AQUY the one off expreiment

Hi ALL

The AQUY was a one off, experiment recycling old OBF 4 wheel wagons, this was the same time that TTX released the forerunner a four wheel TOFC car. The OBF was produced by SAR into at least 1977, yes I know it is hard to believe but its true. The last series had roller bearings and coil springs. I guess AN were looking at a program that might be able to reuse relatively new wagons in a more efficient role.

The AQUY was re-built from an OBF, stretched to 40ft and fitted with twist locks, the wheel sets were Uni from Forrunners and modern British four wheel wagons. Basically a AQUY was a containerised version of a Roadrailer, just with more Tare weight.
According to now defunct magazine Rail Ausatralia issue September October 1988, the AQUY 1E was released to traffic by 14 September 1988.

Like all of AN's little experiments it was thrown into service on the Alice Springs line.

This is why the Alice Springs line is worth modelling.

Modelling notes:
The only way to effectively model an AQUY is to scratch built it.
The axle boxes can come from hornby modern wagons.
Attached is a photo of Glen Thomson's scratch built model.

Please see attached pics, one of the prototype on #166.
And Glen's model.

Thanbks

Scott


Thanks

Alice Springs yard research

Hi All

Attached is a plan of Alice Springs in 1981, there are a few dashed lines so not sure if these tracks were actually built. In the industrial area there has been alot of changes.
For example lot 12 is now Mobil, lot 18 is now Kleen Gas.
lot 22 & 23 is now a junk yard.
In South Australian Diesel Pictorial the 80's on page 81 there is a a shot of 863 shunting, the shell siding, but if you look closer it seem to be the mobil siding see the Mobil Sabadin petroleum road tanker in the background. Taken in 1989 show the two track in the foreground are still laid. This leads me to believe that there might have been more industrial trackage operational in 1993 than now.
By the way you might notice on the same page a shot of 863 under the gantry crane, and proceeding south to Roe Creek through Heavitree Gap with a string of cattle wagons.

Anyway compare this diagram with the ones previously published examples of the model version. I had to "distill" the design features of the yard to ensure that the key elements of the yard were retained to continue "operations" both for era 1993 and present.
To give you an example of the scale down process, the yard width in scale is 7ft 6"
this had to be designed down to 2ft 6". thus this was an extremely hard process to ensure faithfully reproduction and "flavor" for the yard while reducing the size and complexity of the trackage. As you can see by the final model plan I retained almost 100% of the intermodal sidings as these are the key feature of the yard.

I also managed to retain the crossovers, but moved them into the middle of the yard, which would be easier to operate in the ultra modern version.

Anyway, please feel free to compare this this diagram with the model.

Enjoy

Scott

TNT Automotive 51 ft boxes

Hi All

Here is some more pictures of 51ft TNT Automotive, should satisfy Micheals requirements.

Thanks

Scott

Efficiency and planning is the key

Hi All

Like all of us we seem to have less and less time, the secret is to use your wasted down time as planning time.
Be that:
In the car driving home.
On the Train, Tram or Bus on the way home.
On the plane, back from you fly in fly out job, or 8 hours for a conference.
Or even watching bad television, and lets face it your significant other is always asking what you are thinking when you are doing nothing, letting them know might stop them asking the question!
This time can all be utilised, thinking though problems with your design.
Believe me, time spent perfecting designs and planning is never wasted.

After rebuilding Barcoola, I have decided to incorporate a number of design changes in the Alice Springs project.
Limit the number of different height legs, Barcoola has seven different leg heights, I would like to have two or three tops for Alice Springs.
Barcoola corner boards were four different sizes, I would like to limit the different board shapes as much as possible thus streamline total construction.

Plan construction using jigs as much as possible as this will reduce construction time Dramatically.

Organise your work area:
Ensure that you have a dedicated work location that can be left as is, so that you don't waste time with set up and take down times.

Don't work over your own mess, I have a centre bench that can be accessed from both sides, thus is easier and quicker to construct.

use the right tools, good use of nail guns etc, are great for holding things in place quickly, while the glue dries.

Assess exactly how much material you need, and the exact measurements and quantity.

Anyway, give it some thought.

Attached are some original Barcoola constuction shots......

Thanks

Scott

RQYY 7004 picture

Hi All

to satisfy Michael & Alex's obsession with RQYY 7004 and double stacks, please see attached.

Modelling notes please see the post of AQYY's.

If any of you have a question regarding AN modeling Port Augusta and north and west please drop a comment and hopefully I can help out.


thanks

Scott

Barcoola bridge board is no more

Hi All

Just to let you know that Barcoola's bridge board has been cut up. But don't worry, I have built a new board as per the rest of the MKII boards, with a 3mm MDF base. Both the CAR and TAR Bridges have been recovered successfully.

The problem is that due to the size of the train room Barcoola had to be reduced in length by 1ft 4 inches. The only board that could be reduced in length was the bridge board.

