| Published by: | Model Makers and Collectors Association | Editor: | David Kettlewell |
| PO Box 256, Rosny Park 7018 | Publisher@mmaca.com |
Photo: Barrie Morgan
What happens on the third Thursday?
Next issue
Look forward to the third instalment from RCToys – model aircraft.
What else? That depends on what you come up with.
2024 is on us, and we are nearly halfway through January already, so a happy new year to you from MMACA. Although we have just been through the Christmas/holiday season things have been happening.
Movements
Our president, James (aka Jimbo) Fisher found it necessary to move to Queensland at the end of last year. He has therefore passed his presidential responsibilities to his deputy – Vice President, David Kettlewell (aka News Letter Editor). This is definitely not a job I either relish or desire, but will keep doing while necessary.
More recently our secretary Mykel Salter, who has suffered ongoing health issues for some time has decided to resign his position. A new secretary will need to be elected at the next general meeting.
Meeting
While on the subject of electing a new secretary, please remember that the next general meeting, open to all MMACA members will be held at 7pm on January 17. As requested and promised at the last general meeting, there will be a presentation about the model railway layouts in the MMACA room.
Maintenance
The maintenance of the grounds at the Model Park is an ongoing job. If you use the facilities at the park you will have noticed that although the grass is mowed from time to time, there are other little tidying up jobs that need doing. Your committee has decided to schedule the occasional working bee – an opportunity for all the park users to get involved. No dates yet.
Swap Meet
Also on the agenda for sometime in March is a “swap meet” at the Model Park. This will be for members, not a general public get together. As well as the opportunity to move our unwanted stuff around, it will provide some opportunity to meet up with members of other affiliated groups.
News Letter
This will be the third issue of MMACA News (yes, I know that there was – may have been - a newsletter in the more distant past). I hope you have enjoyed and will enjoy the content. If you do, please consider (and do) create some yourself. I would like to be able to publish a variety of stuff each time – trains/planes/automobiles and boats of various kinds. Tell us about your favourite model. Tell us about your particular group or club. Tell us about the activities – what goes into firing up a miniature steam locomotive; how your races are organised; how to schedule 6 model trains on 4 tracks. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
Also, if you wish to publicise a particular event that is coming up, it can be published in the newsletter, keeping in mind that the newsletter will only appear every two months. Alternatively, if you have an event coming up, we will be able to send out a bulletin to all members specifically for that event.
Rumours:
You may have heard a rumour that there is a party interested in taking over the Model Park at Goodwood. This is in fact not a rumour. MMACA has been in discussion with Glenorchy council officers about this matter. Any suggestions you may have heard about the identity of the party looking at the park are guesswork, and probably not helpful.
The initial approach from the council indicated that the party would be prepared pay the entire cost of relocating MMACA facilities to an alternate site. Our position and response has been that we would only be prepared to accept the proposition if there was some incentive – such as more building space, however that may be achieved.
Although the council is acting in effect as a broker, they appear to have some interest in the proposal, which is really at this stage little more than an enquiry. The council has suggested an alternative location which might provide more security of tenure for MMACA at Abbotsfield park. Most if not all of the committee members have inspected the proposed area and consider it to be fairly unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.
Since providing council with our response some weeks ago there has been no further word from the council.
Since MMACA has a lease with a year to run and a further two optional years, there is no reason to get excited about this. It may come to nothing, or it may in fact be a bonus. We will simply have to wait and see, and in the meantime keep modelling and collecting.
Laurie Mangleson
The Third Thursday Group meets at the Model Park, Goodwood (from 10am) on the third Thursday of each month. Our group is made up of members of other clubs affiliated with Model Makers as well as persons who only belong to the TTG. We only ask that anyone attending our meets is a paid up member of Model Makers. We cater for all types of modellers as well as collectors of all types of models and everything else.
A cuppa is an essential part of proceedings
We set a theme for each meeting and try to keep our themes as broad as possible so that anyone attending has an opportunity to participate. Our meetings are very informal and mostly involve everyone talking about what they have brought along and their particular interests. Some of our past meeting themes have been "commemorative & special issues", "obscure or unidentified manufacturers","restored, modified or customised" and our most popular ever "advertising". Coming meeting themes include "reproductions, copies,reissues" and "something coloured green". Tea and coffee is provided at meetings.
Show and tell
COMING MEETINGS
18 January: Theme "reproductions, copies, reissues"
15 February: Theme "something coloured green"
21 March: Theme " the 1960s"
COMING EVENTS
3 February: Challengers Hot Rod Show & Swapmeet, Forth Footy Grounds (8am-2pm)
17 February: HRCAA Meeting, Tunbridge Hall
16 March: HRCAA Meeting with Post Vintage Car Club, Tunbridge Hall
7 April: Launceston Autumn Swapmeet, Mowbray Racecourse (6.30am-5.00pm)
And it still works
Sailing at Puddleduck began in the early months of 2017 after Colin Johnson discovered it whilst on a wine buying trip to the Coal River Valley.
