The AGM rapidly approaches (Wednesday 15th July) so it is time to get your nominations in for a place on the committee! The nomination form is available for download here: 
Nomination Form 2009
Image: Harry and Ric at work on the port area of ‘Gunyidi’
At the general meeting last week, Peter T. suggested the name ‘Gunyidi’ for the club’s HO layout. It was voted on and accepted unanimously.
From the Landgate website: “Gunyidi is a townsite in the midlands agricultural region, 231 km north of Perth. It is located on the Midland Railway, and a siding known as “Siberia Fettlers Camp” was established there in 1906, but the name was soon changed to Gunnyidi. This name is apparently a contraction of the Aboriginal name for a nearby water source, Mungerdegunyidie Well. The double “n” conformed to the Royal Geographical Society’s orthography used for Aboriginal words during the early part of the twentieth century. Gunnyidi was declared a townsite in 1930, and the spelling was changed to Gunyidi in 1973.”
The suggestion was prompted by finding the Gunyidi station board pictured above lying around in a pile of a scrap in the museum grounds. It is now on long term loan from Rail Heritage. 🙂
The April issue of the AMRA Branchline is now available: AMRA Branchline April 2009
The Rail Heritage April newsletter is now available: RHWA April Newsletter
The Great Railway Journeys of Australia travelling exhibition is currently on display at Whiteman Park in Perth — until May 10, 2009.
The exhibition explores the development of Australia’s rail network and some of the most famous railway journeys in the country.
March 2 — May 10, 2009
Revolutions — Whiteman Park’s Transport Heritage Centre
10:00am — 4:00pm daily
Admission by donation. Telephone 9209 6040 email hidden; JavaScript is required www.whitemanpark.com.au
Tomorrow night (Friday 13th February) Rail Heritage WA is holding a 50th Anniversary Meeting at the Rail Transport Museum — 8pm onwards. Hear from people who were Foundation Members — what were their ideas? Slides from the early years too! All welcome. Supper provided.
On Saturday 28th March, Rail Heritage WA is holding a social evening. Enjoy the opportunity to socialise with members, volunteers, interested people from kindred groups, etc. at this fully catered function being held at the Rail Transport Museum. For just $25 a head you have roast meats, salads and a choice of desserts, together with tea & coffee and a soft drink — this was most enjoyable when held for the ATHRA. Beginning at 5pm, with the meal served from 6pm, enjoy the surroundings and the company on the last evening of daylight saving for the summer. Friends and families welcome. Please book by Friday 20th March by either phoning Derek on 9361 3187 or by email to email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Later in the year Rail Heritage WA are also planning:
The February issue of the AMRA Branchline is now available: AMRA Branchline February 2009
The Rail Transport Museum is changing its opening hours (and entrance prices) from the 3rd March 2009. From that date the museum will no longer open on public holidays (the last public holiday the museum and model railway are opening is Monday 2nd March), but will be opening on every Wednesday of the year. Unfortunately the model railway club has insufficient members to be able to open every Wednesday of the year, so we will continue to open on Sundays and Wednesdays during school holidays only.
So our new opening details (from 3rd March 2009) are:
Jim at NCE has sent me the current (beta) firmware for the PowerHouse Pro, so I have upgraded the main HO layout system. This version is dated 10th November 2008.
For those who are interested, below is a list of changes since the previous version we were running (30th June 2007). Note that the dates are in American MM/DD/YY format.
Continue reading
When I returned to the club after the Christmas / New Year break I was told the club’s PowerCAB in the workshop wasn’t working. Basically the symptom was that it would only come up in the initial ProCab mode — it would never switch to PowerCAB mode like it should. After a lot of investigation, fault finding and research on the ‘net (including the excellent NCE-DCC Yahoo Group) I was able to determine the fault was actually in the internal microcontroller (i.e. the ‘PIC’).
A fellow NCE-DCC Yahoo group member (Gary Rose in Sydney) read my post on the Yahoo group and contacted me off list to offer us his old PowerCAB microcontroller as it was surplus to his requirements after he upgraded to V1.28c for compatibility with the NCE USB adapter:
True to his word, the PIC arrived in the post from Gary (gratis I hasten to add) and it immediately fixed the problem. The PowerCAB is now back in the workshop at the club and fully functional (see picture above). So a huge thanks to you Gary for being so kind!
This PIC has later firmware (V1.28a) than we did have in the PowerCAB before (V1.10). The additional features we now have access to include a display of the total current draw (to two decimal places), software current overload protection and support for up to F28.