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


TEAMYAKIMA
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I spent a long time before the show working on road vehicles. I had a very nice people carrier but it had sissues.

 

1. Very high gloss metallic paint finish.

2. The whole interior was a pale yellow

 

In this photo I had already stripped it down and had already starting painting large portions of the interior moulding black so that the seats stood out.

 

DSC_0158.JPG.2c6dfc92c5bed4bb5d17ca7d56ebccde.JPG

 

Then paint the seats a more realistic colour and paint the dashboard black and then a coat of dullcote……………..

 

DSC_0159_(1).JPG.9866d08801f1796ee5fde485f2a8f0ef.JPG

 

 

Not the clearest picture but I hope it shows that it was worth it. Now I haven't wasted time doing that kind of thing to all the road vehicles but the ones at the front of the layout need that kind of attention.

 

 

 

 

 

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I saw BEIJIAO for the first time on Saturday, I am very impressed and your enthusiasm for the subject matter was self evident.

 

Question, the hoppers you're using are they actual Chinese prototype or American wagons with new lettering?  Some wagons looked distinctively Chinese but others looked like you're using American railroad items in lieu of prototypical wagons, of course the Chinese are well known for flattery by copying others so maybe these are very accurate representations.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I saw BEIJIAO for the first time on Saturday, I am very impressed and your enthusiasm for the subject matter was self evident.

 

Question, the hoppers you're using are they actual Chinese prototype or American wagons with new lettering?  Some wagons looked distinctively Chinese but others looked like you're using American railroad items in lieu of prototypical wagons, of course the Chinese are well known for flattery by copying others so maybe these are very accurate representations.

 

 

 

Thank you for your comments.

 

When Bachmann first introduced Chinese HO it was with authentic models of the iconic QJ 2-10-2 and DF4 diesels - the 9F and class 47 of China. However the freight rolling stock they produced alongside these models were all just factory repaints of US models. There were usually two versions of each model - red livery and black livery. They all had the same running numbers.

 

There were …………...

 

3 bay hoppers

low gondolas

ore cars

tank cars

stock cars

 

Later they replaced these with authentic Chinese models. I began with the US style models and later decided to continue with them for the industrial line. I gradually replaced the (bright) red ones and 99% of the cars I've kept are now weathered black with just a couple of VERY heavily weathered red ones. I've kept the low gondolas because they are quite typical of a style I've seen at steelworks. I've kept the 3 bay hoppers because they are not dissimilar to the ones I saw on the Tiefa system ……………….

 

DSCF2859.JPG.47c16d92eb0bdfed490e7e43a098d4bf.JPG

 

The above was taken at Tiefa and I believe there is another prototype (k70) style but I haven't got a photo of that. Not identical of course but US style enough to justify me keeping the Bachmann ones.

 

 

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Hello Paul,

Hopefully, the stress levels are coming down after the long weekend just gone.

I enjoyed seeing your layout on the Saturday, it wasn't noticeable to me that the running was affected so must be really good when at full strength. I hope you might like to see some of my pictures?

 

49115870996_1556b09a96_b.jpg

 

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I do like this effect, of seeing the railway through various high rise buildings.

 

I know practically nothing of Chinese railways (apart from late steam operation) but my friend James did an interesting trip there, earlier this year, that I wrote up here: 

 

From the scenery seen on that trip, your layout captures the 'feel' of China very nicely.

Cheers,

John.

 

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Hi Team Yakima,

 

Finally caught up with your layout at Warley on Sunday - amazing stuff, really enjoyed watching it! Just as good, if not better in person as the photos here suggest. All the gang I went with really appreciated the fact that it was just so different to what we normally see at shows.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Nice to meet you too Mark.

 

You came on Saturday if I remember correctly and we had awful problems on Saturday - NO ROUTE SELECTION!  We were firefighting all the time!!

 

Sunday - I asked Ted Smale from SCC to  come over before opening and he asked what the problem was. We told him and in less than 30 seconds he had found the fault and corrected it!

 

And it was as simple as a loconet lead had gone into the socket on the front of a UR92 panel and it should have gone in the socket in the back of it!!!!!  How frustrating!!!   Route selectyion working on Sunday - far more relaxing, far better running.