Additionally the bridges had to be placed on a different angle. I also found that the bridge board was originally built in a slight angle as such created a grade. This had to be removed as it will play havoc in the future. Subsequently, I have to re-lay both mainlines and gently bring down the mainline to the correct height.

The new board is currently in its rightfull place and has the recovered bridge sections.

Attached are some shots of the bridge board in its previous life.

Also attached are some shots during destruction and re construction.

Also is a shot of the very first Austrains CL. The guys at Austrains allowed us to repaint the demo model a couple of days before the Sydney Exhibition, as such we got to operate it first.....

Thanks

Scott

Barcoola gets new legs

Hi All

It been a while between posts, work has had me bouncing around the blue marble this past month, so time is fleeting.

Never the less with good planning, I have managed to construct 16 pairs of new legs for Barcoola, this will enable the corner boards to clear the bar in the Train room.
I had previously thought of adding 100mm ends to each of the current legs, but figured that this would compromise the strength of the legs, and it would be easier to construct new legs from scratch.

I had previously written the length in millimetres on each leg, so all I had to do is record the length of each leg and add 100mm to obtain the new height.

With good planning and the right tools, tasks like this can be accomplished in a very short time.

I made up a shopping list, for the timber, screws, nail gun brads, screws and hinges, this was all accomplished in the afternoon of day one, and was conveniently stacked in the "working" shed. For working on the next day. I managed to cut all the timber and assemble 26 of 32 legs in day two. Using jigs I managed to get construction of each leg down to about 4 minutes.

Tonight I attached all the hinges to all the legs, then swapped out all the old shorter legs for the new legs. The difference in height does not seem much, but when you look over the entire layout, it makes a big difference.

Later I will publish some of the shots taken during construction.

Tasks remaining are:
Rebuilding the bridge board, constructing the new fiddle yard boards, and the third triangle board.

Anyway here is a couple of pictures of MKI again.

Enjoy

Scott

TRAYs for Barcoola?

Hi All

Further to my last post, a follow up request has been made, in regard to TRAY's, These are Low profile 5 pack skeletal container wagons, I believe these were among the first non AN designed intermodal wagons for the Private operators in Australia.

Long story short, to help NRC get their operations up and running, NRC were granted a honeymoon period where NRC had a total monoply over interstate freight operations. No Private or non NRC operations of Freight could take place.

After this period, any operator could contract anyone to run trains on their behalf or as a stand alone company. The most notable front runners was Specialised Container Transport (SCT) and Thomas National Transport (TNT).
Both operators ran Perth to Melbourne services via Adelaide, with AN and Vline as subcontractors to haul these services, Westrail kicked in then out.

The TNT train was quite impressive at start up, with stacks of TNT cream and orange containers, half stacks etc. Running with AN power Adelaide to Perth.

In the late 1990s TNT had a number of TRAY's built, I have seen up to TRAY 1004 but there may have been more, without going through my records on the subject.

They would be at the front of AP4, marshalled behind the relay van and before a PQYY, in standard configuration.

The TRAY was very low profile and as such had a goose neck at each coupler end as the platform was lower than the coupler height. The wagon usually carried 10ft 6" high containers on the platforms and stacked on top were half height containers of equal length, I am going to say that they are 53ft in lenght but some Auto box containers are 51ft 6", some times its hard to tell. All I know is that the half height containers can carry cars, having spotted on being unloaded at TNT's auto facility in Wingfield.

Modelling notes:
TRAY is a one off, I have purchased a set of Athearn "fuel Foiler" five packs, as a start, then center sections are only 46ft long, but are the correct low height platforms so they are a great starting point. The ends angle back up slowly to the coupler heights so this will be the most difficult part of any build, the goose neck etc will have to be scratch built.

BGB make the applicable 53 or 51ft 6" high cube container, and the Swoosh decal set. I found that the BGB containers not quite straight, just a casting thing. Therefore at the time of contemplation I was looking at scratch building all the containers as one complete block.

Anyway, attached are some pictures of the subject wagon, one on AP4 its the one in the distance at the head of the train.
Also note the 63ft container flat with new Toll prime movers, great load to model, rarely seen in model form.

thanks

Scott

RQYY and PQYY differences

Hi All

On request, here is some info about RQYY 7007, and PQYY 7007.
Back in the early 1990s AN initiated the Boxcar and Cubico contract, hence the 1992 construction of two AQYY five pack 48ft well wagons.
The AQYY, PQYY and RQYY were designed by AN.
The AQYY has a re-enforcing chanel on the top edge of the well, the PQYY & RQYY do not.
RQYY 7007 when first captured had AN symbols and Boxcar lettering on wells A and E.
PQYY 7007 had CUBICO lettering only on the Well C.

Recommended modeling notes:
Athearn 48ft five pack wells can still be purchased in kit form, these can be found as old stock in better hobby shops. Kit bash by sanding off the side ribs, dont bother with the walk ways AQYY, PQYY & RQYY dont have them fitted.
Bakers SRM used to make the decals for both the BOXCAR & CUBICO version.

Thanks

Scott