Guys:

On many railway structures, I've seen red and white striped signs or
markers, three red and three white horizontal stripes.  What are the signs
for?  I've seen them on a variety of buildings -- signal boxes, goods sheds,
station buildings -- while in other cases buildings of the same type don't
have them.  In a couple of photos they are near fire extinguishers.  Do they
mark the location of fire-fighting equipment?

Mark
Mark Reed
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

Welcome to the list Martin!  Tell us a bit more about your modelling.  Just
getting started or have you been modelling a while?  So far we have some
novices, and some with a little more experience.  I have been actively
modelling for about two years now, after a lull of quite a few years, and
had to "relearn" a lot of things as I switched from "American" thinking on
railroads to a more "international" view of railways.

As Frank said, you make our sixth member.  So far the biggest "controversy"
seems to be the 12mm vs. 16mm thing.  For my money it would be better to
start out with 12mm, converting all equipment and going with some of the HOm
"meter gauge" track that's available on the market.  Unfortunately, I
haven't done that.  Since I model in OO as well, I need compatibility
between a layout set in the UK and one set in South Africa - I can use each
layout as staging for the other.  But if you are going to model SA
exclusively, I would agree with Frank:  12mm is the way to go.

Seems each of us always has several projects going at once.  I'm nearly
finished with the first cut at a scratchbuilt goods shed, based on the one
in photos of Petrusburg Station that appeared in the Railway Modellers
Information Group (RMIG) newsletter.  With the lessons learned I am going to
now try to recreate patterns from it for a resin kit.  It is a simple
structure, and should make up into an inexpensive kit.

Mark Reed
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

HI all,

Well Martin has asked me for SA information.

On Franks coaches page http://www.frank-dog.demon.co.uk/passenger.html he
has pictures of what is available.

The Penning's Kits are very detailed and contain lots of parts and one will
get plenty of pleasure when building these kits. These wooden body coaches
were in use from about 1920 to the 80's. Many still exist today and are used
in Preservation specials.

The LIMA coaches are the more modern steel design which came into action
from about 1960 and are still running today.

Penning's Kits come in 4 different types.
The LIMA coaches come in 4 different types as well.

They can only be bought in South Africa.

Contact :

Thom’s Hobbies Haven
Shop 143
N1 City
Goodwood
Cape Town
021-595 2059         or      021-713 0833      or        fax:  021-713 0835

Model Railroad Specialists
114 Main Road
Plumstead
Cape Town
Tel/fax : 021-761 3070 (best to fax him during the day, he does not leave
the machine on very often at night).

You will find that Thoms is a better shop when it comes to mail order and
general efficiency.

Craig
Will post some more stuff soon

Welcome to the list Martin.

At present there are only six members, yourself included, but as the web
pages gets more exposure in the search engine, we hope to get many more.

I am building a 19D at the moment, I've almost finished the tender (with
the whelsets and bogies narrowed down to 12mm of course!), and it looks
like this particular model could be a good one.

What guage do you plan to use? IMHO 12mm is the way to go, as running on
12mm track the models look most impresive - I've looked at the 19D tender
on 12mm track, and it really does give the model a realistic feel. The
other bonus is that Romford, whoses wheels and axles DJH use, have just
had a batch of 12mm drive wheel axles machined, the first in 18 years.
They are available from Markits if you are interested.

I took delivery of two motors and two gearboxes yesterday, one for the
6J, the other for the 19D. These are from Branchlines, and the gearboxes,
being their Slimline range, fit nicely between the narrowed down loco
frames, so powering the beasts is not a problem.

The next project will be the design of the driven bogies for Craig's
etched brass 10E model, and the design of driven bogies for Lima's class
34 diesel. I plan to have all six axles driven on both models (The Lima
loco only has two driven axles), with a Buhler motor providing the power.

I am going to be quiet for the next few days, as I had to wipe my PC and
start rebuilding it last night (again!), as the performance had dropped
off somewhat.....most likely something to do with the amount of rubbish
that is loaded on it.

Oh well, it's Saturday, and I'm in the office, so I suppose I'd better go
and do some work.....


Frank

Hi
I am Martin Foley and I have just joined the list, I have just started to model
SA Railways,I have my first model on order a DJH class 19D.

at the moment I am in the UK (wales) were I spend half of my life and the rest
in Ladismith(Cape).

