When it comes to running a prototypical passenger train on your model railway, there’s only so much train you can model no matter what scale you work in! I can certainly vouch for that after assembling an Eighties era passenger train for my 3.3 metre long HO scale shelf layout.
As the mainline at the Sydney end (right side) of my layout needs to act as the holding point for all arriving trains, the layout becomes limited by the 970 mm length of track between the right-hand side of the backdrop and the second turnout on the mainline. This track also doubles as the head shunt for the runaround track in Philden Beach yard and serves as the limit when shoving a full train back into the staging yard beneath the overpass. Essentially this dead-end track that runs into a mirror panel on the right-hand backdrop in an attempt to fool the viewer that it continues further south, somehow dictates the length of what I am able to run on the layout.
 |
| My Sydney-end head shunt ends abruptly at a disguised mirror panel… |
 |
| …only just accommodating a 3-car train with a PHN power van before the turnout blades. |
I was fortunate to be able to trial both the Auscision Models PHN power van and the SDS Neo LHO brake van to see which would suit the layout best. In the end, I decided the PHN van met the purpose of providing both baggage and guards accommodation along with the prototypical head end power that the RUB passenger cars need. While I can argue that there were some examples of such shortish natured trains plying the rails of New South Wales, the air-conditioned RUB cars still needed a power van to look believable.
With the locomotive nosed up against the mirror panel, and the passenger cars bunched hard against each other, there is about 1 mm of room for the turnout blades to clear the rear wheels of the trailing car in order for me to back the train up into staging and store it out of the way.
 |
| While the LHO brake van was shorter, it didn’t address the power supply needs for the air-conditioning. |
 |
| With the PHN power van attached, the short train becomes a little more believable. |
While this is by no means a prototypical length 1980’s era NSW North Coast train, it does provide me with a different element of operation for when my layout reverts to a retro Eighties throwback session. This short passenger train is enough to represent most of the name trains that I have decorated the fascia of my layout with, such as the North Coast Daylight Express, the Brisbane Limited, Gold Coast Motorail and North Coast Overnight Express. Adding any additional cars such as a sleeper car or buffet car, I feel, would only dilute the effect.
 |
| Perhaps more importantly, the Auscision Models PHN van has working red taillights which look cool! |
My Eighties roster is slowly coming together, and I now have rollingstock to assemble 2 x short goods trains to go along with the above passenger train and a solitary 44 Class locomotive to divide its time between them. Time will tell when I can add a candy liveried locomotive to complete the collection, but I’m prepared to hold out for now.
While in the modern era, there are 3 x completely different freight trains assembled in the staging yard and a string of cement wagons on pre-order waiting to join them in the near future. There are currently 2 x modern Pacific National locomotives (an NR and BL Class), and a solitary Aurizon unit (a C44ACi) that form the basis of my operating sessions. Having said that, I’d like to add a second Aurizon or QR National locomotive to my collection to say that my modern roster is complete. But with the XPT being the only modern passenger train to ply the NSW North Coast, I’ve had to accept my layout’s limitations by consigning any modern passenger trains on my layout to the cover of darkness, i.e, when I’m asleep and won’t see them!
You can’t model everything, but somehow this layout is channeling the best of two very different decades. So, with my Eighties passenger train now taken care of, I can get to planning the build for my past and present station platform beneath the overpass.
Hopefully this keeps the fun rolling that little bit longer.
See also; Those North Coast trains…
