North Coast National

The story behind my current layout North Coast National goes back many decades when, as a child in the early sixties, I received a Tri-ang Hornby train set. I remember that it was made up of a British Railways (BR) Jinty steam locomotive, a few wagons, some track and a controller. I remember I would take that loco everywhere I went along with a copy of a Tri-ang catalogue that I had been given, so I was clearly bitten by the train bug at that point.

After finishing year 10 at high school in Queensland I had what I call a couple of non-jobs for a few months, then joined the Queensland Government Railways (QR) in 1971 as a cleaner at Mayne in Brisbane. I was still keen on railways, of course, but at that age was more interested in girls, motor bikes and cars so model trains took a back seat until one Saturday morning I was in the city and noticed that a model train show was being held at the Brisbane Town Hall. Having some time to spare I went in to have a look and the bug bit me very hard then and there, and I purchased a model of an Alco C628 on the spot.

So how does all that relate to my current layout? Well, over the following years I left QR and went to work for Hamersley Iron (HI) railways division in the north-west of Western Australia (WA) as a driver and later operations supervisor. During that time, we lived in Karratha and I built several layouts that were