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


TEAMYAKIMA
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39 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Haven't worked on the layout for a month now, no point as the next exhibition won't be until December at the earliest, but have organised dedicated team mugs. All the main operators have got their own ones .... Al, Gordon, Luke, Richard, but I'm not sure whom this one belongs to......................................

 

2069219415_IMG_20200622_15195834034.jpg.43cb59b9e9641fbbf96dbce23c792272.jpg

 

 

 

 

So, to be clear, this is a picture of China china?  ;-)

 

[Sorry, its been a slow day/week/several months -  delete as applicable]

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

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As previously posted, I haven't been working on the layout since I've been furloughed (how does that make sense???) 

 

What I have been doing is working on my photos from my trips to China and today I discovered that I have actually photographed one of the locos on the layout - SY 1770.  Photo taken at Tiefa in 2002.

 

535952611_EPSON105(3).JPG.9ddb306d18b06fb852a9522a02104366.JPG

 

I must dig the model out and post a photo for comparison purposes.

 

 

 

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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On 22/06/2020 at 16:10, Ian Morgan said:

I have just replaced my 'Freshwater' mugs with printed 'travel' mugs, as more and more venues are now insisting on covered mugs for hot drinks taken into the halls.

 

 

 

Good point Ian, thanks for that.

 

Since your post I have had a cunning plan - more once ebay make a delivery!

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3 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

As previously posted, I haven't been working on the layout since I've been furloughed (how does that make sense???) 

 

What I have been doing is working on my photos from my trips to China and today I discovered that I have actually photographed one of the locos on the layout - SY 1770.  Photo taken at Tiefa in 2002.

 

535952611_EPSON105(3).JPG.9ddb306d18b06fb852a9522a02104366.JPG

 

I must dig the model out and post a photo for comparison purposes.

 

 

 

 

Hi Paul I hope you don't mind if I attempt to translate, (from Mandarin), the slogan on the front of the loco...

 

image.png.38df6adf8f682e67023075beccf9ef82.png

These two characters are "Ming" and "Tian" and are very common everywhere in China and Chinese literature.

Ming means "bright" and Tian has many similar meanings such as "Heaven", "Day", "Sky", etc.

Together they make MingTian (obviously) but this new word now has a meaning of "Tomorrow".

 

image.png.628da28390fccb9ec264a9c6952a3427.png

This is pronounced "Yao", in Mandarin, and sort of means "will" or "is going to be" as in a sort of promise.

(Mandarin does not have the same concepts, or usage, of "tense" or "gender" in its language - and uses them much much less, if at all.)

 

image.png.26eda10216d13cf979652034dccd4607.png

This is "Mei" followed by "Hao".

Mei means "beautiful", as in beautiful girl, and Hao means good and has to be one of the most recognisable Chinese characters going. Hao is a pictogram of two other Chinese characters for boy and girl. (You put a boy and girl together and that MUST be good!!!)

Mei and Hao together means, literally, "beautiful good" but would morph more into something like "future good" or "promising future" or "promise better".

 

So, all together we have something like "...tomorrow promise good future". 

 

Now we have the first three characters...

image.png.93bb5568b27f756b80ccab1e91b4427e.png

These are written in "complex" Chinese as appose to "Simple" Chinese.

Do not be mislead by the terms "Simple" and "Complex" here.

After the second world war, the Chinese decided writing Chinese was too difficult and took too long, So they "removed" a lot of the brush-strokes from many characters and taught these new characters everywhere. The sound, grammar and meaning remained the same - it's just that few people can recognise/read them now.

 

I have no idea what these complex characters say, (and would love to know), or what they mean, but I think they are crucial for full meaning of the phrase as they could/can change the meaning of the later characters.

 

 

"Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!"

(Translating phrases is much more difficult than translating individual words!)

You see the problem?

 

 

Kev.

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Kev,

 

Referring to Robin Gibbons book on the SYs, the translation is "Wish Tiefa Coal an even better future". I always intended to attempt to learn Chinese as a retirement project. However, I got lazy and still rely on Google translate for my modelling needs. This, of course, relies on not letting Chinese speakers anywhere near my layouts ;)

 

Cheers

 

Mark

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Mark, you had earned a "informative/useful" feedback but the last few words I can definitely relate to!

 

 

:jester:

Kev.

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4 hours ago, SHMD said:

These are written in "complex" Chinese as appose to "Simple" Chinese.

Do not be mislead by the terms "Simple" and "Complex" here.

After the second world war, the Chinese decided writing Chinese was too difficult and took too long, So they "removed" a lot of the brush-strokes from many characters and taught these new characters everywhere. The sound, grammar and meaning remained the same - it's just that few people can recognise/read them now.

Sometimes referred to as "traditional" or "simplified". Your final thought is not the case in Taiwan of course.

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1 hour ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Respect and thanks to all of you Mandarin speakers.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not - but my partner, being Singaporean, is. I also travelled frequently to China on business from 2007 to 2014.

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On 27/06/2020 at 20:27, SHMD said:

So, all together we have something like "...tomorrow promise good future". 