Owners Jackie and Sue with their families only used the pond for recreation once a year, that being for rubber duck races with proceeds to benefit Tasmania Rural Fire Service.
Colin asked management if they minded opening access to their pond once per week to radio control sailors. Their answer was sure, go ahead. Our Dad (Peter Smith) sometimes comes down and sails in it.
At that time the only sailing for DF classes outside of all established sailing clubs was a casually run sail morning off the public jetty on Lauderdale Canal. This regular casual sail on Saturday morning is still popular and well attended to this day. Colin convinced a few of the regulars at the canal to come and give Puddleduck a try.
First day we sailed at Puddleduck we were just three. Colin, David Williams and Peter Morrow. Word got around and in the following months our numbers quickly grew. Both DF65’s (650mm long) and DF95’s (950mm long) were sailing together then and as the fleet grew it was decided to split the two DF classes and sail them a week about. This idea proved to work well and is the system still in place today.
Both classes are sailed alternately on a Tuesday morning (10am – 12 noon), followed by refreshments in the tasting rooms.
Sailing at 'The Duck' is a step up from the Lauderdale Canal, with most sailing rules observed during Handicap racing. The first race is a scratch race whereby all boats start together, then the podium finishers receive a 5- 15 sec handicap. This allows the inexperienced sailors a good head start by the time the later races come about. Generally 8-10 races are completed before we retire into PD venue at around midday for a coffee, tea, hot chocolate, mulled wine etc, and chat over the mornings sailing. Results and a day’s sailing report are posted every week onto the RC Toys Tas website.
Visitors are welcome, with a pretty good chance to try your hand at DF sailing.
By the end of our first year both fleets had grown, Peter Smith had passed and we joined the North West Sailing Club in what was then known as the southern leg of the Tasmanian Summer Series.
Following this successful event a decision was made between Puddleduck management and Colin to run a Puddleduck only Memorial Race day to commemorate Peter Smith’s Special contribution to our group getting established and sailing there.
Now, once a year (first Saturday in March) this regatta for DF65s is held at the vineyard, with management allowing us to have exclusive access to the main deck for the Regatta with the owner’s supplying bottles of wines and a perpetual trophy to the winners of the day.
We also have recently introduced staying back at the Duck on the first Tuesday every second month to enjoy a bite to eat from the offerings from PDV restaurant, and maybe a glass of their wine. From personal experience, this is extremely enjoyable.
Forcett Lakes
Forcett Lakes venue is on a private property heading towards Lewisham and was originally the site of a nine hole golf course.
The venue is for the more serious RC skipper limited to IOMs (International One Metre) RC yachts, with all rules of sailing adhered to (in most instances).
Sailing operates every Thursday and Sunday mornings (9.30am – 12 noon) with informal handicap racing being the order of the day. (the highest handicap wins the day). Visitors welcome.
There are also two events, IOM “Woodie” Day, and IOM “Classic” Day that are held 2-3 times per year.
The “Woodie” day consists of wooden built hulls (mostly strip planked) either built by the owners themselves or bought from the original builder. Tassie has the highest number of “Woodies” (up to 18-20 yachts) sailing in Australia and only second to Scotland or maybe Canada.
The “Classic” day consists of the older version of RC Yachts that are probably not as competitive as the newer class of RC yacht available on the market today. The idea was to get these boats out of the sheds where they have been gathering dust for many a year. The eligibility is for a registered hull number of 1100 or thereabouts, with today’s yachts generally having a number over 2000.
Both events are a little more serious than the weekly events, with a designated PRO and with a perpetual trophy on offer to the overall winner. This is announced at the post sailing BBQ.
Orford / Triabunna Sailing Group
This is a relatively new sailing group that has been allowed access to a large pond on private land adjacent to the Eastcoaster Resort area.
Four to five local keen yachties have purchased themselves a DF65 and have a sail on a ad hoc basis when numbers allow. It is envisaged that the Puddleduck group will venture up to Orford to enjoy a day's sailing with the Orford group, followed by a BBQ in the near future. Some of the Orford skippers have taken part in the sailing activities at Puddleduck Vineyard when it coincides with their travels to Hobart. They are always welcome.
Peter Rowland
My latest venture into a display layout was as a result of two circumstances. The first driver was an interest in a DCC operating system called DCC_EX. The other driver was as a result of preparing a presentation for Probus who had asked me to give a talk on the history of New Town Station, a station on the Hobart Suburban Network.
