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

[TEAMYAKIMA]

48 minutes ago, Al. said:

 

Just a thousand more to go.  😁

 

I think you mean another 999 😉

[Chris116]

2 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

I did warn you that the trees were coming - and the first one arrived yesterday!

 

 

 

 

That tree is growing remarkably quickly given it was only planted yesterday! 

[WessexEclectic]

5 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

That tree is growing remarkably quickly given it was only planted yesterday! 

It came on the back of a Faller lorry with a HIAB....

Is a specific season being targeted here or just a 'North China plain' look?

[Mol_PMB]

12 minutes ago, WessexEclectic said:

It came on the back of a Faller lorry with a HIAB....

Is a specific season being targeted here or just a 'North China plain' look?

Bringing in full-grown trees on the back of a lorry is a distinctly Chinese activity. Instant nature, looks great for the opening ceremony and then they gradually wither and die.

 

They've even tried it in the Maldives to turn sandbanks into a tropical paradise - except of course there's no fresh water on a sandbank. Here's a load of palm trees destined for a short life on a Chinese sandbank:

 

I'm currently doing my bit for the environment by planting a forest of 150 trees on my layout. Not sure I'll get to as many as 1000!

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

52 minutes ago, WessexEclectic said:

Is a specific season being targeted here or just a 'North China plain' look?

That's a question that I've been dreading. 

 

Western photographers like me tended to visit China in deepest winter in order to photograph dramatic stem effects - I think minus 40 was the coldest I experienced. But most figures you can buy don't come wearing suitable clothing and I even have a workman with his top off. So let's say it's early Spring. 

 

[St Enodoc]

14 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

That's a question that I've been dreading. 

 

Western photographers like me tended to visit China in deepest winter in order to photograph dramatic stem effects - I think minus 40 was the coldest I experienced. But most figures you can buy don't come wearing suitable clothing and I even have a workman with his top off. So let's say it's early Spring. 

 

I think it looks just right. As I hinted earlier, my experience of North China (specifically, Changchun) was that urban street trees (as distinct from park trees or rural trees) looked like that at any time of the year other than winter (minus 35 was chilly enough for me), when they bore no leaves at all.

[john new]

1 hour ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

That's a question that I've been dreading. 

 

Western photographers like me tended to visit China in deepest winter in order to photograph dramatic stem effects - I think minus 40 was the coldest I experienced. But most figures you can buy don't come wearing suitable clothing and I even have a workman with his top off. So let's say it's early Spring. 

 

A personal thing but as there are not smoke machines to produce those dramatic steam effects layouts featuring steam look best set in summer. 

[WessexEclectic]

3 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

So let's say it's early Spring. 

Or have a nighttime lighting setting and go full O. Winston Link....

[TEAMYAKIMA]

5 hours ago, john new said:

A personal thing but as there are not smoke machines to produce those dramatic steam effects layouts featuring steam look best set in summer. 

 I understand your thinking - that's why I was dreading that question 😐

[luke_stevens]

2 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 I understand your thinking - that's why I was dreading that question 😐

 

Now that would be an exciting layout option!

 

Smoke machine above the entry / exit boards slowly pumping a light smoke/smog/fog onto the layout. It would be SPECTACULAR, but we'd never be invited to another show!!!

 

Luke
 

[Al.]

2 minutes ago, luke_stevens said:

 

Now that would be an exciting layout option!

 

Smoke machine above the entry / exit boards slowly pumping a light smoke/smog/fog onto the layout. It would be SPECTACULAR, but we'd never be invited to another show!!!

 

Luke
 

 

I remember we had that at one of the earlier show, that time the layout caught fire. 

 

 😂

[luke_stevens]

2 minutes ago, Al. said:

 

I remember we had that at one of the earlier show, that time the layout caught fire. 

 

 😂

 

Being under they layout at the time I will NEVER forget that! 

 

Luke

[Al.]

1 minute ago, luke_stevens said:

 

Being under they layout at the time I will NEVER forget that! 

 

Luke

 

I believe that scorch marks are still there.

 

[luke_stevens]

13 minutes ago, Al. said:

 

I believe that scorch marks are still there.

 

 

I don't, and won't, go under their again...

 

Luke

[Trofimow]

Before my time.

 

Obviously I missed out on some fun...

[luke_stevens]

3 hours ago, Trofimow said:

Before my time.

 

Obviously I missed out on some fun...

It is fun to joke about now but I never want to see the flickering of flames under a layout ever again!

 

Lukr

Edited April 7 by luke_stevens

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Just when you (and I actually) thought we could predict everything we'd see on Beijiao at an exhibition - this came up!

 

 

Just on the Sunday at the KEYMODELWORLD event at the NEC, we will be hosting this VERY special guest loco. It will be with us all day and hauling our 'steam special' rake of green type 22 coaches.

