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


TEAMYAKIMA
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I have to admit that our/my BIG test running on July 16th at the CMRA event was VERY disappointing.

 

Have been working on upgrades.

 

Have booked the church hall just across the road (opposite my back gate) for a running session next Wednesday (August 10th) - hopefully things will go MUCH better!

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It was a test run, Paul; such things are intended to identify the bugs in the system. Taken in that context it functioned exactly as it should have. Now you know what needs put right! :-)

 

Cheers.

 

Dave.

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It was a test run, Paul; such things are intended to identify the bugs in the system. Taken in that context it functioned exactly as it should have. Now you know what needs put right! :-)

 

Cheers.

 

Dave.

 

Today is test day # 2.

 

The church hall opposite my house is booked 8am to 8pm ....and have arranged for a 20 year old from work to come over at 8.30 to help me move the baseboards.

 

My manager is coming over from work in his lunch hour to see what all the fuss is about - so no pressure!

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Good luck with it, Paul, hope it all goes well for you.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

Hello Mark

 

Many thanks

 

How has the test day gone, Paul?

 

Hello Al

 

Well ..............................

 

Not bad is the answer.

 

Not 100% good but maybe 80/20

 

Good points ......

 

Ran the whole layout successfully on DCC.

 

Made some baseboard end track adjustments/improvements

 

Learnt a lot about how best to operate the layout

 

Church hall was ideal venue for testing and had good support from existing team members and added some young/fit helpers who came to help set up/take down

 

Bad points

 

Suffered some track damage when trying to dismantle layout with just a team of three at the death ... not terminal!

 

Altogether a much better day than a month ago!

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Hello Mark

 

Many thanks

 

 

Hello Al

 

Well ..............................

 

Not bad is the answer.

 

Not 100% good but maybe 80/20

 

Good points ......

 

Ran the whole layout successfully on DCC.

 

Made some baseboard end track adjustments/improvements

 

Learnt a lot about how best to operate the layout

 

Church hall was ideal venue for testing and had good support from existing team members and added some young/fit helpers who came to help set up/take down

 

Bad points

 

Suffered some track damage when trying to dismantle layout with just a team of three at the death ... not terminal!

 

Altogether a much better day than a month ago!

That sounds better Paul (except the last bit). I suspect that you have now learned that the best place to test a layout is not at its first exhibition. Don't ask me how I know this.

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  • 4 weeks later...

There has still been a lot of work to be done before I can sign off the fiddle yard and concentrate full time on the scenic section.

 

Having bought some brass steam locos I now have had to modify quite a bit of the fiddle yard track as it was laid on the assumption that all locos would easily run on 24inch radius .... or even 18inch ............. that's not the case with brass!!

 

Yesterday was a battle against the (unexpected) showers to set a couple of boards up in the garden for test running..............

 

post-4476-0-86995500-1473060921_thumb.jpg

 

No such luck today - constant rain - then off to work at 10.15 am .... so working on stock instead!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So it's 5 weeks until the next hall hire and subsequent running session (Oct 25th) ................

 

I've been asked what's been happening as there hasn't been many posts lately .................

 

There are a lot more 'issues' with a portable exhibition layout than with a permanent home layout ........... even more with one that you can't put up at home!!

 

Regret that none of the things I've been doing is very photogenic so no photos but I've been doing (in no particular order) ...................

 

1. Working on the route selection for the fiddle yard. The route selection has been far more difficult to sort out than I had hoped. I'm using DCC and in particular DIGITRAX. I had prepared 'scripts' using the terms 'straight' and 'curved' for the points - it turns out (no pun intended) that Digitrax uses the terms 'closed' and 'thrown' and the terms are not simply straight swaps...... that wasted a test session. Also there are far fewer available routes in the software than I'd thought and so selecting some routes will take two 'hits'. Part of the problem is of using 'untrained' operators at exhibitions ........... it will happen that untrained helpers will be used at certain exhibitions and so this route selection process (and all other operating practices) need to be 'intuitive' , consistent and logical to make it easy for inexperienced operators to feel at home as soon as they take over.

 

After several attempts I think we now have the problem cracked and hopefully we can test the route selection within the next couple of weeks ..... NOT on October 25th , just in case there are any errors!

 

2. WHEELSETS ................ I have about 30 N27 NX70 flat cars and have recently discovered that ALL the wheelsets are VERY out  of gauge compared to NMRA standards .... the B2B is far too tight. So all 120 wheelsets have needed adjusting ..... half/half each side and so 240 minute changes using a NWSL wheelpuller.

 

3. Painting wheels ............... all wheelsets for all makes are shiny bright nickel colour - so all need painting mucky black colour including the backs of all wheels ... tiresome but necessary.

 

4. Gluing bits back on ............... most Chinese rolling stock is poorly made and bits regularly fall off (mainly steps) so they need gluing back on!

 

5. Fitting REAL Kadee couplers... all Chinese HO stock comes with variable quality (depending on brand) Kadee coupler clones. Many are broken as delivered, others break in use, so replacing these with strong (virtually unbreakable) genuine KADEE couplers is something I'm doing as/when necessary. So far I am only replacing broken couplers but will always fit Kadees at both ends of a car if one coupler is broken. Eventually I may replace ALL clone couplers but too time consuming to contemplate at the moment!

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Paul. Glad to hear things are moving forward. I thought DCC was meant to make wiring a layout easier. But from what I'm hearing I'm glad I stuck to DC.

