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If you are getting a newsletter and don't want to anymore or are receiving two copies at two different email addresses and only want one please unsibscribe at the bottom of the newsletter of the email you do not wish them to be sent to and it will automatically cross you off the list. Wow, that was a mouthful!!!

Barbara

A copy of our second newsletter, typos and all, and I stuffed up the greeting bit at the top, not to worry, I will get it right next time, maybe?

Unfortunately the pictures aren't showing, if you had signed up for the newsletter you would have them! I will have to find out how to do that bit.

Hello and welcome to our second newsletter, with a bit of luck you'll get some pictures with this one!
It is a really busy time just now with Toowomba Exhibition this weekend, 1st and 2nd June and Sydney the following long weekend. Many of you have ordered ahead for Sydney, and your orders are packed ready for pick up at the exhibition, if you are planning to place an order for pick up at
Sydney please do so by Tuesday the 4th June to ensure it is packed and waiting for you. We have new kits and decals for Toowoomba and Sydney exhibtions, more detail on that below.
News from the factory... NEW kits. RF04S-FD UME Flat Wagon with Fordson Tractor Load. RF04S-FG UME Flat Wagon with Ferguson Tractor Load. RF04S-LR UME Flat Wagon with Land Rover Load. The MLE and variants was one of the most versatile wagons in the NSW wagon fleet. Not being restricted with roof's and sides it could be combined with other vehicles to carry a variety of goods, and as such it was used to
transport vehicles and farm impliments from major city importers to far flung country areas. Recently some tractors and short wheel base
landrovers appeared on the Australian market and AR Kits has been fortunate enough to obtain limited supplies of these items. UME wagons
are being released in limited numbers with three different codes as listed above and shown below, while there is supply of these vehicles we
will continue these kits in our range. The kits come complete with the UME kit, 2 vehicles, Kadee finehead couplers, 50cm AR Kits Blackened
Chain 48 links per inch (Product code MWA024), 16 urethane wheels chocs, screws, decals and instructions. Cost of the kits are $54.00 each.


RF04S-FG UME Flat Wagon with Ferguson Tractor Load

RF04S-FD UME Flat Wagon with Fordson Tractor Load


RF04S-LR UME Flat Wagon with Land Rover Load

RF05
TME Flat Wagon with Pipe Load. A number of MLE wagons were converted for transport of pipe loads with the addition of two bolsters at each
end. The ever reliable AR Kits MLE has had 2 urethane bolsters added as well as 6 pipes and 50cm of AR Kits Blackened Chain, 48 links per inch
(Product code MWA024) to secure the load. The TME will become a permanent part of the AR Kits roster.


RF05 TME Flat Wagon with Pipe Load. Kit price $35.00.

New
Coal Loads... NHHF Coal Loads to compliment the NHHF Coal Hopper. Three style of coal loads have been produced to match those seen in
photographs, they come painted ready to drop into your NHHF Coal Hopper. They are easily inserted and removed so you can run your coal hopper empty or loaded.Product code FCDP05A, FCDP05B and FCDP05C @ $9.00 each.

Brass Detail Parts... Some brass detail parts are becoming short in supply and will remain that way until a new caster is found with some parts
disappearing altogether and new ones being added.

Motors... In he changing world of manufacture we went from ordering direct from Mashima to going through an agent, to going back to ordering direct from Mashima. Ordering via the agent just did not work!!! An order we placed many months ago we hope to have in the next couple of weeks, consiquently some stocks of motors are quite low.

Decals...A decal that has been around for some time is the NCTY Tubemakers Structural decal that can be used with modified Austrains BDY's. A line drawing of  the NCTY decal is shown below. A number of NODY's were recoded for hot slab steel traffic and had a BHP Steel Rod Division plaquard attached to the side of the wagon. Accurate details of the signage has been difficult to obtain but with a lot of persisitance, a final result has been achieved. We do believe that this is the most accurate decal produced so far, which will help modellers complete their steel traffic roster with the NHKY. New decals in HO are now available for the Austrains FO. there are enough decals in each packet to do over 100 cars. Product code MWD092 HO FO Shaded NUmbers Price $6.00 and the Austrains CCA. Product code MWA093 HO CCA Shaded Numbers. Price $6.00. These are a special run and when stock runs out new numbers will be run with either 10 high or 10 low numbers only. Price will then be $5.00.

The packing room table got to be a bit messy, so we had a major clean up. Found all sorts of things that had been covered up and hidden underneath something else, including a small quantity of HO Etched Brass Signal Ladder stock, 2 lengths for $12.00. It will be listed under Main West Accessories ... MWA006.

