Albury Model Railway Exhibition 2025

 Murray Railway Modellers - Model Train Show 2025

Pacific National NR40 and another NR rests in Junee Yard in late April 2025

On Sunday, May 18th, Pete and myself headed 2 hrs south to attend the annual model railway exhibition at Mirambeena Community Centre at Lavington (Albury). 

Campbelltown is a N scale layout, originally constructed by the late Mick Lovell in his home garage.  Fortunately, the layout was extracted, and rebuilt for exhibition, rather than lost in a skip.  I understand this was its first outing.  The real Campbelltown is now served by electric trains from Sydney, and the country feel is now lost to history.  

The branchline to Camden branches off and heads up the 1:19 grade to Kenny Hill.  This route is now the multilane Narellan Road, and any evidence of a railway line over the hill has been lost.

Rejuvenating the layout would make a fascinating story, and I hope that this tale could be published.  

Barambogie is a freelanced layout for displaying scenery, and running trains

A new corner section displays quite a good number of structures in the town.  (Spot the Harry Potter bus)

Shame about the layout identification sign in the scene

Cockroach Valley, by Kevin and Dot Bush has been around for decades, but the layout is always changing and improving

Another busy town, with lots of structures.  

Kookaburra Park is a new layout built by Darryn Coulston.  Darryn retired his earlier Kookaburra Park.  With experience, the new Kookaburra Park has addressed some of the former layout's shortcomings, whilst reusing some of the structures to speed up the construction process.

Vintage Hornby are OO sized trains made prior to 1964.  The layout showcased, besides the trains, many of the lineside accessories that Hornby made.  These trains were built to last, and it is encouraging that they were running flawlessly whilst I was watching.

The sunshine that came through the roof window has unfortunately washed out the colour from part of the engine shed in my picture.  The layout lacks basic scenery, although this aspect of railway modelling was rare when these trains were made. 

Wimmera Plains by Silvano Marchesini is a prototype freelanced layout, loosely based on the Wimmera region of Victoria. Originally a home layout, it was converted to an exhibition layout with help from the Grampian Railroad Modellers of Stawell. Silvano has made many of the structures from scratch.

The layout is a large oval, with an operating pit in the middle.  Without any backscenes, the station in the background can be viewed.  

Bears Ears and Mosquito Hill were what I call moving dioramas.  These dioramas are good to try out new ideas in a limited space, with limited time. Both layouts were accompanied with an A4 size display booklet, that could be read to see how the layouts were made.  Nice idea.  

Ettamogah by Peter Allen and Greame Schulz is another layout that has been around for a long time, but is constantly being detailed. Modern and not so modern trains were being run.  The real Ettamogah Rail hub is visible from the Hume Highway.

Truck rollovers are unfortunately becoming quite common on the Hume Highway this year.  The detail here was worth a second look. 

Trees might hide the trains, but they have been modelled very nicely.  

Other layouts were Tomy Plarail (Tomy), and Railway in a Case (Z scale)

Retail support

Going to a railway exhibition, would not be complete without some retail therapy.  

SDS

Trackrite

Train World

Not pictured - Junction Models, Road & Rail, Ian Alce, RW Hobby, Railway Mercendise & Custom Printing, George Agapitos, Railway Coins, and S/H stands run by Murray Railway Modellers.  And of course, there was a Cafe, selling drinks, and food.  

To me, an exhibition is a way to talk with fellow modellers, and gain ideas that could be useful.  And it is also imprtant to support those retailers, who have supported the hobby.  And it is win-win, as much of what I bought is useful for my own modelling.

My purchases.  The selection of tools was $10 from the second-hand stall, and S/H but near new was the Auscision WTY Wheat hopper pack

Train room activity.

I managed to install some items in the ensuite, to get them off the floor of the train room.

NSW Carriage Mirror, kindly donated by Les from South Australia, has been through the wars

The back of the mirror shows that some of the silvering has been totally removed

I added some very shiny Aluminium foil to cover the hole in the silvering, but the damage is obvious.  And on the glass, someone has scratched "MARK" - which I didn't notice until I had polished the grime off the glass.  All part of history.  I had earlier installed the NSWGR luggage rack on the wall - this rack is a reproduction, acquired at the Cootamundra swap meet last year.  Note the reflection in the mirror are the block shelf instruments above the door leading to the garage. 

We are getting there slowly.  Installing the mirror and the luggage rack has almost completed the ensuite; just some painting to do in an awkward spot that I cannot reach as I am not tall enough, even standing on a stand that fits inside the shower. 

Conclusion.

Thank you to the Murray Railway Modellers, the exhibitors, and the retailers who made the Albury Exhibition most enjoyable.  It was a good day out.

Until next time, build a model (or two)