David O’Hearn MMR

The Layout

Northern Lakes Railway and Puffing Billy

The Northern Lakes Railway is a point-to-point railway set in NSW in the modern era. It features a range of heavy industries that generate traffic for the railway.

Puffing Billy heritage railway from Belgrave to Gembrook in On30 scale

Layout Description

Northern Lakes Railway

A point-to-point railway set in NSW in the modern era featuring a range of heavy industries that generate traffic for the railway. Industries on the layout are either kit-bashed or from the range of Walthers kits available over the years. The industries include:

A steelworks with coke ovens, rolling mills and associated stores, laboratories and gas storage
An oil refinery with outbound liquid products and packaged goods such as oils and greases
A cement factory with inward coal, limestone movements and outbound bulk cement traffic.
The Oak Milk factory is based on the facility at Muswellbrook.
A S032 wheat silo and associated weighbridge.
A container terminal with a working gantry container crane served by road and rail.
A fish processing facility served by rail and its associated fishing boat fleet.
A bulk coal loader
Rail facilities including turntables, roundhouse and engine servicing equipment plus stations and goods sheds
A port area with oil tanks, cranes and finger wharves with various ships moored.
Signal boxes and trackside items throughout the layout.

The railway is set at a level of 1.2m above the floor which provides a good viewing height without the need to bend down.

The entire layout is “encased” in a pelmet and illuminated with LED gimballed downlights so that it gives a picture or diorama effect.

Puffing Billy

A lower deck to the home layout. The development of this layout is in its infancy with only the trestle bridge between Emerald and Gembrook fully completed. The town of Emerald is about 30% completed.

This layout utilizes the same DCC system as the HO layout so throttles can control both railways.

Site Information

Layout Owner:	David O’Hearn MMR
Address:	64 Green Point Drive, Belmont 2280
Phone contact:	02 9097 9903
Email contact:	dohearn3@gmail.com
Layout:	DCC HO NSW and O Narrow Size: 5 x 6m (No duckunders)
Other information
Special instructions:	Same street as Belmont Hospital. Parking may be limited by adjacent National Park. Easy house access.