Barcoola MK2.25?

Hi All

Managed to catch up with some friends due Glen's impending marriage. As we do over a couple of beers, the subject of Barcoola and its future came up in conversation.

Like any project, then needs to be inspiration to want to do things. Glen was showing me all the projects he has on the go, for 1993 and ultra modern Barcoola.

After a bit of a think recently, Barcoola has been set up in a reduced format at home. I figured if we are going to invest all this time and effort, it might as well be up and running is some format, so we have some where to run things prior to Alice Springs being built.

Barcoola will not fit in the room in its current form, but as it is variable in length, I looked to see if it could fit in the room minus the two lake doug boards. the answer to this question is no, still too long, by 1ft 4 inches, but plenty of room width wise.

I then came up with a convenient solution. Build a new bridge board, this will solve the problem of having to build new head shunts for the yard.

So the following modifications will be made to Barcoola.
New set of crossovers at the western end of the yard, so that the Tea and Sugar can get in and out of the yard at the western end.
New reduced length bridge board.
New 600 by 1200mm board to be added to the end of the triangle board to increase shunting capabilities.
Fiddle yard ladders to be installed in the two closest scenery boards, this will increase the fiddle yard's capacity substantially. The the home version I should be able to get about 17ft standing room for each road, in full exhibition format that will equate to 29ft standing room, and increase of 7ft of capacity for each road.
New 'pointless" fiddle yard boards, of light weight construction.

While this all seems like a lot of work, a least I will have a layout at home for which I can run, and shunt which is the whole point of the exercise, so the good news is that Barcoola is not dead yet. I am going to take this time to finish off all the little things scenery wise.

Finally Glen has finally convinced me, to seriously look at ultramodern Barcoola, I have a scenario in mind, and I will share this with all later.

Thanks

Scott