Hatley Station
Hatley-Station-West-20120603-595s.jpg Hatley-Station-East-20120603-596s.jpg

Built By: Augie Kathage

Owned By: John & Maureen Kathage

Description:

HATLEY STATION – AUGIE (AUGUST) KATHAGE.

Augie was the father to John and Alvin Kathage and Granddad to Luke Kathage. Sadly, Augie passed away in 2012. This set of modules were his first and only T-Trak modules.

Augie modelled trains for about 60 years with first starting with Hornby clock work, then HO / OO then into N-scale. He use to like doing scenes on his modules based on things that he loved. He did an N-Trak module based around an airport because he liked planes. Augie loved the BBC and ABC television shows, so he based these modules around some of the shows he liked.

The main one that stands out is the station. This is Arley station, better known as Hatley station. He chose this station because it has been used in a lot of TV shows like "Oh Dr Beeching". This station was found on the internet by his son Alvin. I use to laugh because he didn't believe in the internet and would not use a computer himself, but he had no problems in getting Alvin to use it and order things off it for him. Alvin got use to "Can you find for me….". Augie knew what he wanted and left it up to Alvin to find it for him. He would get Voglers in Ipswich to get other items for him.

At one end of the module is an excavator digging a trench. This is the "Time Team" guys digging up an old well (module levelling hole) to see what they can find.

The module also has a row of buildings and shops. The main scene here was "Open All Hours". He got Alvin to find the buildings that would most suit the scene of an English street.

"Mid Summer Murders" is at the other end of the module. He even has a police car at the front of the house. As with all of the police shows there is always a funeral so he has one being held next to a church.

We don't know what show the church was based around but he did love "Vicker Of Dibley" with Dawn French and "Father Ted".

The small cattle yard was to represent the shows that are based around the country areas of England.

The Tardis was added by his kids because he enjoyed "Dr Who". It moves around the module and the modules near it throughout the show. They will even put it on someone's train for the fun of it.

There was suppose to be more done to this layout, but unfortunately in May 2012 Augie passed away without finishing his module. The boys are finding buildings and bits around the house, but they don't know what he was going to do with them. They are looking into doing an add on module in memory of him based around a mining theme. The Kathage family are miners, and owned and ran some of the large mines in Ipswich. Augie was suppose to run the mines, but when he was young he decided that his dream was to work in the railways instead. With his father's permission, he went to college, and after a small stint at the Amberley RAAF base as a Nasho, he joined the railways. He first worked in the Ipswich workshops, and then moved to Redbank.

So doing a small mining / railway scene would be most fitting for a man who was very passionate about his trains. He taught the boys, including his grandson Luke, about model building and decaling. He had no problems in getting out the front of the layouts at shows and talking to the kids. His favourite thing was to get the kids to blow out the head light on the locos. While they blew, he would turn the headlight off by using the digital controller. He would also give any new members who didn't have a train one of his old ones, and he never asked for it to be given back. His grandson would get the not so old ones.

Augie was 79 when he died, and was doing model making right up to the end. The last item he did was finished about one month before he died. He sprayed and decaled a Southern Pacific loco base on the Black Widow colours.

Module Name: Hatley Station - Western Module
Date Taken: 3rd June 2012
Module Size: Standard Double
Hatley-Station-West-20120603-595s.jpg

Module Name: Hatley Station - Eastern Module
Date Taken: 3rd June 2012
Module Size: Standard Double
Hatley-Station-East-20120603-596s.jpg

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