The DCC_EX project is free and open-source software, using consumer grade, inexpensive microcontrollers and components to provide full feature DCC train control, and more. Based on an Arduino board and some other components it allows for, in my case, to operate the layout using a program called WiThrottle on my IPhone, there are versions for android phones as well as connection to a computer. (Ed: it can be put together for under $100 plus a power pack.)
The actual DCC-EX (I think), complete with WiFi
When the invitations came out for exhibitors for the August Train Show I submitted an application to show a layout despite having not built either the DCC_EX system or even started building a layout. My original thought had been to build a layout based on New Town Station. I had already built a model of the station buildings for a display at the Transport Museum so why not build another one. I wanted to make it as true to life as I could but whilst there was a siding at New Town there was not run a round siding. I then remembered reading about Risdon Park whilst doing my earlier research.
Situated approximately 400 metres south of New Town was a station which was to become known as Risdon Park, built in 1890 firstly known as Bellevue Racecourse and renamed in 1900 as Risdon Park, which was the then name and location of the first racecourse for Hobart, it’s about where the Broker Highway and the Hockey grounds are now located. The station closed in 1926. It only operated on race days, but it had a run-around siding which suited my operating ambitions, the station was closed when the racecourse was relocated further north. Whilst it closed in the 20’s I have used a bit of poetic licence and developed the station as if it was still operating in the 50’and 60’s which allowed me to use the TGR Diesel Passenger Cars I had been building.
The photo shows the Trains in the sidings and the Grandstand. Passengers alighted from the train and walked across the track to enter the racecourse
The layout was originally 2400 x 1200 with a return loop, however after exhibiting at Kinston I found the curve for the run-around was a bit tight, so I have now added an additional 100mm to the rear to improve running. Whilst the main part of the layout has the station siding and the run-around, I also added an end to end behind the station which also has a run around to allow me to take advantage of the automation properties of the DCC_EX. The whole layout is in 1200mm sections (6 off) and fits in the back of my car.
The layout bases are of Qublock aluminium construction with detachable legs which are all interchangeable. The base top is 7mm ply with a 50 mm foam on top. It is lightweight and I can carry each section on my own. The base boards are 600mm wide. The track is laid in 3mm craftwood fixed to the foam. Only the front section of the layout is landscaped and a 250mm back board hides all the electrics, which apart from the droppers are all at tabletop height to allow me to work at a comfortable height. To fit droppers, I remove the section I am working on turn it upside down, fix and solder to a cable which runs thru to the rear of the backing board. I am no longer able or wish to crawl under a layout.
The beauty for me of the DCC_EX system is the ability to create route or sequences for each train. With a press of a single button on my phone I can start a loco, turn on the sound, turn the lights on and set it off round the layout and as it progresses and passes sensors around the track, sound the horn, change points, turn on road crossing lights and bells and stop at the stations for a period then depart. These sequences are all written in a simple Arduino style language developed by the DCC_EX team. I have not programmed in Arduino before and found with a bit of trial and error I could write fairly detailed sequences. Not bad for a 73 year old.
With the rear sidings I have programmed sequences to run two trains in opposite directions at the same time with the system holding a loco until the point and track ahead is clear. This didn’t quite work to plan at the show, but I have subsequently improved the trackwork and replaced a point and now have the sequences running nicely. There is no isolated sections or blocks, it’s all done within the DCC_EX system, they even say in the extensive manual of instructions that it’s hard to explain how the blocks work, it just does. One of the other issues was different running characteristics of locos. I have also now installed a Speedometer which measures the speed of an individual loco. I can then adjust the CV’s of that loco to match the other/s
With the aid of Stuart Headley, who helped me with the landscaping and my wife who painted the backdrop I managed the get the layout finished on the Thursday, the day before setting up on the Friday for the show. Unfortunately, it didn’t give me enough time to test all the routines I had pre-programmed and there were a couple of failures. With help from Roger Mahony at the show we still managed to run trains for the weekend
Risdon Park lives in my train room and using some recently purchased pre-fabricated layout sections from Simon Handby I can add some extended running options in my train room, whilst not changing the fabric of the display layout, a couple of extra points to allow connection between the two layouts is all I need.
If you are interested in reading more about DCC_EX the link is https://dcc-ex.com/begin/what-to-know.html
The system was developed by a group of model railway enthusiasts and is being expanded all the time. There even is the ability to run both DC and DCC trains on the same track and run a Turntable. I haven’t used all its capabilities, but for now I am having a lot of fun.
Well that's your lot for this time. I look forward to your contributions for the next issue - don't leave it to everyone else.
THE END