In Dalat.....

Well here I am in Dalat. It's a very nice city up in the hills. Much cooler than Saigon!

Yesterday we went for a ride on the train which goes for about 5 km to Trai Mat city. Very bumpy! The locomotive was an old Russian(?) combined diesel and a sort of passenger section. Looks a bit rusty these days but still seems to work OK. There was also a Japanese C12 class 2-6-2, Vietnamese 131 class steam locomotive. It also has seen better days and I doubt it goes any more, but people like to have their photo taken in front of it.

There was also a D4H diesel locomotive which was painted a very faded green compared to the green I've seen in the photos.

I took lots of photos so I'll post them on my webpage when I get back.
It's a pity the line doesn't go further but maybe one day?

Saigon....

Well I made it!

I'm sitting here in the middle of Saigon at the Highland Coffee shop in Pham Ngu Lao St, watching the motor bikes pass by. It's raining a little bit but it's nice warm rain.

I caught a glimpse of the rail system as I came from the airport last night, but no trains unfortunately. I won't really have time to explore the DSVN for another week.

I'm trying to take some photos which show how the different styles of building are arranged. On the module I have planned to have thin houses next to the hotel. I've already seen examples of this so it should be OK.

Also I've taken some photos of the roofs of buildings. I'm on the 11th floor of my hotel so I can look down on them. Many roofs seem to have large silver tanks on the top. I presume they are hot water tanks but I could be wrong.

At least for this trip I know what I want to take photos of so I should be able to detail my module more accurately.

Won't be much modelling over the next couple of weeks, but won't I have a lot to do when I get back!

Preparations....

I haven't had a lot of time recently to do any actual modelling as I've been getting ready for my trip to Vietnam. My main advances are in the form of adding the pagoda to the module as well as working on the roads and adding a couple of other buildings.

I also have a second sheet of Vietnamese posters/advertisments to put up on the website. This sheet includes a couple of flags as well. Like any country these days, there are always plenty of flags flying, particularly on government and semi-government buildings, so any module would appear 'naked' without them.

I finally got to assemble the pagoda which wasn't all that difficult. The Japanese kits go together without any glue, they sort of just clip together, and as noted above I'm now adding them to the module. I think I've overestimated the space I've got for buildings on the layout, so I keep on moving them around to get the best effect.

The roads are being made using a dark grey card I found at my local art supply shop. After the sections are glued in place I'll paint the surface with a 'dirty' grey mix of acrylic paints.

Once the roads are in place I can work on other scenic bits and pieces such as vacant land, the work area around the workshop/engine shed and finish ballasting the track.

And of course I still have a locomotive to build and more rolling stock.

It never ends! Being away for a couple of weeks is going to cramp my style a bit but I hope to get some good pikkies to help with making a more realistic module, so it will be worth it.

I'll try to keep the blog going while I'm away, when I can access a computer... mainly comments about my trip.

So, if you live in Saigon, and you see me wandering around with camera in hand in the next couple of weeks, say hello...

Monday morning coming down.....

I finally got the card models up and 'downloadable' on my website. You can go to the site and download them. I have converted them to JPEGs from the original photoshop files so more people should be able to use them.

I also added the billboard page I referred to in the last  blog, so you can download that too.

Progress has been slow on my module again. I've been getting ready for my imminent trip to Saigon, booking hotels etc, so not so much time (so what's new?).

I've decided not to use the large petrol station. Too many hassles moving track and redesigning roads. I did notice another smaller petrol station available so I'll order one of those and use the bigger one on my Aussie layout.

I planted some more trees on the weekend. Still figuring out the best way to use the bamboo. If anyone knows where to get n scale banana trees I'd appreciate that too (does anyone read this blog besides me?) I have some instructions on how to make my own but they will be fiddly things to make I think! Oh well, I got myself into this!

I hope to get to Saigon Station  to get some photos, as well as catching the train from Thap Cham back to Saigon in the afternoon. (I'm travelling from Dalat to Thap Cham by bus) I'll try to take as many 'detail' photos as possible and create some more poster sheets.

Lazy Days...Dream Away....

I have to admit that despite all my plans for the weekend, not a lot happened! The most exciting bit was getting into contact with the owner of the paper models I mentioned in my last ramble. I have now downloaded a D9E, D11H, D12E, D13E, D19E and D20E. I've printed the D12E in approximately N scale and will assemble it and see what I get. I add a photo to the blog when it's ready.

The drawings are very good, and if nothing else they will make excellent plans for my styrene bodies. The owner has allowed me to make them available for download at my Modelling the Railways of Vietnam website, so as I said, they can be used as plans, or just to produce quick card models.

I think they are approximately HO scale (1:87) but there does seem to be a problem with the D19E and D20E, where they seem to be too long (or perhaps a bit squashed?) when printed on my printer.

I also tried printing a page of various posters, advertisements etc from Vietnam. They look pretty good, so I'll make them available on the website as well.

Give me a couple of days to get them up. I'm really hoping our benefactor will be able to do some more models, perhaps passenger cars or freight wagons?

So I suppose I did achieve something over the weekend. Just not what I had originally planned!

Weekends......

It's the start of another weekend and I've got so much to do! All those kits to assemble and place on the module, plus roads to finish and a track to move! Oh well.... I got myself into this!

BTW I found some fuzzy photos of three different VN diesels made of paper on the VN railways forum.

There's a D13E and D9E (shown above) as well as a D19E (not shown). I presume they are in HO 1/87 but who knows?

I am trying to find out where I can get them from, but no luck yet. The links on the forum don't work, so that's no good. If anyone knows where I can get them from please let me know. I'm sure if they are in HO they can be reduced to N.

In the meantime I'm continuing to plan for my D12E model and hope to start construction this weekend.

By the way I'll be visiting Vietnam (mainly Saigon area) from July 24 to August 7, so I hope to get lot's of photos and details when I'm there (as well as have an excellent holiday!)