Hi from Australia

[Mountain]

I didnt join for a few years because I assumed I had to be new to the hobby. Then I thought to join so that I could help others. (Though others also help me on occasions even if it is just an encouraging word).

[Puffingbill]

Hi and welcome from another new member, also an expat lad from Longbridge Birmingham but now living between Brisbane and the hell hole they call the Gold Coast , I am a freelance modeller that has a British layout but runs whatever takes my fancy.

[Electraman]

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the welcome.
Thanks for the Hattons Link.
The 10% helps may help but I've been cheeky and asked for VAT free. I don't see why I should pay it, what with Brexit and the Conservatives.
I'm going to with the Smart Switch technology for the DCC/PC control.
The selling G scale Exchange Rate with buying ON30 is very good.
The Bachmann is of course is all trump outline, tho the bachmann Climax can be somewhat Australianised. I've made enquiries with Haskell's in Taiwan, because they build ON30 NA Class Puffing Billy Loco's. I've asked if they would do a custom colour one off. Blue.
I still like Austrian outline too.
I've never been to Brisbane. Your heat is wetter than ours. Our's is incredibly dry.
Gold coast, I've heard of it. Where drunk boys puke and fight everywhere and young girls fall off high balconies.
I live in a village of about 700 people.
In a couple of months I am moving to Wagga Wagga, tho it's referred to as just Wagga. It's the largest town in the Riverina, as opposed to the deadest village. Ten minutes from a major hospital in Wagga. Locally it's not a big hospital and it is about an hour away. In the last year, 8 times they take me to the local Hospital and 8 times they put me on an Air Ambulance and send me to Melbourne. I'm getting a shed, and from that shed I'm getting an indoor space, but I'm also going to run trains outside too, when the weather is ok.
I don't live in a shed, I live and will continue to live in my modified caravan. The caravan will go in the shed too. The shed is big enough.
I'm kind of impatient now, so when I sell stuff, I do retail therapy.
I've been working on the plans so I get some clue as to what I need to buy.
Thanks everyone for the welcome and Tips. For me G scale was simple. ON30 means a bit more thought into what I want to do with it. I tend to follow the less is more approach, tho there is some leeway. Basically there will be 2 stations, one is me, and the other is with my Housemate on the back veranda of the house. It will be part time manned. the distance between these 2 stations works out at about 55Mtr, or 180Ft in old money.

It's less of a Grand plan and more of an Eccentric one.

Pete.
I added a couple of attachments, the ON30 NA and the colour Blue.

[Puffingbill]

Hi Electraman I hope your move to Wagga works out well and if you need a rest from the trains you can always catch yourself a nice Freshwater Crayfish in the Murmbidgee River, although I now live near Brizzy I spent 30 years living in Victoria including near Belgrave the home of Puffing Billy hence my nickname Puffingbill, I spent a lot of time photographing and riding Puffing Billy which I think is the best preserved railway in Australia, good luck to you with the On30 a great gauge to model.

[Mountain]

Is 0n30 the standard 7mm narrow gauge for over there or is it a case that it is convenient due to the availability of ready made models?
I'm interested as while I know 0e is the European form and 0-16.5 is the British form, and we know 0n30 is the American form... I'd just not thought about the rest of the world....

[rainynight65]

Hey, look at all that activity in my thread

Puffingbill, that's not the worst place to live I actually work in Brisbane but live in the countryside out west, towards Towoomba. Bit of a commute but as a bonus I regularly get to see the Class 2300 locos pull their coal trains back and forth. And whaddya know, they're coming as H0 models soon My preorder is in.

Electraman, welcome too Hatton's is a pretty good bet, they do knock off the VAT when you order from overseas. Have had two shipments from them so far and no complaints.

[Electraman]

Hi,

So far the only adverts here tend to be ON30. 7mm is more English. 7MM is generally I think more understood by older English people Again the bulk of whats available is the Bachmann line. The NA class I've put a deposit on is more G scale price!!!Before DCC and Sound are added it's $496, where as the Bachmann well for $500 I could buy one Loco, with DCC and sound, 5 coaches and 3 Box Cars.-

I do try to buy Australian, but as we are so far away things over here can be quite expensive anyway. To be honest my health hasn't been that good for a while. Getting the Brain Aneurysm diagnosis is the icing on the cake. Frankly the money I have to live on is pretty poor. Without a disposable income, I shop carefully, and try to get better prices. In the UK you have Hatton's. Me I tend to buy from the USA. I did with G scale. Locos and rolling stock. If you want my recommendation, Train World USA.