Happy Modelling

Barbara and Alwyn

Well our first newsletter for years, the last one we did many years ago went snail mail, stamps, envelopes and address labels etc. Below is a copy. Hopefully it arrived with a greeting to you personally, any feedback would be appreciated.

As I said I am learning on the job and there are no prizes for picking up typos!

Welcome to our first newsletter, we hope to keep you up to date on what is happening here at the factory, new items, sales etc.
Alwyn
has given me the job of the newsletter, so here goes ..... our IT man has set this up for us and I am 'learning on the job'.

Postal Charges ... have increased, and now ALL parcels over the size of a large letter have a tracking label attached. Postal charges are what we are charged at the post office counter, I do try and pack as ecomomically as I can with no air gaps or miles of bubble wrap.
Exhibitions .....Toowoomba is the first exhibiton for us this year on the 1st and 2nd June 2013. 9am to 5 pm on the Saturday and 9am to 4pm on the Sunday. The AR Kits stand will be there along with a couple of our local modellers, Ted, Ray and Nathan. Toowoomba also caters for the ladies in that there is a few craft stands, I will have some craft items and be doing leadlighting during the day.
The following weekend is the Epping 2013 Exhibition, held at the Thornleigh Brick Pit Stadium, 1A Dartford Road,Thornleigh. The AR Kits stand will be there, this is a three day exhibition, for more information check their website, ( I know I can add a link here but can't remember how to do it!).
Blog ..... we now have a blog! Another job I inherited! Go to our website and you will see the arrow going to the blog. This I hope to keep more up to date than it has been and a place for you to check back and see what is happening.

RN02 NHWF Bogie Ballast Wagon ..... upcycling the RN01. In the late 1950s a contract was let to the NSWGR Workshop for a welded version of the Bogie Ballast Wagon, General Arrangement Drawing 26727. Although the wagon looked similar to the riveted version it was 35'9" over the head stocks being 1'8" longer than the riveted counterpart. It was also about 12" higher but they were both 9'4" wide. The bogies are normally seen running in rakes along with either a brake van or a ballast plough. Issued with 2BR bogies these were changed to 2CG bogies post 1977. They have been seen all over New South Wales and have been painted gun metal grey, wagon red, PTC blue and Way of Works yellow. They have operated alongside all bogies ballast wagon variants. This kit in particular deals with the PTC Blue colour scheme and comes with 2CG Bogies.
The above is the blurb from the instruction sheet in the kit, Alwyn has added this extra information.
After viewing numerous photographs of blue wagons, the PTC blue scheme is more a weathered freight rail blue, and as such freight rail blue with a couple of drops of white added will give a good result. The decals allow for the addition of the apinted red chassis rail with the white
brace wheel on/off lettering. this will now complete all the colour schemes for this ballast wagon and a more realistic result can be
acheived with the addition of some rust colour around the joints and a dirty underframe. The 2CG bogies can have the top hanger shortened, but
there are also photos showing the top hanger bars on less the outer brake shoes.
These kits are packed and now available and will be at the Toowoomba and Epping Exhibitions, RN02 NHWF $33.00.

RN01 BBW / NHWF..... the original kit. I have packed about 70 of these in the past week or so, the first 30 or so I packed, I unintentionally added an extra bit. It was in the box of detail parts and although I could not see it on the instruction sheet, because it was in the box it must be in
the kit right? WRONG. So for a bit of fun, the first person to post this 'extra piece' back to me and tell me what it is and what kit it is
from, I will send a RN02 NHWF kit for free. Only one sorry and I will post on the blog when and who was the lucky modeller.

That's it for this newsletter, if you have received double copies it may be I have two email addresses in my 'collected emails' folder, so please
unsubscribe the email address you do not want the newsletter to be sent to or if you do not wish to receive our newsletter you can unsubscribe
at the bottom.

Don't forget to check the blog...
Happy Modelling

Barbara and Alwyn

AR Kits is a proud sponsor of all things hobby and craft. As such we are one of the major sponsors for the Needle Craft section at the Warwick Show. In the past we have only had our name displayed as part of the sponsorship deal but this year at the last minute we decided to attend with a display of kits and models built using AR Kits products. AR Kits models were on display in conjunction with some from Bergs and Casula Hobbies. The first with Bogies/Decals and underbody detail parts and the latter with loads and detail parts owned by AR Kits. 

The attached link   

was in the local paper on Saturday morning and we were quite surprised with the number who came through specifically to see the model train display. The result is that next year we will have a small exhibition layout there as well as the display. Some of the display models are getting a little old and in need of repair so that is another major event for this year as well as building enough models of my own to run on the layout.

Thanks to a friend of mine the link was put on Facebook. I am extremely pleased with the feedback received.

Regards

Al