Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for 2020. Hope to get more work done on Wardell 1950s section of the layout. Here is a typical Aussie scene. It Looks like dad got a new Aussie Charger for Christmas.

Juicing the Frog

Powering the Frog

I had heard all this talk about powering the frog and it wasn't until I started to retest the West Wardell section of the layout that at the points the locomotives would sometimes just stopped. 

An Internet search found these Frog Juicers from Tam Valley Depot I bought a pair of Dual Frog Juicers to power my four points on this section of the layout. One of the key reasons for using them as that I still wanted to hand-throw the points and still have power in the frog. . 

Whilst I had thought they were fairly expensive, I found them easy to install and faultless in design in ensuring no short occurs when using DCC electrofrog points. 

Above: Unopened Dual Frog Juicer

Road testing the Frog Juicer 

Here is a video of the test loco going through the points

Bottom view of Frog Juicer 

View of the frog juicer in action with the lights changing.

 

Buy a Chrysler Valiant. For All the Right Reasons

Recap of the Valiant Cars

Following on my previous post in June 2018 in getting some 3D prints of Chrysler Valiants, I finally made a model of my local Chrysler Dealership which was Boyded Chrysler Lakemba. It was situated on 804 Canterbury road. The building is still there but the dealership is long gone.

Above: My complete version of Boyded Chrysler on my layout.

Building the Model
Walthers has a Car Dealership Kit called the Wayne Bros. Ford Dealership and I used this as the basis for the Chrysler Dealership. Like all Walthers kits the footprint is far too large for my layout so I did not include the rear workshop building and used styrene to add the missing rear wall. 

Above:Unopened kit of the Wayne Bros. Ford Dealership Kit by Walthers

Above: Commencement of the build as per the kit 

Change to Australianise the kit
I decided to detail the interior with period advertising, furniture and available scale model Chrysler cars.
I also change the Ford emblem, add streamers across the car yard and replaced the Ford signage with a custom built a Chrysler/Dodge/Valiant signage both based on vintage photos available on the internet.

Above: Pictured left to right : Road Ragers Chrysler Valiant VH, Road Ragers Valiant VG Pacer,  Reel Rides Plymouth Fury convertible 1967 GTX , Masterpiece Plymouth Fury 1968 aka Dodge Phoenix and  Ricko Plymouth Hemi Cuda

Adding further realism

To give the finishing touches, I included period sale advertising on the windows of the showroom with the "Hey Charger" and sticker price. Car salesmen and customers were added and their clothes were painted in 1970s brown colours. 

To coincide with the street lighting, I used 2 x Faller white light interior lights for the interior of the showroom and also added LED to the signage and used LED Street lamps purchased from EBAY.

Final Remarks

Whilst the slogan to flog Valiant sedans and wagons with "For all the Right Reasons"did not appear to work and they were never as popular as the Kingswood or Falcons,  what did sell well for Chrysler Australia was the masculine image car, the Valiant Charger. With its catchy slogan  "Hey Charger"1 , the unbelievable can happen to you it kept Chrysler sales buoyant throughout the 1970s. 

Above: Evening Shot

Blast into Coles New World

Concept

I saw a  model of the first Coles New World Supermarket located in the Melbourne suburbs at an exhibition of retailing at the State library of Victoria in Melbourne a couple about a decade ago. 

Supermarkets were starting to take hold in the late 1950s and by the 1960s they were sprouted in many suburbs in Australia.  The space race and the first landing of the moon in the late 1960s encouraged Coles to include the rocket ship on the front of the supermarkets with the New World Supermarket theme. 

I wanted to include one of these supermarket on my layout. 

Here is a photo of the Geelong Coles sourced from http://han dle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/359701

Researching a suitable model

I search the internet to find a suitable model that could be used to represent the mid-century architecture of the Coles supermarket and found a possible use of the Santa Fe Station by Walthers for a kitbash to use in the required space on my layout. I used most of the window sections of the kit.

Above: Modern brick Santa Fe Station from Walthers Cornerstone Part # 933-4064

 Sourcing parts

Apart from the the main supermarket building, I also used the Faller shop interior fitting set to give the model some interior features. 

