Australian Capital Territory
Canberra-based modellers building scenery influenced by the dry sclerophyll forest and political-suburb townscape of the Limestone Plains.
For the module owner
If you are bringing modules to a meet, the work mostly happens before you leave the house. A few small pieces of preparation save the organiser an enormous amount of trouble on setup day.
- Mark your name on every module — the back face of the skyboard is the conventional place, where it stays visible during setup but is hidden from the public.
- Bring spare power-feed modules if you have any. They are perpetually in short supply at meets and one extra can rescue a layout.
- If you are building a corner module, consider adding a power feed there — corners are convenient electrical drop points and double up nicely.
- Throw a half-finished or spare module into the car. They are wonderful for showing the public how the system clips together — a working bottom plus exposed framing tells the story better than any signage.
- Stash your boxes, toolkit and bags under the trestle tables, behind the cloth, out of the public's eye line.
- In your kit: spare Unijoiners (Kato #24-815 and #24-816), a PowerPole-to-RCA adaptor lead if you wire your modules with PowerPole, a small bottle of methylated spirits and a clean rag for end-of-day railhead cleaning, and a multimeter for diagnosing the inevitable.
For the organiser
Running the meet is a different job. You are juggling tables, members, power, signage and the venue's expectations all at once. The list below covers what tends to come up.
- Send the Module Information Form to every participant well ahead of the event. The current copy lives in the Files section of the Australian T-TRAK forum.
- If your meet is sitting under a larger exhibition's umbrella, register with that exhibition's organising body so the layout appears on its program.
- Trestles: the Bunnings / Officeworks 760 × 1830 × 730 mm non-folding trestle is the default. The absolute minimum acceptable size is 750 × 1500 mm — anything smaller will not seat the modules cleanly.
- Cover the tables in cloth that drops near to the floor on the public side, hiding stored boxes and bags.
- Align and level the trestles before any cloth goes down. A wobble that is invisible under fabric will haunt you for the rest of the weekend.
- Cluster modules by owner or club where you can — it makes setup, transport and pack-down dramatically faster.
- Tag each module with a descriptive name and the state or town it came from. Visitors love reading that a particular bit of bushland came from Adelaide or that the tram terminus belongs to a Sydney builder.
- Plan for enough power-feed modules, supplies, controllers and spares — and if you can, a guest controller so a visitor can have a try.
- Display "Australian T-TRAK" signage and have publicity handouts within reach of the layout.
- Reserve part of a table — or a separate small table — for demonstration modules and printed materials.
Where modules come from
Australian T-TRAK is a national community. Modules at any given meet may be from a single club, a single state, or pulled together from across the country for a major exhibition. The eight states and territories are all represented in the build community to varying degrees.
New South Wales
Sydney and the Hunter, with regional builders along the Northern Tablelands. The largest concentration of N-scale T-TRAK builders in the country.
Northern Territory
Smaller community centred on Darwin and Alice Springs. Distance is the dominant logistical concern when participating in southern meets.
Queensland
Brisbane is the hub, with builders from the Sunshine Coast through to the Gold Coast and inland to Toowoomba. Strong tram and sugarcane scenery traditions.
South Australia
Adelaide-centred builders with frequent representation at the Australian Model Railway Association (AMRA) South Australia exhibitions.
Tasmania
A smaller cohort across Hobart and Launceston, often making the trip across Bass Strait for mainland meets.
Victoria
Melbourne and surrounding regional centres including Geelong and Ballarat. Active members frequently host meets at AMRA Victorian branch venues.
Western Australia
Perth-based modellers with the longest travel distances to eastern-state events. Local meets use the same standards verbatim.
Reference table dimensions
The numbers below are the practical figures organisers reach for when booking a venue or sketching a floor plan.
| Standard trestle | 760 × 1830 × 730 mm | Bunnings / Officeworks non-folding |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum table | 750 × 1500 mm | Absolute floor — anything smaller refuses modules |
| Storage tub | ≈ 57 L | One straight module per tub is the working assumption |
| Mains supply | 240 V AC, RCD-protected | Test-and-tag at exhibitions |
| Module name | Back of skyboard | Organiser tags origin city or town |
Mains and safety
Public exhibitions take electrical safety seriously, and the rules are not optional. The points below summarise what you should expect to be asked about — and what you should arrive ready for.
Mains safety at exhibitions
Australian mains is 240 V AC. Public exhibitions almost universally expect any mains-connected device — DC controller, DCC command station, LED lighting transformer — to have been tested and tagged by a licensed electrician within the relevant interval.
Plug the layout into an RCD-protected adapter between the wall socket and your distribution. Bring your own RCD; do not assume the venue will provide one.
The exact test-and-tag interval and inspection regime varies between states and between exhibition organisers. Check the local rules before you commit to a date.
Most builders carry a small, labelled lead with a portable RCD on it. The label shows the test date and the electrician's tag — that is all the venue's safety officer wants to see when they walk past.
Module Information Form
The form is the organiser's single source of truth. It captures who is bringing what, in enough detail that the layout can be planned before anyone arrives at the venue. A digital copy circulates in the Files section of the Australian T-TRAK community forum.
What the form captures
The Module Information Form gathers:
- Modeller's contact details and club affiliation.
- Each module owned, with its type, scale, dimensions, whether it is a power-feed module, and the connector type used (RCA, PowerPole, etc.).
- Power equipment the modeller is bringing — controllers, supplies, distribution, spares.
- Any special operational needs: tunnel-clearance issues, sections that are not Unitrack and need careful handling, modules that prefer a particular position in the layout.
- Availability across the days of the event, and insurance status if the host venue requires it.
A worked sample of the form layout — the same fields, laid out as a printable page — is reproduced at module-information-form.html.
The form is deliberately mundane. Its job is to remove ambiguity well before the trestles go up.