2025 AR Convention Newsletter #8

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🚂 NMRA AR Convention 2025 – Brisbane📍 20–26 August | Archerfield Airport Convention newsletter Number 8 is now available for viewing. Clinics, layout tours, ops sessions, social events, partner outings, and even flight experiences!🎟️ Daily tickets now available🛍️ Register & order memorabilia by 30 July

Update on the Bunnings PowerPass Benefit

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Bunnings have recognised the level of support the NMRA Members in Australia have given to their business and have offered us an increase in the discount available on over 3,000 plus trade products! The increased discount will range from 7% to 15% with an average around 10%.  If you want to download the ‘National Model … Read more

Tam Valley Servo Equipment

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For Sale: A selection of new and used (but still good working order) parts from Tam Valley to control servos on your railroad (railway). All are 50% off list price or more. See more items on the Marketplace.

2025 NMRA AR Convention

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Announcing the NMRA AR convention for 2025 2025 NMRA AR Convention 20th-21st August | Operating Sessions/Layout Tours22nd-24th August | Convention25th-26th August | Operating Sessions/Layout Tours Archerfield, Brisbane More Details…

Phil Knife Model Railway Items For Sale

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Phil Knife has been building model railways since the 1950s, and his workmanship and exquisite modelling are widely acclaimed. He is an NMRA Master Modeller, and his work has appeared a number of times in Railway Modeller and Continental Modeller magazines over the years. His particular speciality is building locomotives, some from kits and others … Read more

Wanted: Peco Code 75 Bullhead rail

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Wanted: Peco Code 75 Bullhead rail. Not track, just bare rail.New or used. If you have any, I am interested in buying at least 10M.It is not in the current Peco product range. Gary 0488 121 258 See more items on the Marketplace.

JMRI Deep Dive

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This weekend I took a deep dive into JMRI. Being familiar with its Wi Throttle/Engine Driver capabilities, it was time to take the next step. I figured out Panel Pro, created panels for each town on my layout, then created the turnout table, linking it to each of the panels, and presto, all operational. Each … Read more

Recessing Push Button Switches

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My Eureka Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad (EVNGR) is an On3 layout and has been developed over about 25 years – modified and expanded from time to time as we model railroaders are prone to do. I started using Switchmaster motors for operating my turnouts and found them quiet, reliable, and relatively easy to install. To … Read more

Rails@Rosehill 2023 Video

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First of all, on behalf of the NMRA Division 7 NSW, thank you Will for this wonderful video detailing what we do at an NMRA convention. We look forward to having you at our future events and being a part of this great organisation. Will has put together an excellent video showcasing the NMRA, and … Read more

Mini Convention

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Thank you to everyone who participated in the Div 7 Mini Convention. By all accounts, everyone had a great time, enjoyed great company and great food. A special thank you to all those who assisted in the organisation, setup, running and pull down of the convention. Also thank you to our clinicians who put in … Read more

Wheel Wagons

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Contact By Arthur Hayes – MMR If you’ve been modelling for some time you will most likely recall the good old days when rollingstock came with plastic wheelsets and your wagons didn’t roll all that well. Metal wheels mounted in Delrin/acetal plastic side frames came along and improved things dramatically including highlighting where your layout … Read more

Basic Air Brush Weathering

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Basic Air Brush Weathering Steam Locos by Gerry Hopkins MMR The clinic part of the meeting will start at 1.00 pm at Rowan Mangion’s home – the social part of the meeting will start at 2.00 pm as usual at Sam Mangion’s home. Those wishing to participate in the clinic will need to be there no later than 12.45 pm. … Read more

AD60 Garratt – more weight

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AD60 Garratt – more weight by Josh Beveridge I managed to have a look at my Garratt yesterday. I found a piece of lead flashing (about 1.5mm thick) in the garage. I cut 2 pieces 55 x 12mm to lay between the driving wheels under the keeper plate. I removed the centre screw from the … Read more

Eureka AD60 Garratt – a little extra weight

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by Collin Hussey For those concerned about the Eureka Garratt’s pulling ability, especially for the front water tank, I decided to remove the tank from the chassis to access what space is available for more weight. It seems that everyone you hear, says there’s not enough room for more weight, I thought that it might … Read more

