Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Australian Model Railway Magazine

There are very few lines that have as much prototype information readily available as the line from Cootamundra to Gilmore, Tumut and Batlow. It is well documented in text and photographs in Eveleigh Press publications, Byways of Steam volume 33 and the book, Tender into Tank. The Train Hobby Publications book ‘Country Branch Lines NSW, Gundagai, Tumut, Batlow’ also features a good range of photographs of steam operation on both branch lines. Photographs from this book have been provided by Train Hobby Publications for this article. Gilmore is a junction station on the Cootamundra to Tumut line, and hosted unique train operations which could provide a basis for a satisfying home layout. This article will describe the line and its operation. The line from Cootamundra to Tumut was opened in…

Modelling modern image Queensland prototypes in HOn3½ scale has become popular with several manufacturers creating outstanding r-t-r models to supply the market. Many Queensland modellers are younger and these modern image models reflect the prototypes they grew up with. There are also some younger modellers in Queensland who prefer models from before their time such as those operating on heritage railways - railways from the time when steam was king and when railmotors ran on branch lines. None of these models are currently available r-t-r, so the solution is to make your own. One of these modellers who built his own is Guy Limpus. Some of his earliest memories were of visiting his grandparents, who lived near the then recently abandoned Bell branch. Guy states: ‘I could see level crossings…

Keith Pennington presents a gallery on the Milang Model Railway Show 2025. Photos by the author. The Milang Model Railway Show was held on the 22nd and 23rd November 2025 and was hosted by the Milang Railway Museum. Presented is a selection of photos from the event which was well attended by the public.…

Queensland Railways CCH/CCHP Prairie Wagon HOn3½ and HO scale by CGL Models Address: P.O. Box 5288, Bundaberg West. QLD. 4670 Website: https://www.cglmodels.com.au Price: Pack of two wagons $185.00 AUD The prototype The first prototype CCH Prairie Wagon entered service in March 1991. The wagon was converted from an HWO all-door, open-sided wagon built in 1976. The HWO wagon had proved to be a winner and was a wagon of choice for freight forwarders due to their length and carrying capacity. Many of the class in this traffic were fitted with end and side gates to provide extra volume, allowing loose freight to be stacked to the loading gauge. The load was covered with company tarpaulins for weather protection during the trip. The inside door stanchions on the HWO robbed the…

Origins The Dungog exhibition layout was built by the North Shore Modellers Association in the 1990s, and depicts Dungog, and Martins Creek station and ballast sidings. Modeller’s license was liberally used to incorporate the two stations into the 8.4 metres by 3.4 metres footprint. Initially built for direct current (DC) running, over time it was equipped to run both DC and digital command control (DCC), and was modelled in the era of the 1940s to the early to mid 1970s. The layout was offered up for sale in 2022, and I managed to be the successful applicant. North Shore President Gary Stocks was a wealth of knowledge and guidance during and after the layout’s procurement. New ownership In May 2022, I took possession of the layout at the Rosehill racecourse…

My first memories of toy trains were playing with my father’s old 1930s vintage O gauge tinplate clockwork from his childhood. Unfortunately, another early memory was smashing them with a brick. To my eternal shame, I now realise that smashing things with a brick is normal behaviour for four-year-olds. But, a few years later my father constructed a train room for me in the upstairs spare room behind our shop in Haberfield in suburban Sydney. From there I could see the AD60 Garratts shunting goods wagons in the nearby marshalling yards. When we moved, I kept my Hornby Dublo trains in their boxes. I didn’t get them out again until I was allowed to set up my train room in the old dairy of my parents’ farm in the Southern…

Many turntables on the market are expensive and building one requires skills that put many modellers off trying. Ready-built models can retail for about $400.00 upwards, while a motorised American prototype versions sells for over $500.00. All the state railways in Australia had turntables of varying lengths to suit their operating requirements. In many cases as the railway systems expanded, the smaller diameter turntables were replaced by larger turntables and the smaller ones were reused in other parts of the system. My layout represents a station in south-western New South Wales, and I decided that I needed to add a small turntable to the layout to achieve more prototypical operation. When I calculated the distance in miles between stations that was represented on my layout, it was found to be…

