Mutton Chop

          This being the month of Mo-vember, when we are  all doing our bit for men's cancer research,
I realized that I was unable to grow a m(o)ustache, because I have been wearing a beard since about
1965 - the cool trendsetter that I am...
          Then my mind wandered - it often does these days - and I was thinking 'mutton chops'. From
there it was only a short step for me to go out and buy three of the new Ozrail  L sheep vans,
of which the Victorian Railways had over 1400. They were used for sheep and sometimes pig
transportation, until1986, when those dastardly road transports finally won out.
          These 4-wheelers were quite a sight in the prototype, but for the models before me, the word
cute seems to have been invented. I nevertheless think they are some of the finest r-t-r models ever
produced .... just my opinion, of course. They will do sterling service in the hills of Yea, Cathkin and
Alexandra. Only for another few years though.....

                   There will actually be a sheep loading ramp  at Alexandra, but this location is                                                                more photogenic.

Station Street , Yea

       Yesterday I redid the Station Street area at the Railway Station (being a Grumpy Old Man I
refuse to call it a train station). Anyway, the branch was abandoned before we had ' Train Stations".
So there.

       I redid the photo murals after taking new photos, removed some unsightly power poles and
some  of the more modern trappings around the primary school from after 1978. I also decided to
eliminate one somewhat obscured red brick home next to the church. My apologies to the
people living there, but the strip turned out just a little too long. So sorry, but you don't exist.-
Take it up with the photoshop people...

       I roughly cut the strip along the (very cloudy) sky and after applying the photo mural, which
was made up from six single shots, I painted the sky to match the existing. However, it turned out
that the lighting system, which otherwise was doing a great job in illuminating all my failures,
foibles, as well as the odd success, was now doing its worst in highlighting to the extreme the cut
top edge of the photo backdrop, even though it is made of very thin card. I tried dusting it with sky
blue pastel powder - without success.

       Finally, I thought, if you can't beat them - join them. Yea is surrounded by hills, so why not
make it a range of hills. We really dare not call them mountains around here, so everyone relax.

       For those of you out there, who might ask, why didn't you carefully cut out the whole scenery
and stick it against the existing painted sky, I have to say : Make yourself a nice cup of tea and
have a good lay-down... it will pass.

         Finally I added a footpath made from  thicker card, which turned out to be quite acceptable.