BEIJIAO - A CHINESE HO EXHIBITION LAYOUT

I'm using flickr - it's free!

I'm not sure if I'm getting the best out of it, but you can use the BB code (whatever that is!) and insert it into the thread - I find that that also generates some text on the screen but by deleting some of the code I can loose that.

Allow me to explain ...... here is that same image just uploaded... via Insert : Center ... it includes unwanted description, my name etc

Scenic section by PAUL STAPLETON, on Flickr

By experimenting I have learnt how to delete that unwanted text as in ....

Here's how the layout looked in August 2016.....

Progress continues to be made - our first public exhibition will be at Bristol on May 4/5/6 - we hope to meet many of you there.

I am adding an open air gym area to the market ...



Here is a photo of a real Chinese industrial railway that was an inspiration for the layout............

And here is a photo of the model industrial railway, albeit a coal train rather than a passenger one!

Apologies for lack of updates. Have just been soooo busy!

The layout has now been to two exhibitions : Bristol in May last year and Stevenage in Jan 2019. Each time it improves as we learn more about how best to run it - it is too big to set up at home so only runs at exhibitions!

Our next show is Fareham OCT 5/6 this year.

Here is a photo from Stevenage ....

And from Bristol ...................

QUOTE (34C @ 2 Jul 2019, 08:35) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It was very interesting to see this layout at the CMRA St Evenage show earlier this year. Very different, and I wish that more time
had been available for a second look (I was called away, story of my life at present).

Thank you 34C.

Both exhibition outings have been stressful for the operators and several operational features have, so far, never been attempted. One of the biggest issues (literally) is that the layout was far too big to set up in our old house/garden. There are twelve boards altogether and we could just about get three up at any one time for testing. Whilst we several times hired a local church hall and set up the entire layout for two days at a time, these sessions were for work and testing rather than full blown operating sessions. Consequently Bristol exhibition was our very first fully blown operating session!

One major issue has been the lack of route selection. There are at least 25 routes that trains can take and with each point control on the Digitrax handset needing four button pushes changing routes manually took time and effort. Some routes require up to 10 point changes - that's up to 40 button pushes!

Our tame DCC expert had three attempts at introducing route selection - all failed. My operating crew gave me an ultimatum - no route selection equals no operators for our next show at Fareham in October.

A move to a bigger house in order to gain more modelling space has resulted in a garden area which can just accommodate the whole layout - a huge advantage for testing.

IMG_20190630_155701 by PAUL STAPLETON, on Flickr

My original DCC expert has had to drop out due to health issues but a DCC expert living 400 miles away and a professional IT engineer (non-modeller) living 500 yards away have combined to programme the software - so now we have route selection! Selecting any of the 25 routes now involves two or a maximum of three button pushes and takes four seconds.

RESULT -

1. Happy operators!
2. The opportunity to fully exploit all the operating features which are built into the layout.
3. Now looking forward to Fareham exhibition!

Scenic section by PAUL STAPLETON, on Flickr

I will try to explain the extra features we can now easily incorporate.

The parallel red lines are a double track China Rail (diesel) main line - left hand running as in the UK - and a bi-directional (steam) regional railway which starts out parallel to the main lines but then swings away at the right hand side. There is a major freight yard off scene to the left serving both the China Rail and regional lines.

At Bristol and Stevenage we were basically restricted to running these lines in the simplest roundy-roundy way - anything else was just too time-consuming to set up as we need constant movement on the scenic section.

New operating possibilities......

1. The passenger train on the bi-directional can change direction in the Fiddle Yard - IN anti-clockwise, OUT clockwise
2. Anti-clockwise China Rail trains can now change onto the bi-directional line in the fiddle yard and enter the scenic section as if coming from the freight yard and snake across the two mainline crossovers back onto the anti-clockwise China Rail line and back into the same original fiddle yard road.
3. Clockwise China Rail trains can use the scenic section crossover to run onto the bi-directional line and depart to the freight yard - and then back into the same original fiddle yard road
4. Steam powered mixed freights on the bi-directional line can change direction in the fiddle yard to give that line more variety. The China Rail tracks have five trains in each direction, whereas the bi-directional regional railway only has five trains - period! So by changing locos and direction the two mixed freights will appear to be four - I hope that makes sense!