Railfest 2023
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Author Archives: Ross
Alan Porter’s Memorial Page
Club life member Alan Porter passed away a couple of months ago. Life member Don Finlayson has written a lovely memorial for him and has included the newspaper clipping above from 16 years ago featuring Alan as a lead up to the 2007 Model Railway Show — the 2023 version of which is on this weekend at the Claremont Showgrounds.
Latest Updates
Work on the new main layout at the club is progressing nicely with the main yard 90% complete and operational. Unlike the previous HO layout, the main yard will eventually have full scenery applied (including backdrops) for added realism.
Continue readingLatest Visitor
Today’s visitor to the UGL access siding that runs alongside the club. Photos couretsy of John Kinson.
Continue readingAnderson Update
Anderson Yard is well underway on the new HO layout. It contains 2 arrival/departure tracks, 6 general tracks and 1 loco runaround and servicing track.
Continue readingLayout 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 readingClaremont 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!
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!
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! 🙂
Models & Machines Open Day 2023
The Railway Museum in conjunction with the WAMRC is holding an open day on Sunday 2nd April to celebrate model railways and preserved working machines.
Come on down for what is sure to be a great day!
Compare Model Train Prices
Mads Phikamphon has been working hard building a global model train price comparison web site and contacted us for a list of local model railway shops (available on our Links page).
He has added all the Perth shops to his web site and now has 37 shops across Australia (and 700+ globally)! Check out his useful web site here: https://www.modeltrainprices.com/ https://www.modelprices.com/