Bergs Suburban Tulloch - Standard The Taronga Zoo Train

Like too many modellers at one time or another, I have lost momentum with the layout and this is due to too much time considering its potential cons, rather than just forging ahead and tackling them.
 I have decided that the track base centres, in relation to the layout width, are wrong. I aligned the track in the actual centre of the baseboards and it has left me too little room the create the landscape to the rear of the track and left too much room at the front than is needed!
With chainsaw in hand (probably really a fret saw) I will cut and reposition the whole plywood track base, hopefully sooner than later.


In the meantime I have continued preparing stock to run on the layout.

I recently tackled a project that I had wanted to do ever since Bergs released their Tulloch set, the NSW Zoo train 8 car set.
The set from the early 1990's made up of different makes of "red rattler"carriages all painted into a uniform set advertising Taronga Zoo with different animals represented on each car.
I had a folder of reference photos that were found on the net and elsewhere to help me design the artwork for HO scale when the time came.
I also decided some time back that I would only do 4 of the cars initially and maybe the other 4 at a later date.

The cars chosen, Zebra, Tiger, Turtle and Fish.

The photos I've seen show the set as running(or sitting) in the early 90's in at least 2 formations of the 8 car set. Basically, some cars appear to have been switched around during their stint on the rails. I did take pics of the set myself once when it was stabled in town(1992?) but don't remember its actual composition.

I wanted to do the Fish  and Turtle, which meant the Tiger as well as it always appeared with the previous 2 in photos.  The problem(with choice) was that some pics showed the 4th car as either the Giraffe OR the Zebra.
Others may remember why these cars where interchanged, but anyway, I decided to go with the Zebra as the 4th car as the Giraffe was too close in colour/design to the Tiger.

The artwork I designed  tries to mirror the same design found on the actual cars accurately, both sides and ends. The artwork was made using Coreldraw and laser cut out to use as a mask for the air brushing. Some bits were hand painted. The paints used were a mix of acrylics(citadel) via airbrush/brush and aerosol enamels(marabu).  The beclawat windows (nickel silver etches) on the Tiger and the Turtle are from EmuModels.

Pics....

                                         The Zebra

                                          The Tiger

                                          The Turtle

and The Fish

To finish I just need to add the target plates, MU cables/sockets, horn and roof decals.

.........and did the set actually run to Cronulla, photos seem to confirm a yes, maybe somebody remembers?

I may do the other 4 Zoo cars sometime but will need more Tulloch cars first!