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED WITH BRASS LOCO TENDERS

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ELECTRICAL PICK-UP ON BRASS STEAM LOCOMOTIVES WITH DCC DECODERS FITTED – TENDER PROBLEMS. By Laurie Mclean MMR I would like to share some interesting information I have found in fitting Soundtraxx Tsunami Sound Decoders to my HOn3 Brass locomotives. In particular, this article deals with the locomotive tender and its electrical pick-ups. I use a white dot … Read more

NSW CL/CLP Class Locos

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Adding sound and working marker lights By Gerry Hopkins MMR The CL/CLP is a great looking well detailed loco. It runs very smoothly and could pull a brick dunnie – even occupied. It is a very easy matter to fit a non-sound or sound decoder – even a plug & pray. When removing the body, … Read more

Achievement Program – Motive Power

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Built By Dennis Clarke Model #1: N.S.W.G.R. D53 Class Locomotive. Scratch Built (brass with some white metal detail parts.) This model is of a D53 class locomotive of the NSWGR. These locomotives were brought into service from 1912 to 1917, built by Clyde Engineering Company and Eveleigh workshops, and were part of the “Standard Goods” … Read more

Bachmann Tamper – DCC with lights

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Gerry Hopkins MMR The Bachmann Tamper was fitted with a TCS M4 decoder. This gave me enough functions to run white lights, red lights and the Rotary Beacon. The Decoder sits down beside the motor, held in place with double-sided tape. The white and red lights are 3mm LEDs with fibre optics. The Rotary beacon … Read more

Pickups for the Lima XPT

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Gerry Hopkins MMR The Lima XPT requires some extra work to make it a reliable runner. There is nothing we can do about the “pizza cutter” flanges but we can get it run well. The first and most important thing to do is replace the “motor”. The normal method is to replace the armature with … Read more

Upgrading the NSW 36 Class

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from Austrains Gerry Hopkins MMR In this article, I will show you how to make this loco a good runner and pull well, add a headlight to the earlymodels and add backup lights to all versions. I will also show you how to add pickups to the tender and sound decoder.

Sound Install for O Scale Big Boy

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by Gerry Hopkins MMR Some views of the extra work undertaken for the sound install in a Brass O Scale Big Boy. The decoder is a TCS WOW v4 501 decoder. The underside of the tender – plenty of wheels – added pickups to the right hand side. I used a length of pcb sleeper … Read more

AD60 Marker Lights

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These are the marker lights we are going to “brighten up”. I have touched these with white paint so they are easier to see. I used a sharp pointed tool to dimple the centre of the ‘lense’ as a starting point for the drill. Do not use a power tool they are too ‘powerful’ and … Read more

NSW 49 Class – Under the Hood

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Fitting a decoder of your choice. The latest release from Train-O-Rama has a number of “new” features. It has marker lights front and back that change from white to red as the direction of the loco changes. These can be switched on/off with a wand. This photo also shows the nice detail on the underframe … Read more

Train-O-Rama – 49 Class

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A few hints about the 49 Class not in the manual. The new 49 class released by Trainorama is a beautiful model and comes with a few features not mentioned in the instruction that come with the loco. THE HEAD LIGHTS – ON DC Besides the obvious reversing headlights are the reversing marker lights. When … Read more

NSW 44 Class – Decoder Installs

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With the release of the NSW 44 class, there are many people wanting to fit decoders to the loco – both sound and non-sound decoders. I have done a number of these now so I have taken a few photos and added text that might help you. If you click on any photo below it … Read more

AP Forms

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Achievement Program forms are available from your local AP manager. The contact details for your regional volunteer are found on the contact page.

Achievement Program has Moved

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The AP is now part of Education on our website. For more information or to comment please use the feedback page: Feedback The Achievement Program (AP) is a travel guide, to help you on your journey through the world of model railroading. The AP provides an incentive to learn and master the many crafts and skills necessary … Read more

Scratch Building SIG

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Located in Loganholme QLD, our special interest is scratch-building all types of models found in model railways including wagons, locomotives and structures. The objectives of the Scratch Building SIG are to share knowledge and skills in the production of hand crafted models using a variety of materials. To learn, teach and impart technical knowledge to … Read more