[2StrokeMatty]

Hi everyone, I'm not new to model railways, my grandad had a huge railway in his cellar in england, and I had a new fangled Intercity 125 to run on it. I still have the train !, I found it the other day while turfing stuff out, and it still goes.
I live in the Pilbara in Western Australia now, and everyday Iron Ore trains go past my work - all 275 wagons of them, to the mines to load up, then off to TomPrice and then to Karratha to be shipped to china. These trains go from here being pulled/pushed by 30,000 horsepowers worth of General Electric AC6000's, its an awesome sight!!.
I have bought my first house and am going to build a railway, in about two or three months time, I have to decide on the layout of course and its an exiting time for any modeler !.
I am going to do Photo's when I start the layout, but for now I am going to trawl through all these threads to catch up on 20 years of model rail.

Regards, Matt.

 

[darobi]

Welcome abroad Matthew. Hope you going to run prototypical length trains on your new layout

There a quite a few ex-pays on the boards, do we have any proper aussie's as they all seem to come from the UK?

Darren

 

[Doug]

Hey Matt, welcome to the forum.

Are you going to model the Yandi mines to Port Hedland route or something else?

 

[The Sleeper]

Hi MaTThew, and welcome...only just joined up myself. I live in Mandurah Western Australia (ex Brit) and I know the ore trains you are talking about. (worked a bit in the Pilbarra). I now work for a large American Aluminium company and we rail Bauxite to a couple of Refineries locally so thought about modelling the locos and rolloing stock based on where I work in Pinjarra...two loops and a huge train loading bin and caustic delivery terminal as well as a Alumina loading depot .
But I love the British steam locos so much that I will be going that way I guess. We also have the Hotham Valley Steam Railway just up the road and the enthusiasts there do a stirling job rebuilding old diesels as well as steam trains

Anyway keep us posted as to which way you go....

 

[7113]

welcome to the forum Matt,

I feel sure you'll get all yhe help you need (and doubtless some abuse as well!)

Regards

John

 

[mikelhh]

Welcome Matthew.

 

[neil_s_wood]

Hi Matthew, welcome to the forum. Sound like you are in a similar position to many of us here. It would be great if you or sleeper could show us some photos of these big ore trains. We'd love to see these if you have any?

 

[2StrokeMatty]

Thanks for the welcome guys,

darobi - Dont think i'll run 271 wagons !!!, I went to John 'o' Groats once and it was full of Ozzie's.

doug - Tom Price to Karrratha Port - having a mine and a port is ideal I think eh!?. The Loco's are available from america with DCC and sound (expensive though) but not in Pilbara Irom livery. The challenge I think is in modelling the conveyors and loadout etc, in a small size. I really want to do a working loadout, I know it will be hard to do, but worth a try!.

the sleeper - I do love steam too, but I will stick to what I've seem everyday since being here.

niel s wood - I'll take my camera to work and get some photo's in the next week or so, also my brother in law can get some close-ups of the loadout too. I also have a radio control glider with camera, so I'll get some aerial shots of the rail system too!!!!..

Back with the photo's later then,

Regards , Matt.

 

[Sol]

Welcome Matt from one also Down Under - I live near Adelaide in South Australia.
4th generation Aussie ( my great-grandparents came out from UK during the 1850's)
I loosely model GWR/WR in OO scale ( used to model East Coast USA).

Ron

 

[Johan de Villiers]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the forum. As you so rightly say you have some catching up to do but you will find that the contributors to this forum are a nice bunch of guys prepared to share. So remember the golden rule for any newcomer to the hobby - be not afraid to ask!

This hobby is about fun and the fun starts with the sharing.

Enjoy your voyage of discoveries into the exciting and fascinating world of model railways.

Kind regards from Pretoria in sunny South Africa.

Johan

BTW - Who is going to win the ICC (Cricket) World Cup?