Toadie

I found one of those "sketching starter set" boxes in a draw and decided to make something of it.

Notes -

The WAGR's MSA Garratts made themselves at home on lines in the Darling Ranges east and south of Perth, and the Eastern Railway's First Route (also known in the 20th century as the Mundaring Loop) was no exception. The lift out of Darlington was especially tough, some of the steepest grade on the line combines with successive tight bends- A real test of motive power AND footplate crew.

Research Notes -

MSA class

The Mˢᵃ class is an 0-6-2+2-6-0 articulated Garratt locomotives built entirely in-house at the Midland Workshops for WAGR. The WAGR had already a small fleet of Garratts of the classes M and Mˢ, but these were increasingly showing their age. The results was the Mˢᵃ, the only Garratts at the time license-built in the Southern Hemisphere. All of the WAGRS Garratts were heavily utilised on the lightly-laid,sharp and steep lines through the Darling Ranges East and South of Perth owing to their articulation combined with their low axle-loading and high tractive effort.

Above: MSA Garratt 468 in Builder's Grey for it's official photo. Below:ARHS Vic Div visit, MSA class 499,trestle bridge, Nannup, WN line

Darlington, and the First Eastern Route

After the Railways reached Fremantle, then Guildford, the next obvious connection to make was eastward, to allow for the opening up of the states interior to easier settlement and to support the massive hardwood logging industry in the hills . The route planned left Guildford for Bellevue, then up the Darling Scarp via Greenmount Hill to Darlington,Glen Forrest, Gugeri Siding (Mundaring), Lion Mill (Mount Helena) Ending in Chidlow's Well (though was extended within several years to Northam). The Scarp was at the time one of the steepest lines in the state - an average ruling grade in the area of 2.5-3% for about 15 kilometers - and was expected to carry the bulk of the freight burden of a growing colony.
It became rapidly apparent that the line was not up for the task very quickly, with the onset of the gold-rush in Kalgoorlie and the extra loading the brought, a new line was rapidly devised by The Railway's Engineer-in-chief C.Y. O'Connor that instead ran northward through Swan View and Parkerville to meet the original at Lion Mill - around twice the distance but half the grade- and was opened within a decade of the first.

Above: Darlington Station, derilict, 1960
From that point on, the First Eastern Railway route became a reserve line for the second, whilst still serving the towns along it's length for both passenger and freight. The line remained open throughout the first half of the 20th century with the previously mentioned Garratts making themselves home on the line. However as the WAGR began a program of rationalising it's inventory, owing to it's redundancy the first route was closed in it's entirety in 1955, with the second route closing in 1965 as the dual-gauge Avon Valley route opened.

Above: Devil's Spring Cutting, 2024. For context, Darlington station is about 500-700m away, lower, center-left of image, behind at least 3 curves

Click here for an enlarged version
It's a clear summer night by the shore Lake Grace, as 4-8-0 locomotive Fs 365 coasts along effortlessly with it's consist of water tanker and empty stock for staging at the town proper, ready for moving the grain harvest in the coming week.

Notes

A little background on the scene - Recently been having a bit of a thing about the ephemeral salt lakes around our state, which, despite their salinity being a product of disastrous and reckless colonial land use (stop me if you've heard that one before), have just this fascinating atmosphere about them. And one of the rail lines in the state that this atmosphere is strongly found is the Dumbleyung-Lake Grace line, right in the middle of the southern wheatbelt. The scene is firmly in the mid-to-late 1950s by choice, before the W class truly started to take over on light lines, before dieselisation, but well within view of both - hence the 50-year old Fs still plying it's trade well into the post-war era.

Also I can't describe why but this also kind of a Christmas (or lead up to) picture.

Also, providing just the scenery, because I kind of like that as a vibe in and of itself

Click here for an enlarged version

Additional also, the picture was also inspired by the song of the same name as the piece, by The Cars.

Further Notes

Fs Class and train consist

The Fs locomotives were a subclass of the F class, a 4-8-0 "mastodon" type locomotive, ordered by the WAGR in 1902 as a Heavy-freight compliment to the E and Ec class 4-6-2 pacifics introduced the same year - the s suffix denoting the fitting of a superheater, of which only two were originally fitted. The class was one of the quintessential WAGR locomotives of the early half of the 20th century - Made in England , rebuilt at Mildand to meet local needs, light axle load, small drivers, low-mounted boiler, vacuum brake silencer, eventual superheat refit.
By the 1950s,as depicted in the scene, most of the class had been depicted in the scene, and was starting to be displaced from front-line freight services by the S,V and W classes (starting in 1943,55 and 51 respectively) owing to their comparably light haulage rating, but their reliability and light axle-load meant they doggedly kept in work around the network, especially in the wheatbelt, almost to the very end of Steam (1970).

