i actually thought it was just a vest when i first took it off the rack. didnt see the legs until i had them right out in the open. a pleasent surprise.
went up to savemart today, and felt a pull to check the fluoro vests and work gear, something i havent done for a few weeks. in amongst it were these kiwirail overalls. at $30 they were expensive, but a price i didnt mind paying to secure them.
i actually thought it was just a vest when i first took it off the rack. didnt see the legs until i had them right out in the open. a pleasent surprise. the thomas crossing the bridge set arrived last week. was tricky squeezing it into the wardrobe with everything else, but got there in the end. i also won the plarail airport set for a whole $15. it literally arrived as i was typing this post! now i have to try and fit that in the cupboard as well. i bought two lego sets off facebook, and they arrived today as well. both are christmas sets that are lego site exclusives.
pleased to have them to add to the collection. be time to start tidying the displays again for the upcoming club christmas show in a few weeks. right, the final glenbrook installment, i think. on the saturday, we didnt leave the grounds, so i settled with looking at the souviners and the thomas merchandise tent. i didnt buy anything from the tent, as all i found of interest were some minis, but i couldnt remember what i didnt have, so passed on them. on sunday, kylie, lloryian and myself escaped for the afternoon to auckland. we went to derby depot first, where kylie and i both got skates and laces. i love the skates, though i have to relearn everything from the intake class. they are so much more comfy and feel smoother to use. then off to sylvia park for lunch, where i found a toyworld and got the power ranger minis 4 pack and a dc set. also went to the warehouse, and i finally found the hotwheels peanuts car i was missing from the set. in other news, i bought the plarail thomas crossing the bridge set on trademe for $30. hasnt arrived yet, but hopefully this week some time? im also watching another plarail set that closes sunday night, the airport express, so fingers crossed!!
a nearby school had a gala on saturday morning, so i went round to that, hoping to find some blue track or something. didnt find much, but i did grab the tomy tractor in the above photo. the sheep pulls out on a string, and when you get it go, it is wound back in, the engine jiggles and makes noise. as the sheep goes back in the trailer, the door closes behind it, and the tractor then moves forward. normally it would be too modern for my tastes, but i wasnt going to leave without one decent buy, and that happened to be it! monday arrived as expected, and we prepared to leave the cabin for the last time and make the long trip home again.
greg and i got on the road before the others. i got up before him and loaded the van while he had breakfast and showered. even managed to scare a blackbird out of the sliding door at one point. we had a nice cruisy drive back to waiuku, and i snapped a photo of the kentish, where we went out to dinner. we found the main highway, and made our way to hamilton, where greg had a couple of stops to make. the first was at a model shop, which was bigger than expected, but nothing there i wanted to buy. we stumbled on hamilton railway station by pure chance and then went to meet up with someone greg had met the previous week who was looking for a particular style of railways house. he had bought and old milk plant that was the birthplace of not only anchor milk, who i work for now, but also glaxo smith kline, the pharmacuticals company. and if that wasnt enough, he is also tied in with zuru toys, who make robofish and bunch o balloons. the land the plant is on is huge, and used to have railway houses and a station. he is replacing them to make it how it used to be, keeping the exterior character of the structures, while updating and modernising the inside. he had a set of plan drawers for greg, so we followed him to the plant, and then down into the basement of one area of the plant. american pickers heaven! would love to have a dig there. the cabinet meant we had to unload the back of the van, and then strop everything down so my layout wouldnt shift too much. once that was done and dusted, we carried on, stopping again at the whanganui river lookout spot, though no trains this time. we stopped at te awamutu so greg could have a snooze [he has to do all the driving, so i was happy for him to stop when he needed] and i checked out the warehouse. nothing special there, and we continued the trip. the furthur down the country we got, the more the scenery was more familiar and we could sense the end in sight. mount ruapehu appeared first, and then tongariro next to it. we contemplated waiting for a train after seeing green signals, but checking with blair, we were told it could be hours away, and indeed we were home before the others found it. the remainder of the trip went smoothly, with greg taking his time but also setting a good pace for the last bit. all in all, the 4 days were absolutely amazing, and i had a blast. nice roads, great people, awesome weather and a couple of days off work. what more can a person ask for? to greg, blair, lloryian, kylie and keegan, thanks for a top weekend that wont be forgotten in a hurry. click the first photo below to see all the photos from the weekend. sunday morning started much the same as saturday, though we set the alarms for later, and as a result were nearly late.