My first project (I hope) will be Zebra Station or Ladismith, can anybody help
me with info on Zebra or other stations on the line from George?

Thanks for your help in advance

Martin Foley

> From: Mark Reed <kwazulu@...>
>
> At 12:13 PM 10/30/98 +0100, you wrote:
> >From: "Duckham" <cmdisa@...>
>
> >Sounds like a good game, I am not one for PC games but could make an
> >exception for a railroad game.
>
> I agree.  I'm not big on PC games, either.  Had a submarine game, once,
and
> after a while didn't see the point.  I'd be interested in this one,
though,
> just to see how they've designed South Africa.  I hope they don't use
> generic US locos and scenery throughout the whole game.  It would be a
shame
> to see a Pennsy Consolidation hauling a load of freight through a
Transvaal
> landscape that looks suspiciously like Oklahoma.
> Mark Reed
> Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

No, with the original railroad tycoon, you can choose between setting up
business in either Europe or the States, and the correct pattern locos
and stock are then provided for you to use.

the same sort of thing is in Transport Tycoon, but the setting is
somewhat generic, There are locale specific forms of transport though,

Frank wrote:

>
>I would suggest that you solder brass stems to the sideframes.
>
>If the trucks are plastic, you will not short the wheels.
>
>If they are metal, make sure that the sideframes do not touch the wheels.

I will check. Personally I would like the stems to be made of brass because
this will make the joint much stronger with the brass side-frames.

Craig

At 12:13 PM 10/30/98 +0100, you wrote:
>From: "Duckham" <cmdisa@...>

>Sounds like a good game, I am not one for PC games but could make an
>exception for a railroad game.

I agree.  I'm not big on PC games, either.  Had a submarine game, once, and
after a while didn't see the point.  I'd be interested in this one, though,
just to see how they've designed South Africa.  I hope they don't use
generic US locos and scenery throughout the whole game.  It would be a shame
to see a Pennsy Consolidation hauling a load of freight through a Transvaal
landscape that looks suspiciously like Oklahoma.
Mark Reed
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

> From: "Duckham" <cmdisa@...>
>
> Hi
>
> This is one for people that are fimiliar with Athearn.
>
> For the 10e, I need to fix the side frames of the bogie to the Athearn
> trucks. Now The Athearn trucks have holes to fit these into as Athearn
> locomotives have plastic bogies side frames which slot into the holes.
The
> 10e side frames are brass, so when I make the stem which will fit into
the
> trucks holes, must the stem be made of plastic or metal (or makes no
> difference).
>
> If this makes no sense then I will send a scan drawing of what I am
talking
> about.
>
> The thing is, I am worried that I might short the motor if I do this
wrong.
>
> Craig

I would suggest that you solder brass stems to the sideframes.

If the trucks are plastic, you will not short the wheels.

If they are metal, make sure that the sideframes do not touch the wheels.


Everything should be OK

Hi

This is one for people that are fimiliar with Athearn.

For the 10e, I need to fix the side frames of the bogie to the Athearn
trucks. Now The Athearn trucks have holes to fit these into as Athearn
locomotives have plastic bogies side frames which slot into the holes. The
10e side frames are brass, so when I make the stem which will fit into the
trucks holes, must the stem be made of plastic or metal (or makes no
difference).

If this makes no sense then I will send a scan drawing of what I am talking
about.

The thing is, I am worried that I might short the motor if I do this wrong.

Craig

>
>Mark if you were as shrewd as Rhodes when you were talking to the designer,
>you would of got every thing in writing

Mark,

did you tell the guy that Rhodes bought the Kimberley mine by writing a
cheque on the back of a champagne bottle label ? Maybe he can repay you with
a cheque written on the cd-cover !

Leon

> From: "Duckham" <cmdisa@...>
>
> Hi
>
> This book was mentioned on the casting list. I would like to buy this
book.
> Mark would it be possible to phone direct enquiries and get a fax
number of
> the publishers.........please
>
> Then I could fax them my credit card details
>
> "Secrets of Expert Mold Making and Resin Casting"
> Karl K Juelch
> 100+ pp., 140 ullustrations
> publ. by Wingnut International
> 1065 Rte. 173W
> Asbury NJ 08802
> $19.95 _ $3 s&h
>
> Craig

Frank-the-dog is also interested in this book.....
Please send me details too.

