Page 30 - March April 2017

NMRA Down Under
Mike Hughes
Saturday 21 January 2017 was a bright sunny day with temperatures in the mid twenties. At least it was in Sydney, Australia where I’d gone to visit my oldest daughter. We’d arranged to visit a farmers market for breakfast. Luckily for me my daughter and my present wife get on very well and they were quite happy to visit shops allowing me to visit other attractions. Prior to going ‘down under’ I’d made contact with our colleagues at NMRA Australasia Region. My Sydney contact, Sowerby Smith had arranged to meet me at the farmers market and take me to see some layouts.
Travelling via the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sowerby took me first to the home of former President of the NMRA Aus and MMR, David Howarth. Here I was made very welcome in the air conditioned, very well appointed ‘crew room’ which included full bathroom facilities, including shower for those times when the work gets dirty. After introductions and refreshments, David took me into his layout building. This is huge, containing what is believed to be the largest O scale layout in private ownership in the southern hemisphere. David was an engineer by training, and this shows in his attention to detail.
Although the layout has only been under construction for 2 years it already provides a full out and return facility for continuous running. It is based upon the dock areas of New York with many prototypical items already, or in the process of being, accurately modelled. The sheer scale of the model almost took my breath away.
The next visit was to Col Eggleston who coincidentally also models in O scale. However, unlike the deliberate uncluttered simplicity of David’s layout, Col’s layout is much more advanced in terms of scenery, etc. With a large roundhouse this layout also takes up a lot of space. The large amount of rolling stock on the layout is nearly all made of brass. I believe the main exception is the upper set of containers on the double stack cars which are made of plastic to reduce weight.
There is a one train of passenger cars which requires SIX locos (an ABBA and an AB set) to pull the train up the 2% grade. It was impressive to say the least. Even that was almost eclipsed by the double headed steam hauled trains. I was granted the privilege of driving one of these trains and discovered you really had to drive them properly since the long heavy train required extra power going uphill, but not so much that the wheels slipped, and a lot less while going downhill. All this while paying attention to the fully operating signals. It was fantastic.
But the day wasn’t over yet. Sowerby, also a former President of NMRA Aus, took me to see his HO scale layout. He is an MMR and this shows in his modelling. His Southern Pacific Lines model has both steam and diesel trains accurately portraying the railroad during the transition era. Wherever you look there are delightful scenes that show off the excellent modelling that has gone into making this layout an absolute delight.
It’s impossible for me to fully describe the 3 layouts I saw that day. I took many photos which show the detail far better and can be seen on my Fickr site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikehughes2011/albums
click on NMRA Australia visit.
When I contacted our Australian colleagues I didn’t know if we could arrange any visits, especially as it was the height of their summer and therefore the ‘closed’ season. I was surprised and delighted with the welcome I received. Sowerby, David and Col could not have been more hospitable. It was such a delight to be sharing know-how with them. But this was just the first visit. More was to come the following week (to be continued) ...
Right: Sowerby Smith's HO layout. The detailing shows the MMR standard of modelling.
Below: David Howarth's O scale layout. Although still under construction it is already superb and is believed to be the largest O scale layout in private ownership in the southern hemisphere Photos Mike Hughes
30 ROUNDHOUSE
April 2017