The Beginning

I have taken an interest in the former VR line from Tallarook to Mansfield with the branch  to Alexandra for some three years now.  I tried to find out all I could about it and did about 6  months of concentrated research. It is amazing what you can find, if you only try.

                                                          Area in pink to be modelled.

I wanted a layout that depicted as many features of the line as possible, without making it unrealistic. There was, of course, the question (as always) which section to model.  
Yea station certainly had to be in it, as well as Alexandra, which was interesting as a terminus. Mansfield was not considered, as it was far too far away.

I came to the conclusion that it might be an interesting idea to have the junction of Cathkin as the focal point. The line would come up (heavily camouflaged)  from underneath the baseboard  somewhere in the Homewood area and enter Yea yard .  Past Yea  the next feature would  be that wonderful Cheviot tunnel. From there we would move on to Molesworth, only a stone's throw away ( yeah, right ! ) and the Goulburn River with its rail- and road bridges.

From there we'll go on to the navel of this world - Cathkin. There wasn't much there really, the station, a loop, a goods shed , a turntable and the branch to Alexandra.   

The branch I would model, with Alexandra , its yard and turntable. I also decided at this point, that I didn't really want to look over the top of either Cathkin station or Alexandra, so I flipped them around - they are now on the North side of the line - it is my layout after all!

Here is my working plan for the layout. The fact that some alterations were necessary and
made, I'll deal with in a later post.