THE
RURR VALLEY RAILWAY & MINING Co
(Minor update
2nd January 2006)
My G Gauge garden railway
set on the "wild" west coast of Tasmania during the mid years of the 20th
Century.
Unfortunately I haven't had
any time to do a new
RURR VALLEY REPORTER
but I now have a Fotopic
site which includes a Rurr Valley Railway section
NEW
RURR VALLEY RAILWAY PHOTOS
Bill Cooper's
new Hill End
Railway
The RVR's
newest loco, No 3. converted from an Aristocraft Rogers 2-4-2, steams towards
Possum Point with a passenger train
19th July
2005
For many years
I have been fascinated by the railways and tramways of Tasmania, and have
also harboured a secret desire to build a garden railway. However,
for 16 years we lived in a small 2 bedroom "semi" in inner city Sydney,
where a garden railway was completely out of the question. During
that time my main modelling effort was devoted to my HO gauge Lambing Flat
layout. In June 1999 that all changed! We moved to
1400 sq m
on the side of a hill in the northern suburb of Beecroft and the Rurr Valley
Railway was born.
The RVR is
built to the (nominal!) scale of 1:24, as 45mm gauge track at 1:24 scale
is exactly 3ft 6in,
the gauge
used in Tasmania.
Our new
No 3 nears Possum Point with an Up passenger train on 19th July 2005
Since very
little, compared to the riches available in HO, is provided by the trade
for G gauge, and certainly no Australian prototypes, I soon realised
that accurately modelling local prototypes would involve scratchbuilding
everything, and as I wanted to get something running before I died of old
age I had to settle for
"Near Enough"!
Once the "freelance" concept was accepted I set about adapting proprietary
items from manufacturers such as LGB and Bachmann, carefully selected for
their resemblance to genuine Tasmanian equipment, then modified and painted
for an imaginary Rurr Valley Railway, a 3ft 6in private railway that serves
mining, logging and pastoral interests in the imaginary "Rurr Valley" on
Tasmania's west coast. As the line has developed it has developed
a bit of a personality of its own, coming more and more to resemble the
Mt Lyell Abt railway, but with definite leanings toward the North Mt Lyell
Railway, the Abt railway's great rival that closed in the late 1920s.
Yes, we
are a little besotted with our new engine...... but we still have time
for our old favourites......
The RVR's
stalwart No 1 arrives at Possum Point 19th July 2005
Now that I
have enough freelance equipment to "run the service" I am beginning to
scratchbuild genuine Tasmanian Government Railways, Emu Bay Railway and
Mt Lyell stock. So far an Emu Bay B class bogie open wagon and a
TGR CC class open wagon have been completed, and I intend that there will
be many more!
No 3 banking
a passenger train, 19th July 2005
CLICK
ON THE LINKS FOR:-
RURR
VALLEY REPORTER
5th Edition
September 2004
New Zealand
visitor to the RVR
Live Steam
on the RVR
Even more
new engines!
4th
Edition June/July 2004
June Run Day
Yet another
new engine and wagon!
Progress on
TGR E+ closed van
3rd
Edition May 2004
Another new
loco and wagon!
Possum Point
engine shed progress.
Bill Cooper
opens first section of his Hill End Railway
2nd
Edition Feb 2004
RVR Train
Order Form
Visit to S&TR
& Turella Tramway
Brake van
D1 and cattle wagon HA 1 completed
Diesel loco
progress
1st
Edition Jan 2004
New Diesel
and steam locos
New rollingstock
Bill Cooper's
new Heisler
Recent visitors
The RVR's
newest loco, 6th September 2005
LOCOMOTIVES
of the RVR
(Major
update 6th September 2005)
ROLLINGSTOCK
of the RVR
(Updated
26th October 2004)
Some
scenes from back in 2000
(Updated
10th October 2000)
Run Days
Tuesday
7th October 2003
(Added
8th October 2003)
Sunday
21st January 2001
(Added
8th August 2001)
1999-2000
VISITORS
to the RVR
(Added
10th October 2000)
Bill Cooper's
converted Bachmann 2-6-0, Hill End No 3, hauls empty ore wagons on his
newly opened Hill End Railway
11th April
2005.
Some photos
of Bill Cooper's new Hill
End Railway
(Added
2nd January 2006)
Bill Cooper's
now dismantled
Hill
End Construction Railway
(Added
10th May 2004)
Bill Cooper's
SHAYS
running on the RVR
(Added
19th June 2003)
For more
on the
Railways
of Tasmania
I thoroughly
recommend
Stuart Dix's
TasTrain
site
Links to
my favourite
Australian
(and New Zealand)
Garden
Railway sites
Australian Prototype Garden Railways
Greg Hunter's Sandstone
and Termite Railway
Graham Morphett's Coramba
Creek Timber Company
Mark Hobb's Turella
Tramway
American Prototype in Australia
Phil Creer's The
Toenail Ridge Shortline
Dave Fletcher's superb models of
19th
Century American and New Zealand Locomotives
New Zealand Prototype
Glen Anthony's Rocky
Creek line
Kerry Paterson's Ashburton
Forks
Large Scale Organisations
The
LGB and G Gauge Club of Australia
If you arrived first at this page,
you may care to see my other site,
which features my HO NSWR layout
and information on modelling
the New South Wales Government
Railways in the age of steam.
The best
in Australian Narrow Gauge,
but getting
a bit small for me to see these days ;-)
(Sorry
guys!)