Auscision Models 81 class locomotive in HO scale PO Box 1791 Castle Hill NSW 1765 Phone: 0425 866 442 Email: information@auscisionmodels.com.au Web Site: www.auscisionmodels.com.au Price: $350 for DC, $485 for DCC sound The Prototype Following the successful test of ‘super series’ traction equipment in locomotive 42220 in 1980, the State Rail Authority of New South Wales (SRA) ordered eighty, 3,000hp 81 class locomotives from Clyde Engineering on the 20th of October 1980. These were built at Clyde’s Kelso factory near Bathurst, NSW, with the first of this order delivered in October 1982, and the last in February 1986. The 81s were the first locomotive class to be delivered in the new SRA Candy livery from the builder. In 1989, the SRA’s freight operations became FreightRail and later FreightCorp, and the…

Auscision Models - HO scale Has released the V/Line N class locomotive available r-t-r DCC ready with a 21 pin socket and DCC and sound in the following liveries: V/Line orange and grey, four road numbers V/Line pass MkI red blue and white, two road numbers V/Line pass MkII red blue and white, two road numbers V/Line pass MkIII red yellow and grey experimental livery, one road number V/Line pass MkIII red yellow and grey, three road numbers V/Line Public Transport Victoria (PTV) purple and yellow, three road numbers Refer: https://www.auscisionmodels.com.au/N%20Class%20Page.htm Bowser Manufacturing HO scale Has released the ALCo C415 in Hamersley Iron livery, available r-t-r DCC ready with a 21 pin socket and DCC and sound. Refer: https://www.bowser-trains.com/new/C415.html Want to be published in the AMRM? Do you have an…

The circle is complete It was a rather emotional start to the 20th of September 2025, as I drove a train around the complete loop of the layout for the first time. Following it around as it traversed all that hand-laid track, over all those spikes, and around five years of toil, but mostly enjoyment, I was well and truly rewarded. The rest of the day was supposed to be dedicated to wiring up a new section of track, but no, the bug had bitten, and I just played trains all day. Such is the joys of model railways. Building the aisle bridges As construction of the layout continues, I need to be able to bring in large items through the aisles, such as panelling for the backdrops. Some of…

One can build simple gear boxes with minimal hand tools. This article is about the single gear wheel / worm gear combinations, not the multi-stage. My experience does not stretch to multi-stage, but the same concept could easily be used. The other proviso is that the motor must have two parallel and flat sides, and the old Romford open frame motors with permanent magnet are perfect examples as are some of the flat sided can motors, Mashima being one. I am sure that there are plenty of others. One of my petty hates is meshing up a single gear wheel / worm gear combination. In literature authors have written about ‘keeper plates’ (on which the motors are mounted) and adjusting the meshing of the gear / worm gear packing with…

The SGMX wagon is a widely used open wagon entering service in the very late 1960s and early 1970s. The wagon could be seen in every major capital city on mainland Australia on both broad and standard gauge. Quite a few remain in service to the present day as RKFX steelcarrying wagons, including RKFX No. 32 M; originally SGMX No. 1. Credit has to be given to Chris Drymalik’s comrails.com website, where a vast amount of information is available for research into all manner of rollingstock from Australian railways, including the South Australian Railways (SAR) SGMXs. Early days This fleet of 82 general-purpose open wagons was built by the SAR workshops at Islington, South Australia. They were a localised version of the North Americanstyle ‘mill gondola’ commonly used in the…

Leightonwood effect I’ve really enjoyed seeing Ben’s Leightonwood project take shape. For me it’s a nice change from the usual rural setting for New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) layouts. Even better is the emphasis on operating with trip trains, something I always enjoyed as a goods guard at Enfield. My take on the concept would be based on the Sandown industrial branch in Sydney. You could model the entire line without too much compression, or individual sections featuring specific industries. The diverse nature of those industries means that a wide variety of goods wagons were used on the branch. Modern era trains were mostly tank wagons for the Shell refinery sidings and containers for Seatons Transport. Even though the line was primarily industrial, there were platforms served by workers…