North Shore Railway Modellers' Association, Inc
The model railway club for Sydney's North Shore and Northern Beaches
Home Layouts Events Exhibition Competition Links
LAYOUTS
Page last modified 3 January 2012
| Club Layouts | Members' Layouts |
| Dungog | St Enodoc |
| Mainline Mark 2 | NSW Main Line |
| Kidz Power Railway | Bridgewater, Yorton and Garstang |
| New layouts |
This layout, modelled to a scale of 1:87 in H0 gauge, represents the station of Dungog on the North Coast line between Sydney and Brisbane. Dungog is a small quiet country town, located about 80 km (50 miles) north from Newcastle's main locomotive centre of Broadmeadow. However, its geographic position allowed efficient crew and locomotive operations to be made for the heavy express passenger trains working the North Coast Railway, as it was called in the 1940s.
Most of the layout is constructed from blocks of High Density Foam sandwiched between two panels of 7 mm plywood, this providing very strong and extremely lightweight units joined and aligned by aluminium dowels. Code 75 Peco trackwork is rubber glued to the foam.
Uncoupling is achieved automatically via electromagnets laid under the tracks and operated by a timer and push button on the control panel.
The trees, scenery and buildings are the work of our members and the backscene is made from actual photographs of Dungog.
A lot of the rolling stock has been either scratchbuilt or kitbuilt, with a good percentage of quality proprietary products altered to improve their appearance and to represent the types of trains typical of the area. These include timber from mills on the North Coast, fruit expresses, and daylight and overnight passenger trains. Trains are both steam and diesel hauled. Although the AD60 Beyer-Garratts only worked as far North as Martin's Creek quarry, through the use of modellers' license they may be see on our layout.
The layout can be operated either using DCC or conventional DC control, and can be changed from one to the other within minutes.
Dungog won the trophies for "Best Model Railway Layout" and the "Best Australian Prototype Layout - Club" at the AMRA Exhibition, Liverpool, October 2011.
This 00/H0 gauge layout, which consists of a double-track elongated cross-over figure-of-eight, is constructed in modules and is intended to show off trains of all nations in a continuous "main line" setting. It will be improved and enlarged in the years ahead, until, like Mainline Mark 1 before it, it is superseded by perhaps Mainline Mark 3!
Trains operated on the layout are H0 or 00 gauge from many eras. They are mostly British, American, Continental and Australian. Steam, diesel and electric are featured hauling all types of rolling stock.
A new module, incorporating a model of an iron foundry from the Forest of Dean on the border between England and Wales, is currently under construction.
The layout has recently been modified to allow DCC operation on one track with conventional DC on the other.
Here is a short video of Mainline Mark 2
Kidz Power Railway
In 2009, Kevin Phillips of the
Central Coast very generously donated a single track L shaped terminus to
fiddle yard layout, in working order with basic scenery complete. This has been taken
on by our youth group as its development layout called the Kidz Power Railway.
The under-18 team, one of only a few in local clubs, has been planning, building and operating the layout since the beginning of this year.
The current group of six, which comprises of members aged between 7 -13 years,
have been completing tasks such as:
Before the layout's first display at the 2011 exhibition we achieved
The youth group meets fortnightly on Fridays under the supervision of senior members. If you are under 18 and wish to participate please contact Michael Grey via mail@nsrma.com.au.
Below are some photos of the layout as donated by Kevin Phillips.
New 00/H0 layout
Mick Bluett writes:
"To all members who may not have attended the 1 April 2011 club meeting, I have suggested a new club layout be built. The exact rail route/plan has not been devised. It will not be an exhibition layout. It will be a "permanent" modular layout, relocatable but not with the ease of an exhibition style layout. The layout will be built in two halves, each half to fit into the space occupied by Dungog and Mainline then become one large layout.
If Dungog was put into its trailer we could start
construction in that space. When finished to a certain level, Mainline would be
put in its trailer, then start construction on the balance. If we wanted to
exhibit a layout stored in a trailer, we would need to check electrics,
etc. prior to exhibiting. Mainline would be available for general running etc.
