Not The Kingswood!!

G'day all. Another year has nearly gone now and unfortunately I've not had a chance to post any updates lately, largely due to becoming involved in another hobby, classic cars. Recently much time has been dedicated to getting a my old holden ute back on the road.

The distraction - 1977 Holden HZ Kingswood.

Tray loaded with parts for the repairs

A bit of history found stuffed under the bench seat

Back to the workbench now though while I try and source some parts for the Kingswood.

Murringo has also now acquired it's first cars as well, a 1948 Holden 48-215 (FX) sedan and a 1957 Chevrolet Belair. The FX just needs some people in it, while the Belair will require a bit more work and will be the subject of a future post.

The staff at the workshops mean while have been on a vanning craze of a different sort on Murringo. Five bogie louvre vans have been undergoing work to join LLV 9958 and others on the waiting line for the paint bay. These include 2x AR Kits MLV vans, 1x Redfern Models semi louvred MLV, 1x IDR Castings fishbelly MLV and 1x AR Kits GLV which will become a second contract LLV. The second and third LLV contracts were recoded to GLV with strengthening of the underframe. First contract vans remained as LLV as their rivetted underframes did not allow for the strengthening done to the 2nd and 3rd contracts which had welded underframes.

3 of 4 MLVs with LLV 9958

Redfern Models semi louvred MLV with new solebars

And that's all for the moment.....
Cheers.

Sides out

The sides have now been removed from the Lima MFE body and the first of the doors for the ACS project separated. Hopefully this weekends should see some more notable progress on the cut and shut stage of construction.

Project FG

One of the carriages that will be run on Murringo will be an ACS composite sleeper, which I will be converting from a Lima MFE in future. However the ACS requires two doors from a donor MFE. I have two cars, however it seemed a true shame to hack up a whole carriage for just two doors. A discussion with James McInerney lead to a solution being formed. Convert a 72'6" MFE into a 50'6" FG second class sitter.

Six of these centre door saloon cars were built on the underframes of BKG horseboxes in November-December 1942 to counter a coaching stock shortage. Unlike any other class of carriage in NSW, the FGs had no first or composite counterpart. Seating capacity was 28 persons in each saloon on either side of the central doorway in a 3-2 seating arrangement, except the rows adjacent to the doorways and end vestibules which had a two person seat either side of the aisle. The seats came from N type cars which had been requisitioned to form an ambulance train. The FGs were built as independant carriages to bolster services. More info and a plan can be found in the December 1982 issue of AMRM.

FG 648 in Tuscan & Russet as delivered . NSWPTC photo.

Now, onto the conversion,

 The plan is mostly cut and shut, however the differing ends, means scratchbuilt ends will be needed. The centre doors also need to be altered at the top to give them the rectangular profile of the prototype. The leftover parts can be set aside for a future project.

Side A

Side B

Broken bars

While at MRNSW28 I purchased a GSV kit from the Casula Hobbies stand. Upon getting it home and examining the contents I discovered some of the bars on the sides of the kit had become broken for what ever reason. I am now considering about replacing all the bars with brass wire, as this will be an exhibition model and at the same time, correcting the height issues with the sides and ends. What is the opinion of other bloggers/modellers out there?

The damaged sides

MRNSW28

Would like to say I had excellent time at the Modelling the Railways of NSW convention this year, despite the nerves of presenting for the first time. It was great to be able to go and give something back into the hobby and come back having met many like-minded people and learned a great deal myself. Thanks to all those who helped make it an excellent day. I am looking forward to going again next year; hopefully with something else to contribute.

LLV 9958 ready for the paintshops

It's been a long time since my last post shortly after Christmas, but despite work and other facts of life, LLV 9958 has finally been completed and is now awaiting a tin of NSWR gunmetal grey and decals before entering Murringo's operational ranks. Here are some photos of LLV 9958 straight off the workbench (the glue is still wet!).

Kind regards,
Murringo's shed foreman.