Stay or Go?

Being in Pacific Park with our land "red" we have to shift. My wife Shamina wants to stay in the east but my feeling is to have shingle/stable ground under me and shift west or out of Christchurch City.

Eastern land is either red (can't be rebuilt on), blue (liquefaction highly probable in a future significant event), or yellow (liquefaction possible in future).

And housing costs are sky rocketing in Christchurch so what we get from the government (2007 ratable valuation) for our 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 lounge, 3 car garaging 9 year old house ($381,000) will be about $50,000 - $80,000) short to get a comparable house in western Christchurch.

Going to Rangiora (Waimakariri Council) or Rolleston (Selwyn Council) is slightly cheaper, but to retain similar property and value we need to shift about 40km out of Christchurch.

I also beleive that with less rate payers in Chrischurch (both multi-storey business buildings and the 5,000+ red zone houses) and a need for a lot more money, rates in Christchurch will rise far above the national average. The city has not got enough residentail development to cater for that many new houses.

So, do we shift to Selwyn or Waimakariri, or even slightly further to Amberley (Hurunui Council)? But what do we gain - possibly just a couple of years of lower rates as I am of the opinion (and it has been voiced after I wrote most of this, but before I published it) that there will be a merger of three or four councils to make a "super council area", similar to Auickland's super city status.

Yes, a lot of the quakes/aftershocks have been centred on Rolleston, and while houses have some suprficial damage, none are being demolished and rebuilt. In fact new houses are being erected at a rapid rate and the insurance companies are insuring them, something that is difficult in Christchurch city at the moment.

The rest of 2011

In mid February (Tuesday 22nd) we were struck with another massive quake, this one killing 181 people in the city and on or near the Port Hills. I was at work in Bromley when it struck, but managed to get home within 10 minutes - ANZAC Drive/Bexley Road was under water (liqufaction)and Pacific Park was hit hard again. We had a lot of liquefaction, mainly down the south side of the house, and again no services.

Two things were going to be done on Tuesday after work. One was to fill the car with petrol and the other was to sort out and package my entries for the Photographic Society of NZ National Salon (NATEX). Neither of these happened.

The day from when the quake struck at 12:51pm is a bit of a blur, but before dark I went to my mother's house in New Brighton, found Shamina in South New Brighton, returned home, back to Mum's to take the fallen chimney off the roof, into New Brighton to see the church (Union/Collingwood corner), down New Brighton Mall, home and then out twice on the mountain bike looking for one of our two students (the first one saw the cathedral spire come down and hitched home).

Tim and his friend Holly (she had been working in the IRD building) arrived, walking from McKenzies Pub where Tim left his car (he later shifted it to park it on the Bridge Street/Dyers Road/Breezes Road/Bexley Road round-a-bout).

The sky was busy with helicoptors and a RNZAF Orion, and rain started to fall about 8:00pm. We survived the night with plenty of aftershocks, and reports of traffic chaos the next day stopped us heading over to Alastair's in Islington. I had enough petrol to get there, but not enough to spend three hours crawling across town in slow traffic. We stayed home again, and prepared to leave at 6:30am on the Thursday morning, which we did.

Manuel (the Swiss student) departed home the following Wednesday (March 2nd), cutting short his NZ and Australia visit, and Ken (from Japan) left on Saturday 5th March, heading home to Japan, on the day he was scheduled to, so did not cut short his stay in New Zealand.

We had managed to shift my mother and her 91 year old husband out of the city (to Picton) on Saturday 26th February as it was difficult for them to "live" with no power, water or sewer. Tim took them to Kaikoura where my cousin from Picton picked them up. Tim then returned to Alastair's house where we celebrated his birthday on the Saturday night. Tim stayed at Hardy Street alone and managed to survive OK, but with the major releif outlet in the east, just 100m away at the school hall he had no major worries. And one of the churches provided him with a hot meal each day for a couple of weeks.

On Saturday 26th February Alastair and I returned to Pacific Park to collect the freezer and tidy up some of the stuff. We ended up getting lunch from the "Ragiora Express" - hot food delivered by helicoptor (it landed at Wairoa Street Reserve, just around the corner).

With Mum away in Picton (and later Auckland), and our two students back home, Shamina headed to Auckland to stay with her family for a couple of weeks. I cummuted from Islington to Bromley for work for the next two weeks (until power was restored), collecting the work power generator from Tim each morning and returning it each nigh, so he could charge his phone and watch a little bit of the television (news) each night.




