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

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Whilst the layout is now 99.5% where I want it to be, I have a professional photo shoot booked in three weeks and so I am working every day to nail that missing 0.5%. 

 

One cameo which I like is the playground scene between the buildings at the R/H end of the layout - here is an early photo - and I particularly liked the set of swings on the left hand side, but unfortunately in the last 12 months that detail was wiped out when someone lent across to re-rail a loco and their sleeve demolished that detail.

 

 

So, yesterday I went looking for what 'bits' I had managed to salvage at the time.

 

This is how the Preiser item is supposed to look and you can see that I had done nothing but repaint it really.

 

 

But now, all that was left were the two main supports and the two swings - the cross member was missing. 

 

 

I tried to find some plastic rod to replicate the original, but didn't find anything suitable in my spares box. So, eventually I decided that a wire embedded into a hole drilled into the fixing would do the job and be far stronger anyway. So I found some suitable wire and using the smallest drill bit I've ever used in my electric drill I started the refurbishment.

 

 

I superglued the swings onto the wire.

 

 

And pressed ahead......................

 

 

But something looked wrong - the seats were now far too high. I measured them - 3ft off the ground. So, I just couldn't live with that and so I cut the feet off, took 3.5mm off each leg and glued the feet back on.  Result - 2 ft 3 inches off the ground - a lot better!

 

 

All I need to do now is glue them back on the layout and that's another thing off my list of jobs to do and then the layout will be 99.6% finished

 

 

Edited March 29 by TEAMYAKIMA

[ColinK]

You can now get a working swing from Faller.

[SHMD]

 

6 minutes ago, ColinK said:

You can now get a working swing from Faller.

 

I think that "99.6% finished" figure has just changed down to 99.2%!

 

 

Kev.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

21 minutes ago, ColinK said:

You can now get a working swing from Faller.

 

Well, yes, but I think that there is a very fine line between a 'feature' and a 'gimmick' and I think a working swing would cross that line.

 

Feature - GOOD! 😃

 

Gimmick - NOT GOOD! 😒

 

Just my way of looking at things.

 

 

Edited March 29 by TEAMYAKIMA

[TEAMYAKIMA]

This professional photo shoot is just 3 weeks away now and it has really prompted me to review EVERY scenic feature on the layout. The photos will all be in close-up and sharp focus which will concentrate the viewer's mind on details which would not attract much attention at an exhibition and the camera will highlight any shortcomings.

 

Going through each scenic board in turn, I noticed things like this................

 

 

 

 

Discarded concrete sleepers - nice, but unweathered and worse still all in one colour, even the metal fixings are concrete coloured - damn you, PECO!

 

So 30 minutes later ............................

 

 

Edited March 29 by TEAMYAKIMA

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

Well, yes, but I think that there is a very fine line between a 'feature' and a 'gimmick' and I think a working swing would cross that line.

 

Feature - GOOD! 😃

 

Gimmick - NOT GOOD! 😒

 

Just my way of looking at things.

 

 

Well, yes, but wot about some geezer getting out of his taxi to take a photo?????

[TEAMYAKIMA]

6 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Well, yes, but wot about some geezer getting out of his taxi to take a photo?????

 

THAT'S A FEATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how many more times do i have to tell you?????  😉

[Trofimow]

A featured gimmick perhaps....

[ColinK]

9 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

Well, yes, but I think that there is a very fine line between a 'feature' and a 'gimmick' and I think a working swing would cross that line.

 

Feature - GOOD! 😃

 

Gimmick - NOT GOOD! 😒

 

Just my way of looking at things.

 

 

Life is full of swings and roundabouts.

 

Faller make a working roundabout too😀😀😀😀

[TEAMYAKIMA]

As always, a job I have done to improve one aspect of the layout has ended up curing the original problem , but caused another.

 

And, as always, most 'two minute jobs' take me a minimum of two hours.

 

Let me explain...................

