(Johnsonville Units) DM class electric multiple unit

Dad wanted a model of the Johnsonville units as the batch of 6 first appeared in 1938. Difficult to find actual colour pictures except paintings. I found some black and white pics that my AI colourised with the prompt "car body was painted in Royal Blue with a white band along the side below the windows and grey roof." Unsure if its correct or if anyone alive can remember 88 years ago.

Original pictures found on wikipedia

Re-modelling progress so far. There should be a cab door on the front and windows need shifting but getting closer. Still no seats but a removable floor/chassis is finally complete. The Pantograph I designed for the 1:24 Ew should fit in nicely.

Brad showing off the 3d Test Print so far, inside the new shop build

Alleyvale Hotel

The Hotel is now in position for the first time with dads help, all that wood & paint adds up in weight! Some dodgy flashing on the top should keep it weather proof. 

The plan now is to at least fill the rest of the embankment up with shop fronts

Some pics of it in various lighting conditions.

Brads old place & the railway hotel

To populate Alleyvale and turn it into a thriving town. Brad told stories of his hard life going from place to place before arriving here on the back of a guards van firmly fixed in place with a ziptie. Thanks to my brother David I have a few sheets of plywood so used that to great effect. Still to sort the windows with suitable acrylic sheet. 

Roof was "Fine corrugated sheet" from bunnings

Window frames fashioned out of aluminum strip

Did the landlords special and just painted everything white including the counter, no healthy home standards here.

Fashioned up a bed from plywood covered with fabric from an old shirt, 2 pillows made from the same material. The dogs blanket donated a square to make a blanket. Everything hot glued into position, maybe a cat will use it as shelter?

House in position, still to reshape the land and install a g gauge loop around the house, driveway, carport & fence. In the rear the first section of road cemented in place.

Onto the next project, a small hotel with covered veranda, making good use of the jigsaw

At this point I think a veranda might be nice, a place to sit and look at the passing trains

Brad sizing the place up, showing off the "scrap wood" part of it. He does nothing but just stares out the window all day.. might get him a barbie, probably one that doesn't talk.

The bottom floor, here will be the bar area.

Everything somehow holding together long enough for a photo. Once the front balustrade is done the floor height wont be seen.

Look at the appalling situation with Brad. He has most egregiously defaulted on his rent for five consecutive weeks. Furthermore, he has absolutely decimated the property; the sheer state of the place is a disgrace, and there is absolutely no question that his bond will be withheld in its entirety. He has finally been served with formal legal notice and has a mere three days to vacate the premises. We will naturally have to undertake a thorough deep-clean to return the property to an acceptable standard before we can place it back on the market. I intend to have the entire place repainted and plush new carpeting installed throughout. With any luck, our next tenant will be a properly tidy young lady.

I found another 30cm male character named Tim "Buffer-Stop" Baker sitting inside the Da cab I completely forgot about, hes a bit more flexible and with more muscle than Brad.

Buffer-Stop Tim's hands are able to grab the handrail!

Given Tim's many years holding a job down as a driver and sick to death of sleeping in a chair for so many years I showed him the only house available in town until the hotels built. I told him about 10 minutes after paying the builder he disappeared without installing windows or working lights, so Tim offered half the asking rent until its fixed. Considering hes the only other bloke in town, I may have to accept his offer. He also wants to build a ride-on railway around the house, which is a little odd but at least hes not playing with dolls.

Dad tried out the road with his rideon mower to check clearances, made it through fine but could be a bit wider for comfort. Concrete held up without cracking.

I'm going to have to redo this area and widen it.

A splash of white paint later

Brad meets Tim in the hotel room, wood holding down the old reused carpet. If I used O gauge track & wheels under the peckett I think it would be close to 7.25" gauge in 1:6 scale? In my case i'm going to use G gauge track since I have it, good chance to use the tight radius stuff.  G gauge track at 45mm in 1:6 scale works out at 7.5mm, so if I had N gauge track (9mm) with a nz120 locomotive it could roughly represent one of Tim's G gauge NZR locomotives. The G gauge Peckett representing a 1/6 scale model peckett somehow also works. 

Tim showing brad his battery electric 12" gauge? very scale peckett, apparently it's going to run around a house one day when hes more settled! Brad mentions hes once again homeless, but once the hotel is finished hes should have himself a room under the Winz Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant. This will at least give Brad short-term, temporary accommodation (such as motels or backpackers) for up to 7 nights at a time. Until then Brad has been helping the hotel build posing for photos and helping hold the carpet down and in exchange hes allowed to stay overnight.. as long as hes tidy. 

A bit later on and ol Buffer-Stop Tim shows us why they gave him the nickname Buffer-Stop. Earlier he pulled out a G gauge Db locomotive he purchased from a guy who lives in a green bus that drew it up on computer and somehow a microwave oven thermal printer 2 or 3 dee printer something produced it! He claimed he worked on the Db class of locomotive way back but his age doesn't quite match his story! The yarns continued into the night, I'm a little bit nervous about the amount of rubbish but i'm sure its fine

A start on the balustrade glued into place and a lick of paint added

3d printer back up and running, now printing window frames & gingerbread trim. eventually settled on a top curved window frame so I could print vertical without support material

A bit dark but the 2 windows are in place, the curved window stands out better

Gingerbread trim glued in place, all window & door frames in place

Lights in the process of installation, solar powered and set to turn on after dark. Using 5v leds for lighting.

Street facing side. 2 lights per floor

Top floor wall in production, windows and door frame currently being fabricated in the 3d printer.

On the bottom floor Brad showing off his 18v drill to Penny. I will need more than one light is the common complaint.

Another solar battery unit installed running 5v lightstrip cut and wired together using CAT6 cable.

The orange 12v bulbs running on a 9AH battery will last about 5 hours, the white LED's before I cut it up lasted the whole night on prior testing, and I've used a third of the light strip so far.

Top floor coming along nicely, window & door frames finished printing.

"Alleyvale Hotel" signs 3d printed and attached. LED's wired in

Rear of the building in place, a few screws and it pops off, Once in place the rear deck will be attached leading to the top loop railway. The front balcony will face the lower branch line.

With the rear attached it might fit through the entrance

Alleyvale

Showing the results of another day of building the mower road network, level crossings now have external H4 1.8m panels 18mm thick, yet to be painted black. I also plan to cover the gravel with a thin layer of cement then paint it black to look like tarseal and finally paint road markings etc. A few scale buildings to be planted and a small rural town will be born called "Alleyvale" a town nestled between the hills, named after my sister Alison Bryant RIP 2024 July 23rd.