[jjb1970]

Is that the Eisenbahn Canada or Katsumi version, or something else? I must admit I have been thinking of buying one of these, the SL7 Pashina was a beautiful design and the Asia Express one of the great streamline prestige trains. Unfortunately it is largely forgotten (or ignored) in the West, probably a mix of the unfortunate politics around Manchukuo and a general lack of interest in Asian railways but I think it was the first air conditioned train and was something of an icon in China and Japan in its day.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

Is that the Eisenbahn Canada or Katsumi version, or something else? I must admit I have been thinking of buying one of these, the SL7 Pashina was a beautiful design and the Asia Express one of the great streamline prestige trains. Unfortunately it is largely forgotten (or ignored) in the West, probably a mix of the unfortunate politics around Manchukuo and a general lack of interest in Asian railways but I think it was the first air conditioned train and was something of an icon in China and Japan in its day.

 

It's the Katsumi/Tenshodo one. It belongs to my good friend Peter who will be a guest operator at KEYMODELWORLD on the Sunday. He doesn't have a layout and so he will run the whole 6 car Pashina rake around the layout early on and take some photos. Then for the rest of the day it will run my standard type 22 coach rake as a 'steam special'. And, for those who don't know, the real Asia Express train was just 6 cars long and ran on the South Manchuria Railway in China during the Japanese occupation from about 1934. Two of the twelve SL7 pacifics are preserved, but not in working order. 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

12 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

It's the Katsumi/Tenshodo one. It belongs to my good friend Peter who will be a guest operator at KEYMODELWORLD on the Sunday. He doesn't have a layout and so he will run the whole 6 car Pashina rake around the layout early on and take some photos. Then for the rest of the day it will run my standard type 22 coach rake as a 'steam special'.

 

This is an extreme example of me bending the rules slightly regarding 100% authenticity, in order to create more variety and an extra "WOW!" factor.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

This upcoming professional photo shoot is dominating my thinking at the moment as these will be the definitive layout photos and everything needs to be 'perfect'  - by that I don't mean perfect in an absolute sense, but as in 'as perfect as I am able to achieve'.

 

But that can be time-consuming as one thing leads to another. Example.................

 

Originally, I had painted the road surface along the front of the layout with a paint from B&Q called 'ashfelt'- I just bought a £2.25 tester pot to try it out and it was perfect and that pot painted the whole road and all the car parking areas. But, over time, the working Faller road vehicles left tyre marks in the road which needed covering as the camera would highlight these issues. So, I went back to B&Q to buy another tester pot - only to discover that they had changed the range of colours and 'ashfelt' was no longer available - DOH!

 

So, I bought four different paint testers from three different suppliers to try them out and finally settled on PRINCETON from B&Q. So, I repainted the whole of the roadway at the front of the layout, carefully painting around all the vehicles and figures which I had glued down - time consuming!  Then this new pristine finish brought another 'issue' to my attention - the narrow, single track curving 'road' which the minibuses traverse close to the track bed - they are looking for photo opportunities 🙂 . It now looked far too 'perfect' and something will need to be done 😒.

[jjb1970]

For those curious about the streamlined kettle and the Asia Express I put some links to nice YouTube videos of the actual train in the Asia Railways sub-forum of the Continental section of RMWeb.

 

The Katsumi/KTM model still holds its value extremely well, nice example still command quite a price, the Asia Express coach set they did even more so. 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

First I addressed any 'pot holes'.....................

 

 

Then, if this was to be a 'dirt road' it needed to be clearly part to the general lie of the land ( as opposed to a proper tarmac road which sits on top of the surrounding ground ). So, that was more work .................

 

 

That's where I am as of now - more later once I've finished the job

 

Edited April 10 by TEAMYAKIMA

[St Enodoc]

55 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

This upcoming professional photo shoot is dominating my thinking at the moment as these will be the definitive layout photos and everything needs to be 'perfect'  - by that I don't mean perfect in an absolute sense, but as in 'as perfect as I am able to achieve'.

 

But that can be time-consuming as one thing leads to another. Example.................

 

Originally, I had painted the road surface along the front of the layout with a paint from B&Q called 'ashfelt'- I just bought a £2.25 tester pot to try it out and it was perfect and that pot painted the whole road and all the car parking areas. But, over time, the working Faller road vehicles left tyre marks in the road which needed covering as the camera would highlight these issues. So, I went back to B&Q to buy another tester pot - only to discover that they had changed the range of colours and 'ashfelt' was no longer available - DOH!

 

So, I bought four different paint testers from three different suppliers to try them out and finally settled on PRINCETON from B&Q. So, I repainted the whole of the roadway at the front of the layout, carefully painting around all the vehicles and figures which I had glued down - time consuming!  Then this new pristine finish brought another 'issue' to my attention - the narrow, single track curving 'road' which the minibuses traverse close to the track bed - they are looking for photo opportunities 🙂 . It now looked far too 'perfect' and something will need to be done 😒.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.