Tuesday 4 January 2011

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year to fellow railway modellers.

I hope Santa was generous over Christmas and that the festive season has been a rewarding one. Let's hope 2011 is a good year.

For me at Christmas time, I scored an Ezi-kit South Maitland Railways (SMR) 10 class kit which will be very nice indeed. I last saw one of these prototype SMR 10 class locos in action on a visit to the Rothbury Riot Railway at Branxton a few years ago.

I was actually up at Branxton a couple of days ago on my way back from a week's holiday on the NSW mid-north coast. I spent an hour or so by the trackside in 40 degree heat taking a few coal train photos. Madness I know!

Actually, Branxton would be a great location for an exhibition layout, either in steam days or in more modern times. There's plenty of railway action on the double track main line. The branch off the main to the Rothbury Riot Railway (ex SMR) would be an interesting extra.

My other Christmas presents of note included a couple of books - "Ray Love's Days of Steam" and the new softcover book from Train Hobby Publications, "Country Branch Lines - Cooma, Bombala, Canberra and Captain's Flat" - Part 3.

Other than doing some reading, some track plan doodling, and checking out two exceptional model railway layouts (one up at Hawks Nest and the other being the excellent South Coast Railway - see the blogroll), I had a pretty relaxing break.

Looking forward to 2011 and beyond...

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