Division 1 (Queensland)

Australasian Region
National Model Railroad Association Inc

February 02: The first Division 1 meeting for 2002 was hosted by Nick Negerevich and his Firtree Garden Railway. Attendance was upto the level we are starting to expect, with 10 members and six visitors. Nick was not running any trains, however we were treated to a display of very good modelling by Tony Reidpath (HO) and Bob Cuff (G Scale).
    Bob displayed a D&RGW pile driver, a caboose and box-car. All were scratch built, even down to the truck sideframes. Bob gave a very good talk on the methods he used and the trials trying to make the necessary parts, mainly to keep his costs down. The amount of detail in all three items was enough to make any self respecting HO modeller want to go large scale, until we remembered our price and space advantage.
    Tony bought along a collection of three flat cars and some tank cars that he was working on and gave a very quick clinic on weathering plastic simulated floor boards to simulate the real thing. Tony keeps spray cans of commercial acrylic paints (browns, black, and a beige) which he uses as undercoat and/or prime colour for his cars, and then uses artists acrylics for final colouring.
    It was two really good displays by two really good modellers. All members and guests who attended enjoyed a very enjoyable afternoon. Many thanks to Pam and Nick for hosting the gathering.
    The April meeting is being hosted by Bob Brown, a member of the UPMRC, and a brand new NMRA member. Bob models mostly Santa Fe, with Union Pacific and Great Northern as well. Bob will be conducting a clinic on fine tuning Athearn and Con-Cor diesels. Its amazing how simple it is when you know how, with one of my Con-Cor GP-38's passing Bob's load test (14 forty footers up his helix) without batting a headlight.