The layouts mentioned on this page have been built and operated by SANGS over the years. Many no longer exist, or are not in general use, but this page shows what we have achieved as a club over the years.
Portland
SANGS’s Portland layout theme is based at a harbour side location. Portland is home to large ship building yards that are complete with dry docks. These dry docks regularly service naval ships and other sea going vessels. Portland intermodal yard allows for shipping containers to be loaded or unloaded onto both container ship and truck alike.
There is also an automobile import/export facility that supplies automobiles to the citizens of Generica. Portland is also home to world famous Ted Heath Raceway that hosts many NASCAR races including the grand final at season’s end. Portland has many vantage points that railfans will love to see.
Planes of Fame
Planes of Fame is SANGS current set of layout modules, featuring an airport depicting a variety of aircraft, a FedEx terminal, and a NASA museum featuring a Space Shuttle and Saturn V rocket, all to the same scale as the rest of the layout.
This is the layout you will likely see if you come across us at our shopping centre demonstrations.
Our Yards
Our ‘Portland’ and ‘Planes of Fame’ modules are also always used with our main yards.
Our main lines running around the layout come into our yard area, where we have other trains setup ready to run out onto the main display area.
Each of the three main lines branch off into three separate yard lines, giving us a large staging area to assemble trains or park them ready for removal.
It is not unusual for us to have two trains running on each of the three main lines (6 trains running at the same time), with up to 2 trains ready to go on each of the nine yards, giving a total of 24 trains assembled on the layout at the same time.
It can be an impressive display to see so many trains parked, but ready to roll!
SANGS Clubroom Layout
When SANGS moved into their current clubroom we created a layout around three walls in one of the rooms.
This layout has two individual main lines, as well as various sidings and yards to allow for interest in operating our trains. Each main line can be operated as either DC or DCC as required by our members at the time.
T-TRAK
T-TRAK is a way of building space saving modules that allow serious and effective modelling in a very small space. The great benefit about N scale is that the T-TRAK standard works as a perfect compromise for most modern houses where space is limited. T-TRAK also offers an easier, fun and affordable entry point into the hobby of model railroading.
SANGS has members who regularly build and exhibit their T-TRAK modules at various shows. If you are at a South Australian Model Railway exhibition, you are likely to see a T-TRAK system designed, built and operated by a SANGS club member.
Greater Portland
Greater Portland was the ultimate layout for any Model Railroader, and was the culmination of twelve 1800mm x 1200mm rectangular pieces plus three 800mm x 1000mm hexagonal sections all of our award-winning scenery.
It featured Generica’s Cityscape, Portland’s Naval Dock, Portland’s Intermodal wharf, Larrit Music Bowl, Casey’s Zoo and the iconic SANGS yards, all with three individually controlled main lines.
Greater Portland is no longer in use.
Yesterday’s Airforce
Yesterday’s Airforce was designed and built by very prominent SANGS Club Member, Chris Finney. It was designed as a model that not only captured the interests of railfans but also plane spotters alike and was modelled as a working aircraft fighter museum complete with runway.
The modules also featured 1/144 scale classic fighter jets, bombers and some civilian aircraft. A feature of this model was that members of the public could make aircraft propellers spin by pressing buttons in front the layout.
Yesterday’s Airforce is now retired but many of the buildings and aircraft have been saved for other future SANGS modules.
Montana
The Montana layout was a U-shaped layout that was set up against three walls of SANGS’ previous clubroom at Semaphore, South Australia. This layout’s theme was set in Montana, United States from 2000. The Montana layout had stunning views of the Rocky Mountains with thousands of trees.
This layout evolved from various configurations and was exhibited at many Adelaide Model Railway Shows. Montana also received the public vote for Most Popular Layout at many exhibitions.
Unfortunately, Montana no longer exists as SANGS had to move to smaller clubrooms, and Montana needed to be broken up into salvage. Fortunately, many buildings, trees, vehicles and other components have been integrated into other SANGS’ exhibition layouts.
Generica
Generica was a new exhibition layout built in 2011. This layout was based on a large city landscape with high rise and industrial buildings. It featured at the 2011 Adelaide Model Railway exhibition and was always very popular with the public.
Generica was retired in 2019.
Bannon Field
This older layout not only showcased N scale trains, but also vintage World War II aircraft collections. SANGS had incorporated its four 1.8 metre yard modules with four upgraded “Yesterday’s Air Force” modules over a number of years, combining them with two completely new end modules to form a cohesive ‘new’ layout. Unfortunately, Bannon Field is no longer available, and its buildings, aircraft and other scenery items are now incorporated into other SANGS layouts.