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In keeping with the fine tradition established over the previous two years by members of the Croydon Narrow Gauge Group and the Big Sky Lumber Company and their friends in Victoria, a group of narrow-minded individuals from Sydney (and that's their quote!) hosted the Third Australian Narrow Gauge Convention at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, around 100km (60 miles) west of Sydney, NSW.
The convention was held on 11 & 12 April 1998, the Easter weekend. An optional excursion on Monday 13 April took convention attendees down the western side of the mountains to an excursion to Lithgow's Zig Zag Railway. This 3 foot 6 inch railway, using mainly Queesnsland equipment, uses the right-of-way of the original switch backs - zig zags - of the western rail line over the Blue Mountains to the Bathurst gold fields.
Clinics and presentations included:
- locomotive construction methods & modelling materials
- resistance soldering: how to build a rig, and how to use it
- New South Wales narrow gauge
- Queensland cane railways' operation and equipment
- a locomotive sound forum
- command control
- computers in model railroading
- painting figures
- air brushing
- several sessions on scenery techniques
- an Aussie 3'6" gauge forum
- a session on Maine USA two-foot railroading
- adhesives and where to use them in modelling
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