 

Ted had originally offered to spend 30 minutes with us on set-up day but the appalling traffic had delayed him and so there was no time for him to come over on Friday. If the traffic had been easier he would have arrived earlier, he would have come over Friday and we would have had route selection on Saturday - how annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!

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On 26/11/2019 at 14:46, geoff_nicholls said:

lovely layout. Sorry if this has been asked before, but how did you arrive at that quite dark shade of grey for the backscene?

 

That backscene concept has been the subject of quite a bit of discussion and some criticism - not least from my own operating team.

 

There was no way that I could make a convincing conventional backscene - impossible . And so I thought of a totally different approach - the backscene represents 'the void' , the nothingness - it is purely the frame of the scene - a picture frame if you will.

 

It has been accused of making the layout dark and depressing - well I can assure you that many/most industrial parts of 'old' China are dark and depressing. I have visited parts of China 2/3 times for several days at a time - and never seen the sun! 

 

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Welcome to some new visitors who were following the Warley exhibition thread.

 

On that thread I was questioning/discussing ways of engaging with the public and exhibitions. This layout has no home life - it only operates/exists at exhibitions. It is a large and therefore expensive layout to take to a show and so it needs to attract crowds and therefore it needs to reach out to visitors beyond the niche Chinese interest market.

 

There have been several suggestions made on how to engage with a wider audience and I have already started working on some of them - more later!

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18 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

That backscene concept has been the subject of quite a bit of discussion and some criticism

 

It does seem to work, and is probably much less intrusive than any attempt to produce an overcast sky. You were right to stick with it.

Edited by geoff_nicholls
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I saw your comment on the Warley thread about attracting more visitors and I'll admit I'm one of those who stopped for a a little bit and went away. I didn't know that this layout had a thread on RMWeb and if I had saw it previously I certainly would have stopped and looked more closely.

 

I often find that picking out detailing - such as the scenes in the background buildings are hard for me to see from afar, and so I miss them completely. Having the close up shots on here do make a difference and that's when I'd stop, look more closely and try and spot these things for myself.

 

That's how I like to see layouts. I find trying to focus on layouts trying to spot things really difficult, especially when it's quite crowded.

 

The fairly drab grey 'concrete' boxes may not appeal to everyone but to me it does feel like the representation of what I'd think a line passing through a city/town in China would be like. It's not all green hills and meadows. 

 

The video of the layout over in the Warley thread does an excellent job of showing the layout off.

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Hi Paul

 

Just wanted to offer my support and well wishes from afar.

 

You should be very proud of what you've achieved - it's a rather special challenge modelling a prototype that is half a world (or more) away.

 

Whilst I've not seen it in person (obviously!), it's hard to second guess what would make Joe Public more interested in lingering to look longer at Beijiao... possibly more visible examples of those lovely big Chinese QJ steam locomotives?  I think maq1988's suggestion of some detail cameos has merit - a cabal of British trainspotters lineside on a tour, perhaps?

 

I do hope you are buoyed by the support you have read here - and remember for each one of us who commented, there's probably 10 or more who agree but haven't.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

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5 hours ago, jukebox said:

Hi Paul

 

Whilst I've not seen it in person (obviously!), it's hard to second guess what would make Joe Public more interested in lingering to look longer at Beijiao... possibly more visible examples of those lovely big Chinese QJ steam locomotives?  I think maq1988's suggestion of some detail cameos has merit - a cabal of British trainspotters lineside on a tour, perhaps?

 

Scott

 

Hello Scott,

 

Thanks for your comments. The fact is (the problem is) that the layout is packed with cameos but I have made them so subtle that nobody notices them.

 

Over the years the theme of the layout has become very much 'PHOTOGRAPHING THE LAST OF WORLD STEAM' and yes the layout has many trainspotters. Most are 3D prints of my friends who travelled with me in China - here's Gordon....

194530267_AP18-21PaulStapleton.png.855113df8d4584fbfdd3e2ecdf85b591.png

 

Plus I have 7 working gimmicks where a photographer with camera will 'pop up' when a steam train approaches and disappear when it's gone. But unless we point it out nobody notices it - if we do point it out the public absolutely love it. Here is one and the photographer is me, again 3D printed …

 

..thumbnail_20191027_131215.jpg.2f56672842caa7a82e89cef9f8980900.jpg

 

 

We are working on a way to highlight the cameos for the general public, the family audience if you will, without putting off the enthusiast sector by making it too gimmicky.

