NR91 Pays a Visit

The club is located right alongside the access siding to UGL’s Bassendean loco workshops and as such we are often treated to the rumble of some big locos slowly making their way past the clubrooms.

Such a visit occurred today (28th Feb 2024) when NR91 and an unidentified class mate (both in Pacific National livery) were making their way from the workshops back in to service.

Photos courtesy of Garry West.

Garry Newman

Garry Newman with his HASKELL model (HO gauge) of a WAGR L class locomotive on Bill Hill’s layout (formerly owned by Allan Hamilton) at Collie on 21/12/2015. Photo courtesy of Don Finlayson.

Long standing club member Garry Newman passed away last month. Life member Don Finlayson has written a lovely memorial for him and has included the photo above from 8 years ago.

Layout Updates

Work on the new main HO layout is progressing nicely with the main line fully electrified and point motors installed on all main line points. It’s at a stage where running trains is possible and, now the weather is a bit cooler, we’ve started up the semi-regular running nights and club BBQs again. Some space has been cleared in the middle of the new HO layout allowing work on several smaller layouts simultaneously.

Continue reading

Claremont Exhibition Back

The Perth Model Railway Exhibition is back this year at Claremont for the first time since 2019!

Held over the long weekend at the beginning of June, the last three exhibitions have been missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a change from previous years, there are apparently no door sales and all tickets must be booked online. See https://expo.amrawa.asn.au/ for more details.

Note: The WAMRC is not involved in organising or running this exhibition in any way. If you wish to make an enquiry with the event organisers, please follow the link above and use the “Contact Event Organiser” button.

Music in the House!

A 50-year old “Tempest Super Eighty” amplifier now driving the speakers in the club.

The old Realistic mono PA amplifier we were using for radio in the club died in spectacular fashion (bang!) several weeks ago. We still had the original manual for it (complete with detailed schematics), but upon investigation it was well beyond being economic to consider repairing. Being 45 years old though we reckon we got pretty good use out of it!

The original Realistic 35W PA amplifier that died.

Garry stumbled across an ancient stereo amplifier when cleaning out some of his old junk and was about to send it to the tip when he suddenly wondered if it was worth trying. It needed a new plug, but after doing that and testing it at home it turned on and didn’t go bang. Last night we tried it at the club and low and behold it works — well one channel does anyway. We’ve simply wired both speakers in series on that one working channel — good enough for club use — job done! That stereo has to be around 50 years old now — so even older than the PA amplifier it replaced.

Talk about recycling! 🙂