Hi

This book was mentioned on the casting list. I would like to buy this book.
Mark would it be possible to phone direct enquiries and get a fax number of
the publishers.........please

Then I could fax them my credit card details

"Secrets of Expert Mold Making and Resin Casting"
Karl K Juelch
100+ pp., 140 ullustrations
publ. by Wingnut International
1065 Rte. 173W
Asbury NJ 08802
$19.95 _ $3 s&h

Craig

from
>the guy designing this game, who wanted info on famous South Africans
>connected with railway building.  I can't remember the guy's name, but I
>sent him a note to use Rhodes.  We traded messages back and forth for a
>while, but I never heard the outcome.  If he used Rhodes, I wonder if I can
>claim a percentage of the profits.

Mark if you were as shrewd as Rhodes when you were talking to the designer,
you would of got every thing in writing..........only kidding.

Sounds like a good game, I am not one for PC games but could make an
exception for a railroad game.

Craig

>

I have the original railroad tycoon, it's quite a good game. Then they
came up with transport tycoon, which is even better

You can bet that I'm going to lay my hands on RT II!

Check out these URL's for more info

http://www.idg.net/idg_frames/english/content.cgi?vc=docid_9-53016.html
http://www.gamecenter.com/Peeks/Tycoon2/
http://www.cyberdot.com/Slap/games/RailroadTycoon2/RRTycoon2.htm

Guys:

The December issue of Model Railroader arrived today.  There's a double-page
ad for the new PC game "Railroad Tycoon."  Basically you assume the role of
a historic "tycoon" and build a rail empire.  It's produced by Athearn, but
the ad doesn't give a price.

According to the ad:  "It can take you from New York to South Africa."

It says:  "Everything is authentic, from the period video and pictures
interlaced within the game, to the design and interface."

I wonder what the graphics are like in the SA portion.

You might remember when DF passed along a querry to the SARTRAIN list from
the guy designing this game, who wanted info on famous South Africans
connected with railway building.  I can't remember the guy's name, but I
sent him a note to use Rhodes.  We traded messages back and forth for a
while, but I never heard the outcome.  If he used Rhodes, I wonder if I can
claim a percentage of the profits.

Mark Reed
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

Hello All

The site has just clocked 250 hits - not bad for only being out there 4 weeks.

The search engines should get round to indexing it pretty soon, so we'll see
what
happens then....

> From: "Duckham" <cmdisa@...>
>
> Hi
>
> Working the 10e over the past few weeks and using the soldering quite a
bit.
> Now my question is, ''What is the best way to safe guard yourself
against
> those horrible fumes while soldering?''
>
> Craig

You could use a mask similar to those used by paint sprayers. The
industrial way around is a fume extractor, somewhat like a stove hood.

I love the small, though.

Frank

Hi

Working the 10e over the past few weeks and using the soldering quite a bit.
Now my question is, ''What is the best way to safe guard yourself against
those horrible fumes while soldering?''

Craig

on
>the English portion of my layout, I don't have much problem knowing what to
>do, having lived there for three years.  I run into problems, though, on
the
>South African portion.  The mundane non-railway buildings that make up most
>of the landscape didn't stick very well in my memory.

A few African mud houses would go well in your coastal setting. You could
even give the house a corrugated roof with a few rocks on top to hold it
down. Some even paint their mud houses with white-wash. You could build a
small rural community.

Craig

Further on Leon's photos:

reed1 is my beginning attempt at a sugar mill.  It's modern in design,
similar in feel if not specifics to the Hulett Felixton photo I found.  It
uses Pikestuff modular walls.  A mill is a big place, and I have reduced it
to a fraction of the size it should be, just to suggest that something big
is happening.  Ultimately there will be various chemical and molasses tanks,
and a conveyor and tower to load those Lima sugar cars.

reed4 is another view of the loco shed.  Notice that the interior looks a
bit bare.  When Leon was here I picked up some windows to put inside.  It
needs some interior bracing, etc., since so much of it shows.  Behind it
will be some low-relief buildings give the illusion of a bigger facility.

reed7 is a view of the brewery on my GWR side.  For businesses and homes on
the English portion of my layout, I don't have much problem knowing what to
do, having lived there for three years.  I run into problems, though, on the
South African portion.  The mundane non-railway buildings that make up most
of the landscape didn't stick very well in my memory.

