2012 NZ Garden Railway Convention

Over the weekend of the 28th & 29th of January the Christchurch Garden Railway Society hosted the 2012 NZ Garden Railway Convention.  And a darn fine event they hosted.  9 garden railways visited, a railcar ride on a preserved railway and some workshop/clinics.  The weekend went all to fast so all that's left is for me to post rather a few pictures to record the event.  
 
I won't add captions to all the pictures, hopefully you'll get through them all faster that way
 
The weekend started with a visit to Glen A's Rocky Creek Railway.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Still at Rocky Creek where mu Dubs A was visiting - the rest of loco's and rolling stock is Glen's.
 
 

 

 

 
 
 

Second railway was a Michelle & Kevin L's Sommerset Railway & Willard Railway
 

 

 

 
You may see Lloyd D's camera loco and Murray B's distance measuring wagon visiting the railways in some of the pictures

 

 

 

Kevin gave us a talk on fabricating parts
This is his NZR mid era chopper coupling....

 
And the stages of fabrication.

 
Some nice abutments  (sorry about the legs!)

 
Unpictured is Michelle's great dolls house work, I slipped up there as they are rather special - sorry Michelle.

Third railway visited on Saturday was Andrew H's developing railway on which he runs some bigger US outline stock.

 

 
Watch out for the apple booms (they were nice apples  )

 

 

Andrew built & welded the big arch bridge  himself. 

 

 

 

On to Dean F's Fence Line Railway for some more scratch building techniques and lunch. (yummy lunch)

 
Scratch built NZR  Model T railcar...

 
It runs an automatic shuttle service from a loop at one end...

 
...to a turntable at the other end...

 
...all done automatically.

 

 

Dean's NZR 88 seat railcar is a work of art.  Vacuum formed ends and sundry bits (we learnt more on that later) and a paint job that is second to none.

 

 

 

 

Christchurch seems to have a lot of cunning wee entry into storage areas, but this has to be the neatest.

 
Dean instruction us on vacuum forming....

 
....to produce something like a railcar end 

 
Lots inside, including a very good sound unit.

With railcars firmly in mind we headed south to Tinwald and the Plains railway...

 
...were we boarded a 12" to the foot Vulcan railcar for a trip out on the preserved ex NZR branch line.

 
inside, smile please.

 
Photo run past....

 

 
And back on board.

Due to the fire risk their steam loco's remained on shed.
Roger's K (K88)

 
and what's that on the side tank of their Dubs A?

Last railway for the day was Kerry P's Ashburton Forks Railway  http://www.ashrail.co.nz/   

 

 
the beautiful lush garden is all Crisma's work.

 
Rolling stock and loco's all Kerry's work.

 

Inside his huge train shed....

 
Kerry gave a workshop on scratch building 

 
Kerry's Dubs A is one of his creations (and inspired my own - thanks Kerry   
 
 
(no pictures I was busy watching the trains)

 
Rogers Q

 

 

You can tell this is a very photogenic railway, the pictures continue....

 
Kerry's Dg and NZR train

 
neat colours in amongst the planting

 

 

 
Fans at rest

 
Almost the last train for the day was an impromptu double header...

 

 
Sadly it was time then to head for dinner (well okay I ran over time a bit - opps)

Sunday was much cooler and overcast but still perfect for trains.  
We started the day at Karl A's MtCatt & Jessie Falls Railroad.  (The lake is empty due to earthquake damage)

 

 

 

 

 
Note the camera wagon, it screened live on their lounge TV!

 

 

The hand crafted mountain scene has survived the earthquakes well (except cracks in the lake bed sadly).

 
and it remains a photographers draw card

 

 

 

 
The lake area still holds water

 

 

 

 

The next visit was bitter sweet as due to severe earthquake damage Brian A is having to leave his beautiful house in two weeks, so this was one of the last runs of his Blackridge Lines.

 

 
Thank you Brian I really appreciate you having us.

 

 

 

 

The sweeping curves and BIG loco's were a feast.

 

 
Inside the garage was the next dream - Marklin 1 gauge

 
And Hugh Keal teaching us about figure making

 

Approaching lunchtime and we moved on to The Fraser Line.

 

 

 

 
Ross is a bit of an electronic wiz, so how about this for tracking progress around your railroad!

 

Another shed entry!

 
 
Look at these for home made turnouts 

 
That's Lloyd's camera loco on the left and Ross's robotic lawnmower on the right

 
(We ate another yummy lunch here  )