Barcoola post Sydney Exhibition

Hi All

Just to let you know whats going on with Barcoola and future projects. Post the Sydney exhibition, we managed to come up with a list of "enhancements" for Barcoola, which I will share in detail, at a later date.

Two of the key points we got from exhibiting Barcoola at Sydney:

The need to reduce the amount of unused suport equipment we take. For example we had everyones tool boxes shoe horned into each car, yet the most efficient way would be to build a exhibition only tool box, thus will save space, for other items which we didnt have such as stools.

There was some equipment that was stored at other peoples places, I would like to limit this type of storage. The easiest way to manage the serviceablility and assess if it is required, is to have it all in the one location. Thus for an exhibition, we have all the appropriate boxes with exactly what we need, stored seperatly so there is no temptation to rifle through boxes to get that one item. Only to find it missing at the exhibition.

These changes will be key for smooth operations, for this and future layouts.

The more important decision is that I have decided to place Barcoola into storage to focus on Alice Springs and a separate project. That's not to say that Barcoola won't be seen again. If the opportunity presents itself and we have agreement from the operating crew, we may turn up here and there, but as the need to focus on a big project, we won't be actively looking for more exhibitions to go to, just when we get expressions of interest.

The only other reason to exhibit Barcoola would be completion of all the ultra modern rolling stock, I have had a discussion with Glen, and we would look at a complete day operating AN 1993, pack up all the rolling stock at the end of the day, then arrive the next day with the ultra modern stock. This will stop any cross era operations, and the only way to reduce the amount of boxes we have behind the layout, and limit stock we have to handle on any one day.

Importantly I have settled on an interim plan for Alice Springs, this will just involve the main yard and will use Barcoola's new fiddle yard. This will be phase one. This will enable me to focus on the most difficult part of the build, and get trains up and running as fast as possible. I have made peace with the duck under problem, and figure that if I can manage this in phase I it will make phase II.

I will publish plans of phase I and II, in due course.

The other projects I have in the back of my mind, one will involve more steel train operations. All of which can be achieved with standard construction techniques.

Thanks

Scott
Anyway