This stage is the biggest change to the original design to accommodate the charge of direction outlined in the previous blog on Stage 1. The major change is the inclusion of the Spicers Creek passing loop that was not going to be modeled and the moving of Drill Creek to the opposite wall
The other change not shown is moving the staging to the courtyard and this will be discussed in detail later. But in principle will involve the use of two four [4] meter staging yards mounted on lifting trolleys mounted on 40 mm od pivots. This will be outline latter but to say the availability of cheap workshop lifting equipment from China had made this idea possible.
Spicer's Creek Loop
A previous blog on Spicer's Creek showed snap shoots of the station diagram. The design only creates a basic loop only. A cut down cattle pens will be included along with locomotive watering and a PC1 shelter. This will be cut from a ModelFxs PC2 station that will be combined with another to create a AC4 station for Goombla. To operate a steam era layout of the 1960's loop sidings are critical to achieve practical operation.
Drill Creek
Drill Creek has incorporated the lot PC2 Station, Watering, Cattle Pen, Loading Bank and SO8 Grain Silo. The line will exit to staging at MaryVale through the wall of the garage.
Goombla
The design of Goombla was outlined in the previous blog the most important part of the new design. The train will enter from external staging representing Golgong using a narrow shelf that is just scenery. The entrance will be hidden using row's of heavy foliage as was the exit from the original Spicer's Creek Modules. It has been carried to the front edge of the Spicers Creek Station Module to help operators feel that these modules are extension visually of that module.
Joining Stages
The loops that join all the modules at the rear are also external and located between the rear fence and wall of the shed. This is lost space that is never used and helps save precious space to allow a series separate scenes [stages] to existing in their own right. In modeling curves are extremely difficult to scenic and serve to define the distance between any two scenes creating a real sense of small distances between model areas and are best done away with.
Stage 2 shown below:
In the many months since the last post and public showing I have had a lot of tine to consider the layout design. The arrival of the Garrett from Model O has caused a slight change for the layouts final design concept.
Stage 1 - A new start
After a recent visit to Goombla to show my wife the source of all the crazy stuff the decision was made to construct this as the next scene for the railroad after completing the last module for Spicer's Creek.
This was partly a result of discussions with the Geoff and Ben Small about AD60 Garrett's and the emotional stimulation it would create in O scale. That discussion lead to talk about the W44 Concentrate Train that was moved over the western mountains by the AD60 Garrett's. This route required many changes of locomotives and double heading and this lead to the talk of "What if the Mary Vale to Golgong line had been completed ?" as one of the reasons for building the Mary Vale extension was its direct access to the ports in Newcastle while offering superior grades, so it is logical any dispatcher would route its traffic using this route.
With Model O release of the ore cars my fate was sealed we had to run the ore train so it was back to the drawing board [CAD System]. The recent attendance at the AUS 7 march convention lead to thinking about a new design.
The actual design popped into my head in my sleep that night and was still there the next day.
Stage 1 is no real change other that deciding to build Goombla module over Drill Creek but the real change is in the Stage 2 that may or may not be built.
Stage 1 shown below
Though I will not be modelling Spicers Creek Station any new information will not be rejected. At the Epping Show with the two modules on display, I was offered some plans for the complete Spicers Creek Station. The actual plan received is so large it is not practical to reproduce it here so two critical sections have been extracted.
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Spicers Creek Station
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Gulgong Side Yard
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The most important piece of information is the reference to "Netted Fence" - it is confirmed that both side's of the line would have been fitted with rabbit-proof fencing.
Put simply it means that the whole model will have to have mesh fence constructed if the original date of construction in the mid 30's is to be used as a starting point..!
The Maryvale to Gulgong line was selected after spending considerable time on the NSW Rail Net site. The line will a be prototype freelanced line as it was never completed. Various publications have covered this area including the actual line from Musslebrook to Denman so these are best left to research by the reader.
The line is to be modelled as a secondary mainline circa 1960 connecting to Bylong [thanks to Ray Pilgrim] via Gulgong. The proposed Gulgong to Maryvale section was 70 kilometres in the real world with the modelled area being Goomla to Spicers Creek which is about 18 kilometres apart with tunnel No 5 located between both providing the scenery break between the two major stage sets.
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Spicers Creek
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The line will handle trans-shipments of coal from the Bylong line to various distribution points on the NSWGR line. A daily passenger train will be headed by a recently acquired 32 class and will be scheduled will run through on the way to and from Musslebrook or in reality running from staging yard to staging yard. Coal trains will be pulled by two yet to be constructed 50 class and locals handled by a proposed 30T. Local passenger traffic will be met with the CPH that I now have with the grain trains pulled by a well-weathered but nearly complete 40 class.
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The Dream
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The dream is just that a home layout that will incorporate the two modules shown above and will fill a 10 x 10-meter garage. The loops penetrate the wall at two places as the wall backs onto a rear fence. The use of this unused area allowed the creation of four separate time zones and stage sets. The goal for the O Scale 2014 exhibition is to have the Spicers Creek scene available for public display in basic form.
The Spicers Creek stage set is 2 separate modules 3.8 x 1.2 wide. These modules are intended as part of any future home layout so the size and format has taken precedence over exhibition use. Remember that this is the equivalent of a 1900 x 600 mm module in HO but this is the price you pay for using the king of scales.
rev 22/1/13 - links to locomotives added
