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BEIJIAO - a large Chinese HO exhibition layout set in the 21st century


TEAMYAKIMA
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I have been working on my Chinese HO exhibition layout for about two years.

 

Overall it will be 26ft x 10ft to include an 18 road fiddle yard and a 20ft x 3ft scenic section.

 

At the moment I'm working on rolling stock as a break from baseboards and track

 

More as I make progress ....

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Thanks for the interest ..

 

I started the post just before bedtime last night - assuming I was competent to post photos - after a couple of attempts it was clear that I wasn't!

 

But rather than cancel the post I just put it up to see if anyone was at all interested - I am surprised that there has been so much interest overnight.

 

I do run a blog on another forum and I regularly post photos there - so I will look into that later at work during my lunch break - for the minute back to the modelling bench for some more weathering!

 

For the record I live in Hertfordshire, the layout will feature a double track China Rail line, an industrial (coal mine/steelworks) line and a single track bi-directional regional line.

 

Standard train lengths will be 13 coaches or 29-35 car freight trains.

 

It is being built in a 13ft x 8ft shed so will only be run at exhibitions or when I hire the local church hall.

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Do you have a van of your own? Hate to put a damper on things, but van hire at £100+ a day is going to limit the number of shows which are going to invite you. Of course that's not quite so bad for a layout which can be assembled at home, but in this case it will restrict the number of opportunities you get to operate the layout. 

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Do you have a van of your own? Hate to put a damper on things, but van hire at £100+ a day is going to limit the number of shows which are going to invite you.

I wouldn't worry too much about that, as long as it's good enough the subject being different will make it attractive. My last two layouts both required a hire van and had no problem getting invites even when I was trying to retire it!

 

Ref posting pics, reduce the file size to around 150kb and select the attach photos option under the reply box. Once loaded click so the cursor flashes where you want it in the posting and then click 'add to post'.

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I wouldn't worry too much about that, as long as it's good enough the subject being different will make it attractive. My last two layouts both required a hire van and had no problem getting invites even when I was trying to retire it!

 

Agreed, you probably won't get invited to every little one day church hall type event, but then it's something that'll need a lot of work to move, setup and knock down so you probably won't want to be doing them either!  

 

Make it interesting and well modelled enough and you'll have plenty of interest.

 

Do you have a van of your own? Hate to put a damper on things, but van hire at £100+ a day is going to limit the number of shows which are going to invite you.

 

Bit pricey - we usually only pay about 2/3rds of that, moving a layout that's roughly the same size as the OPs.

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Thanks for the interest in this project ......

 

 

As regards exhibition invites, I am well aware that this layout will be too expensive for some shows and I expect that I may have to subsidise the layout sometimes. 

 

As regards setting up for operating, there is a church hall 80 yards from my back gate so I can hire that for testing purposes - maybe expensive but cheaper than spending £150,000 to upgrade to a bigger house!

 

As regards home operation, over the last 40 years I have built five exhibition layouts ( in five different gauges ) and never operated any of them at home - I've never seen the point of operating at home - only at exhibitions where you can put on a show for an audience. 

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Layout update ...

 

All twelve baseboards ( 8 FY and 4 scenic ) are now built, and have been trialed up in the back garden.

 

All track and 58 points are laid in the FY

 

Some track has been laid on the scenic section - have been weathering stock for the last 3/4 months as a break from tracklaying.

 

Still struggling with posting photos - even after reading how to do it in several posts in the help section - will keep trying!

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What size photo are you "actually" attaching (MBytes / kBytes)?

What error is reported?

What about screen shots, pasted into Paint and saved as PNG files? (they are usually compatible/small enough?)

 

 

Kev.

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OK ..... I think I've got the photo issue sorted .....  here is a before and after weathering photo of two Bachmann GQ60k tank cars - first attempt - only 42 more to do!

 

 

                                                                                                      post-4476-0-28755800-1403675805_thumb.jpg

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Yes, these are showing okay. I will be interested to see the progress on this as I have an active interest in Asian layouts - although my main poison is Japan. There are even less Chinese layouts on the circuit than Japanese.

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Well now that I've got that sorted we can move on....

 

Here is a trackplan of the scenic section ...

 

At the top is a self contained industrial system .... linking coal mines (off stage l/h) to steelworks (off stage r/h) ... main features are banking station and passenger facilities ... think Chengde system with some Tiefa thrown in.

 

Below that we have a double track China Rail main line

 

And below that a single track regional line .... think J-T line

 

Time period circa 2004/5 .... industrial system 95% steam ... regional line maybe

3/4 steam .... China Rail is 100% diesel

 

City station off stage l/h  ... regional line terminates there ... also large freight yard off stage l/h    ... transfers freight from China Rail to regional line via crossovers on layout

post-4476-0-68294800-1403676591_thumb.jpg

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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I have a plan for a very similar set up - it's the interchange between CR (bottom) and the Yuanbaoshan industrial system - there's even a JS hauled coal train arriving from the top right corner.  I don't know how far you are with the track laying on the scenic side, but one of the key features for me of CR is the proliferation of slips and scissors - check out the right hand end of this layout.... and this is a relatively minor station!

 

If you model this station, I'll pop along with my 2 QJs, JS and SY!

 

post-238-0-21300900-1403681402_thumb.jpg

 

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There's four other 'major' manufacturers in addition to Bachmann, but Bachmann still dominates the market .....

 

N27 - used to be called something like XING XING (from memory)

 

Haidar - been very quiet lately , not sure what plans if any for further models ..also did brass diesels

 

CMR - Chinese Model Railways - highly detailed items - so detailed that often parts fall off! Also introduced an N gauge DF4 and soon some class 22 coaches

 

MTC - Model Trains China - have just added a limited edition brass QJ to their range

 

There are other minor manufacturers

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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For the record I live in Hertfordshire

 

That's a shame.  I was going to sound you out about the possibility of an appearance on the Devon/Dorset/Somerset border at a railway charity fund-raiser exhibition, but there's no way I could pay your expenses & still have something left over for "good causes".  Still, I'll keep an eye on this thread out of personal interest.

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....For the record I live in Hertfordshire, the layout will feature a double track China Rail line, an industrial (coal mine/steelworks) line and a single track bi-directional regional line.

 

Standard train lengths will be 13 coaches or 29-35 car freight trains.

 

It is being built in a 13ft x 8ft shed so will only be run at exhibitions or when I hire the local church hall.

Aha.....so you must have been the bloke with all the China models on display at St. Albans....

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All twelve baseboards ( 8 FY and 4 scenic ) are now built, and have been trialed up in the back garden.

 

Do what we did when faced with a layout or two that could only be erected in the garden: Buy a party tent. We have an 8mx4m tent that we now have a floor and carpet and lighting for, when we want to put the layout up (and testing has to be done at home, you can't do that in front of the public) we can make quite a comfortable layout room outside that is reasonably weatherproof. 

 

Andi

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