Coal Mine Railway - Imaginary B&O spur.

[TCWORLD]

Well, as said in my other railway thread - Im starting fresh, the current layout will be torn down and a new one constructed.

I've been working on this plan since Christmas, and am finally ready to begin construction. Several people new this railway was coming, but only one person knew remotely what the plan would be like. Other than that, its planning has been a complete secret, until now of course.

Here it is:

Basically the layout itself is 1900mm long and at one end 270mm wide, at the other 600mm wide. On top of this there is a control panel and 4 track traverser which will measure 475mm long and 270mm wide - the control panel can be positioned in one of 2 places, on the end (above where my computer is on my desk) when at home, or coming out of the back when the layout is at an exhibition (to save people at the exhibition space).



The design is on three levels, rising up by 100mm over the zig-zaging mainline, with the control panel being about 20mm above ground zero. There is a hidden track which runs beneath the layout from the top inside the mine, to the bottom exiting out of the powerstation. This allows for full cars to be taken into the PS and then slighly taken up to the mine. At the same time empties are taken into the mine, and can then be bgrought down out of the PS - in effect gondolas go in full at the powerstation and come out empty, and vice versa at the mine.

There is a large tipple on the top layer - a Walthers Cornerstone Concrete tipple thingy, along with a large Helijan 120' turntable acting to create both a runaround for trains, and also access to the spur industries. A large passing loop in the middle makes up the final main scenery element.

Most of the scenery will be dusty rock strata - Inspired alot by Paul's logging layouts. This along with a semi industrial theme, coloured to make it look like the place is old, but expanding (hence the original "lower mine" - once that became unmineable, they extended the line upward).

Haveing tested running the design in xTrkCAD and ironing out the kinks somewhat, I'm finally ready to reveal it. It has alot more operating potential, and much more of the scenic elements which i like - much more of a "what i want layout."

Hopefully you will all enjoy watching it grow as much as i will enjoy making it.


Tommorrow i shall head to Shef. Insulation, to collect some blue foam, and then on Saturday i can start work (I have an exam Friday afternoon, so wont, annoyingly, be able to start then).

Enjoy.


EDIT:

The numbers reprisent height measurements. Around the turntable area they get confusing. The turntable and spurs are at 9.5cm. The 2.7 is the height of the track that runs under it. A larger version of the plan can be found [url="http://www.bobbobson.co.uk/flash/Post%20B&O%20Windowsill%20Mine%20large.jpg"]here[/url].

[TCWORLD]

As Planned, I got the Foam last friday. I have spent the weekend carving and cutting it to shape. It now resembles the basic roadbed levels and hill areeas. The hills still need to carved to shape, and there are some holes in the hillsides to fill. Also the area around the PS needs to be reconstructed and raised to the correct levels - It all had to be cut away to be able to carve the channel for the Hidden Return line (The channel will be covered up with plasticard and the foam will have a layer of plaster to even it out).

The river needs deepening in the middle as for some reason i made it go uphill (DUH :doh: ), and then will have a layer of sand glued to it, then debris like rocks and twigs, then some Fake water.

Some pics of the Weekend's progress. Hopefully the plan will make more sense once you have seen the pics:

[TCWORLD]

Right, time for the next picture post. I've spent the last 5 days working on the layout, and it feels good to be building again. However, exams take priority, so im spending the rest of the week revising for a Stats exam next monday.

Here is some pics of my work since my last post. (As before, if you want to see any of the pics larger, just click - though at this stage there aren't any tiny details).

Height markers for the new track level



Testing clearances:










Expanding foam blobs attack:










Cut to size:
















Plaster mountains:










And thats all for now. The GE44T loco i ordered in September last year is going to be shipped some time this week, along with a turntable, TT motor, coal tower, scatters and various other bits and bobs. I need to order some track though before i can continue on the layout, but anyway, with exams, there is no hurry.

[TrainNut]

Very interesting. This is going to be a neat one to watch develop.