 

Looking forward to coming over on the 25th see trains running.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Al.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Regret nothing to report other than 'more of the same' ............... stress level increasing as the final chance test session approaches - 2 weeks today!

 

I have one request of anyone reading this .........

 

Bachmann C64 gondolas .............. these come with a small pack of hooks that need fitting ........ I guess some people don't bother fitting them (they are VERY fiddly to fit!).

 

So .............. does anyone have any Bachmann C64 gondolas where they haven't fitted the hooks - if so I would like to buy them!

 

Any help gratefully received ... please send ma PM

 

Paul

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  • 2 weeks later...

I expect Paul is busy right now so I'm posting an update on the Chinese Layout on his behalf.

 

We had the second test running session yesterday and it went pretty well. DCC control appears to be working fine and as a first time user, I picked it up quickly and had four trains under power at one point. There's still a bit of an issue with the fiddle yard route selection at one end which needs some more investigation, but it's not a show-stopper.

The train formations looked good - passenger trains at over 12 cars, and freight trains of over 20-30 wagons.

The big surprise for me was how easy it was to do the banking moves with the DCC controller. We had no issues syncing and de-syncing the loco's.

And of course the rolling stock looked fantastic.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos so not much to show you.

 

The next test session will be early January just ahead of the layouts first outing. We hope to have scenery at that point, and promise to take some photos.

 

 

Al.

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Here follows some random photos taken by a (non-enthusiast) friend who dropped in to see what we were up to .......

 

Here's Terry operating the banking movement on the industrial branch.....

 

post-4476-0-23008000-1477607501_thumb.jpg

 

post-4476-0-67662600-1477606387_thumb.jpg

 

More as and when I can post them

 

 

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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  • 2 weeks later...

Update..............

 

With our first exhibition - CMRA Stevenage - looming in just over two months I have had to seriously think about how we would exhibit the layout and what needs to be done to make that happen. The layout was always going to be a 'work in progress' for 2017 but I was constantly slipping behind my timetable.

 

In short I had a reality check ... I now work 45 - 49 hours a week at my proper job and the amount of work required to make the layout viable is vast. So much so that it would take up every waking minute of my life and make the modelling more of a chore than a pleasure.

 

So I have decided to withdraw from CMRA (Stevenage) in 2017 and aim to send a completed layout to CMRA 2018.

 

My 'slot' in 2017 has been taken by my good friend Al Turner with his N gauge layout 'Remagen' .... thanks to him for stepping forward.

 

Hope to be helping Al at Stevenage in January, in the meantime I will be continuing to report on progress on my layout.

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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So, at last, a day off.

 

With the pressure off time for some relaxing modelling!

 

17 coal cars got new improved loads today

 

12 cars got new upgraded genuine Kadees to replace Chinese plastic Kadee clones.

 

Two SY's got real coal in their tenders

 

All brass QJ's will be leaving the city (fully coaled tenders) and all plastic QJ's will be returning to and terminating at the city with half empty tenders. Anyone got photos of (any) steam locos with near empty tenders?  Here is my work in progress ...

 

post-4476-0-72129100-1478647533_thumb.jpg

 

post-4476-0-34139300-1478647701.jpg

 

Anyone got comments on how this coal load should look?

 

BTW - the modelling room also got cleaned/tidied today as a plumber is coming to fix the radiator this week!

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Anyone got comments on how this coal load should look?

 

 

 

Hi Paul,

 

Just a 'heads up', but the QJ's are/were fitted with mechanical stokers (you would not want to try and hand-fire one of those beasts!).  Although I do not have (or know of) any photos to back this up, I would imagine that the coal pile in the tender would all just slump down towards the bottom of the tender, as the screw feed in the bottom moved the coal there forward on its way up to the 'distribution table' inside the firebox.  The motion and vibration of the tender and loco would help to shake the contents down as well, so I would imagine that the pile would remain relatively level whilst the loco was working (until topped up again at the next stop).  Others may know more though (as they say).

 

Steve

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Hi Paul,

 

Just a 'heads up', but the QJ's are/were fitted with mechanical stokers (you would not want to try and hand-fire one of those beasts!). 

 

Steve

 

Steve

 

Thanks for your input but as far as I know the mechnical stokers were dropped in favour of having two fireman asit was more efficient than the mechanical option - that's what I was told.

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I am sure that your group is aware that there is a group on the ipernity photo-sharing site dedicated to Chinese railways. For those that haven't come across it, it is at http://www.ipernity.com/group/309399/doc?with=21123287

If anyone has any problems with navigating the site, please feel free to PM me here. I have my Dad's British railway albums on that site, which I find better laid out than Flickr.

Best wishes for your mammoth enterprise - it looks very impressive so far!

Edited by phil_sutters
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I am sure that your group is aware that there is a group on the ipernity photo-sharing site dedicated to Chinese railways. For those that haven't come across it, it is at http://www.ipernity.com/group/309399/doc?with=21123287

If anyone has any problems with navigating the site, please feel free to PM me here. I have my Dad's British railway albums on that site, which I find better laid out than Flickr.

Best wishes for your mammoth enterprise - it looks very impressive so far!

 

Hello Phil

 

Many thanks for that link - no I didn't know that site.

 

I have now successfully signed up to join.

 

The only problem with the EXCELLENT photos on that site is that they have been taken/posted to be artistic .... whilst I have enjoyed looking at them I have not found any what I would call technical photos eg close up photos of loco details that would help someone building or modifying a loco ... so my search goes on

 

Thanks agin for an interesting and useful link .... some photos bring back great memories !

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