Track Laying Begins

Well all, after a couple of weeks getting the initial bench work for the Gwabegar-Merrygoen location completed I thought it was time to lay a little track. Now it has been a few years since I laid track and it was code 100 but now I am using code 75 Peco and the points are made using a "Fastracks" No.6 jig. I have prebuilt 22 sets so far 11 RH and 11 LH which will be enough to complete the section now under construction.
As in the tradition of many real railways/railroads (depending where you hail from) the initial track spike used was gold plated and I have a good supply of gold plated spikes if anyone wanted one to start their railway.
You can see from my pics that the golden spike is in place and that the Gwabegar staging in under construction.
What I have not photographed is the track spiraling around to cross the current track and continue on another full circle to the level for Merrygoen. I will, however, include that area latter when the second turn of the spiral is complete.
Well a busy family weekend ahead with a wedding, birthday party and not to mention the Parramatta Eels to beat the Canterbury Dogs tonight in the rugby league final.
Catch you all soon.
Bob

Some trackwork design

Well we are proceeding at pace now. Just finished the design of the localities of Merrygoen (depicted locality) and Gwabegar (a hidden staging yard with balloon loop)
The next step will be to physically lay out the trackwork with photocopies of the pointwork and some flex track before proceeding to nail anything down.
For those interested I include track diagrams for the two localities.
Once I have the trackwork laid out in real size I hope I can photograph the sections of the layout and publish the photos here for all to see.
Latter.

Moving forward

Well the lining of the garage is now complete and the painting is finished.
Today August 22nd 2009 the first benchwork was completed. The layout design has been changed so as to avoid any "duck-unders" but all localities have been retained. The completed design is still a work-in-progress as although the design has been put on paper it is not in a format that I can share with my readers just yet.
Learning how to use Cadrail again to re-do the design so I can get all the levels and grades the way I want is more time consuming that I would like but being still winter with short days and long nights the time is being taken to get everything right.
As soon as it is in a state I feel like sharing with everyone I will post it on the blog.
Anyway, I am including some photos of the begining benchwork that will support Merrygoen and the staging yard that will be known as Gwabegar. Gwabegar will be below Merrygoen and will still include a balloon loop to allow continuous running.
The bigest problem is what to do with all the stuff that is normally stored in the garage while the construction is ongoing. The worst thing is moveing stuff around until I have a layout to store under.

Well Easter is past for another year and the days were not wasted. Now the weather is cooler and the garage isn't such a hotbox I have finally started the long process of lining the garage to help with the heat as well as dust problems on the new layout.

The idea is to line the part of the garage that is not currently used for my old layout and then remove the partition walls to provide a full 24 foot by 20 foot (the garage is in imperial units as that's how it was built) layout room.

Over the Easter weekend I started to build the framework for the ceiling in the still open part of the garage and have almost demolished the old layout so that the gear stored in the rest of the garage can be moved to allow me to remove the partition walls and suspend the old ceiling that is currently supported by the partition walls.

I have included a few photos of the demolition as one should always record the destruction of ones many hours and dollars or earlier folly.

More when the lining is finished and the construction of "Coolah" begins.

Photos of the new framing, old layout and the demolition.

New ceiling frames

Part of the old layout



The demolition begins











One part has gone





Now you see it!!!

Now you don't!!!!!!

Well it's the weekend after Easter (Saturday 18th April 2009 to be precise) and the old layout is being loaded into the Ute to go to the tip.

There has has been a lot of timber and fasteners salvaged as well as the structures and of course all the rolling stock along with the electronics for the DCC and a lot of Peco point motors that won't be used on the new layout as well as a few sets of Peco points and a double cross over that I think was Shinaharo (thinking Ebay might bring a little revenue from these items) but everything else is to be dumped.

I have a bare room now and will start moving stuff around so that I can finish off the lining of the ceiling and get started on the constuction of "Coolah".

I will begin with the locality (station and yard) for Merrygoen and as this proceeds will put up the plan as well as some pic of the construction and the real place.

All for this edition and hope it's not too long before the next

The starting point

Well now as a virgin blogger I can only copy some of the ways others do their blogs and say that this will hopefully be the beginning of a series of tales relating to the concept and construction of my HO model railway layout based on the part of the main line between Craboon and Merrygoen (NSW Australia) and the branch line to Coolah that leaves the main at Craboon.
The choice of this region is connected with the fact that my father was born in Leadville in 1915 so there is a family connection to the region.
The layout has been planned now for some years but has been awaiting my having time from operating my own business to begin construction.
The area available is a full double garage measuring (in old units cause they were the units when built) 20 feet by 24 feet.
The track plan is a mix of from 1 to 3 layers depending on the location (see the rendered 3D image). There will be staging areas that will be "Wallerawang/Dubbo" and Gwabegar with the "main" line locations of Craboon, Dunedoo and Merrygoen (also a junction for the cross country line from Dubbo) while the branch will be represented by Leadville and Coolah (the terminus).
The era will be the 1960's to early 70's covering the last steam working and the early diesel working as the line was closed in 1984 having been in operation for 60 years maybe the time frame might streach back a little to accomodate older steam loco operations.
The ultimate operation will be as a timetable but this will only be based on the real time table as some extra operations will be inserted for the purpose when the time comes depending on the number of operators and the number of time the layout can be operated with a group.
Well so much for my first blog. It's too hot today (34 c outside) and the garage isn't air conditioned so I'll just fool about inside maybe build some points or read a book.
Bye until next time.