 

Thanks again for your comments

 

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3 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

Hello Scott,

 

Thanks for your comments. The fact is (the problem is) that the layout is packed with cameos but I have made them so subtle that nobody notices them.

 

Over the years the theme of the layout has become very much 'PHOTOGRAPHING THE LAST OF WORLD STEAM' and yes the layout has many trainspotters. Most are 3D prints of my friends who travelled with me in China - here's Gordon....

194530267_AP18-21PaulStapleton.png.855113df8d4584fbfdd3e2ecdf85b591.png

 

Plus I have 7 working gimmicks where a photographer with camera will 'pop up' when a steam train approaches and disappear when it's gone. But unless we point it out nobody notices it - if we do point it out the public absolutely love it. Here is one and the photographer is me, again 3D printed …

 

..thumbnail_20191027_131215.jpg.2f56672842caa7a82e89cef9f8980900.jpg

 

 

We are working on a way to highlight the cameos for the general public, the family audience if you will, without putting off the enthusiast sector by making it too gimmicky.

 

Thanks again for your comments

 

I bought a hat like Gordon's when I was in Changchun about 10 years ago. Our driver took me to some back street shop and one of the girls from the office, Clarie, came along to translate. I found exactly what I wanted at a quoted price of CNY 65 (about AUD 11 at that time). I thought I should haggle so thorough Clarie I asked the shopkeeper what his best price was. After about 10 minutes of loud discussion and hand waving, involving Clarie, the driver, the shopkeeper and another customer who just happened to be in the shop at the same time I ended up paying CNY 60. A real bargain.

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I have been making changes to the layout based on feedback after Warley - from my operators and RMwebbers.

 

A lot of it is backroom stuff to make the electrics more reliable, but another priority is to make the foreground more interesting. Obviously I did not want to put high buildings at the front to hide that railway but it needs something to 'sex it up'.

 

I see the foreground as an abandoned MPD and so am building some structures to liven it up a bit. I bought this Walthers kit a while back but never got around to doing any thing with it. It's too long, too wide and is a kind of weird ground floor with basement design - I'll get my X-acto saw out!

 

DSC_0240.JPG.ed672957e1a37f9627730e6a9df80327.JPG

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With your cameos maybe just a couple of cards with a close up photo of one of them saying

“watch out for the photographers popping up when a train comes!” That combined with your more gregarious operators mentioning them would work. I have two witches hidden on my Harz layout and several people found them either by themselves or asking why there weren’t any ;) 

 

Mount two or three cards on the fascia so they are in view when you’re looking at the layout. Lots of people have included a find the 5 animals etc card for kids to find and it just draws attention to it rather than an in your face gimmick. 

I saw them at Fareham and they are subtle so making it a bit of fun activity helps draw people into conversations too. 

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We have done a lot of soul searching after Warley as regards how to make the layout visitor friendly. This was brought home to me when the layout booker of a major exhibition sent me a PM telling me that he wouldn't be booking the layout because it wasn't visitor friendly as no-one related to it as it was Chinese and to overcome this I needed to have cameos to entertain visitors. He pointed out that he had seen our supermarket cameo and advised that we 'needed more like that'. Now considering that we have 15 illuminated shop/hotel interiors I was rather surprised by his comment!

 

So we are considering all options to highlight the existing 'features' and develop our USP's.

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15 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

 Lots of people have included a find the 5 animals etc card for kids to find and it just draws attention to it rather than an in your face gimmick. 

 

As regards the shops cameos, I have been working on this … apologies for the quality - it's a screenshot from my phone....

 

IMG_20191205_084317.jpg.c85908149843dc13ab8d93ef17211555.jpg

 

 

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One USP we will more heavily feature is the double banked 11 car coal trains. The interaction of the three 2-8-2's was an amazing sound and just as I remember it at Chengde which inspired the model. And yes, the prototype had three 2-8-2's and just 11 coal cars.

 

The sequence will be altered so that the banked trains appear twice as often as previously and downhill trains will normally just run through so as to speed things up as well.

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