Some Photos

Here are some photos of the new track plan and layout taking shape.  I wont say what location the layout is based on, except to say that it is in Western Victoria and has a branch line.  See if you can guess by looking at the photos what the location the layout is based on.  

Major changes to layout.

Major changes to layout.


Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last.  Juvenal

• Undergone some changes to track design and operational elements.  
• Staging yards have been mostly eliminated.  Using said space to add extra scenery and shunting possibilities.
• Layout based on a country station in Victoria.
• Shunting still major focal point.
• Previous layout idea was good but became too repetitious and monotonous,
• Plus lack of scenery added significantly to a mundane look and feel.

Departing Freighter Takes Road 5

Here we see a freighter destined to North East locations take Road 5 of the yard.

Brisbane Show Day Public Holiday

Two ex Victorian locomotives visited Brisbane this morning on train number 2MB7.   Under a beautiful, clear blue-sky Brisbane day, I snapped the following :

T for Trip Train

An arrival into the yard sees a T class up front.  The T class loco has been detached from the rest of the train and now have picked up loading for "Melbourne Yard".  Here we see the T leaving the yard.

Two Departures

Having enough loading for the North East and Western Lines, a B and T Class was dispatched from Dynon.  Once at the yard, they were separated and coupled to their respective trains, the B assigned to the Western Goods due to the larger loading and the T class to the NE goods.  Here we see them both on their way.

Some more ballasting and point modification (Take 2!)

I am now at a stage where I am satisfied with the track layout.  I have begun ballasting the yard.  I have used Woodland Scenics very fine grey ballast (code is B75) to depict the ballast used at yards.  I will be airbrushing the ballast with a rusty colour as currently the ballast looks too "new".

I am pretty happy how it has come out, especially the rust of the rails against the grey ballast.  I think I will also use the air-brush to do the rail sides and at the same time the ballast.

With the points, the modification I made previously unfortunately caused more issues than anything else, especially for my small wheel base locos, such as the Y and T.  I have now gone back and re-soldered the jumper wires as was provided by Peco.  I am not sure how secure the soldering is straight out of the factory, so anyhow I have re-soldered the jumpers under the frog to the four points that I stuffed.