On a Saturday evening in April we had more liquefaction (minor amount) from another 5.? aftershock, but June 13 was another major day with two quakes 80 minutes apart. The first was 5.9 (originally 5.8 but revised in December) and the second at 2:20pm a 6.4 (originally a 6.3), and again liquefaction was more than February. The following Saturday a group from the Farmy Army (farmer volunteers) cleaned up the remaining liquefaction down the side of the house.

It was relatively quiet on the quake front through to December 23rd., but on June 22nd it was announced that 5000+ properties in easter Christchurch would be "red zoned" and unable to be repaired or the land built on again, and all of Bexley was included so we have till April 2012 to decide what option we take (total government payout or land payout and deal with insurance company over a rebuild on land to be purchased).

On Decemeber 23rd at 1:56pm Alastair and I had just pulled up at Greenpark Huts (Lake Ellesmere) to eat our Subway lunch, when the car started rocking and rolling, and posts and fences started swaying. We knew it was big quake well over 5 (was a 5.8), so motored back to town (120kmh to Lincoln), Al trying to contact his partner Tanya as well as his mum/my wife (Shamina) who was out helping my Mum do her grocery shopping. I dropped Al at his place, filled the car up with petrol in Hornby and headed across town towards Eastgate Mall. Two minutes short of Eastgate, while I was driving along Linwood Avenue another massive qwuake struck (6.0) and the car was bouncing along, not to mention the swaying lamp posts etc.

I retrieved Shamina, Mum and Syd and headed home to see what was teh damage. More liquefaction (third most of the five times we have had it), but inside was not too bad, with just one bookshelf unit down, and Soy Sauce spilled in the pantry.

We still had water and sewer and power was out for about 12 hours.

Christmas Eve was spent doing cleanup (shifting silt) and preparing for Christmas the following day, and on Christmas Day I shifted the last few barrow loads of silt - something that I have not done in the past or hope to do in the future (shifting silt on Christmas Day).

September 4th to early February 2011 (part 2)

Some more on the aftermath of the September 4th 7.1 Canterbury earthquake.

I resumed work at Manning Signs on Tuesday, just three days after the initial quake and my five minute drive to work changed to something like 20-25 minutes owing to the fact that Dyers Road over the "Bromley Lakes" (sewerage oxidation ponds) was closed for pipe replacement and road repairs (the road had many longitudinal cracks when we drove over on the Saturday morning before it was closed). This road is part of the Christchurch Ring Road, so is vital for effecient traffic movement from southeast of city to the north. With the South New Brighton bridge out (both approaches had dropped about 150mm) a lot more traffic was going over the New Brighton and Pages Road was bumper to bumper for most of the day. The trip home was even worse and I ended up driving from work towards the city (away from home) so I could get onto Buckleys Road/Pages Road at Eastgate and avoid the Maces/Cuthberts/Breezes Road route that was now the de facto Ring Road.

On Sunday 5th September I was supposed to go to Kaiapoi to be one of the judges for the Photographic Society of NZ Southern Regional Salon (for the Southern Regional Convention that New Brighton Photographic Club was scheduled to host in early October). Unfortunately the venue in Kaiapoi was severely damaged and the judging day was postponed till the following week, at a new venue.

Meanwhile the New Brighton Photographic Club continued on as per normal as though the earthquake had not occurred, and hosted the regional convention at the New Brighton Working Men's Club, but attendance was down about 25% on recent regionals, mostly being Christchurch photographers who did not attend due to the earthquake. Local Labour MP Lianne Dalziel (and newest member of New Brighton Photographic Club - she joined just the week before) was the opening night guest speaker, and I was asked to show her around the print exhibition. She actually lives just 300 metres from me in Bexley, and as luck would have it is a fellow Canon shooter!

We still had aftershocks, sometimes several a day, sometimes feeling just a couple in a week and life returned to some sort of normality.

At the New Brighton Photographic Club's final night (early December) I knew that one member (Alan Crisp) was being awarded Life Membership (I did the certificate), but my fellow and very devious committee members had arranged to grant me Life Membership as well, and it was an emotional moment for me, but something I will treasure.

My sister and family came down for Christmas and she wanted to feel a quake, but missed the first two on Boxing Day (one while she was asleep and one when she was in the shower), but she did feel the quake that is now known as "the Boxing Day quake". This was close to the city and caused a lot of building damage. Two of my workmates had just finished installing some new advertising signage in Ballantynes and had moved off in their van about 50metres down Cashel Mall when the quake struck and parts of building facades collapsed. The main Whitcoulls store in central Christchurch never re-opened after this quake. Many stores were packed with people out for the "Boxing Day Sales".