I made my own signs and decals including period grocery prices from Supermarket ads from the early 1970s as this is the period when the layout is set. 

By far the hardest part to source was the 3D lettering on the front of the Coles Building. I used Times Roman Font and was able to make a coloured decal sign but wanted it to be 3D lasercut. I found a supplier on Ebay that could produce this at a height of 20mm high but found that this was too large to fit the words across the building.

I contacted two local suppliers and found that modelsnmore could do it and I received the laser cut lettering in a week. I am pleased with their work and highly recommend them. Below is the finished painted signage .

 Completed Model

 I added a backdrop, period figurines, period cars to the carpark as well as a fence, Below is the completed model I have yet to include the space rocket which I had sourced but misplaced it

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. 

Quarter acre block

Growing up in the suburbs of south western Sydney, I remember it was dotted with rows and rows of fibro houses. These were sitting on a quatter acre block representing the Australian dream. I wanted to model this but found many Australian model houses were based on country prototypes  and did represent the L shape floor plan fibro houses I remember.

Above: The completed fibro house in its natural setting in the western suburbs of Sydney

Research

I bought a book a couple of years ago called Fibro Frontier this was fascinating reading of the humble fibro house. I also did a bit of research found various pictures of the quaint fibro houses. A company that was found making fibro houses was Vandyke brothers who had a factory in Punchbowl in the 1940s and 1950s. I was able to source a product brochure from the Caroline Simpson l.ibrary which also provided details of various variations of the L shape fibro for me to base a model.

Above: Vandyke Brothers Product Brochure extract

The model builds

After a search I only found one kit that would be suitable this was a cardboard kit found on Ebay.

The kit was easy to build with the garage the most enjoyable. I decided to reinforce the walls with balsa wood and foam board and substitute the cardboard tile roof with a plastic roof tiles from Kibri.

Once I built the model I was disappointed that the house was overscalled and appeared to be scaled as 1/76 OO gauge instead of 1/87.

,

Above: Kit open and ready to build

Scaling down

In order to scale it down i had to trim the floor and walls about one third. I also shrank the floorprint by about one third. Additional details such as porch, guttering and scenery were put in place to make the scene.

Below you can see the difference in scale of the garage against a Hanovale made 1/87 garage. 

Serving Golden Service

One of the things I remember as a child are Australian brands that are no longer seen one of these is Golden Fleece. Golden Fleece was a brand of petrol with service station dotted along the major highways and small country towns. I always yearned to stop there to get food: a hamburger, fish and chips or a pie before the spread of the American Fast Food giants. 

I wanted to model this brand on my layout by including a Golden Fleece Oil siding. 

Starting point

Many of the oil sidings have now been decommissioned and demolished. However, whilst at the Canberra Railway Museum in Fyshwick a couple of years I noticed the old Shell Oil terminal whilst riding on the Diesel railcar. After the visit to the museum, I was able to locate the address where it was an took additional photos through the closed gates.

Above: Photo of the Shell terminal rail siding at Fyshwick (Taken 27 July 2014)

Modelling Options

I had a corner area of my layout that was going to be the site of the oil siding. I searched the internet for a number of options for a depot that would be suitable and found the Walthers Interstate Fuel and Oil Depot.  

Above: Kit opened and ready to build

Measuring the site

I made a number of changes to not only ensure that the kit could fit in the space but to Australianise it.  I made the depot building as a low relief and removed the roof to not look like a quonset hut. Various tries were made to determine how it could fit in the space. 

Above: Oil depot area to be modelled

The tanks were also painted and weathered to give it a used look and coloured white as in the prototype. 

Adding Scenery

The final touches to give it some realism was to make Golden Fleece decals for the tanks, adding a concrete slab, appropriate warning signage, adding trees and then used the LJ model factory fencing which are no longer produced. 

For the first time I purchased one of the Haskell Australian backdrops to give the area more depth. Although I did feel it gave a too much a rural feeling.

Another view of the oil siding with the low relief shed and appropriate Golden Fleece livery vehicles which were built separately.