walthers chain link fence to create the fencing around the siding area which at the time of writing was still in progress. The use of metal or plastic posts gluing wiring framing onto the posts with super glue and then cutting the fabric mesh "grill" was a test of my patience. 

Other details I have added include 5 Ton Crane, woodland Scenics ground cover using a mixture of colours and a signal box and working yard lights.  I hope to post more photos in the near future but I am glad this build is now or less complete.

1.  P 176, John Oakes, Sydney's Forgotten Sidings, Redfern, NSW; Australian Railway Historical Society, NSW Division; 2017.

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.

Life mimicking Art

 Start of the Shopping Strip

I am now onto the third area of scenery to build which includes the King Street shopping strip of Newtown. There are many challenges in detailing this area compared to doing a country scene:  

1) I need to build alot of shops and buildings probably about a dozen so it will take sometime. 

2) They need to look different and genuine as if they are Australian Victorian shops rather than kits that have been built and place down that look "out of the box" and appear to look like it is a town from American or Europe.

3) I need to give each shop/building some unique individuality as well as giving it an Australian "look".

4) Signage and decals need to look periodic.

5) Some form of order and planning needs to be done as to where building are to be placed.

As a result of the above my first attempt at this was to build a cake shop representative of my spouse who loves baking. 

Above: Completed Leona's Home Made Cakes Shop painted and detailed with signage

Planning

I searched the Internet for a number of sources for photos of cake and pastry shops set in the mid twentieth in Australia. This was used to get ideas of the style of the shop frontage as well as font types. The main difficulty is that a majority of photos were in black and white so I had to look further by a decade to find colour photos.

The Build

The Cake Shop will be positioned at the back of the layout at an angle and will be a low relief building.  I had a number of kits I previous purchased and only used parts of it. One was DPM Sams Hardware which I used the first storey of the shop for my Allandale Saw Building. I still had the rear and sides of the building as well as the ground floor, front shop section that I had not used. 

I am now learning to reuse more and more of my model bits and pieces rather than discarding them or leave them lying around for a "future project".

For the first storey of the building, I wanted to make it look different and had a partly used "Models and More" Bradbury building with the arched windows. This distinctive feature I thought would look Victorian in style and would be great to add to the front of the building.

Above: The "Frankenstein" of modelling some kit bashing taking shape bonding two different kit types together a plastic kit and a wood laser cut kit.

Other Detailed features

One distinctive feature of Australia shops is the presence of the awning which are held together by cables attached to building to ward off the Australian sun. American and European shops are absent of this feature and I wanted it to be present in my model.  I also added a top feature for the building as a distinctive addition to Victorian era shops.

Signage and Decals

An important feature in dating a building is the signage. After doing my research I chose colours and fonts that represented the era I was modelling. I used my trusty laptop and Publisher software to print this out on photo quality paper to ensure that the signage would stand up to some beating. This will be used for the awning signage as well as building signage something that is no longer common these days. I also photo-shopped some photos for use as window displays and interiors that looked appropriate for the period.

Above:  A copy of one of the artworks I did using Publisher using photo size template

Besides printing out artwork on photo paper, I also made my own decals for the building signs to be respresent the painted advertisements that use to adore side building in its day. I used my Inkjet printer and decal paper spraying on matt spray after the print to bond the decal down.

Above: Side view of the Cake Shop showing Decals applied.

Two 4 One

In my last post, I had completed the scenery section of the Wardell Goods Yard area. However, I had not built a structure to cover the point motor. I sought a number of options to find a suitable structure. 

Above: The completed 2 structures built from one kit - Signal hut and a Tram Shed.

Signal Hut options

The Peco point motor adaptor base PL-12 was bought incorrectly when I made a visit to Hatton's in Liverpool, England. I was there back in 2006 and when I purchased a number of items they didn't understand my Australian accent and place that item in my shopping bag instead of another item but now I can't remember what that was.

Rather than having surplus items lying around I decided to use it on my layout.  

I needed a structure that would cover the motor but also would look prototypical of my NSW suburban layout so a Peco or Wills Hut would not be suitable.

Above: Point Motor above baseboard in place

PC2 Rail Central Kit

There have been numerous articles on how to scratch build the PC station buildings over the years. The release of the Rail Central PC1,2 and 3 station building kits brought the idea that I could use the kit in some form. However, building the kit as is would not be suitable for my suburban layout. 