September 4 to early February 2011

An update on the PFE railroad

The last work done on the railroad (started laying sub roadbed) was on the evening of Friday 3rd September. Since then NOTHING!!!! At 4:36am the following morning (September 4th) we were awoken by a horrendous noise and the house shaking violently, as the 7.1magnitude Canterbury earthquake ripped through our suburb. It was 45 seconds of sheer hell. I thought the walls were going to fall away and the roof crush us. It stopped, but we were in total darkness.

Luckily Shamina had taken her cellphone to the bedroom so we used the torch on that to find our emergency torches and look for the small transistor in my study. I got dressed and went out the front door (it still opened), to see water or sewerage geysers still erupting in the street, and the smell was of raw sewerage. This was later found out to be liquefaction, a word that most in Christchurch, Canterbury and NZ never knew.

Unable to find the emergency transistor (I later found it on my desk, but buried under a whole book shelf full of books and DVDs), I knew there were two other small transistors in a box in the garage. I got into there and shifted a few tools etc that had fallen and got to the box holding transistors and old film cameras. Batteries from the current camera bag (flash unit batteries) were in and we had radio, but 3ZB the local Civil Defence radio station was not broadcasting.

The cell network was still working, so Shamina rang Tim (#1 son) holidaying in Brisbane, where it was about 3am. He logged onto the internet and could hear the ZB network reporting major damage in the city, and later he watched a lot of the “action” on TV.

About 5am I decided I had better go and see my elderly mother in New Brighton, if I could get across the Avon River. I managed to open the garage door and get the car out, and headed out of Pacific Park into Wairoa Street, but there I met a lake of water across the road, footpath and gardens. Not knowing what the road was like under that (our bit of road in Velsheda Street was really only fit for four-wheel drive), I returned to Velsheda Street and headed out the Anzac Drive entrance to Pacific Park. The road was a nightmare, but I managed to get onto Pages Road, and passed the petrol bowser where a few people were milling around. I gingerly crossed the New Brighton bridge and over that you could not tell there had been an earthquake. Roads were all good and there was no visible signs of damage to houses. I pulled up outside my Mum’s to see my step-brother’s car there. He had managed to get from Shirley to New Brighton, on what was later found out to be very damaged roads. Mum and her blind/deaf husband were Ok, but Mum was a bit shaken. They had no power either.

Seeing they were OK I returned home, the only lights visible were from torches, although the hill suburbs around Mt Pleasant were ablaze with lights – they did not lose power. We were experiencing some fairly strong aftershocks, and once dawn started to break I ventured out again to see the destruction in and around our property. We had two “sand volcanoes” (liquefaction events) on the property, but the street was awash with sand and water, and most likely sewerage as the sewer pipes had risen, with the man-holes all being about 100-200mm higher than the road level. There were cracks all across the road with one leading across the lawn towards our house.

In the kitchen the floor was cracked, but we could only see this with the lino ripped apart. The gib board around the doors and windows at the front end of the house had minor cracks, and the garage floor appeared to be heading south towards the wetlands.

But the house was still sound and liveable IF we had water, power and a sewerage system. I have always been one to be reasonably prepared so got some of the stored water out and also the picnic gas cooker, and made a cup of coffee.

I have lost all track of time on Saturday morning, but about 8am Shamina invited the neighbours to the south of us in for a cuppa. They had no water, no camping gear, absolutely nothing in the way of emergency equipment. While I was boiling the water, another 5+ quake occurred. I just lifted the near boiling pot off the cooker and held it till the quake passed. Later on we went for a drive as far as the South New Brighton bridge, back to Pages Road and around to Mums. Took a few photos as well.

The radio was starting to report major problems in parts of the city and the Prime Minister would be heading to Christchurch in the afternoon. Mid morning we decided to leave the house and packed enough stuff for a couple of days, and some emergency gear such as a couple of small tents, cooking gear etc. Alastair (#2 son) lives in Islington and they had no damage, nor loss of power, but was that to continue with numerous quakes rocking Christchurch and surrounding area. Our Japanese student wanted to take ALL his stuff , but I said we would have to leave some of our emergency stuff behind, so I told him to take enough for two days, plus his laptop etc.

We headed out on Anzac Drive and across the ponds, where the road was craked, but once reaching the other side of the ponds (by the ITM store) we found very little evidence there had been an earthquake apart from a couple of chimneys down on houses on Brougham Street.

We arrived at Al’s place and I uploaded some pics to the photo sharing site Flickr. Later Al and I returned home as he wanted to see some of the destruction first hand, but the radio reported the ponds road shut as was Anzac Drive south of Pages. We finally managed to get into Pacific Park and collect a few more things, before heading back across town to Islington.