Pete.

[Electraman]

Hi RainyNight,
It's a rainy night here! I'm afraid I know nothing about either Broad or Standard Gauge Locos, and nothing about diesels except how the engine works.
I checked out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V/Line. I live in 2710 ( with an 03 Victorian telephone prefix) This is because the freight line that runs to Deniliquin is connected to the Broad gauge Victorian Network. Deniliquin is known for 2 things. It has a yearly UTE Muster, and Sun Rice have a huge processing and storage plant there, with of course the rail link. I live in Mathoura, which is about half way between Deniliquin and Echuca Moama. That railway line runs past, about 200Mtrs away through the Centre of the Village. The "Rice Train" comes through early in the Morning and another returns later in the afternoon. In the height of the season there can be upto 6 trains a day. They are long container trains pulled by 2-4 Diesels depending on whats available I suppose. The speed limit on the line is 35K. After looking at Wiki, we get N Class, A Class, P Class and Y Class. Several times I have seen other More modern units from other freight companies. Don't ask me what they might be, all I can say is big. I can tell you the Village has 4 ungated level crossings, and many more on the line, so you hear the Horn a lot. Especially in the Village!

[Bigmet]

...TT in Russia was apparently 1:130.

Somewhat makes sense, as they are 1520mm gauge. A superior choice would have been 1:125, very close to true gauge and scale relationship on 12mm gauge track, and a neat metric system divisor as it is a factor of 1000, scaling at 8mm to the metre.

[Notanyware]

Hello from another Queenslander welcome to the forum.

[AustralisRico]

Hi!

PowerCab was a good controller choice to kick off with in DCC regardless the scale. Welcome to the NewRailwayModellers forums.

Well, there weren't too many choices, unless I was willing to import a system and deal with an overseas supplier in case of a defect or warranty claim I was eyeballing the Z21 but there was absolutely no local supplier for that.

I got the Z21 from DCC concepts however they are no longer in Australia, however you can still get it from Hobbyco in Sydney. I would have gotten it from there but DCC concepts had it for $100 less.

I have both NCE and Z21 and prefer my Z21 by far, just have the NCE for the club I run at. That said I have yet to setup my layout so the Z21 has only run a circuit of track when I set it up on the floor, need to get on fixing that next year.

[Bigglesof266]

Do you use the Z21 with your smartphone? ...or Multimaus?

[GWR_fan]

........Well, there weren't too many choices, unless I was willing to import a system and deal with an overseas supplier in case of a defect or warranty claim I was eyeballing the Z21 but there was absolutely no local supplier for that.

Smart move. Some years ago I purchased a new $1000.00 Piko DCC system with wireless control from a West Coast USA dealer. I managed to test the system on a straight piece of track for just a couple of minutes then the system failed. The seller was totally uncooperative leading me to bin the digital part of the system and purchase a 10 amp NCE setup. I was able to retain the Piko handset and wireless receiver to use on an analogue power control setup, so not a complete waste.

[Chops]

A little off topic, but once whilst rattling about with a pal in New Mexico, with a caravan, we stumbled over a most remarkable model train museum in the middle of nowhere. Clovis, New Mexico, to be exact. Really God forsaken country, and why someone went to all the trouble to finish out several museum grade layouts there I will never know. Recollect it was in the former ATSF passenger depot.

Anyways, each layout occupied a fairly large room. One for wind up tinplate, one for a condensed version of the 1930's transcontinental Super Chief, where one would fly from Chicago to, of all places, Clovis in a Ford Trimotor airplane (Henry Ford never rode in his own contraption, BTW) and from their take the ATSF to LA in something like 33 hours. All very splendid. And bizarre as Clovis is not on anyone's destination, typically.

Another room featured an enormous expanse of Down Under Outback that consumed the entire room. Snaking across the sparsely vegetated sandscape was a OO tank engine with a short rake of passenger coaches creeping along a single thread of track. To think we are all mostly trying to squeeze in as much rail as possible in the smallest possible space. And why, I ask again, in Clovis, where the beef cattle outnumber the denizens a thousand to one?

[Mountain]

I think we get too enthusiastic. We see a space and think of ways to fill it. However, certain layouts which appear spacious like the prototypes also can feel boring in model form. I guess there is a balance to be struck. A similar balance is needed in regards to scale speeds. An above scale speed is nicer on the eyes as long as they are not racing around... It all depends what trains one is running. Its the art of compromize.