Hamersley Iron C-415 #1000 by Bowser

English's Model Railroad [a division of Bowser] produced the Alco C-415 in HO scale and were announced back in February 2024 for an April 2025 delivery. As happens a lot in the model railroad model delivery, they ended up arriving in January 2026.

1000 sits a little forlorn back in October 2004 at the PRHS museum

The Hamersley Iron model is to represent the former HI 1000 unit as it is preserved by the Pilbara Railways Historical Society which is located adjacent to HI's [now Rio Tinto] Seven Mile complex between Karratha and Dampier in the North West of Western Australia.

 

 

The above images show the box label, the mounting of the model within the transport cradle which is inside the box, the model in the box and the model on the cradle out of the box.

Model cost was $285.95 with DCC and sound in US dollars. I ordered my model through Overland Hobbies in the US and with their postage cost, all up was $378.90 USD. Exchange rate at the time was 0.6433 USD to the Aussie dollar for an AUD cost of $588.99, incl. international fees and the like.

Several versions across a number of US railroads were produced in both cab styles.

The sound version is equipped with an ESU LokSound V5 decoder.

The video below shows the model undergoing a rolling road test, the sound is a bit overpowering even though I have altered the model volume down quite substantially. Phone mics just have to have too much gain...

Enjoy.

Laying out first station.

Started arranging the track to check formation and how it will fit in for the first station.

Track is Shinohara code 83, with the sidings being code 70.

Station platform mock up is 1240 mm long which scales to match the prototype off the 4/46 signal diagram, which is the header of this blog and can be found online at Victorian Railways.Net.

Looking in the down direction over the points for No. 2 Road and where the Cemetery Rd grade crossing at the 261.524km, which was removed on Saturday May 11, 1985 as stated in Weekly Notice (WN19/1985). A weekly notice type history for Glenorchy can be found here at VicSig.

Down direction shows goods shed and silos and on the left sidings group A and B and the 'dock' which had a 3 ton crane. The Victorian Oat Pool shed will occupy the down end of Siding B, far top left. I may still include the stock facilities which the shed replaced.

Proposed plan.

    Finally getting some traction on the build and have been playing around with how to fit the stations from Glenorchy to Murtoa, including a couple of branch line stations, one from Lubeck and one from Murtoa. The current idea is Marnoo on the Bolangum branch and Beulah, or Sheephills or Minyip as the location on the Patchewollock line. The size is ~10.5 metres by 7.35 metres.