Mark Reed
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

At 01:46 PM 10/27/98 +0100, you wrote:

>Mark could you kindly tell us whats what in the various pictures. Obviously
>I saw CMD enterprises, what does this company do? The water tower is very
>nice.

Well, what Leon didn't show in his photos is that my layout is 88 percent
raw plywood.  It's a slow thing, and has to compete with attention paid to
the wife, etc.

reed3 is my scratchbuilt water tower.  It's heart is a toilet paper tube,
covered over with thin styrene sheet.  It uses various plastruct angles and
strips, and some small chain.

reed5 is the loco shed.  It's illustration board covered over with
corrugated metal and uses Grandt Line windows.

reed6 is a Pikestuff kit, modified with a corrugated metal roof.  CMD
Enterprises is of course a custom fabrication shop, making whatever the
customer needs from any material available.  Unless you'd like it to be
something else, Craig.  It's your business after all....

reed9 is a Ratio kit on my GWR layout.  The British short line loco
servicing station.  Water tower and coaling stage.  Behind it is a Wills
Scenics loco shed.  Wills calls this a kit, but it comes as sheet styrene
and you have to build it from scratch.  The styrene is almost too thick to work.

reed10 is the mill on my GWR layout.  It is all sheet styrene with Grandt
Line windows.

>The weathering is outstanding, you could teach Europeans on the continent a
>thing or two.

It's all done with thin washes of black, rust and earth colors.  There's a
little dry-brushing here and there.  It's tricky on buildings like the loco
shed, with a card base, because the paint I use is water-based, and makes
the card swell.  Next one I plan to seal the card with a clear spray first.

Mark Reed
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

>Well guys,
>
>while we talk about it, Mark goes out and do it. Be warned however,he likes
>it dirty...maybe your mother prevented you from playing in the dirt when
you
>were young Mark ?
>
>Just some images from Mark's layout.


Hi

great pictures and models, I favourite in both picture and model quality has
to be Reed5.jpg

Mark could you kindly tell us whats what in the various pictures. Obviously
I saw CMD enterprises, what does this company do? The water tower is very
nice.

What is the Reed9.jpg exactly?

The weathering is outstanding, you could teach Europeans on the continent a
thing or two.

What are most of these structures made from?

Leon, have you got more pictures?

Craig

Hi

At the Exhibition, there were plenty of layouts and company's showing off
digital. One layout had an extensive digital layout in operation while the
streets came alive with the Faller Car system.


What impressed the me most, was that electric locomotives can raise and
lower their panto's automatically, this is a wonderful touch. I can imagine
it now. A CMD models class 14E is held up at a signal, down comes the
panto's while the crew wait for the signal to change. Up it goes again when
the green light is given.

In case you all think that I am mad. Well this is official practise with the
high tech class 14E's and 14E1's.

Craig

Hi

The body of the etched class 10E1 has gone together very well. Obviously
there are a few parts which could do with redesigning to simplify
construction. The model (body) is extremely strong when soldered together.
This time around I did not laminate the body with layers of sheet brass, as
the model is strong enough with out the extra work.

Some of the work is extremely frigidity, not easy if you have large fingers
or two left thumbs. So patience and perseverance is needed.

At the moment I am working on the bogies, but I am faced with many different
problems. In 16,5mm track, the problems are many. Trying to get the
stabilising bars to fit in scale around the bogies is no easy task. One
advantage is that the parts are thin, this helps in squeezing them
altogether. Then the bogie is limited to a wide swing if one try's to
contain how much the bogie side frames actually stick out.

Also, If a Athearn Mechanism is used, the wheels are the wrong size
(smaller) and are disk wheels instead of the spoke variety. There are
company's that make bigger spoke wheels that can replace the disk one's.
Frank is the one to speak to on this department.

Now if the Athearn is used for 12mm, there are some bonuses for the HOn3,5
modeller. The axles can be changed to 12mm with no problems, the mechanism
is fairly cheap (and reliable), the disk wheels can be substituted.

Frank is going to design a custom built mechanism for the 10e which uses no
Athearn parts. This set-up will use a Mashima Motor or something similar.
Frank did mention a name but it has slipped my mind.

Yesterday I attempted to take pictures of the new 10e body, but it probably
will not work as usual. I also filmed the 10e with my video camera as at
least I am guaranteed a bit of success, when I get around to buying the
device that transfers video footage into still pictures for the PC, then I
will at least have some pictures of the work for web-publication.

