Progress so far...

I am trying to model The Newman-Port Hedland  railway line - but it is difficult to fit it into 217cm x 286cm (7.2ft x9.5ft) space!

Although i am modeling in HO, there was not enough room for the whole railroad, so instead the area contains only the Newman end of the railroad, and if i succeed with this, i will expand into the adjoining (much larger) room with the Port Hedland end, which is double the size.

So Newman is in the smaller room, which i have been developing (very, very slowly) into the model railroad i hope it will someday be. So far, the benchwork has been built, track and ballast layed, mountains and tunnel built with styrofoam, newspaper, plaster cloth, and has been painted in a burnt orange colour. Both tunnel portals have been built (although i wish to redo the first one), the background and clouds painted, the fascia attached, and a practice model of applying and using plaster rocks has been built.


BHP Billiton Train coming out of tunnel:

A look at the mountains:

The tunnel portals: (the right one needs redoing as it was a practice portal)

The Buffer (Great practice for building with wood)

The next 2 pics are of the practice model i made to try applying and texturing plaster rock molds - the rocks on the left 'sceniced' side of the model were made from aluminium foil molds - which i wasn't happy with - so that i will try rubber molds for the right half. 

I couldn't help showing off the train:

Although the track is already laid on my layout - the design is not close enough to the prototype for my liking. It was built how it is so that if i did/do not expand into the next room, i could still have the train running in a loop and have viable operations. I'll show the layout design in a later post...

As you can see by the pictures, i am using Bachmann's BHP Billiton train set. I tossed the E-Z track and decided to use the BHP railway as the theme for my model railway. Although locomotives in train sets are generally thought to have less detail - i must say that the one I have actually looks pretty good compared to other train set locomotives I've seen.

As a beginner at model railroading - i wish to share my failures (so you don't make them), my success (so you can copy), and experience (you can never get enough experience).

Newman to Port Hedland railway

The typical 208 car iron ore train rumbles away from Newman, where it had picked up its 26 000 ton load of iron ore. 

The eight locomotives throughout the train pull the train through the scenes of deserts, scrubland, hills and wide open plains. The brown-red soil and the small trees and bushes show the ruggedness of the land.

The train continues 426 kilometers north towards Port Hedland - where the iron ore will be loaded onto ships to be transported.

This trip will typically take 8 hours, with 9 loaded trains operating every day. The climate is very hot in Newman, with averages in summer being at just under 40 degrees celsius every day. This map here gives you an idea of the distance train has to travel from Port Hedland to Newman:

History of Newman

Newman was built in the 1960's by the Mount Newman Mining Company, because the discovery of rich iron deposits in Mount Whale back nearby. There is one shopping centre in the company town, two shopping plazas, three hotels, three bar/restaurants, a public swimming pool, and an airport - all for Newman's population of 8000.

The mine Mt Whaleback is currently owned 85% by BHP Billiton and was actually discovered in 1957 by Stan Hilditch but was not publicised until 1960 when the government allowed iron ore exports and the mine was opened in 1968, and soon became the biggest singe-pit open-pit iron ore mine in the world.