Australian Japanese Model Railway Group

[cteno4]

@VJM great! I was just thinking about you guys and realized it was a long time hearing from anyone down there! Glad to hear you all are still active and made it thru covid.

 

jeff

[Rod.H]

They're due at the http://www.amravic.com.au/ expo this weekend.

@VJM would your group be interested in a visitation of a Tomix EVA Shinkansen or a certain DD51 Last Run train?

[VJM]

Sorry to have missed you, Rod.

 

Hopefully we can catch up next time.

 

We had huge crowds at the new venue, the Melbourne Showgrounds; so all-in-all a great weekend.

[cteno4]

@VJM pictures? Please?

 

jeff

[VJM]

Some pictures

[cteno4]

@vjm thanks! Wow looks like you had a good crowd! Nice layout.

 

are those show supplied tables? They look taller than the usual venue table.

 

jeff

[VJM]

@cteno4 Thanks Jeff.

 

We use something similar to this sort of thing https://www.bunnings.com.au/pinnacle-1500-x-810-x-310mm-4-shelf-unit_p2760442 and https://www.bunnings.com.au/brands/r/rack-it

 

Bunnings no longer sells the exact model that we use, but the concept is what you can see in the Rack It stuff.  Steel shelfs that we put together in under 30 minutes and basically pack down to virtually nothing in even less time.   We don't use the fastening pins because the modules aren't heavy, and we don't even need a rubber mallet.  We've got flexibility to chop and change the size of the supports, and we can place our model cases on an intermediate level behind the cloth skirting that we made going over the tables.

 

There's usually quite a bit of disbelief from some of the other exhibitors that we can setup and packdown in less than an hour.

[cteno4]

Wow, that’s very cool. Yes I’ve assembled that style of shelving and it does go together very quickly and I suspect as it is assembled into a big square it gets very structurally sturdy as well. Cool you can make a shelf half way down, I always hate getting down on hands and knees all the time to stash or fish out boxes under event tables. You guys really have quite a large set up now!

 

we have noodled on some sort of similar system to avoid the event table hassles for our Ttrak, but nothing has quite sussed out yet. Main issue is flat surface pieces as lighter weight materials tend to warp and heavier stuff ends up being too much to schlep to some of our events. Our layout 3.0 has a super quick support system the larger modules rest on.

 

 

we can spend a half an hour trying to move tables around to get edges all sort of fitting each other as they can be pretty wonky

 at times…

 

it’s always a tradeoff dealing with the tables provided at events and buying/building something and schlepping and storing stuff. I’m sensitive to the storing stuff as a lot of the club stuff ends up living at my house.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bigdog]

When is your next show? I’m going down under to visit some family members and was wondering if I could check out your layouts

[VJM]

At this stage, I don't think we've got anything scheduled until The Train & Hobby Show 16th & 17th March 2024 at Sandown in Melbourne.

[Bigdog]

ok good to know just in case I’m in Melbourne at the time

[Skasaha]

I very definitely didn't forget to share some photo's I'd told VJM I would.

 

I'm very bad at timing shots so I was kinda shocked I got this one.

 

A zoomed out shot of the new module that had the C62 on seen above. It's a dense scene focused on a shrine. It was unfinished at the time (and I think still is? I forgot to ask last time I spoke to the builder).

 

Benefit of having such a large modular layout.

 

VJM's shot of the crowd was a fair bit nicer, since I walked around for photos fairly late in the day.

 

And a couple from other exhibitions this year, also includes some shots of the smaller layout:

 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by Skasaha

[SL58654号]

@Skasaha Lovely and such a very Japanese layout there! Aside from the SL Hitoyoshi, is that the Aso 1962 I see? 

[Skasaha]

On 10/9/2023 at 12:09 AM, SL58654号 said:

@Skasaha Lovely and such a very Japanese layout there! Aside from the SL Hitoyoshi, is that the Aso 1962 I see? 

 

It sure is. Rail cars look a bit out of place on the 'main line' so we run them on the smaller layout when we use it. I'd only just received it before that event too, haha.

[Kamome]

Great layout @VJM @Skasaha

Nice to see Kyushu well represented too. 

[Rod.H]

Their website has been down for awhile, it looks like their host has deleted everything

[VJM]

Apologies about the website.  The host has gone bust and I just don't have the time to sort things out at the moment.

 

Please PM me if there are any queries about the Australian Japanese Model Railway Group.

[VJM]

Long time AJMRG club member, and member of JNSForums, Bill Pearce, known as @ben_issacs here on the forums, passed away this week on 21 May, 2024.

 

He was a very kind, generous old soul, was welcoming of everyone, with a wealth of knowledge and embodied the old world concept of "gentleman".  He had an unmatched enthusiasm for long Japanese trains and passed away doing his favourite thing, watching videos of trains on YouTube.

 

He was 98 years old.

 

Bill will be sorely missed.

[cteno4]

Very sorry to hear that. 98 that’s amazing.

 

jeff