Sunday, 16 May 2021

Model Rail Exhibition Overview And Other Stuff

Just as 2021 was looking like that Model Rail Exhibitions were not going to go ahead at all. All of a sudden, the Kaleen Exhibition at Canberra and Easter Model Train Expo at Diamond Creek confirmed that they were a go. I ended up getting involved in the above mention two events which were only a week apart from one another. First one at Kaleem where I supported my Club Layout of Wingello and the other at Diamond Creek where my recently completed N Scale Layout of Jindalee was exhibited. As I have already touch on these Exhibitions already in my last two blogs, I do want to show some of the preparation work before an Exhibition and the Exhibitions themselves to reflect on the good hard work that other Clubs and Railway Modellers have done.

I will also reflect on my bridge build for my Scale Layout of Jindalee and what my plans are moving forward, plus the other activities I have been doing in the Month of April.

32nd Canberra Model Rail Exhibitions at Kaleen

As mention previously, this was the first time I have been to this exhibition and I was rather impressed on this event. There was a great range of Layouts, Stores as well as a couple of Model Rail Clinics.

Austrains 44215 Weathered up for the Kallen show. Unfortunately, it did not get run on Wingello this time around. Maybe the next event whenever that will be.

Austrains 44232 Weathered up for Kaleen.

Not modelled to look like this ICV Van has been in an incident, but an after effect of one of the items that got salvage from a house fire. This ICV Van ended up getting weathered and placed behind the goods platform as it does look like it has been damaged from a derailment.

44232 passing through Wingello.

Rob P's Gunning N Scale Layout. A lot of locomotives and Rolling Stock where scratched or kit built.

Ballast Train Stopped at Binalong.

3830 Passing through Goulburn.

4001 Approaching Goulburn.

Upcoming IXON model J535 which was "Borrowed" did few laps around the Wingello Layout. From what I can see it was a smooth and powerful runner.

Easter Model Train Expo Diamond Creek Victoria

This was for me first time to have gone to a Model Rail Exhibition in Victoria as an exhibitor. Certainly half the fun was the Trip to Diamond Creek which involved chasing down 3801.


Jindalee, Gunning and Gunbower all setup on the Friday Afternoon ready for the Weekend ahead.


A Point to Point Layout that is still under construction is modelled on the Melbourne Fish Markets during the early 1900's. Most of the items (including Locomotives and Rolling Stock), have been scratched built. Looking forward for this layout to be completed. Also good to see an example of layout under construction at exhibition to give the public a bit of an appreciation on how layouts are built.


Robert P N Scale Layout of Gunbower.

Activity on Robert P N Scale Layout of Gunning.

Completed O Scale Building.

American HO Exhibition Layout with a lot of activity happening on it.

Here is an example of a Micro Layout in HO Scale. Great that Micro Layouts were given the opportunity to exhibit to show what can be done if you have very limited realestate.

3801 At Albury Railway Station as Part of it Easter Running Program in Souther NSW.

Modelling Jindalee Bridge
Im going to show more the pictures on how the bridge build for my Jindalee N Scale Layout progressed.




















Other Railway Modelling Activities in April 2021
Outside of the Exhibition activity, I managed to get back to the work bench and decal a couple of N scale Gopher Models 44 Class locomotives The Indian Red Livery 44 got numbered as 4405 and the Reversed Livery 44 got numbered 4457. Certainly great to finally to get around sorting these 44 class locomotives for one to have a number and secondly weathering them to look the part when they were in production.








Weekly Modelling Night
Late April, I have been invited to a good Model Railway Friend of mine workshop to do a weekly Railway Modelling night session where we bring in something to Model. My current Project is the Converting a Camco FO Carriage Kit into a CCA Carriage kit. Hopefully I can show you all the outcome of this project in my update for May. This will be a pice of rolling stock that I intend to run on my Narellan Layout. 

Camco FO Kit with CCA conversion kit.

Butchering up the FO Kit for its CCA Conversion.

Getting Back to Muttama
I have taken over a two month break on my Muttama Project. The N scale project of Jindalee and the Exhibitions have been a good distraction and have some what got me rejuvenated me to get back working on Muttama. Current task is building the Gatekeepers Cottage. I will cover more on the Gate Keepers Cottage in build in my next Blog.

Muttama Gate Keepers Cottage.

Well, what an awful lot of model rail events and activities that I have been involved with in this last month. Plan now is to focus on enhancements on Narrellan and getting Muttama completed.