Friday, January 23, 2009

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.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Ron,

    Looks interesting. Looking forward to operating this. Maybe I should start a blog for my layout. Is the entry going to be via duckunder or lift bridge? Do you need to duck under Craboon to get to Gwabegar.

    Graham.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HI Bob,
    Looks interesting - will have to keep an eye on it as it progresses - hope your's progresses quicker than mine.

    Cheers Alex...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bob, a fantastic part of the world to model, and the personal link you have wil make it very satisfying. I look forward to seeing your progress. Yes being new does make it interesting when creating a blog, i'm just the same, all the best, Geoff

    ReplyDelete