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

[Al.]

I've been working on some signage for the top of the good shed that sites front and centre of the layout. I'll be 3D printing these, but they are likely to be quite fragile, not I'm not planning to have these fitted until nearer the next exhibition.

 

[Mol_PMB]

8 minutes ago, Al. said:

 

Distinct lack on noodles on the tables.

 

Or peanut shells all over the floor.

I'll have gong bao chicken, rice and two bottles of pijiu please!

[SHMD]

31 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Or peanut shells all over the floor.

I'll have gong bao chicken, rice and two bottles of pijiu please!

 

I wouldn't recommend the beer PiJiu in a place like that - it would definitely be quite warm!

 

 

Kev.

 

[Al.]

10 minutes ago, SHMD said:

 

I wouldn't recommend the beer PiJiu in a place like that - it would definitely be quite warm!

 

 

Kev.

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

I have very fond memories of ice-cold greenish beer made from squash/cucumber, in a region of Henan Province (near the Yinghao narrow gauge line).

It was about 2.5%, and cost RMB1.25 per 660ml bottle, of which the 0.25 was a bottle deposit. So the beer cost 7p for more than a pint.

I drank a lot of that one week, remarkably my photos are less blurred than my memories...

I went back again more recently but there was no sign of it, no doubt the local breweries have been swallowed up by Tsingtao or Snow.

Mol

[SHMD]

1 hour ago, Al. said:

I've been working on some signage for the top of the good shed that sites front and centre of the layout. I'll be 3D printing these, but they are likely to be quite fragile, not I'm not planning to have these fitted until nearer the next exhibition.

 

 

 

Hi Al, that's quite an interesting sign.

 

It translates (from left to right) as "north faraway goods warehouse halfway transfer shed".

(Excuse my poor Klatchian!)

 

So quite an appropriate sign on top of a goods shed... ...but it is quite out of date - even for 2005.

(Goods shipments in China changed in much the same way as they were phase out on British Rail in the 60s - but just a couple of decades later, or so, in China.

 

When you make it, don't worry about a perfect print - the odd character missing, missing lines in characters, and lots and LOTS of rust will place it in the right time frame.

(Don't forget to add rust lines to the building too.)

 

 

Kev.

 

 

 

Kev.

 

[Al.]

1 hour ago, SHMD said:

 

Hi Al, that's quite an interesting sign.

 

It translates (from left to right) as "north faraway goods warehouse halfway transfer shed".

(Excuse my poor Klatchian!)

 

 

 

That's about right, just don't tell Paul. He thinks it says something completely different... 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

13 hours ago, SHMD said:

Quite an appropriate sign on top of a goods shed... ...but it is quite out of date - even for 2005.

(Goods shipments in China changed in much the same way as they were phase out on British Rail in the 60s - but just a couple of decades later, or so, in China.

 

Just a quick point (apologies for being a pendant) - the layout has moved back in time to 2001 in order to allow steam action on China Rail and to do away with the previous excuse to run steam - the Jitong railway.

 

As with every major change to a layout concept there will be consequences and anomalies. I don't know enough about the evolution of China Rail operations to comment on whether the freight shed is an anomaly in 2001, but I can say is that back in 2004, when this photo was taken , there were freight sheds on the Jitong line and scenes like this - and so that is my excuse 

 

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Back to the truck stop cafe .................................

 

One problem with the interior was the thickness of the 'floor'  .......

 

 

This would have two detrimental effects

 

1. It would artificially raise the interior inside the cafe

2. It would make it more difficult for viewers to see interior detail as they would need to bend down further to see the detail at the back of the cafe.

 

I didn't have any thinner plasticard and so I began to thin the floor down with a power sander.....

 

 

But I still wanted it lower and so I cut through the groundwork and bedded the floor in until the floor was level with the surrounding area....

 

 

I then test fitted the building - the original 3D printed window frames have been removed and will soon be replaced with better ones and hopefully a better door too.

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by TEAMYAKIMA

[steveNCB7754]

On 07/08/2021 at 17:56, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

Luke,

 

I suggest you read the menu which is now in plain sight.

 

 

TBH it's a bit worrying that the #1 seller in the truck stop cafe seems to be beer!

 

 

Perhaps for the truckers, its an essential apéritif, so that when your order eventually arrives you will be too far gone to worry about how bad the food is! 

 

[Mol_PMB]

My experience of the 'spit and peanut shells' variety of Chinese working man's cafe is that the food is remarkably tasty. It might not have a lot of meat in it, but it's tasty, filling and cheap. When loading our loco for export we fed a dozen people for less than £1 and it was delicious!

There are very few Chinese restaurants in the UK that approach the quality of a good one in rural China. Though you sometimes need a broad mind, I've eaten sheep's brain and silkworm pupae amongst other things (both delicious).

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

6 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

My experience of the 'spit and peanut shells' variety of Chinese working man's cafe is that the food is remarkably tasty. It might not have a lot of meat in it, but it's tasty, filling and cheap. When loading our loco for export we fed a dozen people for less than £1 and it was delicious!

There are very few Chinese restaurants in the UK that approach the quality of a good one in rural China. Though you sometimes need a broad mind, I've eaten sheep's brain and silkworm pupae amongst other things (both delicious).

