Planning begins...

I grew up during the Tangerine and Gray era, and when I think back about trains during my childhood I think of the yellow V/Line Grain wagons. Living close to the western line near Ballarat, the grain trains were a common sight, hauling grain from the Mallee and the Wimmera to the ports in Melbourne and Geelong. So when I decided to get into model trains about 3 years ago, I knew my focus would be the trains of my youth, just like so many others in this hobby. 

Since then, I've taken any opportunity I can to hit the road and see as much of the Victorian railway network as I can. These trips were as much about personal interest in the history of the railways as they were about research for modelling. After the first couple of trips, I decided that when I built my layout it would be based on the Mallee region of Victoria. Hence the name of the blog!

Well, a proper layout is a few years away at least. So, as I said in the last post, I'm going to get on with building a diorama instead. One of the problems with modelling the Mallee during the V/Line era is that a lot of the traffic had left rail for road transport instead. The main traffic on the Kulwin, Robinvale and Piangil lines was grain, with little else left. Luckily, there was still a variety of traffic on the Yelta line, with grain, containers, louvered vans, bulk fuel and passenger traffic to Mildura and gypsum traffic to Cowangie on the Pinaroo line. Also, prior to standardisation of the Western line in 1995, the line via Pinaroo was occasionally used for interstate traffic between Melbourne and Adelaide.

So for these reasons I decided to settle on a location on the Yelta line, somewhere between Birchip and Ouyen. I wasn't really sure which location I wanted to model, but I knew that I wanted a grain silo to be the main feature of my diorama. In my mind, the typical silo arrangement was a 4 cell Geelong silo with a steel annex and a bunker. But when I went back through my photos, I couldn't find a single location on the Yelta line that had this silo configuration. Most sites either have more silos, or only a single 3 cell Geelong silo. In fact, the only site with the configuration I had in mind was Ellam, on the Yaapeet line.

So with that, I gave up the plan to model a prototypical location and instead model whatever I like. Which is liberating to be honest, I'm no longer tied down. The overall plan is to keep structures to a minimum; I want to focus to be the scenery. I'm aiming to try and capture the feel of the Mallee region. There will be the silos, maybe a goods shed, maybe a basic platform and station structure.

At this stage, that'll be about it around the station precinct. I'd also like to have a CFA shed, maybe a farmhouse as well. But that's about it at this stage. There'll be lots of trees, most of which will be low Mallee scrub. There may also be 1 or 2 large feature trees.

I haven't decided exactly on the track plan. There will obviously be a siding for the grain silo, and maybe another if there's a goods shed. For the mainline, I haven't decided yet if it'll be single track or dual track. Single track is more prototypical of the region, but dual track will allow more options for operation in the future. 

In other news, not a lot has been happening over the summer break. Modelling is very much a winter sport for me! I've added a final coat of paint the other 6 grain wagons sitting on my workbench. They're now ready for decaling, which I probably won't get to for a couple of months. I also got some VR 4 wheel wagons during Auscision's sale after Christmas. But that's about it.