Hi Barry,
I can't find the thread where I went through the history of VR and Erie, nor the references I used for it. But it was a concious decision by the VR commisioners at the time, when evaluating the move from steam to deisel to replicate the Erie scheme, following a visit to the US to evaluate the the deisel locos.
Anyway, good to see another Aussie on The Gauge. I don't get as much time as I used to to visit here, but do keep an eye on things from time to time.
You may wanna try
here and check out the layout I had before moving up from Sydney to the Northern Rivers of NSW. It got trashed a week before I moved when the washing machine hose burst and flooded the house while I was away.
, so it is no more, sadly.
I have 5 of the Lima S and B class locos (both traditional VR and V/Line liveries) and they run OK. Not brilliant, but for the price they do OK and serve their purpose.