Alan Rocket, like so many O scale modellers, started off in HO scale. He has now produced this beautifully detailed model in On30, based on the Victorian Railways Ferntree Gully-Gembrook line. The layout is not large by any standards, being located in a partitioned off room in his workshop about 15 feet square.

Although the current main station is freelanced, the largish loco shed is a model of that which existed at Ferntree Gully, and the large curved trestle is the Monbulk trestle, still in operation on the Puffing Billy tourist railway.

As well as railways, Alan has an interest in horse-drawn vehicles, which shows in the finely detailed scratch built carriages displayed on the layout, and the horses which he carved himself, being dissatisfied with the commericial offerings.

The layout is exquisitely detailed, with a wealth of scenes worthy of a long look, and the wonderfully detailed building interiors look just sensational when the layout lighting is dimmed, as you can see in the "night photos" in this gallery. It is not just beautiful scenery and structures though, as Alan won first prize in two rolling stock categories in the recent Narrow Gauge Convention held in Melbourne (see the Convention highlights page on this site.

Alan will ultimately extend the layout to include a representation of Emerald station, and I look forward to being able to share this work as it gradually takes shape. The layout was described in the Summer/Autumn 2000 issue of Narrow Gauge Downunder, and will be featured in the next two issues of Australian Model Railway Magazine. I recommend that these articles be read, as they provide much insight into the layout and the man behind it.

I trust everybody will enjoy the images on display here as much as I enjoyed taking the photographs.