Questions such as DC/DCC, Country/prototype followed, need to be sorted out.
Here all members get a chance to input their preferences - remember you only get
one chance to set this direction; then the die is cast. So don't whinge about
someone else dictating the design etc. Be aware the club room is not all that
big and once it is filled with layouts where do we have meetings/barbecues/model
contests/open days etc?
I would see the track occupying nearly all the floor when
finished. I would like to see double track main, two large stations, one each
end, one long straight, 24 inch curves, one large freight/fiddle/active shunting
yard, several small shunt spots/industries and lineside stops, branch line, and
a genuine hill to climb, which leads to a two level design. Obviously jamming
all this into this space sounds more like a wish list but you have to start
somewhere.
New N gauge layout
Peter Moses has donated a small N gauge layout to the club. This has four continuous tracks linked by a number of crossovers.
St Enodoc represents a British Railways Western Region station on the Newquay branch in Cornwall, modelled in 4 mm scale 16.5 mm gauge (00), and is the third layout to bear the name St Enodoc - the first was a simple branch terminus, and the second a double-track main line junction.
The layout is based on the real-life Bugle station, with its passing loop and branch to the local china-clay works. This is one of those rare locations where express passenger trains can be run legitimately over a single-track branch, Newquay being a popular holiday resort with through trains on summer Saturdays to and from all parts of England and Wales.
At the back of the layout are two dead-end fiddle yards linked by a single through track for continuous running. The entire layout can be dismantled to allow the room in which it is sited to be used as a spare bedroom.
Track is SMP with hand-built points using printed-circuit board timbers, and the layout is operated by DCC. Most of the stock is kit built or modified ready-to-run.
St Enodoc is fully operational and scenic work has begun.
This H0 layout is built in the basement area of a Federation bungalow and extends through three separate rooms. From the main terminus, the main line passes through the suburban junction of Slobston before heading out into the country through Bunyip Lakes and climbing through the mountains to Nulla Nulla. The line then returns to the terminus, or on to a continuous run, via storage loops. A branch from Slobston runs through Willow Creek to Nulang.
CCTV allows a single operator at the main terminus to see what is going on in the other two rooms.
This layout was featured in the NorthSide newspaper, published by Cumberland Courier Newspapers. Click here to see the article and a video, and here to see some photos.
Bridgewater, Yorton and Garstang
This 0 gauge layout is located in the basement of its
owner’s home.
The fiddle yard is entered through a two-road tunnel and
is assumed to lead to a large station such as Preston. There are eight storage
lines about 12ft long and the yard pivots at the right hand end so that two of
the tracks line up with the approach tracks at the left hand end most of the
time.
The first station, Bridgewater, is double track with a bay
road entered from the left therefore one is able to terminate a short train and
send it back round the layout without using the fiddle yard. The through roads
and bay are the only part built at the moment.
The double track (now entering the scenic area) continues
three quarters of the way round the room to Wolvercot Junction. After this one
track curves sharply left. We will follow the other single track as it swings
slightly right and crosses a 7 arch viaduct curving left into a tunnel. This is
the end of the scenery at the moment.
Leaving the tunnel there are a few sidings on both sides
and then we enter second station, Garstang, which has an island platform. This
station is directly above the fiddle yard where we started. The single line
continues round a corner on a narrow shelf and then opens out into a small halt
with one siding and no passing loop, which is above and behind Bridgewater.
After leaving the halt we keep climbing at about 1:100 and then enter a short tunnel at the summit. When we come out of the tunnel we are dropping and curving left through about 180 degrees and after crossing the double track (and back into the scenery) on a plate girder bridge we enter the third station, Yorton, with its passing loop. There are several sidings and the remains of a derelict branch line here. The line leaves Yorton on a sharp curve to reach Wolvercot Junction again, and continues back to the fiddle yard.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Contents copyright © 2008 - 2012 North Shore Railway Modellers' Association, Inc.
All rights reserved.