The PC1 Kit would have been too small and the PC3 kit would be too large. The size of the PC2 kit would measure favourably to cover the point motor.

Kit Building

After measuring the area of the point motor to cover with the hut, I decide to cut the the length of the station wall from the waiting room section of the wall to be used for another building. I had to use styrene to complete the end wall of the new building. 

Signal hut PC2

The signal hut was built pretty much as per the kit after I cut the on third of the length off to make the other building.  I didn't use the awning and also had to appropriately trim the roof length to measure the new shortened building. I also had to reduce height of the water tank stands to ensure it under the roof.

Above: Finished building covering motor. 

The Tram Shed

The tram shed was made from the waiting room section of the kit. The awning was also used. However, the roof was completely scratchbuilt from Noch Pantile red roof texture sheets. 

I added federation roof tips from plaster and also guttering. 

Covid lockdown building - the Wardell Goods Yard

Since 26 June 2021, Sydney has been in lockdown with Covid restrictions with movement for only essential reasons such as shopping for groceries. This is the second time the Greater Sydney region has been in lockdown since the Covid Pandemic that begin in March 2020. 

The lockdown gave me ample reason to finish off the goods yard. I didn't have the dedicated time to complete with a start-stop approach reducing my motivation. However, four weeks into lockdown and I have been able to complete the Wardell Goods Yard

Above: Completed Wardell Goods Yard

Kits used

The Wardell goods yard area to be modelled is to represent the area of the Petersham goods yard that is currently occupied by the Transport Training Centre. I have made a few changes using artistic license. 

The kits used include the following:

Uneek Weighbridge and hut - the yard had a weighbridge in its day but was later removed. 

Sentinel Yard Crane - A yard crane was located at the yard but later removed

Uneek 5 Ton Crane Concrete base and stairs - To complement the Sentinel kit that didn't have a concrete base. 

Uneek Working Yard light - The yard light modelled was used in many NSWGR goods yards so I have installed one. 

Southern Rail Models G1b Goods Shed - This is smaller shed that the prototype but I decided to use this instead due to the small footprint. 

LJ Industrial mesh fencing - Industrial fencing used from a leftover kit to fence the area from the roadside. The prototype has something similar 

Sommerfeldt #300 and #388 - For the ending mast for the catenary and tension system. 

Scenery begins

The area is fairly large in comparison to the total layout and I had left it untouched for a number of years although I had completed the station. The varied terrain and the incorporation or a working tram line was one of the main stumble blocks. The gradient of the tramline had to be amended in order for the tram to navigate the steep incline. I have found a solution but this will be discussed in a later post. 

Above: Photo take in October 2020 showing the work required to scenic the area. 

1) The first thing I dealt with was incorporating a terminal mast for the siding that had catenary. At Petersham there was one siding that had electrical wiring and I wanted to incorporate that. 

Above is the Sommerfeldt kits unopened and the completed end terminal kit in the yard. This was completed in last 2020. 

The yard work was left dormant until the June lockdown this year. Where I had time to get to work on the scenery. 

Steps: I started with the backscene and reused an old LJ corner store card model and cut it in half and used it as a low relief building. 

Step 2: The road and footpath alongside the goods yard was done next done. I use 800 grade sandpaper for the road

Step 3: The Industrial fence was next and this was quite tedious since the road is curved and the terrain is uneven. I used a number of techniques to try and hold the fence up. 

Step 4: The Uneek Weighbridge and hut was next built using the instructions provided without any modification. 

Step 5: An corrugated gate and fence was added at the entrance this was remains of a Walthers kit I had used previously. 

Step 6: The ground cover was next made of a coal dust, asphalt and real dirt from my garden. The real dirt was dried in the oven and then sifted. 

Step 7: Woodlands Scenics foilage, fine and course turf using various colours and different grades of foilage was then used. The dark green colours were added along areas which were less trafficiated

Step 8: Trees were added along the perimeter of the yard from the inventory of trees I had on-hand. 

Step 9: I added vehicles from my collection, a Weico FC Holden Ute, Weico Ford F100 tray truck and I modified a Weico Bedford TK using a Peter Young longer wheel base and adding further details such as under carriage, side mirrors and driver. 

The completed scenery is shown in the top picture.