NSWGR 59 Class Project Underway Again

           

       After a number of stop-starts over many years and for a variety of reasons which resulted in the project being moved through a number of manufacturers, the NSWGR 59 class project is again underway. 
      This time, the 59 class is part of a much larger program which is already seeing progress on the 59 class project as well as a number of other both major and minor projects. Details of these projects will be released regularly on this blog, located as it is on the new, Shopify hosted website.  
      Meetings between Eureka and our Chinese manufacturer have already reviewed the 59 class project with the group making up-dates where deemed necessary in order to accommodate manufacturing and material improvements that have taken place since the projects' inception. 
      One such change is the decision to switch from a boiler made of ABS plastic to one made of white metal.  
      When Eureka Models first went to China in 2004, the use of white metal bodies was considered for our AD60 but the advice of our then manufacturer was that the technology for using white metal was not quite ready yet and that injection plastic produced better details and particularly, finish.
      Since then the manufacturing process for white metal has improved to the point where it is considered that white metal boilers and their decoration are now a match for boilers of injection plastic with the added weight over the driving wheels provided by white metal being a major factor in its favour. This additional weight over the driving wheels is especially useful in steam engines where the space in the boiler is restricted or taken up by motor and gears etc.  
      A number of other areas of improvement such as in motors and gears are being incorporated into the 59 class design and this will be a topic for regular up-dates through this blog along with progress reports on the overall project.     

   

 

5908 at Old Casino - John Shields 

    

 

R CLASS RE-RUN UP-DATE

         The Caulfield exhibition in September, 2026 was the opportunity for Eureka Models' main Chinese manufacturer to visit Australia again. Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with Allic and may even have met him in person when he visited the Rosehill exhibition in 2025. 
        After attending the Caulfield exhibition over the weekend, Allic motored along the Hume Highway to Sydney where he spent three days visiting his Sydney based customers. Whilst in Sydney he was a guest of Eureka Models and apart from the major get-together with Eureka personnel, it would not be hard to guess what were the main topics of conversation over breakfast, lunch and dinner and just about all other times in between whilst Allic was here.  
       Up-dates on other projects are covered elsewhere with the project discussed in this blog being the R class re-run that is currently underway at Allics' factory in Dong Guan which is part of the massive industrial area located on the Chinese mainland opposite Hong Kong.
        The project so far has involved transferring the R class tooling to the Dong Guan factory and then testing the tooling and in the process checking to see if any tools are missing. This has now been completed without any problems and work has now commenced on manufacturing the tooling required for the new variations being produced in this run of the R class.
        This principally involves the oil tanks on R 711 and R 766, dual funnels and power reverse on R 711 as well as long coal bunkers on R 707, R 761 and R 766 in the Midland Red livery.

The double funnels used on WCR R 711

        Data packages covering these items have been in place at the factory since the R class re-run project commenced however, one item that has also been part of discussions since the start of this re-run and is now reaching the decision making point, is the question of weight over the driving wheels in the engine.
        Increasing this weight has been the number one item on the list of desireables since the re-run started. Much discussion and head-scratching has taken place before finally, whilst Allic was present, the decision was made to completely re-tool the boiler so that a full white metal boiler could be substituted for the injection plastic one used on the first run of the R class.
        This will solve the weight issue and whilst the new tool will take about ten weeks to manufacture, this can be done in parallel with other work so that the impact on delivery of the project will be minimal with delivery of all variations scheduled for October, 2027.  
        A summary of the engine numbers being produced and the modifications underway is as follows:

Engine  Type                            Modifications from Standard         Decoration  VR black/red striping
                                                        (New tooling required)                (unless noted)
R 701    Coal VR standard                                             
R 704    Coal VR standard                                                                      Festival of Britain
R 707    Coal R 707 Ops           Long bunker                                         City of Melbourne nameplates   
                                                                                                                        Blue/Chrome number plates
R 709    Coal VR standard
R 711    Oil WCR                     Rect. oil tank, dual funnels, power       WCR blue/white
                                                                                            reverse       
R 711    Oil SteamRail             Rect. oil tank, loco standard                  VR blue and Yellow
R 719    Oil VR tender oil
                (existing tooling)
R 740    Coal VR standard
R 761    Coal long bunker        Long bunker
R 766    Coal long bunker        Long bunker                                           Midland red/gold lining
R 766    Oil WCR                    Rect. oil tank (no other mods)                WCR blue/white
R 766    Oil                              Rect. oil tank, 
                                                    NSW mods (dumb front buffers)
R 769    Coal VR standard 

The quantity of each engine number and variation being produced is largely a guess and some numbers will almost certainly sell out quickly and so as usual, it is highly recommended that anyone requiring a specific variation or engine number should pre-order to reserve that item.  

  

      

 

 FREMO AWARD AT GOULBURN EXHIBITION 2026

         The staff here at the Eureka office first came across the FREMO movement at the 2025 Goulburn exhibition. For some reason the concept took hold amongst the staff and it was decided to construct a module to be displayed under the Eureka Model’s banner as part of the FREMO model railway at the 2026 Goulburn exhibition.

        The module would feature one of the NSWGR timber openings (trestles) much loved by the Eureka staff.

        Work subsequently commenced and, aided greatly by the Friday-night Ramblers (thanks Gary and Jonathan) much progress was made until, almost at the last minute, the module, complete with basic scenery was ready to be incorporated into the overall FREMO model railway at the Goulburn exhibition.

        Or so everyone at the Eureka offices thought, but the folks at the Illawarra Club have been through all this before and quite wisely, had organised a test assembly of all modules to take place at facilities located in the BlueScope works in Wollongong (Thanks BlueScope).   

        On the appointed day, the module joined many others to be assembled into one, big, happy model railway. To say that the Eureka staff were more than a little bit apprehensive would not be an over-statement but, by the end of the day, the module, along with many others had passed the test assembly with flying colours. 

            As it turned out, the staff here at the Eureka offices had taken to the project with such enthusiasm that the “powers that be” at Eureka Models could be prevailed upon to offer a prize for the best module displayed as part of the FREMO model railway at the Goulburn exhibition. (The Eureka module excluded from consideration of course.)   
            The FREMO model railway was put together by the Illawarra Model Railway Club on the Friday before the exhibition and it turned out to be quite impressive indeed measuring over 61 metres in length and being made up of many very nice, individual modules.
            Saturday afternoon rolled around and two independent judges were called in to make the hard choice of best FREMO module. Competition was so tight that the judges at one stage considered awarding a joint first prize to two separate modules but in the end the award went to the module presented by Chloe Hill who together with the award certificate received a $250 voucher from Eureka Models to spend at Casula Hobbies. Well done Chloe!

Judges announcing their decision. 

 

 

It is worth noting that during the award process the challenge was thrown down to all to double the size of the FREMO presentation next year. Eureka Models has already agreed to repeat its award at Goulburn in 2027 so get to work, all you module builders.

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38 CLASS NEARING COMPLETION.

 

     The Eureka Models office is currently speaking to our manufacturer every couple of days about the 38 class assembly process and the latest advice is that assembly is nearing completion and that the shipment is expected to be on the wharf at a port on the Pearl River before the end of April.

      Of course, advice that the shipment will be "on the wharf" invites the follow on  question of "when will it be on a ship?". Unfortunately, the factory people are no better at predicting the future than we here at Eureka Models are but they did say that currently, shipping to Europe was almost impossible to get but that shipping to Australia was ok at the moment. What it will be like at the end of April is any body's guess.

Stay tuned for regular up-dates.      
 

          The attached photo was taken on a recent visit to our manufacturer's new facility which is located in the Wan Jiang District of China and is about forty minutes by fast train from Hong Kong.  
It shows Allic, who many modellers would have met on the Eureka Model's stand when he visited the Rosehill Exhibition last year, discussing an assembly issue with Xiang who is the assembly line leader at the factory.