Barcoola MKIII, Alice Springs and Bow River

Hi All

Here is a image of Barcoola MKIII, or Alice Springs and Bow River. As you can see I have been busy designing out as many of the imperfections as I could.

The result is the plan you see here.
the highlights of this change are as follows:
The industrial area is more "faithfull" to the prototype. I have added Smith street, re aranged the indusrties so that the are in correct order, Adelaide Brighton Cement, KleenGas, and Mobil, I have incorporated a runaround within the industiral trackage, this will enable an operator to work on the outside of the layout, without having to swap between sides. This will work in both home and exhibition format. A track to the NTFS depot has also been added, the original 1980 plans show that NTFS had a siding, for ultra modern Alice Springs this will be NQX's depot as it is now. A simple change of signs should be enough, to stop the hard core few.

Barcoola has been moved away from behind the bar as much as possible, and I have added a 2.5 ft bridge between Alice Springs and Barcoola, this will not only act as a scenic break, but also give more space for the train Controller, operators shunting locomotives off at Barcoola will be able to access the point with out inpinging on the work space of the Train Controller.

Tracks in the yard have been reduced from 4 to 3, addtionaly deadend sidings have been added so that Barcoola could accomidate 4 trains 3 in each yard track, and one more in the dead end tracks (if broken up). The TAR main has been included, this will act as the head shunt for Barcoola yard, leaving the CAR line free for normal operations. The switch for the 555Km Quarry is just short of the backdrop, and the line to the quarry will go under the Todd river same as the CAR main, this will pop out the other side on a small shelf below Alice Springs yard. Trains for 555Km Quarry will have to be manually reversed and loaded from this shelf.

Bow Rivers gradient is 1:50 and will look good as is levels out at the bridge just south of the end of the loop. entry of the CAR main into the back drop will be hidden by trees. Both ends of Bow River have nice gentle reverse curves. One just south of hevatree gap, the other at the brige south of the loop.

Grades:
The main north of Alice Springs, will be grade down untill it reaches the bridge before Barcoola. The other grades are, just north of the yard throat at barcoola, down under the Todd river to level out on the bridge south of Bow River.

Hevatree Gap as been increased in width to a max of 5.5 feet, this should mean that the scenery can do "Justice" to the size of the gap.

With this version, we have 36inch minumum radi and 22ft standing room in all sidings.

Two foot minumum aisle space only at "pinch" areas near the end of the peninsula, the remainder are 3 feet or more, especally in the Bow River - Barcoola area.

For exshibition format, both mainline sets of points at Bow River will have to be powered, this means that "mainline" operators can walk around the "outside" of the Layout with out any problems, and maintain control crossing moves.

Enjoy

Scott

Barcoola MKII triangle boards construction pictures

Hi All

Here are some pictures of the construction process of the Triangle boards.

1st picture, has the completed base scenery, with the points in place.

2nd picture, is the underside of the board with cut outs for the connector, the reverser, bus wires and tool clips which are used to attach the triangle board to one of the old barcoola boards.

3rd pciture shows the process used to make the roads, 600GSM card with tracings to establish the correct road size.

4th picture shows the road sections being cut out to fit, prior to being painted, and final installation.

Scott

Barcoola MKII new boards construction pictures part 3

Hi All

More pictures of the MKII boards.

The first picture shows the completed base scenery, The track has been installed, painted then ballasted.

The second picture shows competed mainline trackage at the Alice Springs and Perth ends of the layout, before being cut into the various board sections.

The Last picture, shows new boards 2 and 6 set up for transit. The wiring is completely protected as are the connectors.

Scott

Barcoola MKII new board construction pictures part 2

Hi All

Continuing the pictures of the new Barcoola MKII boards.

First Picture, is one of the foam boards, painted, and base scenery, waiting for track to be installed.

Second picture, The points were prewired and positioned using the tracing paper templates made from the original track diagrams applied directly to MDF base of each board. The centre lines were transposed to the foam base, prior to installation of the track base made from cork.

Third picture, the cork has been laid directly over the base joints, the cork was glued to the foam base using acrilyic sealant, two thicknesses of cork have been used for the mainlines, one for the yard or track was laid directly on the foam. Map pins were used to hold the cork in place while the sealant cured. The scenery was shaped smooth using a sander, as was the cork, to ensure the track height transitions were smooth. Finaly the scenery was painted Bristol Burnt Sennia.

Forth picture, shows the Tool box clips which are used to hold the boards together. The cork has been held in place using map pins.

Fifth picture, shows new boards 2 and 3 in the process of being painted. drains have been installed into the foam using a soldering iron.

More to follow.

Scott

Barcoola MKII new board construction pictures

Hi All

I have uploaded 5 pictures of the construction process.

The first picture shows the completed frame with 12mm ply ends and 3mm base. The centre line of the track is shown on the 3mm MDF. wiring connectors are upside down, and are shown as 140mm size MDF squares.

The second picture, shows the acrilyic sealant applied, ready for application of the foam base.

The third picture, shows the 50mm foam cut out ready for installation into the base. Cut outs have been made for wiring to pass through the boards, and access holes for attaching the wire droppers from the track to the bus wires.

The fourth picture, shows the base foam installed with the bus wiring also installed.

The fifth picture, shows the 30mm sandwich sections in place making the embankment for both mainlines, erosion ruts were made using a hot wire cutter, with the remaining scenery was completed using left over contruction site foam, shaped again using a hot wire cutter. sections were all glued together using acrilyic sealant.

More following.

Scott

Barcoola Old Boards rebuild

Hi All

These are pictures of the current state of the old scenery boards for Barcoola.
It as a little harder than first thought to "thin down" these boards, basicly the boards were kept together in their transit format. The legs and ancillary items were removed. Each transit end was removed one at a time and any screws were removed from the proposed location of the cut. The transit ends were then re installed and screws temporarly installed to hold the transit ends in place while the boards were cut down using peter's circular saw (thanks man).

The end result is shown in these pictures taken in my work shed.

Scott

Barcoola old scenery boards on a diet

Hi All
As of tonight four of the old scenery boards have gone on a diet and have been substantualy lighten. I thought that there was not much weight loss, until I picked up two un-modified boards and realised that the weight loss was more than I first thought. Although these boards are not as light as the foam boards they will be easier to move around and set up at exhibitions, which is the aim of this exercise.
Total thicknesses removed are 60mm, +60mm, +60mm and +80mm.
In this arrangement we should be able to all the scenery boards and ancilary bits in to the one trailer.
The modified boards are to be re-wired, for straight DCC operation. A Re build of the final yard board has also been considered, removing the "live" frog points with dead frog points, will limit the number of shorts.

Alice Springs
I am still fiddling with the arrangment of Bow River and Barcoola. Hevatree gap, I needed more width currently I wanted to add the rock work, Stuart Hwy, Todd River and more rock work. This would add 5 and a Half foot wide section. I was also not happy with the closeness of the hwy overpass. So I have removed all but one. The model of 555km Quarry is gone but it has been converted to single run off track with a 36 inch minumum radi
Barcoola as been modified to add more storage sidings, but these are dead ended, to make the track arrangment more like Tarcoola. These sidings are have the capacity for one entire train.

Anyway I will put up a scan of the new diagram when the scanner stops sptiting the dummy at me.
I still have to figure out the final grades, and this will depend on the final placement of Barcoola.

Glen has started on cattle wagons for barcoola MKII, and these will be right at home going to Bow River, thanks man.

Scott