By the time we had returned Mum had her power back on, and my sister rang to say that Mum was a bit worried about staying semi-alone (Sid hadn’t even felt an earthquake at this stage), so after dinner we packed the car again and headed back to New Brighton for the next few nights.

On the Monday we shifted the chest freezer out to Mum’s so as to keep all the frozen meat and other products in a frozen state. We stayed with Mum and Syd for a week, until we were certain the power and water were back on.

On the Wednesday morning (8th September) I arrived outside our house about ten minutes before 8am, and before getting out of the car experienced a very strong aftershock, later to be confirmed as a new earthquake from Horatane Valley. I watched a neighbours concrete brick fence ripple like a snake. Power however had just come back on so I was able to reset the burglar alarm. Water was a couple of days later, and at the weekend we shifted back although we were still experiencing many aftershocks.

Normal life resumed (apart from model railways) and we lodged a claim with EQC. An EQC inspection in November advised that the house damage was between $10,000 and $60,000 (re plaster and paint walls etc), but a building engineer would be called to survey the house properly due to the crack in the base.

Meanwhile the second Canterbury earthquake report came out that showed our house, and all around us were in Zone C (land rehabilitation would be required before rebuilding). Zone A was no land damage, B was minor land damage that could be fixed without house removal while the 3,300 houses in Zone C were most likely to be demolished before the land repaired.

Then totally unexpectedly a cheque arrived for $113,850 ($100,000 EQC payout +GST less 2%), and the claim was handed over to the insurance company. I knew then that no building engineer was coming and assumed that EQC and council were aware that regardless of house damage, the Zone C houses were going to go.

On Boxing Day we had some significant aftershocks that did damage to the central city but no more damage to our place.

In January an insurance assessor came around, advising that EQC had passed the claim to them. He inspected the house and took photos, and advised that if EQC were not going to repair the land the house was for “demolish and rebuild” but as it was still inhabitable this would be on the 2 to 5 year plan, as they (the insurance company) had many houses that were currently uninhabitable and these were to be done first.

The single garage at the back (LAYOUT ROOM) would not be touched if the job was just up to the insurance company, but we still had to wait for EQC/council to report on whether the whole lot go for land rehabilitation. But that meant still no work on the model railway!!!

As far as contents damage, most bookshelves on north/south walls took a tumble and spilled their contents (no serious damage), and we lost a picture frame, two wine glasses and a couple of vases, and one damaged venetian blind, so not mush at all really.

2010 August 08

Well, I am back with the blog after a two+ month hiatus. Not that nothing has happened, it is just that I have spent on average 90 minutes a day working on the layout benchwork, as well as doing my photographic club duties, which included producing the 20 minute audio visual for Christchurch Photographic Society’s Laurie Thomas New Zealand Landscape Salon. I was luck enough to get a bronze medal in that competition for an image titled “The Heads”, a shot of Godley and Adderley Head in low cloud taken from the New Brighton Pier earlier this year.

I am also digital secretary for New Brighton Photographic Club’s annual New Zealand Photojournalism competition and will need to do an audio-visual for that as well, after judging (in a weeks time).

I have also been working full-time at Manning Signs and have often come home from work completely stuffed.

And then our first grandchild arrived just four weeks ago (Ethan Feroz Stewart) to my youngest boy (Alastair) and his partner Tania. They live across the other side of the city (44km round trip) so it is not a five minute drive to see them.

Added to that my main desktop computer decided it was going to go REALLY SLOW (20 minutes to start up) so after it locked up while I was scanning some railway pictures for a friend (DJ at Tuatapere) I decided it was time to purchase what maybe my last desktop. It has taken a few days to get the software across from the old to new (no data needed to be shifted as that is all on external hard drives (duplicated)).

I have also been busy loading up some photos on flickr (of everything from trains to family, some record shots, some competition shots), and you can see these by following this address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnstewartnz

Anyway, back to model railroads/railways.

Nearly 95% of the benchwork is complete, including the door carrying the lower level (mainline) across the entrance way. I have decided to leave the upper level (branch) fixed as a duck under, instead of having two levels of track on the swinging door section. Should not be too much of a problem as the duck under may be a “nod under” for some shorties as clearance is 1500mm (4’ 11”) from the floor to lower side of track base at this location.

I have now started on the layout ceiling and lighting valences, and hope to start laying track in the near future. Also starting to install the lights, and will need to get these wired us some time.

