Malmsbury - Victorian Railways in T Gauge (1:480)

Malmsbury is a minor station about 100km north of Melbourne, Australia, on the Victorian Railways line to Bendigo. It has some local fame due to the nearby viaduct of the same name. The model is 6 feet by 2 feet (1.8m x 0.6m), and is set around 1960 (with some liberties). The model trains are all T Gauge (1:480, 3D printed and use my usual linear motor drive, and the track plan is a simple double oval designed to be a simple but scenic watch-the-trains-go-by layout. For those of you who have watched some of my older videos, this one finally uses a decent video camera, and oh - what a difference! Music is by Chris Haugen.

[@michaeltodd15]

I am a Malmsbury resident, regular train user and instigator of a now defunct Save Malmsbury Rail station group. Love your,detailed homage. Thanks.

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thank you. It is a really nice location, just crying out to be modelled! It will be on display at the AMRA Model Railway Exhibition, Melbourne Showgrounds, 3-4 August 2024.

[@michaeltodd15]

@@modelrailmusings5981 There has been some sad news recently in that the stationmasters house was torched a few weeks ago. This was done by a pair of visiting teens. No remediation or even temporary weather protection has yet happened. I understand that an assessment is underway.

[@MZTrainsChannel]

Magnifique

[@spiritofprogress1937]

Love the Spirit and Heavy Harry - excellent layout

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thanks. You user id sort of implies that!

[@aegidiusandernach]

Hello, I found Malmsbury Station on Google Maps. This is beautifully incorporated into the model railway. Many greetings from Germany Ägidius

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thanks. Google Earth makes building this sort of model so much easier. While Malmsbury is close enough to home that I can visit, my English layouts rely on it!

[@Rocka5438]

I can’t wait to see these at train exhibitions, I saw some of you stuff a while back!

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thanks. I hope to show this one in Melbourne and Adelaide this year, and the older Dauntsey Lock and Monbulk Creek in Sydney.

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

Just watched a bunch of your old vids. You gave really nailed the acceleration and deceleration controls now. Electronic flywheeling.

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Yep, it took a bit of effort, but I look back on my past automation attempts in N and just shake my head.

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

@@modelrailmusings5981 Yep those old DC brush motors are cheap. Coreless are a bit better, but I have some 8mm stepper motors I want to try, narrow gauge don't run as fast as mainline. Yesterday I saw some 8mm outrunner brushless drone motors, serious power. I tried decades ago to make 6mm dia outrunner. Rotor n magnets were fine but 4mm stator was impossible. Hopefully going up a scale n 3D printing will make it possible now. I can remember my first N scale layout, tunnels were the worst for rail cleaning and 0-4-0 just don't have enough pickups.

[@davidsachs4883]

You’ve eliminated the biggest problem with t gauge. The rail scales 18” (45 cm) and the wheels always appear over scale. I always enjoy your videos

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thank you. The reliability and maintenance issues with conventional T were driving me insane, which is why I went down this path.

[@alexdean3794]

This is amazing, went down a rabbit hole and read through your website, fascinating stuff. I saw that you mention the minimum spacing between the tracks with this method is 17-18mm, but on this layout the gap between the rails on the scenic section is very minimal. Did you find a solution to this issue or do you have to avoid running trains past eachother?

[@modelrailmusings5981]

The second option, unfortunately. It was the key design decision for this layout, taken on day 1. Having fully functional double track would look totally wrong here, losing the narrow-ribbon-through-the-countryside effect. And welcome to the rabbit hole! I think that makes me the Mad Hatter (aka the Fat Controller).

[@contralt2374]

Hi, Martin . Kaselis is a Lithuanian surname ? I from Lithuania 🇱🇹.

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Yep, my dad came from Ukmerge.

[@Locoman3801]

Wow Martin , that layout looks awesome mate , I wasn't aware of your website or models until I saw your article in the Feb - Mar - Apr issue of the "Journal" ( issue 391 ) & those pics look just as good as your videos do & I believe that you've done an amazing job of it all ; I especially love how well your trains look from your photographic angles etc but it's sad that you can't make the loco wheels rotate just like in N or HO scales ; I also love your "S" class with the Spirit of Progress set along with all of the other trains that you've done too & I have some videos of the "S" with it's S.O.P. set on my channel that you might like to see too so I'm including a link to them in this comment for you ( & others ) to take a look at if you'd be interested in seeing them , they are kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKDFknuga7irb7M which shows the train in HO scale on my home layout while the other video shows my layout at the W.A. A.M.R.A. model railway exhibition in 2019 & can be seen around the 7:52 min mark with the steam "S" class on the front with that link being kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6fRZnVqYrdmes0 ; Many Thanks for the video & inspiration.

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thanks, glad you like it. The system does have its pros and cons, and the dummy wheels are probably the worst of them. I can live with it because the tiny size keeps it fairly well hidden, and (in my opinion anyway) it is outweighed by the huge improvement in reliability over conventional T. Another big plus of this weird and wonderful approach is that building a complete train from scratch is only a few day's work. The full roster took about two weeks. I had a look at yours too, and being able to run full-length trains in HO is a rarity for a non-club layout, so good on ya! I have never seen multiple ironing boards used as legs - I tried a lot of possibilities over the years, but that one never occurred to me.

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

Just noticed the 50 cent peice at the back. That goods train is amazing, Z or N scale would have a hard time making that reliable. Nice camera work, nailed the rolling Victorian country side. My 3D printer arrived today. Going to need some Vic county models for my Narrow gauge Whitfield line. Starting to think linear motors might be more reliable than conductive rails. How much did the track cost?

[@modelrailmusings5981]

I changed over to this approach a few years ago and haven't looked back. For me it is cheap, about $15/m, but I design it myself and have it manufactured for me. The only commercial version has severe limitations, and while I have looked at making and selling it myself, there are serious regulatory hurdles that make that impractical.