New England Model Railway Convention

 New England Model Railway Convention

Armidale NSW

22^nd/23^rd October 2022. 

On the Friday before we drove down from Brisbane, the trip was wet most of the way with heavy rain in parts. With daylight savings on in New South Wales, an addition hour was added into trip once crossing the border. We had stops in Warwick for a coffee, Tenterfield for lunch and Railway Museum and fuel up at Glenn Innes, petrol was about 20c a litre cheaper than Brisbane. 

Armidale is a regional city on the Northern Tablelands about half way between Brisbane (465 kms) and Sydney (482 kms) on the New England Highway. The city has a population of approximately 24,000 people. 

The venue was the Bowls Club, our motel was just over the road, on arrival it had a water frontage due to the rain and the creek overflowing. The motel owner advised he had never seen water entered the motel, we later found out he had just been there for three months.   

Due to flooding, sickness etc. some program changes were made to the advertised program.

Presentations

Saturday

Bring your Track Plan Alive with Landscape & Scenery Graeme Barnes MMR	NSW Signals Part 1 Dale Richardson
Lighting without Wiring (Dwarvin System) Phil Flynn	Solis the Modern Way Keiran Ryan
Battery Power Radio Control Brain Anderson	Keeping the Goods Rolling on the KVHR Stephe Jitts  MMR
DCC Myths explained Gerry Hopkins MMR	Arduinos Malcolm Jenkins MMR
The Intermodal Revolution Josh Beveridge	Computer Aided Design CAD Stephen Buck

 

Sunday

Locomotive Water Supplies James Dalton	Bring your Layout to Life Craig Mackie
NSWR Yard Cranes Stephen Ottaway	Digital Imaging Gerry Hopkins MMR
NSW Signals Part 2 Dale Richardson	Reliability Engineering Duncan Cabassi

 Clinics

Weathering Rollingstock	Luke Herbert
Build turnouts the Fast Tracks Way	Len Durkin
DCC Decoder Installation	Gerry Hopkins MMR
Modelling Passenger Cars	Ian Black
DCC & Decoder Pro	Dav Heap
Soldering	Brendan Canning
Semaphore Signals	Dale Richards

 

Brendan's Soldering Clinic

 

Weathering Clinic

NMRA Information stand. Charles and Duncan on duty

Gerry's DDC decoder installation clinic.

Ian's passenger car modelling. Walkways, windows blinds etc.

Mr. Mackie detailing bits. (I thing they were give a ways!!)

Layouts

Lismore	Peter Boorman
Moonan Flat	Chris Lord
Country Dales	Dennis Bailey

 Lismore  (HO Scale)

Country Dales (HO Scale)

Moonan Flats (O Scale)

Traders & Sponsors

Andian Models

IDR Models

Gwydir Valley Models

Keiran Ryan

Modellers Warehouse

Mechanical Branch Models

New England Models

Peter Boorman Workshop.

Casula Hobbies

SDS Models

Modellers Warehouse

New England Models

IDR Models

Gwydir Valley Models

Keiran Ryan Models and Mechanical Branch Models in the corner.

Keiran Ryan Models, keep your eyes on his website for the trucks. 

Andian Models

Delegates display.

Delegates attending were asked to bring a model to display.

Foot Square Challenge.  (The best to last).

Rules:-

1). Competitors will need to build a diorama that is a square foot or 300mm x 300mm.

2). The diorama must be railway related.

3). The must be a small section of track.

4). Other items can be whatever you like, structures, bridges, mountains, scenery, signals, rivers, crossings, level crossings etc. 

Operational crossing gates and signal.

3rd Place 

2nd Place

Highly Commended

1st Place  "It's the Season"

(I'm now the proud owner of an SDS 81 class loco)  

Comment.

Some of the locals indicated that the convention was for NSWR modellers, yes, a few presentation were centred on NSWR operations. Railways are railway where ever they are in the world, model railways are the same regardless of scale. Modelling practices, methods and skills are the same for all prototypes, just seeing what others are doing and achieving in our hobby is gold and help you achieve your dreams. Events like this you will learn something every time. The other side of the coin is that it is one on one with someone in person that you can talk to and ask questions.  Plus, it’s a weekend away with mates exchanging ideas on what is going on around you. Having attended similar events in the past there is always modellers you don’t see every week, good to catch up and hear what they are doing.

I understand where was 220 registrations, 45 were on the non-rail bus on Saturday. The Saturday night dinner was fully booked, the room was full to capacity.

 

Morning, Afternoon Teas and Lunch included in registration.  

Presentations and Clinic notes were on USB, or for $ 30.00 a book was available.  

All up a great weekend, I have been to conventions all around Ozz, New Zealand and the US. This one sits on top of the ladder with the best of them. Hats off to Warren and the team at the New England Model Railway Club, congratulations, a great and inspiring weekend for all modellers. If you are looking to improve your modelling or having a awesome with other modellers, it’s a must for the bucket list.

Trust you enjoy the photos, more on my foot square challenge entry will follow a little later.

Happy Modelling, stay safe and well to next time.

Arthur H.