the day went well, and around lunch time, kylie, lloryian and myself left the 3 boys and headed into auckland for a couple hours shopping. the crowds when we left were massively long, stretching behind the station and all the way to the signal box... at least an hour long wait with no shade. i applaud everyone for standing in it so patiently. first, we went to derby depot so kylie and i could check out some skates. we bought a pair each, and also got colored laces to make them "ours" properly. after that, we went to sylvia park for lunch. ive never been in a shopping centre that big. would need a couple of days there to see it all. i found a toyworld and picked up some new thomas minis. we made it back to glenbrook in time to catch the last train of the weekend, which was lucky as i hadnt gone on one yet. the crowds had really thinned by then, which made the trip more enjoyable. we rode in the open wagon at the end. we packed up, loaded everything into blairs ute and gregs van, making sure we had everything before heading away. one of the glenbrook guys told us there were 3 coreflute signs in the area advertising the event, and if we got them we could have them, as they would just go in the trash otherwise. greg got a bit enthusiastic, removing a sign from the front fence without looking at it first. it was advertising water. he stuck it back up on the post, and its something he wont live down. the thought was there, and i will never forget it. after we got all the signs, we stopped at looked at the glenbrook steel mill, and then decided to try and get to a local lighthouse in time for sunset. we made it, but the gravel road that went to the lighthouse was gated shut for the night, so we had to settle with what we got. the other four went out again the next morning, but greg had stops to make on the way home, so we skipped it. saturday morning started sooner than any of us would have liked, with alarms going off at 5am. blair, greg and myself dragged ourselves through preparations for the day ahead, hitting the road later than expected for the long drive to glenbrook to set up everything.
things were up and running just on 9am, with some set up still taking place. both layouts ran fairly well all day, though blair had a couple of derailments due to the inconsistent levels in the station floor. we were in the station where passengers were loaded in and out of the excursion trains. the organisers allowed in one trainload at a time, around 350 people! the trains were running every half hour, so we would get a 5min break at that time to change things up, eat or use the bathroom, or even just sit down and have a rest. it was good spot to be as we were protected from the sun and wind, and also had a canteen right next door that was decently priced. at times during the day, it felt claustraphobic as we were hemmed in completely and couldnt move much within the confines of blairs fencing. the fence did its job, protecting things nicely from most touching. blair had a couple of his vehicles touched, and one lady hit the perspex around my layout with her finger when pointing stuff out. towards the end of the day, i took a chance to escape for a walk around the grounds. looking back across the tracks, i couldnt even see the layouts through the bodies. things gradually got quieter, and we packed up the trains for the night, covering the layouts with spare sheets. we stopped at a nearby model railway, which had an immense amount of trackage and huge spirals, before going out to dinner together. the food was great and reasonably priced too. well, its safe to say our expedition to glenbrook vintage railway was a huge success.
the weekend started early friday morning, with greg arriving around 9 or 10 to pick up myself, all my gear and the tomix layout. we had a nice, cruisy trip up, stopping now and then for photos and just to have a break from the van. we stopped at the makatote viaduct, which has recently completed being refurbished. while there, we got a txt from blair to see where we were, and saying to stay as dora [the northern explorer] was on her way shortly. blair, lloryian, kylie and keegan pulled into the rest stop, and shortly after dora thundered across the gap. we carried on our ways, with greg and i stopping again at the foot of the raurimu spiral, where we just caught dora, and again at the another lookout which had a view of both the tracks and also the whanganui river, the same river that runs through my home town. after dora passed through there, we carried on, enjoying the scenery and easy conversation. we stopped for lunch at taumuranui, just missing dora. we wouldnt catch up again. from there, we went on our way. eventually, we arrived in waiuku and headed out of town towards the camp we were staying at, which was 45min out of town. it took all day to make the journey, and we arrived around 8.30 that night, keen for the 5am wake up call for glenbrook on the saturday morning. after seeing a video showing a new tunnel design, i had to buy one on jauce. that meant i had to buy more stuff at add to the parcel, and this morning i finally got around to finding something worth while, a number of event exclusive engines and some rolling stock. more to buy yet, just have to decide what! i ended up buying two duplicates, but dont mind that at all. the spare red and yellow will run the hamburger wagons, and the blue one with a plakids is one of my favourite designs ever. off to glenbrook vintage railway on friday wsith blair, lloryian, kylie, keegan and greg. blair is taking his thomas layout, and i will take my tomix one up as well. will be a crazy busy weekend, and a big update next week or the week after.
kylie and i will also hit a skate shop and hopefully come out with a pair of skates each. |
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October 2023
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