Hello again,
Well here we are in 2016 and already up to May.
Happenings so far -
- Attended Kaleen exhibition in Canberra on 1st, 2nd, 3rd April 2016, another successful outing for Binabeen. The layout, although old now, and a bit knocked around, performed very satisfactorily. With some minor tweaking of the trackwork there are fewer derailments, and more fun and enjoyment to be had by the operators.
- The construction of our new club layout is well underway. It is planned for this to have four running tracks, consisting of two double track main lines. Although this is a tad too much trackwork for my liking, it is afterall a club layout and will give more operators potential to run trains. Most of the boardwork is complete and trackwork underway such that two tracks are operating mostly in their final configuration.
The layout is in the form of an elongated 'E' with return loops on each peninsula/leg. This will allow members to walk and move around the layout without using duckunders.
I am preparing a plan to give our members a better idea of the full set up. Once completed and endorsed I will try and upload a copy of it to this blog.
Happy modelling,
John
Monday, May 9, 2016
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Back Home
Hello,
Just a short post after getting home from Malkara.
Another great weekend in the nations capital.
Everyone that attended seemed to have enjoyed themselves. Our hosts the Malkara Special School and the ACT Model Railway Society were very friendly and made us very welcome.
Binabeen behaved itself well at this exhibition. We had resolved most of the niggly problems and there were minimal issues this time around.
The fellows all pitched in for the weekend and as I think back over the time we had I want to say a thanks to the other members who made the weekend such a success for us.
The boxes are back in the clubrooms and the one of the tasks for the working bee on Wednesday will be to get the modules back up and running.
Happy modelling,
John
Just a short post after getting home from Malkara.
Another great weekend in the nations capital.
Everyone that attended seemed to have enjoyed themselves. Our hosts the Malkara Special School and the ACT Model Railway Society were very friendly and made us very welcome.
Binabeen behaved itself well at this exhibition. We had resolved most of the niggly problems and there were minimal issues this time around.
The fellows all pitched in for the weekend and as I think back over the time we had I want to say a thanks to the other members who made the weekend such a success for us.
The boxes are back in the clubrooms and the one of the tasks for the working bee on Wednesday will be to get the modules back up and running.
Happy modelling,
John
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Time is Passing
Time is Passing is an old cliche isn't it?
Well it has been another three years since my last post. Where does all the time go?
Many changes have happened in that time. Our group has become incorporated, so we are now the Argyle Model Railway Society Inc.
Membership has grown in our new home. We now have around 25 members.
Other changes are: -
- The society has purchased two layouts, both have potential as exhibition layouts. The first has been an exhibition layout built by some friends in Canberra and known as Willigobung. Part of the sale was a requirement that the name be kept by the previous owners. The new name we chose was 'Binabeen', a combination of Binalong and Wallendbeen - the prototype locations that inspired the layout. The second layout is mostly bare boards and complementary with Binabeen and could form a new exhibition layout some time in the future.
- Binabeen has been exhibited at exhibitions in Canberra (Kaleen and Malkara).
- The building we occupy has been substantially upgraded with water and electricity facilities being renewed. Windows have been mostly rebuilt and the layout room has been repainted.
- The membership decided to sell the old Argyle/Goulburn layout and it has gone to a new home, hopefully to be rebirthed.
- Plans are being hatched for a new (fixed) layout around the southern end of the layout room (room size 14.6m x 6.0m). This will initially be in an E shape with return loops at the end of the legs of the E. Construction has commenced on the framing for this layout. This means that members will not need to 'duck under' to access the layout. One will be able to walk all around it. This will be a major improvement for some of our older members.
The new layout will be H0 (of course) with Code 100 track, main line curves of 900mm radius, branch line 750mm radius, points will be Peco livefrog with minimum of medium radius. Point control will be by Tortoise/Cobalt point motors and facilities will be provided for eventual provision for DCC, but initially DC only. The plan is for a dual DC/DCC option in the future so that we can all run our older DC locomotives or newer DCC types at different times.
As I type this Binabeen is in its boxes (coffins), loaded on the trailer, ready to go to Malkara tomorrow afternoon.
Hopefully the next posting will not be in another three years time.
Happy training,
John
Well it has been another three years since my last post. Where does all the time go?
Many changes have happened in that time. Our group has become incorporated, so we are now the Argyle Model Railway Society Inc.
Membership has grown in our new home. We now have around 25 members.