[Trucklover]

WOW Tom, you have made quite a bit of progress already!! Im looking forward to this one taking shape, and i like the plan

[MountainMan]

Looks great so far!

[TCWORLD]

Thanks for your comments. I posted all this on AMR a while ago, and then suddenly remembered i can post it here aswell.

[tv_man]

Looks like a great start there. Looking forward to seeing more progress pictures of this one.

[e-paw]

Looks good so far, keep it up.

[TCWORLD]

I've been thinking about the question of "what has the last layout taught me" and I think the last layout was very much a cram everything in style wise as i could. I think that ended up with me having scenery which didn't at all fit together. There were too many styles and themes and eras, all of which resulted in a very jumbled scene which had no atmosphere to it.

I look at lots of layouts at exhibitions and see that they have very subtle atmospheres to them, which make them more believable as psuedo real worlds. Whereas on my last layout it wasn't, It was confused in what i wanted to show.

For this layout I've spent quite a while planning in my head what its supposed to show, and have worked out what buildings and what styles to stick with, rather than a bit of everything. Im aiming to create something that, to me at least, shows the contrast between the tranquill but desolate area - dry grass, scorched earth, sandy soil, steep sandstone cliff faces - and the destructive noisy dirty industries that sprout out of the landscape like weeds wherever there is a desired resourse like coal.
I have a very clear image in my mind of howthe scenery will take shape, and how each little section joins with the rest iin a single era and atmosphere. I've found a couple of images in Google that very much show the type of terrain I'm aiming to capture in my little model world. (Images: 1, 2). Image 1 is showing the steep rugged desolate cliffs, whereas by contrast Image 2 shows the much more tranquill side: a slow flowing river eating away at the soft sandstone. Between the two of them you should be able to picture the type of soil, colours, and different plant life. If you add to that the destructive side of coal mining, you should get a good idea of what i can picture the layout as being.

Thats what the last layout lacked, an Image. When i was making it, i hadn't got a clear image, and i wasn't sure about what i wanted it to look like. Thats the main reason Its taken me 6 months to plan this new one, I've been thinking over what I want.



In other news, I've built a wooden frame which has been inlayed into the underside of the foam to not only give it support and stop my damaging it, but also to give me something solid to screw the facia and backscene to. The facia has quite tight curves to follow which mean that trying to screw it to the foam wouldn't have been feasible, so I built the frame, made the facia and screwed the two together. I plan to make the scenery come up and over the facia slightly, and will then paint the front to resemble layers of soil and sand.
I've also ordered the turntable, coal tipple, and some WS scatters (brown ballast, burnt grass, earth scatters, yellow grass, coal, etc.). The next thing im planning to aquire is the track to build the hidden return line, so that i can build the scenery at the front up to full height.

I'll post some pics this evening of the facia and frame.

[TCWORLD]

Thanks for your comments earlier on!


As promised some more pics of work over the last week (since sunday).

The new Framework:







The secret hatch:



Front Facia:









The left tunnel, and covered lower track:





The waterfall and river above:









Rocky outcrop (Slightly changed from the plan, goes over all 4 lines):

[railroader9731]

Very nice work TC Cant wait to see next set of pics.

[TCWORLD]

Thankyou! There will be some more pics at the weekend. I have spent this afternoon (I'm in the UK, so its evening here) painting the front facia, spraying the plastered areas black, and adding some more plaster. I'll hopefully get the last of the basecoat plastering done tommorrow, and then i can start thinking about how I'm going to create the rockfaces.

[TCWORLD]

I managed to finish plastering today, and have also given the whole layout a coat of black paint (undercoat for scenery). Along with that, the front facia is now painted.

Piccy's :































Enjoy!!

[upnick]

Hi Tom,

Great progress ....... coming on well with some shading after the black coat the rocks will come to life ....... see your planning to use Woodland scenics scenic stuff its a lot better than the scenics available over here try Antics online for it or i found a good supplier on ebay.uk lots of mine came from PM me if you want the link.