Talking to a person I met on holidays about HO modelling they said, “Why would anyone in Australia buy Marklin? I’ll bet they’ve never made a model of anything in the Southern Hemisphere, and you just can’t relate it to anything you see here”.

Do any of the forum gurus know of a Marklin model of an Australian prototype – or even one from the Southern Hemisphere?

As for relatability, here’s what does go past my place – I think the numbers below are correct but wouldn’t guarantee them. Pictures courtesy of Bruce Gehrig.

The main traffic by far is coal trains taking 200 million tonnes of coal a year to Newcastle, the World’s largest coal port. The port and rail infrastructure limits trains to around 1500 metres. That means a rough average of one 8500 net tonne train every 22 minutes, every day of the year.

Local passenger services are provided by 2 car diesel railcar sets. There’s a pretty good service from Maitland to Newcastle – about 25 km away. There are also a few longer runs a couple of times a day out to small towns about 80-100 km away but they aren’t an effective service.

The few longer intercity services that still exist in NSW are provided by a fleet of totally clapped out XPTs (Express Passenger Trains). These are significantly modified versions of the British Rail HST design with de-rated engines, lower gearing for a top speed of 160 kph, suspension modified to operate on Australia’s inferior track as well as some changes to cater for Australia’s hotter, dustier conditions. If an XPT service doesn’t actually get delayed, cancelled or break down then an average speed of around 90 kph is about all you can expect.

There are also a few container and general freight trains a day going through – but the percentage of this kind of freight is small. For example, just 2% of freight goes by train over the 880km between Melbourne and Sydney, Australia’s two largest cities.

The only Marklin model of a prototype that has ever run in Australia is the Flying Scotsman. Even then, it does not have the same livery as it had while it was in Australia.

As Kimball says, it's a religion. The two rail nutters have no idea.

Not quite what is being asked for but a search for HO scale 3D models of Melbourne trains does bring up a number of links - some free and others paid; also some N scale that can be scaled up - including:
- https://www.reddit.com/r...ind_somepreferably_free/
- https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5274441
There are also a number of other Australian train, tram and building models.
Of course they may or may not be useful with Marklin motors etc, but I guess if you can handle 3D printing (and slicing etc) then you can also handle tools such as FreeCAD to modify the STL files to suit. (I've done similar things for other models (e.g. dragons for my grandsons!!!) but it does take a bit of practice and learning.)

I don't think that Maerklin has ever made an Australian inspired model.
They certainly could do "Ghan" coaches based on the US Budd prototype that they have used for years. They would have to make a new mold for the locomotive, either by modifying an ALCO model (Commonwealth RR) or a whole new more recent design.

Regards

Mike C

Horrible stuff too. No real Australian drinks it.

Maybe he was living near Harvard in Boston. I think Foster's is popular there. I prefer a lighter ale, lager. I can enjoy a Guinness but it is not a regular go to choice. To each their own.

And I can tell you that he didn't drink the stuff either - He drank VB, when he was here..

Because German trains are far more interesting with a richer history

Frateschi have also made models of NZ locomotives - DA / DC / DX's in original crimson and also in the NZR fruit salad livery.

https://ironhorsehobbies...pma0BFqf18tlihlu5mlkjWib

Marklin haven't made any southern hemisphere locos, but hey, they made a British Flying Scotsman after decades of not producing any British locos and Marklin have just announced production of a Shay loco.

So we hope that one day a NZ Ka steam loco or a DA diesel (based on the GM EMD G12 which were also run in Australia) might end up being made...

Could an Alco C628 in H0 scale from Mehano for Maerklin AC be refurbished to resemble an Australian C630 prototype?

https://www.mehano.si/iz...sel-c628-southern-p-euac

Marklin has not yet made a Garret locomotive, so perhaps a model of an AD60 locomotive?. (built by Beyer, Peacock & Company)

Nah!

This is an Australian Crocodile.

Unfortunately, I don't see 6029 listed in the trains for this year's Steamfest race.

In the 1960's, if you waited on Cardiff station, you could sometimes get lucky and get a cab ride on a 60 class from a friendly driver up through tickhole tunnel to Broadmeadow. Terrifying in the tunnel. Long walk home.

Video of 2023 race ...

Probably not much use in a tiny place like England - the front would be in the next town before the back had left the last.

A little more video for those unfamiliar with the 60 class garratt. I wonder if there's a turn table left anywhere in NSW that can turn this beast.