Other changes are: -
- The society has purchased two layouts, both have potential as exhibition layouts. The first has been an exhibition layout built by some friends in Canberra and known as Willigobung. Part of the sale was a requirement that the name be kept by the previous owners. The new name we chose was 'Binabeen', a combination of Binalong and Wallendbeen - the prototype locations that inspired the layout. The second layout is mostly bare boards and complementary with Binabeen and could form a new exhibition layout some time in the future.
- Binabeen has been exhibited at exhibitions in Canberra (Kaleen and Malkara).
- The building we occupy has been substantially upgraded with water and electricity facilities being renewed. Windows have been mostly rebuilt and the layout room has been repainted.
- The membership decided to sell the old Argyle/Goulburn layout and it has gone to a new home, hopefully to be rebirthed.
- Plans are being hatched for a new (fixed) layout around the southern end of the layout room (room size 14.6m x 6.0m). This will initially be in an E shape with return loops at the end of the legs of the E. Construction has commenced on the framing for this layout. This means that members will not need to 'duck under' to access the layout. One will be able to walk all around it. This will be a major improvement for some of our older members.
The new layout will be H0 (of course) with Code 100 track, main line curves of 900mm radius, branch line 750mm radius, points will be Peco livefrog with minimum of medium radius. Point control will be by Tortoise/Cobalt point motors and facilities will be provided for eventual provision for DCC, but initially DC only. The plan is for a dual DC/DCC option in the future so that we can all run our older DC locomotives or newer DCC types at different times.
As I type this Binabeen is in its boxes (coffins), loaded on the trailer, ready to go to Malkara tomorrow afternoon.
Hopefully the next posting will not be in another three years time.
Happy training,
John
Sunday, November 11, 2012
The Big Move
Hello there,
Well it has been quite some time since my last post, hasn't it?
A lot has happened in that time, of course.
The big event was that the Goulburn Workers Club asked us to vacate the Nissen hut in late 2010, and with the need to find a new home for our club, the search was on.
Some investigations led us to a couple of leads. The first was to investigate the old refreshment rooms on the island platform at Goulburn station. This would be ideal for a model railway layout, wouldn't it? Despite first appearances it became apparent that there were some significant drawbacks. RailCorp/ITSR would require us to have PL insurance. Being a small not for profit group with limited income this would be a major hurdle. Second was the difficult access to the site. Access was only available via the overhead footbridge. This could prove awkward for our older members and caused us some anxiety with regard to visitors and members of the public. Thirdly we were concerned that members/visitors could run out onto the platform to see trains go past and could potentially startle crews of passing trains. So, reluctantly, this option was discarded.
The second lead was also rail oriented. The Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre (managed by the GLRPS) had some vacant buildings. An approach to the GLRPS was fruitful. The Fitters Amenities building had been unused since the railways closed the depot in 1986. Unfortunately the building had deteriorated somewhat with broken windows and fittings.
A local motorcycle group had investigated using the building and had gone so far as to remove the lower window sashes for repair. This group had not proceeded with their plans and after some negotiation between the AMRS and the GLRPS agreement was reached. We had a new home!
The first thing to do was to ensure that our new home was secure. We boarded up the broken windows with sheets of plywood and secured the doors with padlocks. The GLRPS assisted by adding some fencing and two gates to allow access from either inside the GRHC or directly from outside the fence on the Braidwood Road frontage.
The final running night at the Workers Arena was on Friday 26th November 2010. The layout was dismantled the next day and transported to our new home. Unfortunately the Goulburn part of the layout was not designed to be moved, so we had to cut and label wires and some of the boards suffered structural and track damage due to their method of construction. Much remedial work will be ahead to get the Goulburn section fixed to working order. Argyle (the exhibition layout) fared much better during the move, probably because of its design and construction as an exhibition layout.
Because we had no power (electricity) for transformers and lights we had to store the layouts for a while until we could undertake some work on the windows and get the electricity connected.
More on our saga in the next post.
Happy clubbing,
John
Well it has been quite some time since my last post, hasn't it?
A lot has happened in that time, of course.
The big event was that the Goulburn Workers Club asked us to vacate the Nissen hut in late 2010, and with the need to find a new home for our club, the search was on.
