Introduction

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I have created this blog as a visual diary for myself as i create a layout in HO scale and to share my ideas about modelling modern image railways.

Choosing which Sydney area/station to model?

I have always favoured Southern Sydney for a layout as this is the area in which I live, but have considered the potential of stations from across the network.
STANMORE was an early idea, I loved the hertiage feel to the area with all its terrace houses and old station buildings.
CARLTON was also on the cards, as I had also lived here at one point and liked its heritage station buildings.

These ideas and others like them (Ashfield, Rockdale, Mortdale, Redfern!) contained at least 4-8 track mainlines or had complex pointwork and considering this was my first layout in 15 years, I decided to keep it a bit more managable.

In the end, I decided that a point to point shelf layout would be the best option to get me started  (must have been all the years of subscribing to British modelling mags, they love shelf point-points).

Point to point operation narrowed it down to yards, out depots or terminal stations, as I didnt want to run mainline trains from "behind a curtain to behind the other curtain" and back again, if that makes sense.

My layout had to have a purpose, it had to have realistic operation. Trains on my shelf layout had to appear at one end and run  across the layout to a depot/yard or station, then leave back where they had come from.

Anyway....after much considering and day dreaming the pro's and con's of different locations, Cronulla was chosen.

Why Cronulla?

It is not to distant from my home so it's easy for research visits,
 it is a terminal station at the end of a (mainly)single line branch,
 it also has storage sidings near the station where trains are stored overnight and off peak, but mainly,
 the single line branch and Cronulla station trackwork have been completely rebuilt/realigned during 2010-2011 and the single line branch duplicated into 2 mainlines and Cronulla yard completely remodelled.

The fact that the single line branch was no more, and never will be again, motivated me to create this shelf layout, a piece of history if you will....