The Railway Channel Downunder

The Masters Alan Rockett

Alan Rockett is a name known to many. Few wouldn’t have heard of his model making skills or of his fascinating layout, which is based on the Victorian Railways narrow gauge Upper Ferntree Gully — Gembrook line and set in the 1920s-30s.

The layout started it’s life in 1988 as a 12ft diorama and over the past twenty years it has developed into something more than spectacular; with its accuraterepresentation of the Monbulk Creek trestle bridge, the Upper Ferntree Gully 3 road engine shed and countless amounts of detail which not only amaze, but inspires anyone who sets their eyes upon it.

The layout features no less than 5 of the Na class locomotives, along with the Climax and Beyer-Garratt G42. In fact most of the models on Alan’slayout can be seen in operation on the Puffing Billy Railway, in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges.

With his attention to detail and achievement of such realism, Alan Rockett is definitely one of Australia’s finest modelers and deserves no less a title than being one of The Masters.