“Hello Alastair
A few years ago I was lucky enough to meet the lady that would eventually become my wife. With this romance came the dreaded meeting of her father. Luckily we both share a passion for model trains.
Building on that connection we have shared many hours with his HO layout.
I model in N-Gauge, as you have shown before, and Colin in HO. But with these differences put aside, we have simply enjoyed our hobby.
Colin does not follow a particular prototype, but puts down trains that he enjoys from all corners of the globe, including Australia, where we reside.
Colin’s layout has evolved over the years, graduating from small shed to large and like all great efforts has never really been finished. Recently Colin retired and set about a major overhaul of the electrics and scenery of the layout, including the expansion of one loop of track. I was honoured to be invited to share my knowledge and skills to help this veteran of the hobby. (It should be noted that he let me marry his daughter before he let me touch his trains. hehe. )
As Colin is a life long electrician, the layout wiring is is a high quality industrial standard, all highly organised and professional.
Over the years, the original flocking grass has faded in the Australian heat to a plain brown, so much of that needed relaying, as did the roads and some new buildings. Starting with a clean slate, the entire town was pulled up and re=laid. The old stick town pond was replaced by a routed out one filled with resin, the station was spruced up and the church was added, along with cemetery and funeral.
The old plastic trees were pulled up and new trees and terrain were added, including a few new hills and cuttings.
Slowly and surely an whole new layout evolved.
while the layout is still not finished, it is currently in one piece. I thought I would share with you what it looks like now.
Along with the photos, there is a video here.
Regards
Grant & Colin,
South Australia.”
A wonderful narrative from Grant. Thanks for sharing you two!
And thanks for all the kind comments on the guide, I really do appreciate them.
That’s all this time folks. Please do keep ’em coming.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. Still going strong.
That’s a great layout…what I really like is that the roads are correctly proportioned for the vehicles, that is they are WIDE. Too many layouts cram a tiny road loaded with trucks and buses which would have absolutely no chance of negotiating the bends or passing one another. I know we are building railway layouts but if there are roads take care on proportions.
great to see a a ho /oo layout ,and in particular an australian one , good job my oo hornby 3 rail has been in progress for about 50 years , started on a 2 rail small version 2400 mm x 1200 mm this year for grandson , he had his first run today , could not keep him away from it
graham
queensland
its is very nice
The trains are running way over scale speed which detracts from the otherwise well made layout.
very good layout, i’m an N guage novelist i do agree that the speed was to high, but thanks for the look see and as always i get ideads for myself.
Tom
Colin,
I appreciated your layout on all levels , scenery, detail, captivating human elements ( burial ceremony ) , and video .
As a retired Pastor & electrical engineer, I appreciate the attention to 1st class circuitry.
Yes, the trains may be negotiating layout way beyond scale speed, but the craftsmanship in lay-down allows the trains to run at these ‘super speeds’.
Kudos to You !!!
Steve
wow nice pike
Grant and Colin have done a great job
detail is excellent and according to the video… it RUNS!!!!
keep ’em runnin’ fellas….
really nice layout guys
i just bought my own house and built a platform in the basement over winter ,, but when summer hit i have been to busy out side and doing home improvements to get any further on the layout :(, but when i do ill be looking at yours and many others that ( Al ) has provided for us all to see, thanks for sharing guys you’ve giving me new inspiration for this winter 🙂
nice layouts you 2.
A family that has model railways to play with, stays together.
Thaat is really a wonderful layout with plenty of scenery and action.
One comment from a former football video camera man is when you pan – go from right to left and back again – please go slowly as you then will be able to view the scene focused and in more detail. Only comment so please excuse me
But i enjoyed the layout and hope you give us more.
Thanks, RJ
PS –
I taught science at a high school in Nj and filmed our football games for 17 years using 16 mm film as well as video and did a lot of panning .
Hi Grant & Colin, great layout. I to am a retired electrician, and live in Goolwa, South Australia, would like to catch up and see the layout in person. You can send me an email if you like.
Barry
Really enjoyed your video of your layout. Can you make a longer one so I can get a clear idea of your layout. What are its dimensions and what is the radius of the loop by the garage door. I’m about to start on my layout in a 5.8 x 5.3 shed so I’m very binterested in layout designs. Well done! Rossco Adelaide SA
Very nice layout and control panel. what are the red and black knobs for on the control panel? Cheers, Chris
Great layout
The beaut thing about railways in Australia is that there are locomotives built by everyone from Bayer Peacock to Baldwin and English Electric to GM so it doesn’t matter what you run on your layout it would have been used somewhere.
I have come back to answer some of the questions posted above.
I will try and go back and make another better video. With more snapshots added in. Thanks for the ask.
In regards to the control panel Chris, the points are all on quick motors, the black buttons all change the points to “Main Line” while red changes to “sidings”. The silver switches are independent power control to isolate the sections. The whole layout is DC.
Regards
Grant.
nice job. A while back I went to a local open house, they too had a grave yard scene, only theirs had the coffin in a hole in the ground, with several mourners and a Grim Reaper looking on lurking behind some bushes. Needles to say that club had a sense of humor.
Trains are running too FAST.
Great looking layouts. In 1968 my father in law got me interested in model railroading as I helped he with benchwork an made a mountain scene with scraps of foam board from job sites he worked on.
Cary
Great work. I’m from Hillcrest SA and I’m trying to get my layout up and running in a purposeful shed (18 x 20). Good to see such a great SA Layout. Cheers and thanks for sharing
Unbelieveable realism
AWESOME !
Great layout. People figures always make the scene come alive. Great job on the roads.
An active Diarama life like semi country. Great Job!
The Critic
I would love to see how Colin did his electrical work, as my interest in the hobby mainly lies in track laying & wiring (I am not very artistic with scenery, realism, etc).
Thanks
Grant and Colin, I loved the back story of your relationship and how you bonded over your shared model railroading interests. Colin deserves a lot of credit for having the courage to tear apart a finished layout to make it better. Your work was well worth the effort and inconvenience as evidenced by your photos and video. Your streets and roads are excellent — wide enough to be realistic.
Grant, I think your video was a good start at filming Colin’s layout. Next time I would suggest using a tripod and slowly panning across the entire layout. Also, the trains could run a bit slower so we can appreciate them more as they pass. I really appreciated seeing the video after the photos as it gave us a better idea of the whole layout.
Kudo to both of you for sharing your fine efforts with us armchair model railroaders.
Kool.; I am going to make mine look something like that.
At first glance I thought I was looking at the real thing. Superior detail on the landscape. Yes, the train speed is not scale and the pond has clear pool water in it, but who wants to nit-pick such a superb model. Enjoyed immensely.
Slow down your train speeds. The fast speeds ruined the magic of a well detailed layout
I agree with Rob. The trains need to be slowed down. Very nice layout.
I agree with Frank Green. Why run the trains at such a high speed. To scale those trains would be traveling out of control at a speed way in excess of what it should be. But enjoyed your layout very much.