Behind the locomotive is a J class water tank. The J class tank wagons were not really a defined pattern of vehicle for most duration of their existence. They were all made from a variety of redundant rolling frames as they were available, with only somewhat standardised capacities and take patterns. The one seen here is one from a batch of 1600 gallon variants made in the 1950s from former GC class open wagons. Tankers like these were a regular sight inland, especially during summer and on long trips, where water shortages were distinct possibilities and watering stops were less common.

Lake Grace and salt lakes

The salt lakes of Western Australia are a product of some pretty disastrous land-use policy instated by the state government of multiple decades. The seemingly desperate drive to colonise and cultivate the inland resulted in a massive clear-felling program with by-the-acre incentives for individual landholders. The fresh absence of the deeply-rooted tree canopy had almost instantaneous results, in that the water table (and salt table) immediately started to rise.
The railways were some of the first to start feeling it, with some of the lines that using deep bores noticing increased salt levels in the water extracted as early as the 1920s. The problem really started becoming pronounced when the table reached the surface, leading water sources (such as perennial and transitory lakes and streams inland) to become unusable, and otherwise fine agricultural land to become salt-locked, unusable to crops, feed and livestock. It wasn't until the 1980s when the problem started to be addressed in any sort of serious rehabilitative manner, and the positive results from it have been slow to show.

The aftermath of this policy though, like a lot of sites of man-made disaster, is this surreal and stark beauty. When filled, the lakes take on these fantastical cerulean and pink hues, surrounded on all sides by dramatic and still shores where only the salt-hardened live, and farther back still where the salt-line has yet to reach; what remains of the natural biome being a bulwark to stop it reaching crops.

Lake Grace is no different in effect. At 50x7kms in size, it's one of the larger lake chains in the state, comprising 3 major basins - Lake Grace North and South, and Cemetery Lake. Unlike a lot of lakes in the state though, Lake Grace as a chain is perennial. Not only that, it's a feeder to a saline drainage system that forms into Salt Lake (one of the tributaries to the Avon/Swan River). It's significance to the state's surface water systems and biological ecosystems has in recent years marked it as a DIWA wetland- nationally recognised for it's importance to ecological preservation.
The town-site was gazetted in 1916, and by 1926 the town received a railway connection (which was then branched to Hyden in 1933 making the town an important junction). Other notable historical interests surrounding the town is it was that it was homes the prototype roadbed dam - a square dam with a concrete inlet fed by a "roaded" sloping corrugated catchment, considered one of the great innovations in water conservation in the state (and a necessity for towns for which the Goldfields Water Supply scheme or it's extensions did not reach). Today, on top of it's agricultural roots, the town sports a surprising amount of ecological and heritage tourism (being part of the large biodiversity hotspot that is the southwest of WA), and a growing arts scene, and makes a great stepping-off point to visit places like Wave and Dog Rock.
Also, it's kind of just a pretty area in it's own right and well worth a visit.

Spent the afternoon making good on my intentions for DH4 liveries - Both versions of the Westrail orange livery+DV lore-friendly. The IRL basis for these ones were the M/MA class as they're also Diesel-Hydraulic shunters. Normal mapped on the number and builder's plate where correct.

I also got the WAGR larch green mostly done, too. You can see it's a touch lighter than what's applied to the DE2 there, and that seems pretty consistent to what my references show [shrugs].

The IRL respective liveries that I was referencing.

So it's my birthday, and I'm not going to lie, it's been a week. On top of the slow splintering of all things para/social leaving with an increasing foreboding sense of abandonment, and the exhausting task of moderating my XTwitter profile as literal Nazis spent the week sliding into my DMs shrieking to prove how they are all definitely not turning into corn cobs, my partner's out of country on a visa-mandated leave, meaning I'm just kind of tired and bummed on top of everything.

So, to try and turn the mood all around for myself - I wanna share train stuff that I like, some made by me, some not. Some of this might have been posted here before, so please bare with me. Also, this will be image heavy, so fair warning.

First up- A gift from my partner for my birthday a few years ago - two N-Scale X Class good puppers made by a local bloke and also some art I made.

Above: N-scale model of X Class 1002 "Bibbulmun" in Westrail Orange livery
Above: N-scale model of X Class 1001 "Yalagonga" in WAGR Lined Larch Green livery

Above: sticker art depicting an XA class with the titling "Pet The Good Pupper"

The first of several scratchbuilt card N-scale (1:148) wagons (A "NZ" pattern D class 2-axle van from 19, which I later put on kit-bashed PECO 2-axle frames. The entire project concept behind getting into these was to a) be able to scratchbuild things that there are no RTR or kits for b) prove that you can get into the hobby quite cheaply if the will to put in the work yourself c) viability of doing scratchbuilding with recycled non-craft materials. This one was made from a cardboard sleeve and printer paper.

Above: Photo showing the size of the van model at 1:148 scale- something like 22mm long

Above: Van posed next to similarly scaled X-class - still looks small!