That helps to explain the, ah, "interesting" English translation of instructions that come with a lot of Chinese goods..!! :read: :scenic: :sarcastichand:

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Hello Teamyakima,

Ref: your often mentioned lack of space at home which prevents you from enjoying operating this layout - which I do think is a real shame, an idea for you?

How about one of these large 'party tents' or marquee that you could temporarily set up in the garden, assuming enough space there?

The domestic authorities may not approve of such a thing permanently but for the occasional few days here and there? I'm thinking one day to set up, the next day operating then the third day, dismantle. That way, no stock need be left "outside" overnight, hopefully removing any security risks.

My neighbours often have such things set up in their respective gardens as they seem to have regular events and it struck me that such a thing may be ideal for you and anyone else with a large layout that is too big to set up at home.

Cheers,

John.

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On 22/06/2020 at 16:10, Ian Morgan said:

I have just replaced my 'Freshwater' mugs with printed 'travel' mugs, as more and more venues are now insisting on covered mugs for hot drinks taken into the halls.

 

 

 

Ebay have delivered!

 

IMG_20200702_143425.jpg.17c44bbdf2fc49d26dc0c3126defc104.jpg

 

I have turned the mug over 90 degrees and no leakage - if only every layout problem was this easy to solve!

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50 minutes ago, Ian Morgan said:

Very clever. Almost a

spacer.png

Having a quiet shore leave beer with the lads in Bugis Street in Singapore many years ago I bought 25 of these hats from a chap for about $8 (US). He was pestering us and it was a cheap price to pay for his entire stock, simply to get rid of him. We found out that they were great out on deck in the sunshine and heat and they became regular wear (hard hats were still several safety bureaucrats careers away) . The immigrant port workers in Kuwait wanted to buy them and I sold the 18 I still had for a very good profit. Regrettably I never managed to get any more on subsequent trips.

 

Sorry to hijack your thread for a nostalgia reminisce Paul, I like the mug lid, clearly inspired by the similar things my kids drank from when they were very small.

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If you weren't there before they moved it due to the sanitisation and gentrification of the area, you wouldn't understand. Actually, you probably would.

A vibrant place, good street food (most of the time) and potentially surprising company if you had too many bottles of Tiger.

This may be useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfVIZ3yXgiU.

Steve

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13 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

I know you have links to Singapore, is there something we should know about Bugis Street????

 

9 hours ago, steve W said:

If you weren't there before they moved it due to the sanitisation and gentrification of the area, you wouldn't understand. Actually, you probably would.

A vibrant place, good street food (most of the time) and potentially surprising company if you had too many bottles of Tiger.

This may be useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfVIZ3yXgiU.

Steve

Steve's got it. It was probably cleaned up in the 1980s and by the time I first visited in the late 90s it had become little more than a touristy flea market. The last survivor of the old days was probably the Boom Boom Room but from what I gather even that was just a shadow of its former self. From your post, Paul, I guess your visit was before all those changes.

 

For other readers, to get an idea of what we're talking about read Paul Theroux's "Saint Jack".

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  • 4 weeks later...

After a gap of nine weeks I have finally done some work on the layout today. I tidied up a bit in the shed and started checking every loco I use on the layout. I keep a log of faults/upgrades and have so far worked through all the SY's and JS's.

 

I've managed 4/5 minor repairs and logged issues which need 'professional' attention - this includes two QJ's which got totally smashed in the post, they arrived at my house one hour before we set off in the van to Warley and TBH once I saw them (at Warley) I was so upset that I haven't dared look at them since. Well today I did and they are badly smashed - well one is anyway - and so they will be going off to Peter Morgan to see if he can put them back together.

 

Other than that it's been a pretty positive day and I have been working with Peter on two new 'secret loco projects' - more on that soon.

 

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'Secret loco projects' - did I say that out loud?

 

Oops .... have let the cat out of the bag!

 

Yes, I want to give my layout more of a 'wow' factor and have locos that are not straight out of the Bachmann catalogue, so I am working with Peter on two projects. I'm not saying what they are yet, but let me give you an idea.

 

This is a project we looked at, but it needed too much work to be attempted at the moment.

 

ROCO make an HO USA S160 2-8-0

 

ROCO have done various European versions

 

ROCO were originally floating a Chinese version - known as the KD6 class - but they never went ahead as there were too few pre-orders

 

When we looked into Peter doing a 'one-off' we discovered it needed a new cab which was a bridge too far at this stage - but maybe one day!

 

 

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16 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

After a gap of nine weeks I have finally done some work on the layout today. I tidied up a bit in the shed and started checking every loco I use on the layout. I keep a log of faults/upgrades and have so far worked through all the SY's and JS's.

 

I've managed 4/5 minor repairs and logged issues which need 'professional' attention - this includes two QJ's which got totally smashed in the post, they arrived at my house one hour before we set off in the van to Warley and TBH once I saw them (at Warley) I was so upset that I haven't dared look at them since. Well today I did and they are badly smashed - well one is anyway - and so they will be going off to Peter Morgan to see if he can put them back together.

 

Other than that it's been a pretty positive day and I have been working with Peter on two new 'secret loco projects' - more on that soon.

 

Could you make an insurance claim against the supplier/carrier - it maybe too late now?

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