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Monbulk Creek - 1:350 Scale Australian Narrow Gauge


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Martin, brilliant! Is all I can say. Other than it has been too long since I Caught up with you. I hope the trees don't take too long to grow or is that the slow boat from china! 

 

 

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The scenery is now complete except for the trees and the backscene, so further progress will be on hold until they arrive.  The rolling stock has been built and tested, and is currently being painted. 

 

I will make a proper video when it is all properly forested, but here is a quick teaser for now... 

 

https://youtu.be/jsAcQBRm3oA

 

The locos have all been painted, but please remember that in this small scale the photos are very, very cruel.  Those tank engines are less than 1" long.

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Doug - yep, it really has been a while.  Anyway, I cannot compete with you P4 types for exquisite detail, so I have to carve out my own niche.  I probably achieve a similar amount of detail per square inch, but just apply it differently!

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I used two of IDL's oval tracks a few years back on an earlier layout (Sarum Bridge), and really liked the concept.  I looked at various ways of extending or modifying them, but without success, so eventually bit the bullet and started designing my own.  It took a lot of false starts, almost-but-not-quites, lessons learned and discarded test tracks to get to this state. IDL has since released a connectable and extendable version of their track, but the features it emphasizes aren't the ones I wanted, so...

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All the stock has now been painted, giving a full exhibition complement of two typical trains and a fire patrol trolley.  Work on the layout will now be put on hold for a month or so, waiting for the trees to arrive.  I'll do a full video then. 

 

 

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Thanks, Ian.  It is the potential here that really interests me, since the technology has a totally different set of strengths and weaknesses than conventional model rail drive systems. 

 

Other than the philosophical issue that it isn't truly a railway, the biggest weakness is that since every vehicle contains powerful magnets, you cannot let them get too close or a major pileup ensues.  That means 4-wheel wagons are problematic, and so are double track and complex stations.  Partial workarounds are possible, such as treating double track as singled or Gantlet, having dummy tracks for spacing, etc. 

 

The main strengths are exactly what conventional drive systems cannot do well, especially in the ultra-small scales: very high reliability, low maintenance, realistic train lengths, ultra-low-speed running, the ability to model small (e.g. early 1800s) prototypes, and mixed road/rail.   And as the crown jewel, easy automation that goes well beyond normal model rail limits (i.e. shunting). 

 

Now that I know the concept actually does work as a fully developed (if basic) model railway, I want to explore these paths and see where they lead.

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I nostalgically took a look at my Nano model railways blog http://nanomodelrr.blogspot.com/ last night remembering what I did back then. I was, (and still probably am) too lazy to work out 3D printing at the time. I built my loco and freight stock using sections of appropriately sized evergreen styrene sections. But I expect that in the intervening six years things have become easier. I could certainly see  the possibilities of a model of a section of the Aberglaslyn Pass on the Welsh Highland railway with trains hauled by double Fairlies and Garrats. 

Thanks for the inspiration.

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Yes, I remember looking at your site when first starting to play with this stuff.  3D printing is really what makes this sort of modelling practicable now, since doing it all the hard way is just that - hard.

 

Anyway, I hadn't planned to make another video until the layout was complete, but was talked into doing one showing the trains doing what trains are supposed to do:

 

https://youtu.be/Nakn8x8a1qI

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Ebay trees have arrived, so are being rebuilt into Gum trees and installed on the layout.  About half of them are now in place, with another couple of dozen gums to go.  Then it will be the tree ferns, Europeans and undergrowth.  The trunks and branches are a bit over-thick, but this is more noticeable on the photos than in real life.  While some of the trees seem huge, none of them are more than middling-tall for Eucalypts.  Even in this scale, we still have to use sub-scale trees!

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
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On 23/05/2019 at 23:54, martink said:

Construction of this layout is now complete.  I'll make a proper video of it in the next few days.

 

 

 

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I was told that the 20c coin isn't just there to demonstrate the scale but also to prove that there are platypuses in Monbulk Creek.

 

Martin, see my layout topic for more thoughts following our discussion on Wednesday evening:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/94350-mid-cornwall-lines-1950s-western-region-in-00/&do=findComment&comment=3604113

 

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Absolutely fascinating stuff.

 

A question now completely from left field...

 

Could this system work for a 4mm scale wagon, to move it along a piece of conventional track?

I'm thinking of a short spur from a wagon turntable into a warehouse, with inlaid track.

E.g. Does the magnet need to be very, very close to the linear track?

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