Above: The van in it's current configuration - mounted on an N-scale PECO 2- axle 15-foot steel underframe (they're like 10 bucks Australian) and coloured in with pencils

Continuing scratchbuilds - the ones I'm most proud of a pair of Z class enclosed Bogie Brake Vans, with a picture of one at this year's Model Train show next to an Sn3.5 Scale model of the same type. The Duckets were a nightmare to make, that they look okay as they do is a miracle. You can also see that cutting the windows was a challenge, as the widths at play were less than the scalpel tip. Running boards are single sheets of printer paper on hanger brackets, and the body detailing was printed onto the card.

Above: Two N-scale Z Class bogie brake vans, one in WAGR Green, one in Westrail freight yellow

Above: One of the brakes approximately lined up to coupling height on one of the X classes to get a sense of proportion


Above: Brake van travels abroad: Showing the difference in scale, my N-scale(1:148) van next to the same class in SN3.5(1:64)

Last in card, but to a larger scale- I'm currently working my way through building all of my trans gal pals bespoke 1:23 Scale narrow gauge steam engines. It's a secret though, they don't know that I'm doing it or which ones they're getting The going is slow and I'm still on the first, a Quarrie Hunslet, but I'm quite proud of how it's turning out.

Above: IRL ex-Port Penrhyn Hunslet "Lilian"

Above: Cardboard model start, Frames, running boards and headbeams in place

Above: Showing some of the miscellaneous parts being made as the main boiler barrel and smokebox start to take shape. The barrel itself is made of PET plastic from a soft drink bottle cut to length, rolled to spec, superglued and then held tight with too many elastic bands

Above: Current state of things. The saddle tank was a little oversized, so I've committed to the idea of making a second so that I can send the "good" one out and just have the weird reject to myself.

Switching mediums- the last year or so I've been having a resurgence of interest in drawing and it's something I'm glad to be able to be finding joy in again -

Above: "Crew Change"

Above: "Going for a float down the beach"

Above: Pride 2023 art

Above: "Faldod Gormodol Y Llygoden"(From a Fantasy Wales idea I'm slowly fleshing out)

Above: "Showing off at the Crossing"(From a Fantasy Wales idea I'm slowly fleshing out)

Above: Sauced up screenshot from Derail Valley I drew my roo into

Using the last piece of drawing to transition into fully digital mediums - let's start the talk about DV stuff. In lieu of for Custom Cars being fully supported with the Simulator update, I've been contenting with polishing off and continuing my terminal Westralian syndrome. DE2 is in both White-nosed shunter variant of Larch Green and Westrail Orange, DH4 is just in Westrail Orange so far(though I have developed a variant that makes it somewhat lore friendly with a DVRT-inspired logo)

Lastly, I've also been building full 3D rolling stock too. Here's a C Class from English-Electric of Rocklea, Queensland as it is right now. Hoping to put it in DV eventually, but I'm sure I could find a place for it somewhere anyway if not.
Above: Number 1 End
Above: Number 2 End

And because I have officially had enough of the completely outdated Interwar Stock the Arma 2 and 3 uses to represent rail freight in their fictional Eastern-Block country, I am actually doing some ACTUAL soviet satellite state freight stock, like this 11-280 boxcar (with GOST 9238-83 wheelsets)
Above: 11-280 Boxcar - in progress
Above: GOST 9238-83 wheelset - in progress

I'm going to round it all off with a few youtube channels I've been watching a lot this year that I enjoy quite a bit -
First - Interurban Era on youtube. Very relaxed but informative , especially for modelling a corner of the world I see very little of normally. ALTA is kind of the kind of a realistic goals layout for me- strong intended presentation use-case and well considered scenery and layout, but not a "we have a basement and it is all train" kind of investment. All their other videos are just as neat too, and it's fascinating seeing their approach to various related subjects. They're also here on cohost, and their writing is as well considered as their videos.
Second - Thunder Mesa Studio on youtube. Similarly, very accessible and informative on the craftwork, if a little more directed strictly at discussing techniques and whatnot. Different approch, no better or worse. Thorough and concise, and the end results speak for themselves on the fantastic layouts that make up the studio space. Not gonna lie, seeing it tempts looking at that larger O-scale Narrow Gauges.
Third - Will James Railways on youtube. So Will's a bit of a generalist for the Australian rail scenes - both full scale and model. Runs a bulletin of Model Railway news which is kind of THE one to watch in that regard, as well as show reports, but also does a whole bunch of railfanning content from within his home state and while on travels. It's all got a professional lo-fi vibe to it and it's just nice sometimes to have on in the background.
Last - Pannier Productions on youtube. Quickly becoming one of my favourite videographers for railfan content Down Under. I've linked directly one of their videos that shows off some of it. Has an absolute knack for picking great spots, framings and lighting.