The photo below (from a few weeks ago) shows the door section (in a closed position). Tracks will be on the far side of the door.

I have been most impressed with Joe Fugate’s Siskiyou Line and ordered his five DVD set covering the layout design and construction and these arrived late last week, so I have been having a browse of these. Some interesting ideas!

Next weekend is the TraiNZ workshop/layout tour weekend here in Christchuurch and also the judging night (Saturday) of the Photojournalism competition, so I will have a busy two days and I doubt anything will be done on the layout those two days.

2010 May 31

Another PFE meeting was held Friday night (May 21), with Dave Smithey, Brendon Groufsky and Graeme Moar present. Brendon Lean (a workmate and fellow modeller) also came around with his Digitrax DCC system and an On30 detailed and sound enhanced logging Climax loco, which we test ran after “Sparky” Brendon had relocated the second power outlet. We also tried to run my two DCC locos (both Kato GP35s) purchased second hand about 8 years ago, but could get neither of them to go. Will have to investigate this later.

We chewed the fat and discussed my revised plan (with the single loop helix) but there were worries about the amount of aisle space taken up by a 30” radius helix.
I spent the weekend thinking about the problem, and how, with the helix and folded figure 8 mainline, the eastern wall of the room would have three levels, when I really only wanted two levels (main and branchline)

I looked at the positives and negatives of how the double loop around the room would go, and despite an extra circuit of the room, most of the extra trackage (or equivalent on original loop) would be hidden, so it only gave a longer run, but nearly half of the run would be out of sight.

That weekend was spent thinking about the pros and cons of the double loop and I finally rejected the idea. Over the next few days I thought of running the storage tracks (in the centre peninsula) out to the mainline loop, but making it look like a typical Midwestern 90◦ crossing (something like Bruce Carpenter’s Nerska Junction, but on a smaller scale), but the higher level branchline track would mean it would be hidden.

But what if the branch was not there? If the branch went around the room counter-clockwise, starting on the short southern wall, crossed the proposed crossing about 150mm (6”) above (trestle?), and arrived at the centre peninsula from the southern wall, and not from the northern (garage door) end, there would be no branch yard above the crossing

That looks like the plan now and in the ensuing week I have started construction on the supporting benchwork for the centre staging tracks and branchline above.

I have decided to terminate the hidden staging with a traverser or sector plate so locomotives can “escape”, and that will allow 8 or 9 tracks (only 6 or 7 will be served by the traverser), with one track dedicated to the locomotive escape, and one for locomotive and/or caboose storage (if operating the layout in the caboose era).

I laid a small section of Pinex over some ply and laid out 8 tracks to see how clearances etc would go, and it looks OK to get 7 tracks to the traverser/sector plate (see photo above).

Staging tracks will be a minimum of about 3 metres (just under 10 feet) and that will dictate the maximum train length.

Staging and other hidden trackage will be code 100, with the rest code 83 and/or 70, but initially I will lay out the majority of track with code 100 (I have a lot from the previous layout), and after the layout is running fine, replace the code 100 with appropriate code 83 or 70 before scenery is installed. I have a small quantity of code 70, so that maybe used on the branch on the eastern wall to start with.

On Monday (May 31st) I installed a couple of sections of 9mm MDF for the staging tracks, and this will be followed with Pinex and/or some form of rubber tape

2010 April 07

It is photo convention time now and I travelled to Nelson via the Lewis Pass. Near Springs Junction I spotted the car "GR8 P1X" so at a One Way Bridge where we had to stop, I jumped out and said a quick hello to Barry Smith FPSNZ and his wife Betty. Coffee at Murchison? Yes!

Sitting having a coffee I told Barry about Ron Willems being at the model railway convention, and then Barry (and Betty) advised that Barry has a lot of model railway equipment, mainly Fleischman.

Then it was on to Nelson, driving passed some of the old alignment for the Nelson line abandoned in September 1955 (I was about 7 months old then). Arriving in Nelson I went to check out the good bookshop Page & Blackmore. Just two doors down the street I spotted my Blue Damselfly print in the National Bank window. My print, from last year's PSNZ National competition was selected as one of the 30 prints for the 2009-2010 National Bank travelling exhibition. It will be in National Bank Riccarton sometime in May.

At the official opening ceremony I caught up with Graham Collins from the Hutt Valley. His second PSNZ convention (the first was quite a few years ago), but he has also been to every NZAMRC convention since 1982 and every full AMRA since 1981 or 1983. Ron Willems talked to Barry Smith about Fleishman and we all talked about model railways in general (not much on photography).