Some investigations led us to a couple of leads. The first was to investigate the old refreshment rooms on the island platform at Goulburn station. This would be ideal for a model railway layout, wouldn't it? Despite first appearances it became apparent that there were some significant drawbacks. RailCorp/ITSR would require us to have PL insurance. Being a small not for profit group with limited income this would be a major hurdle. Second was the difficult access to the site. Access was only available via the overhead footbridge. This could prove awkward for our older members and caused us some anxiety with regard to visitors and members of the public. Thirdly we were concerned that members/visitors could run out onto the platform to see trains go past and could potentially startle crews of passing trains. So, reluctantly, this option was discarded.
The second lead was also rail oriented. The Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre (managed by the GLRPS) had some vacant buildings. An approach to the GLRPS was fruitful. The Fitters Amenities building had been unused since the railways closed the depot in 1986. Unfortunately the building had deteriorated somewhat with broken windows and fittings.
A local motorcycle group had investigated using the building and had gone so far as to remove the lower window sashes for repair. This group had not proceeded with their plans and after some negotiation between the AMRS and the GLRPS agreement was reached. We had a new home!
The first thing to do was to ensure that our new home was secure. We boarded up the broken windows with sheets of plywood and secured the doors with padlocks. The GLRPS assisted by adding some fencing and two gates to allow access from either inside the GRHC or directly from outside the fence on the Braidwood Road frontage.
The final running night at the Workers Arena was on Friday 26th November 2010. The layout was dismantled the next day and transported to our new home. Unfortunately the Goulburn part of the layout was not designed to be moved, so we had to cut and label wires and some of the boards suffered structural and track damage due to their method of construction. Much remedial work will be ahead to get the Goulburn section fixed to working order. Argyle (the exhibition layout) fared much better during the move, probably because of its design and construction as an exhibition layout.
Because we had no power (electricity) for transformers and lights we had to store the layouts for a while until we could undertake some work on the windows and get the electricity connected.
More on our saga in the next post.
Happy clubbing,
John
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Welcome
Hello All, this is the first post for the Argyle Model Railway Society.
This is a small group located in Goulburn first formed in 1983 that operates an HO model railway layout based on NSW prototype. Our layout is located in a shed administered by one of the service clubs in Goulburn.
The layout is owned by the group but all rollingstock is privately owned by the members. No set period applies to train composition. This is up to the owner, so virtually any type of train can be seen running on the layout.
The large layout is based on the northern half of Goulburn yard on one side and "Argyle" and "Rye Juction" on the other side. This layout can be broken down by removing Argyle, the two ends and adding a storage track section to form an exhibition layout. Trackwork is Code 100, mostly Peco with Peco points on the exhibition sections and Rye Junction and Shinohara points on the other fixed components.
Operation is by DC under cab control with mainly H&M Duette controllers, and also some CDA and kit built ones.
Argyle was displayed on the exhibition circuit mainly in the ACT during the 1990's and early 2000's. The last time Argyle was exhibited was in 2004 at Lyneham, ACT.
The AMRS decided to withdraw from exhibitions at that time and concentrate on running trains for members. Running nights are generally every Friday night from about 7:30 pm until late.
I intend to add to this site in future including photos and further details.
Visitors and persons interested in joining the group are welcome and invited to contact myself to arrange an inspection of our facilities.
This is a small group located in Goulburn first formed in 1983 that operates an HO model railway layout based on NSW prototype. Our layout is located in a shed administered by one of the service clubs in Goulburn.
The layout is owned by the group but all rollingstock is privately owned by the members. No set period applies to train composition. This is up to the owner, so virtually any type of train can be seen running on the layout.
The large layout is based on the northern half of Goulburn yard on one side and "Argyle" and "Rye Juction" on the other side. This layout can be broken down by removing Argyle, the two ends and adding a storage track section to form an exhibition layout. Trackwork is Code 100, mostly Peco with Peco points on the exhibition sections and Rye Junction and Shinohara points on the other fixed components.
Operation is by DC under cab control with mainly H&M Duette controllers, and also some CDA and kit built ones.
Argyle was displayed on the exhibition circuit mainly in the ACT during the 1990's and early 2000's. The last time Argyle was exhibited was in 2004 at Lyneham, ACT.
The AMRS decided to withdraw from exhibitions at that time and concentrate on running trains for members. Running nights are generally every Friday night from about 7:30 pm until late.
I intend to add to this site in future including photos and further details.
Visitors and persons interested in joining the group are welcome and invited to contact myself to arrange an inspection of our facilities.
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