Deja Vu...With A Difference...

All...

The following post recently appeared on my Facebook Page...

Start Of A New Era...
As of Monday...Vanessa will commence and take over the reigns of our business!
It has taken a while to snaffle her...but as she has the BAs in Business and Management...It is only fitting ( and the right direction for the business) that she becomes the boss and I revert to "Piss Boy"...
...

Apart from having many more letters after her name than me...she has a vast wealth of abilities, supreme people skills and the right "touch" to take us to the next level...
I can't wait to see her shine, grow in confidence and steer Harlow into the next 20 years...

So what has this all got to do with the blog and indeed railway modelling?....Well plenty!.

Over the last few years our signage and engraving business ( AKA My Day Job)  has grown steadily and has now reached a point where my wife has been recruited to take the reigns and allow the business growth and associated pains to be shared.

Like any major decision...there are the up sides and also down sides.  The largest negative of all is that after many late night chats and considering the many options, is that the layout will have to go and the space turned over to the business.  The shed that presently houses the layout is around 12metes x 8metres in total and with the majority of it now insulated and lined...it is an obvious place to re-establish the signmaking/writing and sign construction part of the total business which in essence will physically separate the signs from the engraving arm...which for some time has logistically been a largely ignored requirement.

It must be said that the shed was originally built to house the business and the layout came about following a suggestion from my wife that in the interim it could be used for a layout.  In the back of my mind I knew this day would most likely come, albeit not so soon... and now here we are!.  Of course the suggestion was made that the area could be shared...but in reality, working within (and surrounded) by such a mouth watering distraction, is not conducive to me remaining productive on a day to day basis.  Like most, earning a living has to remain the priority in the medium term, and the reality is that I absolutely love my chosen career and still jump out of bed each morning inspired to do what I do...so the decision, while disappointing...does have some positives.

So what will this mean to my modelling?.  If the truth be known, I have for some time had inspirational issues with the actual layout, much preferring to construct buildings and mini dioramas.  For some reason ( maybe it happens to us all) my source of enjoyment from the hobby has gone through many phases and for now I would like to concentrate any spare time to the myriad of structures that bounce around my mind on a day to day basis.  Surprisingly, my foray into OO9 many years ago still has an unexplained attraction and I may well dabble in that as well. 

Possibly the main positive to come from all of this is that the Laser Rail Bits range will certainly have much more time and resources available and this part of the business has probably caused me the greatest internal angst, as the projects/kits just never seem to receive the focus they so richly deserve.  After nearly 10 years of production of present range of kits...we may have missed the boat to some degree as in the intervening years there has been a plethora of Laser Etched and Cut manufacturers that have entered the market.  For me I will just continue on the path of producing ( what we believe to be ) high fidelity kits that include premium raw materials and as close to scale as is humanly possible, rich in detail.   The Laser Rail Bits mantra has and always will be...NO MDF!!!, NO TONGUE AND SLOT COMPONENTS AND NO COMPROMISES!!!.  Whether this vision is past it's use by date...only time will tell....?

With regards to the Blog???  Well in all honesty, a review of the blog history has revealed, to me anyway, that my inspiration has certainly changed over the years and it is the structure, scenic, diorama and weathering aspects of the hobby that give me the most joy.  In reality I can't see my blog input changing all that much. I will continue to work on Australian "HO" structures of any variety and quite possibly will also look at some "O"  structures as well.

In the washup...the layout, even in it's far from complete state, has given me a great canvas to work with and in particular I have been able to hone my skills in scenery, wiring and DCC installation, to name but a couple of areas that only a few short years ago seemed far too challenging for this "little black duck" and have given me confidence to move on and attempt more challenges.

Now the real work begins and much of my HO stuff will be dissolved and or liquidated as the need to clear the area and minimise "stuff" that requires storage has commenced in earnest...  I am not sure just what to do with the completed river section of the layout and the related bridges...hopefully a method of detaching the associated benchwork in a painless fashion can be achieved and a new home for this section would also provide a living memory of  "what once was"...This may well form the basis of a future blog post...