 

 

The cafe is filling up and the food has arrived - breakfast is served!

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

I have been working flat out , in both senses of the word, to get various problems which we discovered at our last running session all sorted in time for our next one on August 29th.

 

One change from now on is that the transformer wagon train will run on the clockwise China Rail track rather than the anti-clockwise one and so I have had to enlarge the holes in the end backscenes to accommodate the change.

 

[luke_stevens]

China (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loading_gauge)

 

“The max. height, width, and length of general Chinese rolling stock are 4,800 mm (15 ft 9 in), 3,400 mm (11 ft 2 in) and 26 m (85 ft 4 in), with an extra out-of-gauge load allowance of height and width 5,300 by 4,450 mm (17 ft 5 in by 14 ft 7 in) with some special shape limitation, corresponding to a structure gauge of 5,500 by 4,880 mm (18 ft 1 in by 16 ft 0 in).”

 

Prototype    H0
4880    56.0mm
3400    39.1mm
26000    299mm
5300    61.0mm
4450    51.1mm
5500    63.2mm
4880    56.0mm

 

In other word a plane running line should have a hole in the backscene of 39mm by 56mm (from track level) so say 60mm from baseboard (to include track and deviations).

 

The tracks that take the transformer wagon should have a hole 56mm by 63mm (from track level) so day 67mm from baseboard (to include track and deviations).

 

Models are often taller than their prototype (flanges, mechanical clearance, etc) so the above should be seen as practical minimums.

 

Luke

[TEAMYAKIMA]

This morning's upgrade. Our new tagline, "Industrial China in the 21st century" 

[luke_stevens]

2 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

This morning's upgrade. Our new tagline, "Industrial China in the 21st century" 

 

Looks much better with the lighting!

 

Luke

[steveNCB7754]

10 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

This morning's upgrade. Our new tagline, "Industrial China in the 21st century" 

 

Looking good -  the 'glow' from the backscene really stands out now under that lighting.  BTW, given the density of housing on both sides of the line, do the railways there ever provide a means for pedestrians at least, to cross the tracks (directly or via an bridge)?

 

Steve N

[TEAMYAKIMA]

11 hours ago, steveNCB7754 said:

 

Looking good -  the 'glow' from the backscene really stands out now under that lighting.  BTW, given the density of housing on both sides of the line, do the railways there ever provide a means for pedestrians at least, to cross the tracks (directly or via an bridge)?

 

Steve N

 

Actually, the lights are not on in that photo - I simply adjusted the brightness of the photo in order to make the new sign more visible. The lighting only makes a marginal difference as I didn't want to flood the layout with light - it is supposed to be early morning, hence the orange sky. But TBH the truth is that we won't know exactly the difference the lighting will make until we get to a venue - and each venue will be different in that respect. However, I do think that the orange backscene in itself will attract attention and interest, if only in the sense of, "What the hell??"

 

As regards crossing the railway tracks, I think that normal road bridges with pedestrian pavements every few hundred metres is the most likely option.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Our new backscene is more accurate than some might think - this is a photo taken of New York at dawn on August 20th this year, but you get the idea.

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by TEAMYAKIMA

[Mol_PMB]

30 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Our new backscene is more accurate than some might think - this is New York, but you get the idea.

 

I trust you will install a smoke machine to re-create the smog?

[luke_stevens]

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

I trust you will install a smoke machine to re-create the smog?

 

Smoke machine?!? Nothing less than an authentic coal burning stove would be good enough for Paul. And with Chinese coal, of course...

 

Luke

[CameronL]

5 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Our new backscene is more accurate than some might think - this is New York, but you get the idea.

 

Beijiao / New York - which city has the biggest Chinese population?

[TEAMYAKIMA]

On 11/06/2021 at 17:30, SHMD said:

I was a bit "meh" on the idea of adding a pelmet to the layout but seeing the results it makes a statement: -

 

Without Pelmet = Work In Progress, With Pelmet = Complete layout and worth having a look. What's the show schedule now Paul?

 

Kev.

 

 

Hello Kev

 

Apologies for not replying sooner. This was, in part, because to an extent the answer was at the time, "Who knows?"

 

Well, we now have a firm date - Hampton Court MRS (Tolworth show) November 13/14. We hope to see some of you there!

[luke_stevens]

On 20/08/2021 at 08:44, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

Actually, the lights are not on in that photo - I simply adjusted the brightness of the photo in order to make the new sign more visible. The lighting only makes a marginal difference as I didn't want to flood the layout with light - it is supposed to be early morning, hence the orange sky. But TBH the truth is that we won't know exactly the difference the lighting will make until we get to a venue - and each venue will be different in that respect. However, I do think that the orange backscene in itself will attract attention and interest, if only in the sense of, "What the hell??"

 

As regards crossing the railway tracks, I think that normal road bridges with pedestrian pavements every few hundred metres is the most likely option.

 

So, for you Paul,  is the amount of lighting on they layout in this photo "flooding" the layout? I think it is a little bright but more that the light is "too blue" for a smoggy morning.

 

Luke

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Was in the garden at 06.45 this morning to start getting the layout ready for our next (last?) test running session. By 08.00 I had done everything I could do until the team turn up.  Time for breakfast!