QR @ Pinkenba

Kicking the Tyres In order to learn SCARM, I thought I do my own adaption on Pinkenba and the software works as expected.  Pinkenba Version 1 The two things I found tripped me  up was the Points selector, always seemed to choose the wrong turn out type and the Flex Track positioning, I think it was mainly because I was using the trackpad on the laptop instead of mouse, later on this became a little more intuitive, practice makes perfect. The free version of SCARM does not provide a map layer capability, however does allow you to use an image as a base layer which I thought was very generous. Using a simple screen shot was not going to be effective as the quality of the image would be lost as I stretched the image to scale.  T here is a little hack in web browsers where you can take higher quality screenshots to get a better base quality image which I managed to obtain a 4K resolution of Pinkenba. Interestingly once I inserted the image and set it to the size of precinct i...

Setting up  the Linux Box Over the years, my house has become the computer graveyard and I generally try and stop things going to landfill where I can and reuse parts. Therefore, I have several laptops laying around that function but don't have current supported Windows operating systems but will run Linux and be faster to boot than my current work laptop when you choose the right Linux install for your device. I had an old MSI Laptop that was given to me as the LAN/Ethernet port was faulty, and the screen was flickering on Windows and I cho se it for my challenge. For the last 15 years I have used  Debian -- The Universal Operating System . Why? it just works. While the release cycle of new packages maybe slow it is stable and security patches are regularly provided with a committed support period. More Debian history can be found here  Debian - Wikipedia .  Debian supports a range of Desktop Environments within the installer and personally I find the LXQT and KDE t...

Modelling isn't a game for Summer At this point I had left the original intent of scratch building and declared myself a model rail hobbyist and wrapped up my  Getting Started  section. The amount of rain and humidity over the summer 2024 and 2025 period was crazy for Brisbane, but  Cyclone Alfred  made everything clear. I like the humidity, but there were days even I was tapping the air-conditioning button first in the house. The period was a mix of rain and humidity on repeat, waiting for a southerly change to come in and take off the edge never seemed to happen. Interestingly looking back at the data from the  Bureau of Meteorology  the rainfall was almost like someone had moved Brisbane towards the equator, so  I turned my focused to Layout Planning. How big is Pinkenba Pinkenba consisted of two aspects a single passenger line station and the main freight facilities, using the magic of google maps, the whole precinct estimation is  Total area:...

RMCQ Show 2024 I wasn't aware of the RCMQ annual event and by chance received a random email from the local club as I had visited a couple times and put my name down on the email list. Still being new to the hobby and the community, it was nice to get an inclusive and engaging email. The event was hosted at the below location: Sat-Sun 7-8 December 2024 – 9:00am – 4:00pm South Pine Sports Complex Cribb Rd, Brendale Qld 4500 It was extremely hot weekend this date, I visited in the later part of the day, but it was still very hot at the venue. The organisers did their best to keep the air flow going at the venue. I will admit I only stayed for about an hour, hopping from fan-to-fan location and did not take any pictures at the time, Westgate did a magnificent job capturing the event and I encourage you to check out the blog  Westgate - South Western Rail: 2024 Pine Rivers Model Train & Hobby Exhibition.   An Early Christmas Present My local model rail hobby shop was at RCMQ S...

Rain Rain Go Away! Annoyed by the rain, I decided to head down to my local model rail hobby shop to have a yarn with the owner about DCC controllers. Looking online there seems to be a gap in the market in what was available in Australia at the time, possibly a result of supply chain fallout from COVID.  In my searches, there was one interesting open-source project I stumbled across  DCC-EX Model Railroading — DCC-EX Model Railroading documentation  for those who are bit techie, there is a great presentation here  "DCC-EX Open Source Model Railroading" - Paul Antoine (Everything Open 2023) . I am keen to explore this solution later and even get involved but was not looking for a new project which would direct me away from my other goals and wanted a plug and play solution for the moment while I developed my hobby crafting skills. When I arrived at the hobby shop the owner was out the front clearing some boxes from the shop entrance. Excited he grabbed my attention an...

Another Modelling Lesson It's Late October / November 2024 and the humidity is kicking up here in Brisbane and I learnt Tamiya Cement and Super Glue behave a little different compared to the cooler months of the year and working with clammy hands is not fun and leaves a residue on your model, so will try and scratch build in the cooler months in the future or when the air conditioning is running. At the time I had purchased 1 tank wagon from Caintode Flats and 2 from PGC Scale Models. The instructions are well laid out for both kits and the parts provided were well presented and step the modeler along in the process. The old measure 3 times and cut once comes into play, however I still managed to make a couple of mistakes which I have learnt from. Both models come in casting form, but PGC Scale Models tank is 3D printed. Below are a couple pictures I took on the Caintode Flats and PGC Models OV tank wagons.  Caintode Flats Underframe with white metal buffers, piping and bra...