Murray River Bridge layout progress and other things, plus Auscision 830 class with sound test.

Hi All

Just a quick update as to whats going on with MRB.

Installation of NEC control wiring, and DCC Concepts Cobalt SS point motors.

Test run of Auscision 830 class locomotives with sound.

Future projects.

Enjoy

Scott

Barcoola happening for the remainder of this year, Murray River Bridge and others.

Hi All

Well the tail end of this year is going to be busy.
Firstly, by the end of this year Murray River Bridge will have been to three exhibitions in three different states of Australia.

Roger and Dave have collaborated to put a BC Rail layout into production, I am handling the base  construction, simply because I have the space and the capacity.

New Aussie layout to be put into production (I am down to two candidates, and this is just for exhibition purposes).  I expect this to be completed fairly quickly.

I have designed a purely ultra modern layout, but this needs to be 30ft long, so I might have to wait for the house build to kick that one off.  However I am hoping to use the current fiddle yard, with and additional board in it.

Barcoola inspiration, I got some good feed back from a fellow Blogger telling me they used my ultra modern grain operations blog as inspiration for the design of their layout.
Taking the concept further and adding container operations and being more prototypical to the location they were modeling.  They shared their design, and I was very impressed, design features included.
Lots of space between locations.
A less is more approach, less track, thus reducing construction time, and increasing operator satisfaction.
A very intelligent main yard design which increased the mainline run, while maintaining a prototypical feel.
Walk in layout, with lots of operator space.
No fiddle - staging yard, getting to replicate the compete operations is somehow very satisfying,
A great operational concept, not too complicated, not covered in track, not a nightmare to build, looks like it goes somewhere, just the right amount of complexity, without being a brain teaser.

I am happy that the blog could provide a modeler with the just the right amount of inspiration to distill their wants, evaluate what they could realistically achieve.

With the boards already up, they are well on their journey and I can't wait to see this layout grow to completion.

Enjoy Scott

Proposed new layout "Huddleston Curves"

Hi All

There is no doubt that I enjoy investigating new layout concepts, setting mock ups out to see if they are visually striking etc.
Following the end of the Epping Rosehill exhibition, the train room was empty and I had a chance to mock up a proposed layout called "Huddleston Curves".  Huddleston is a location just East of Crystal Brook, on the Broken Hill line.  For South Oz gunzels, its a fairly iconic location.
The area has a set of very appealing reverse curves, trains always look good going around reverse curves.
The old narrow gauge mainline also comes very close to the standard gauge mainline at this location.

The location can span alot of eras, given the concrete sleepers were laid in 1990, basically, this location has remained the same till now.

Thus I could have AN era trains and ultra modern trains without modification of the location.

The proposed model would just be the Standard gauge mainline, and the sections of the right of way for the old narrow gauge.  Thus another "no station" type of layout.
Doug has coined the phase, "operating Diorama", I guess that's fairly accurate.

I find if you clear your mind of needing a station, the modelling potential is almost limit less.

The proposed layout will fit into the current train room, in fact would be narrower than MRB and would use the same fiddle yard.

Here is a video of the mock up.

Enjoy

Scott