The Dolly Varden Mines Railway in On30

[danpickard]

Morning Chuck...
Yes, good memory.  Funny enough though, I don't have a photo of the photo thingy! 

As part of the "more of a display, than a layout" idea we had, we wanted to incorporate as much of the Dolly Varden story as we could. After all, it was the careless stupidity displayed during building the real one that makes this such an interesting tale.  The Dolly Varden story was condensed down to 6 pages, and mounted on a display board, along with a few maps of the area to help set the location.  The actual board is about 1100mm wide and 800mm high, and stands about 6' tall on the aluminium A-frame.  We also wanted to show a selection of the prototype photos, again to help explain some of the history, and also allow a comparison between the model and the prototype.  We were just going to print out a heap of the old black and white images, but decided to try and make this more "multi media" in the end (not to mention we were running out of room on the display board for lots of pics).  There is a 10" digital photo frame mounted on the info/display board, with a looping slideshow of the historic images.  Just to use the full capacities of the digital frame, and also keep in theme with that multi media thing, I also downloaded a few 1920's banjo tunes that play in the background, just to get a bit of that ol' hillbilly vibe happenin'.  Its really a bit of a trick to get viewers to hang around and study the layout for longer, especially if the want to wait for the whole slideshow to scroll through (I think there was about 30 odd images in the show).

Cheers,
Dan

[PuckHog]

Dan,  WOW!!!! Congrats on a beatiful job,   Like everyone else I'm waiting for more info and pictures on the different modules........Randy

[MikeC]

Beautiful, Dan! I hope you guys can put together an article and lots of photos for Russ. I'll be looking forward to seeing it all in print.

[Ray Dunakin]

Stunning! Excellent work, and an interesting prototype.

Sounds like the real-life mine could have been successful, if not for the botched finances. Did anyone try to mine that ore at a later date, with better backing?

[jhunter]

Hi All well its nice to be part of this forum,and thanks for all the great comments on dolly .I  will be posting some pics of a new diorama i,m working on soon,I was very inspired by a small but superbly built layout I seen at the narrow gauge convention by a truely magnificent modeller named Geoff knott , her in australia .veiwing this layout I realized that my passion for  modelling the australian landscape and structures was still very strong and having spent the past 2 years working on dolly ,Ive missed modelling my home land .Geoffs use of pail colors and the use of natural materials has got me into gear is a some what different direction ,not in subject but in quality of the build and the almost sharpness of construction ,I hope to post some pics soon the diorama is a large at 4ft X 2Ft and based on a small country town  center  located in country victoria ,no railway just a old abandoned line and colapsed bridge, a few shops,IE hotel,hardware and a gas station and a small cottage ,a creek running through town .  Im looking forward in keeping you all up to date on the progress,also hoping to get some tips along the way.It was great to build dolly varden with good friend dan but looking forward to building my next project.

[danpickard]

Geez, they're letting all types of riff-raff characters on this forum now...

Welcome John

Dan

[jhunter]

thought I would slip in the back door but no chance of getting past you. Hows dolly will be down soon to pick her up,next show getting closer

[jacq01]

   Both of you,

   congratulations on the fantastic results of building miles apart this wonderfull layout.
   Realy stunning. 

   Jacq

[marc_reusser]

John,

Welcome to the forum. Really nice to have you here. Look forward to seing more of your wonderful creations.

As I already mentioned to Dan, congratulations on such a great laouy and work. Really a pleasure to see. I always truly enjoy seeing what the Aussie and Kiwi modelers are doing.....it's just such a treat, change and inspiration.


Marc

[PuckHog]

Welcome onboard John, looking forward to your stuff being on this forum (big fan of your structures)   Randy

[jhunter]

Thanks Randy
is there any particular structure you like I may have some pics of it that may not have ever been seen.

[jacq01]

   Dan and John,

   mentioning the name of Geoff Nott reminded me of the Red Stag Lumber Co he built together with Steve Pettit, Michael       Flack and Ray Walter. On the layout they incorporated some local timber branches for the trunks of their large trees.
  Do you know where I can get these trees branches ? 
  I like to use them un my mill diorama under construction and achieve the landscaping results you have reached.

  Jacq
 

[danpickard]

Hi Jacq,
They were Sheoak, or Casuarina tree branches, but as far as I'm aware, are an Australian native tree, but don't quote me, I'm more into modelling than horticulture!  They're quite common around our region, especially areas a little bit rural, farmers tend to use them a bit as wind breaks along their paddock boundries.  Not sure how well the French climate would treat the trees, or even if they grow in you part of the world?  Happy hunting I guess, and always walk prepared with a small hand saw at the ready...

Dan

[jhunter]

hi Jacq
red stag was an amazing layout I was very fortunate to have helped set it up once ,something I will always remember were those trees
.The tree trucks used were branches taken from the sheoak tree and in some cases smallish tree trunks  themselves ,the roof of the layout was about 30 " or 750mm high and the tree trucks went from base to ceiling and were used as roof suports in some cases , some were about 65mm/2 1/2" in diamiter the layout was featured many times in publications world wide,hope that helps I also used shee oak in my logging layout mount ash timber and sleeper co,i think dan used them also on stumpy creek. I believe that the closer to the coast they grow the better they are suited and a better tree is formed
                                                     john hunter

[jacq01]

     Red Stag Lumbe Co and other work by Geof are for me THE benchmarks in landscaping.

   

They were Sheoak, or Casuarina tree branches, but as far as I'm aware, are an Australian native tree

     I should have known this when living in Australia.................
     Here in Holland nothing like it is available. 
     For me it only preserved pine branches etc..... or I have to carve some large ones from balsa as still standing first growth.
     The rest around the mill and pond area will be smaller in size as it has to present second growth.

     Jacq