The Mallee Lines.

 

After modelling NSW Railways with a small group of modelers who built layouts to exhibit a move from Sydney to Adelaide led to a change in direction.

 

In Adelaide, I met up with a group of modelers who operated their layouts under the ABLO banner. Each week we met at a member’s layout to operate his layout to timetable. After a few years of regular operating I started to collect a few South Australian Railways models and decided to build a layout based on the old Hallett’s Cove track plan. This was probably my most complete layout after 40 years modelling and was one on which we held regular operating nights.

 

As many of us do, I decided to make a change in one area and built a new terminus station on its own baseboard module that dropped into the layout. It was dropped into place and connected before the running nights scheduled. Little did I realise that we would decide to downsize the house and move. This new section was the only part of the layout saved. This convinced me to build future station yards as modules that could be easily moved.

 

In our new home the only area for a layout was the single car garage, which meant that there were a few limitations. I decided that each station module would be 6 ft. long, with the back scene and fascia boards as part of the baseboard structure. This meant that I could work on the module sitting at a chair, as well as turn it on its side to solder wiring. As each yard was in a limited space I used track and points to juggle around until I came up with a track layout that I was happy with. Each yard had a cattle siding, an oil depot, a goods shed and loco sidings. I find it much easier to visualise the station layout and the operation when I see it full size on the baseboard.

 

Track is Peco code 75 track and points. Nearly all the points are operated by a wire running from a slide switch to the point throw rod. This switch is used to change the frog polarity. This required careful planning to ensure the tube and wire were all in place as track was laid.

 

A number of staging sidings fed into the station salvaged from the previous layout, from where the line ran to a station that sat across the room. This station formed a junction to more staging sidings and a Victorian station, Malleeup. Track connected these two arms to form a triangle which was used to turn trains and locos.

 

The South Australian line then continued to a terminus, Yarrahville.

 

The layout was operated to a fast clock timetable, and there were cards for the freight trains. The card listed the wagons on the incoming train to be shunted off, and the wagons that were to be picked up. As the station yards were not large, and the staging tracks were of a fixed length this ensured keen operators did not return over-length trains into the staging tracks.

 

The mainstay locos on the layout were the South Australian Railways 830 diesels and the Victorian Railways T class diesels. One of the limiting factors was that once a train returned to a staging track, unless there was some shunting around the loco was not readily available to use again.

 

This layout operated for nearly nine years before I decided to make a few alterations. The layout featured in two issues of Continental Modeler.

 

Mallee Lines - Mark 2.

 

The station across the middle of the room was always a barrier in the garage and after much thought I decided to rebuild the layout. Tailem Bend as it was called was removed and a new staging yard built to connect on one end of the layout (see Photo). Two new stations have now been built along one wall and a new set of freight sidings along the opposite wall. It has been a compromise between a realistic track layout and the requirements of building an operating layout. This was also the chance to finally get the large wheat silo building out of its box and built into a layout.

 

After the major alterations, trains have been running again, and we are all gradually starting to get used to the new layout design. All of the layouts have been DCC controlled which has worked out to be a very flexible system to operate the layout with.

 

Modelers today are getting spoilt for choice with the range of new models being produced. When I started building my NSW layout we used to cut up Airfix mineral wagons to make “S” truck open wagons, and kits on the market were a brittle material that broke as you worked on it. The first scale NSW loco produced was the brass 38 class pacific, followed later by the 32 and 50 classes, all in brass. The first ready to run plastic model was the Lima 44 class diesel. How times have changed.

 

South Australian diesels of the 930 and 830 classes have been available, but these are now sold out from the supplier. It is only in the last two years that the South Australian modeler has had any ready to run freight wagons and passenger coaches, with a ready to run steam locomotive planned for 2018.