And towards the future we go.......   

    

    

Just A Thought... Fuel Depots, Part 1

All,

The only upside of another week deprived of modelling time...is the thinking one can do.  As regular readers would be aware, the siting of the flour mill (on the outskirts of Fish River) has had me pondering for some time.  My doubts were not so much the general locale...but the aesthetics of placing the industry so close to the bridge that spans the river.  The sheer bulk of the building seemed to dwarf the bridge and to my mind detracted from the overall flavour of this area.  While the comments from readers that emanated from that post were invaluable and gave many options, I had mentally mothballed the decision and refocused on unrelated structure building.

Apart from the flour mill, Fish River will play host to a small number of varied industries and amongst these will undoubtedly be an oil depot or two.  While unearthing all of the "fuel depot" bits and pieces that I have amassed...the thought crossed my mind that the flour mill siding may well be a better candidate for a fuel depot while there may be a better option for the flour mill at the opposite end of town.

So...earlier this afternoon I set about placing the almost completed storage tanks in situ and while there is much more infrastructure to be added to a depot scene, at least I could get an idea as to whether the overall plan would fly.  As I fiddled around with this concept, it dawned on me just how ironic it was that after spending half of my working life in the petroleum industry...in and around refineries, terminals and depots...why it is that I have waited so long to concentrate on this type of industry for the layout?. 

Regional fuel depots, were a fairly simplistic affair and while there were many varied layouts in terms of physical appearances, the four main items of infrastructure that made up each depot were largely a constant.  Storage tanks, package store, truck loading gantry and some form of an office were the norm and in reality it was only the location and surrounding population the depot serviced that decided or dictated the overall size of each of these components.  In the early days ( and not unlike the railways approach to infrastructure) there were "types" of depots that each oil company had concept plans prepared for, and the intent was that these depots would all be built exactly the same at each location on a repetitive basis with the thought that it would ensure consistency and cost savings in terms of initial construction, basic equipment, operating procedures and maintenance.  Of course just like the railways...there were many changes to this "master plan" and depots took on a uniqueness based on land availability, plot size, rail and road access factors as well as particular client/location requirements.

A typical depot of yesteryear would have consisted of one or more leaded (standard) petrol tanks, one or more distillate (diesel) tanks, a fire water tank (in some instances), a package store for storing and decanting of drummed product, specialty products, oils and greases, a truck loading gantry and as already stated...an office or amenities block for the employees.  Other items that existed were elevated horizontal storage tanks for products such as home heating oil, winter diesel (in extremely cold areas) and in some cases kerosene.  A blend tank was sometimes included.

In terms of rail unloading operations...this varied on a case by case basis and could be an "in depot" operation with a dedicated siding within the confines of the depot...or a "remote unloading point" which was located beyond the depot fence line on a dedicated or shared siding.  There were of course depots that made use of a second or shared siding within the depot that also allowed easy transhipment of drummed and package product from rail wagon to package store and aided reloading empty drums to say 4 wheel S trucks.

Returning to the subject of the rail tank car unloading operation...Some depots utilised a dedicated unloading pipe for each product while some depots relied on a single multi-use line that entailed an unloading sequence where a diesel tank car maybe unloaded and then say petrol would follow up the same line and a depot operator would await the "interface" or changeover of the product to reach a predetermined location and then swing the valves to the correct tank.  Yes it was an inexact science...but a good operator would generate very little "slops".  It must be remembered that in the refineries it was common to put water slugs between products as separation...and water take off points in storage tanks were common...

I have included some photos of a rail car unloading point...and while they were taken in South Australia some years ago...the same theme was played out all over the country. It must be said that not many regional depots in NSW had a dedicated fire line secondary to the unloading line...

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the next instalment I will begin the Fuel Depot project for Fish River and post progress....in the meantime I have included one shot to show the proposed location...certainly a change from the flour mill...