Craig

Hi all

Had a go at my 19D, the tender is almost complete. A nice affair it is
too, mainly etched brass except for the deck, which is cast whitemetal.

The tender wheels are easily regauged from 16.5mm to 12mm, as the
insulated side can be slid up the axle, and the excess axle cut off. I
got the back to back from a 12mm wheelset from SEM. The bogies are
whitemetal, so it is simple to slice some of the sides off with a
fretsaw. There is a lip on the underside of the bogie, and to get the
correct amount off, just put the side of the blade flat against the lip,
and the correct width will be removed.

I'm having problems with motor/gearbox combinations for both the 6J and
the 19D, as the narrowest gearbox I can find is a single stage worm and
gear 6.5mm wide. The DJH frames are 1mm thick, which means a frame width
of 8.5mm. This causes problems with the side play in the driving wheels
(Reducing it to nothing!), so the only way I can see around this is to
file down the shoulders on the bearings. The two stage gearbox is 7mm
wide, this is suitable for the 19D as it lifts the motor into the boiler
and firebox. The other problem is the motors - there are few that will
fit into the narrow boilers, so I will have to experiment a bit. With all
these problems, I have decided that any non-articulated steam locos I
design, the drive will be in the ternder, driving the tender wheels - I
think a drive shaft from tender to loco is unsightly.

I am also looking at alternatives to Romford wheelsets, as they do not
have the correct number of spokes, although they are now being made with
the RP-25 profile.

Anyway, I spoke to Lionel Penning over the weekend - he will be putting
the webpage URL into the next RMIG journal (Thanks to Craig for the
idea). He is also working on another carriage, this time a straight
corridor one, but still wooden bodied.

That's all for now

Frank

Hi

look at this, there are 2 links which have very impressive pictures and
information about the old SAR

http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/home.html

Craig

HI

Today started with an early start. My wife and I headed to Vienna for one of
Europe's biggest model shows at Messe Wien.

We arrived at 10am, paid and then made our way into the enormous complex.
The Messe Wien actually consists of  25 halls. This place is huge.

The model exhibition consisted of 3 halls altogether and a large outside
section for off road radio-controlled cars.

The main hall which is the biggest in the complex was where all the railway
stuff was housed. There were 75 layouts and a 120 trade stands. So as you
can imagine, there was a lot to see.

Every major manufacturer had large stands promoting their goods. Some of the
good ones were Marklin, ROCO, Faller, Pola, LGB, TRIX, Fleischman.

The Marklin stand had about 5 layouts, 2 of them designed for kids to mess
around with. They had something that I have never seen before. One of the
layouts on their stand had a locomotive with and on-board camera. With the
TV screen showing the view. This was excellent, the effect was amazing.

There was only one second stall at the show, so I decided to have a look,
well it was my lucky day, 3 x CCR-1 coal wagons were amongst the LIMA stuff.
They were in perfect condition and even the boxes were in immaculate
condition. So Isabell my wife said she would haggle with the guy and get
them cheaper. After her swift moving, she came away with the 3 and paid only
ATS 170 (R85) for the lot.

We had now been at the exhibition for 4 hours and Isabell was getting
agitated, so we went to one of the free internet points, got Isabells
surfing book sights (Amazon etc.) while I left and looked around again.

In good old typical Austrian style, there were so many free stuff on offer.
I came home with pens, stickers, posters etc. but best of all, I brought
home about 40 different free catalogues from all the major company's (yes
+-40).

I also bought a VW golf made by IMU, also bought 4 different Mercedes Benz
trucks which are made by B&S (these are quality beasts). I also bought a
TRAM kit and a few tools.

Anyway, we finally left at 4pm and headed for something to eat, well it was
a great day and even better when you have a partner as well trained as mine.

Maybe CMD models will have a stand there next year........

Cheers
Craig

A little late in letting my voice known but also hello from Leon Croukamp. I
am not converted to 12 mm yet but apart from that have some SAR stuff.

Good luck with the list.

Hello to all the new subscribers. All of the original model group mailers
are now on the list, as is my dad! Things are looking good, in the short
time the website has been up, it has taken almost 180 hits!
Speak to everyone later

Frank
http://www.bigfoot.com/~frank-dog/index.html