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 Ron Cunningham has kindly given IMRA permission to reproduce his Branchline Ramblings Column entitled "Learning from the Regions" from the August 2006 edition of the Australian Model Railway Magazine. |
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Learning
from the Regions
The approach of the organisers of the seminar was interesting in that their target audience consisted of the membership of five regional clubs (ACT, Canberra Illawarra, Macarthur and Southern Highlands) with the approximately fifty participants on the day representing a cross section of the membership from these regions. This representation on the day reminded me of just how important the regional organisations are to the health of this hobby. There are a large number of active clubs of varying size and strength scattered throughout the regional areas of Australia. Clubs everywhere are the face of the hobby to the general public. This is largely through the events that they organise and this is even more so the case in regional areas where a model railway exhibition will generally have a bigger impact relative to the local population than a similar event in the main capitals. Regional clubs, as with the metropolitan clubs, act as a glue that provides the bonds that are so important in binding communities together. The combined regional approach promoted by the Illawarra Model Railway Club illustrates the way that a number of regional based clubs can combine to achieve the critical mass required to hold an event and make it the success that the above event certainly was. The second impression that this participant took away on the day related to the content of the days presentations. A feature on DCC is normal at most seminars these days and the presentation at this event could only be described as cutting edge. A ‘hands-on’ demonstration of weathering with spray cans was fascinating and spurred this writer on to obtain a couple of spray cans of paint to try the technique. All interesting material, but it is tempting to speculate that the content of these seminars, which are aimed directly at the active modeller is shifting to reflect major trends that are evident in the hobby. The shift to DCC is a clear and obvious trend, but a more subtle trend involves a shift away from scratch-building related topics towards presentations reflecting the increasing availability of quality ready to run items. The weathering presentation, whilst it could have equally applied to scratch-built items, was clearly aimed at dressing up (or should that be down) items straight out of the box. It might be a long bow to draw, to make such a general observation based on the content of one or two seminars, but it would be reasonable to assume that content would reflect movements and trends in the hobby as a whole. One final observation that your scribe made on the day came from the catholic nature of the group present on the day. This was clearly a reflection of the membership of, at least, the Illawarra club, which contains an active group of modellers who follow North American prototypes. The assertion is often made that modelling techniques are pretty much the same whatever prototype is being modelled and therefore one can learn much from modellers of just about any prototype. This was certainly the case in the presentation on weathering which was delivered by a modeller of a US prototype but it really came home to this writer later in the day during a visit to the home model railway of Andreas Keller. Andreas models a former Canadian National branch line and whilst the modelling involved is outstanding a most fascinating feature of the model railway is the layout and track plan itself. Built along one wall of a garage and taking up an area of .6m x 4.2m, the layout features three levels of track each approximately 40 cm apart. These three levels are flat and to get from one level to the next a double spiral with up and down tracks is used. This spiral is located behind the garage wall in a semi-finished area that is fully accessible and well lit. Storage sidings are also located in this area. This model railway is clearly designed for operation. A mainline train arrives on the top level, drops of a few wagons and the branch-line shunter takes over and works its way down the levels dropping of wagons at the various industrial sidings as it goes. It then reverses and works its way back up to the main again. On our visit two visitors were nominated to work the branch-line train and it was most entertaining to sit back and watch the proceedings. The process took nearly an hour and demonstrated how a lot of realistic operation can be fitted in to a relatively small area. Sitting there watching the shunting taking place it was easy to imagine replacing the CN train with an Australian branch line Mixed. Australianising the track layouts, adding some local landscape and ending up with a pretty neat Australian prototype model railway which would be fun to build, not take up much space and provide hours of operation. If proof is ever needed of how one can learn from modelling which is outside of our own particular area of interest then this layout provides that proof. More details of this very interesting model railway can be found at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~andkeller/ All in all, the seminar was good for observing and learning, as well as just relaxing and enjoying oneself. The day provided a useful model which could well serve as a guide for other regional get-togethers. The organisers and the Illawarra Model Railway Club are to be congratulated for a job well done. |
