Outer Melbourne - T Gauge Road and Rail

This model railway layout depicts a fictitious station near the edge of the Melbourne (Australia) suburban network around 1980. It is modeled in T Scale (1:450), and uses a linear motor drive for both trains and cars. This is my own design, but is based on a commercial product by IDL Motors (www.teenytrain...). The trains are 3D printed, and cover all the types in use at that time. The layout is 48" x 17" in size.

[@daveb.trains7019]

An excellent layout! I especially like the animated vehicles.

[@markh.6687]

I used to model in "N" 1:160 (U.S.), so some of the automation (vehicles/crossing gates and lights) is just amazing in T Scale.

[@davidsachs4883]

My favorite part of most n scale layouts is the when safety bars raise and lower, with the flashing lights. To see that on a t-scale layout was great, even if the scale was off. Beautiful job.

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Alas, they are a bit over-scale. My first attempt was to the correct size in brass, but the result was just too fragile. In the end, I 3D printed them big enough and sturdy enough to survive the odd road accident. But yes, they really do help set the scene. They are not that hard to make, so I am surprised that they are so rarely seen in the larger scales.

[@dumptruckdave423]

Simply Amazing !!! 👍

[@rudiloof7064]

Wow! Nice job! 👍🏻

[@cbolinger2390]

Absolutely cool I love how the cars and trucks move best t scale I’ve seen yet

[@hubertmantz1516]

Brilliant!

[@matthewevers1551]

As someone who is just trying to play with toy trains in T gauge this absolutely boggles my mind (!) I kind of gave up on the tiny train people. I loved your idea of using linear drives for a jousting tournament etc.. It's great to see a master modeler demonstrate linear drive's potential. I just wish there was some product or products that would allow the run of the mill modeler access to this technology.....

[@rickcorwon5118]

Matthew Evers I totally agree, pretty much all of this stuff you have to either kit bash or scratch build. Really the only thing we have is the actual train and the track

[@datvik7187]

Brilliant job!👍

[@petworthtraction]

Way too awesome! Thanks for shooting and sharing.

[@zwilli100]

Hallo Als Z Bahner kann ich nur sagen: Hut ab.

[@MineJulRBX]

The second car that drives up to the safety bars stopped quite early, is it possible to make it stop closer to the first car all up at the safety bar? Just asking for when I myself wants to do this with my TGauge railway

[@modelrailmusings5981]

There are known problems with where and how the cars stop because I used an older batch of track in order to finish it all in time for its first exhibition a few weeks ago, and that version of track was not really designed for queuing. I have a new batch sitting on my bench right now which solves all that, but alas, I cannot retrofit it without a full rebuild. So, fixed on the next layout!

[@sonofnun2692]

Outstanding layout, where did you get the cars for the roadways? I can’t seem to find them anywhere, are they linear Drive?

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Thanks. All the road vehicles except the buses are body shells from tgauge.com with magnets added underneath or inside; the buses are my own 3D prints.

[@sonofnun2692]

Sweet Thanks!

[@mzungumobile2939]

How did you make the trains

[@modelrailmusings5981]

3D printed bodies with holes underneath for the magnets, hand painted, some with home-made decals for the fiddlier details.

[@mzungumobile2939]

ModelRail Musings thank you

[@ertplus838]

Looks like werribee. Can you switch tracks on these tiny layouts? all I've seen so far look like one big loop. Would be perfect for doing the whole williamstown line :)

[@ertplus838]

Are the coils just etched on a pcb?

[@modelrailmusings5981]

I tried to make it generic, typical of so many places on the fringe. But even in this scale, we run out of space very quickly. And yes, a small oval with a siding for some automatic shunting is literally half-finished on my work table right now, as a test piece for the next layout.

[@modelrailmusings5981]

Yep, just plain vanilla double-sided PCBs, although I do use 2oz copper for reduced power consumption and heating.

[@zwilli100]

Hallo Als Z Bahner kann ich nur sagen: Hut ab.