The Model Train Nut
is Richard Havenga – aka Crewbus01
Exhibition #2
Coca-Cola Dome - March 2009
We’d just finished building the desert extension and the glue hadn’t quite dried but “Petra”, as it has been christened, was boxed with the desert module and was ready to be transported from Kempton Park to the Dome in Randburg in the “Crewbus”.
If you’ve followed the narrative in sequence you’ll have some idea of what is coming… Both modules had been over-engineered, the Crewbus never does things in half-measures, and constructed from pine, hardboard and softwood, individually the modules were a little heavy. The addition of plaster of paris or rhinolite, paint, scenic materials and glue had added close on 5kg to the already heavy structure. Module 2 had mountains added, resin for the water in the pool at the base of the waterfall and river, and the same 5kg of plaster, rhinolate, paint, scenic material and glue.
To facilitate transportation, I’d made a frame and bolted both modules face-to-face to protect the delicate secenery in transit. Modules are 1.2m long and 610cm wide by 12cm “deep” and ours was constructed to withstand a hurricane of epic proportions.
Setup at the Dome happens on a Wednesday afternoon. All module owners meet at 5pm at the designated entrance and we offload our modules and start bolting them together to form the layout. It does take some man-handling to move the modules to the area where the N Gauge Guild sets up and this is where the fun really starts. Clive offered to give me a hand to carry the boxed modules the few meters from the Crewbus to the setup area and I accepted.
We each took hold of an end and lifted. Well I did, but Clive stayed put. Only a slight grunt from his end gave any indication something was wrong. Straightening his knees and his resolve and with a mighty roar (we’ll use poetic licence here), Clive lifted his end and was ready to start moving. Slowly at first but gathering momentum, we manoevered the modules into place, Clive’s knees were buckling, his face had taken on a red tinge and there was still about 3 meters to go…
After a struggle, all the modules had been bolted together, the electrical wiring had been connected up underneath the massive exhibition layout and it was ready for a test loco to be run around the layout on all three tracks.
This would be the scale equivalent of around 75Km!
Over the course of the 4-day expo, the organisers reported 35 000 people had attended according to ticket sales. Hobby-X 2009 must easily have been the biggest expo I’d ever participated in and with the cooling economy in South Africa, each subsequent year saw fewer visitors.
Over the years, the two desert modules and a later corner module, could be seen at exhibitions across Gauteng as the N Gauge Guild setup at Sci Bono in the Newtown precinct in Johannesburg, Arts and Crafts Expo at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, at the Pistonring Club in Modderfontein, at Reefsteamers Open Days in Germiston’s old SAR Diesel Depot and at the John Barrable Hall in Benoni.