 

When travelling in the van to/from an exhibition, the boards are stored on their backs i.e. vertically, and, on occasion, some heavy road vehicles which were simply superglued to the plaster road surface have become detached from the layout as the top layer of plaster simply breaks off. This happened in particular with the tall and heavy low loader and road roller.

 

 

 

So, I decided to put long screws into the baseboard under a couple of axles and then super glue the vehicles to the embedded screws so that the vehicles would always remain attached to the layout no matter what. As part of that process the trailer chassis was temporarily partly dismantled and then finally fixed PERMANENTLY to the baseboard - and then four exhibitions later I noticed something!

 

 

 

In securing the model far more permanently on the layout in order to prevent the problem of it falling off the layout in transit, I had created another problem - a missing set of wheels! Now, as I have said, no-one (including me) had noticed that at four exhibitions, but the camera sees everything and with the professional photo shoot on the horizon, that needed fixing - a two minute job!

 

Except, of course, I couldn't find the missing wheels with their distinctive red wheel hubs and I had recently had a clear out and sold all my HO vehicle 'bits & pieces' on ebay - and 'no' the guy who bought them had already used them on a repair of his own. So, the only way forward was to remove the permanently fixed low loader from the baseboard in order to remove a set of wheels from the non-viewing side, then make a new axle and find some replacement wheels to go on the non-viewing side.

 

So, in total, four or five hours later, I completed my latest 'two minute job' .....................

 

 

 

One pro

Edited April 1 by TEAMYAKIMA

[RobAllen]

37 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

And, as always, most 'two minute jobs' take me a minimum of two hours.

My colleagues still haven't caught on that my understanding of this truism is why my estimates are much closer than theirs.

I'm still wrong of course because of Hofstadter's Law which states: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

 

[WessexEclectic]

@TEAMYAKIMA Sorry to butt in, but is there a pinned comment somewhere listing your up coming show appearances? Keep finding that I've just missed a show...

Back to lurking with interest.

[St Enodoc]

32 minutes ago, RobAllen said:

My colleagues still haven't caught on that my understanding of this truism is why my estimates are much closer than theirs.

I'm still wrong of course because of Hofstadter's Law which states: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

 

Trying (and failing...) to read "Gödel, Escher, Bach" is the ultimate proof of Hofstädter's Law.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

6 minutes ago, WessexEclectic said:

@TEAMYAKIMA Sorry to butt in, but is there a pinned comment somewhere listing your up coming show appearances? Keep finding that I've just missed a show...

Back to lurking with interest.

 

KEYMODELWORLD - The NEC - April 27/28

 

RAILEX Aylesbury May 25/26

 

Bury St Edmunds Cathedral - Sept 28th - ONE DAY!!!

 

The Great British Model Railway Show - Gaydon Motor Museum October 26/27

 

 

 

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Beware!  Take cover!!  Hide!!!

 

 

 

The trees are coming!!!!

 

 

 

[luke_stevens]

4 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Beware!  Take cover!!  Hide!!!

 

 

 

The trees are coming!!!!

 

 

 

 

But is that the right sort of tree for Northern China? 🤣

 

Luke

 

Edited April 1 by luke_stevens
spelling

[luke_stevens]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_China_Plain_deciduous_forests#:~:text=The plain hosts extensive broadleaf,Daurian birch (Betula dahurica).

 

Just to keep us on track...

 

Luke

[luke_stevens]

And the next think for Paul's shopping list.

 

https://www.nhbs.com/identification-handbook-of-trees-in-northern-china-chinese-book

 

Luke

[lmsforever]

See you at Aylesbury on Sunday am  always ma good show I started it many years ago glad its still good to visit.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, luke_stevens said:

 

But is that the right sort of tree for Northern China? 🤣

 

Luke

 

Scrawny without many leaves? Yes, for an urban setting, I'd say so.

[jjb1970]

On 26/01/2024 at 17:27, TEAMYAKIMA said:

As regular readers of this thread will know, I am always trying to balance two slightly contradictory concepts -

 

1. Being accurate to my theme - China in 2001

 

2. Making the layout 'more interesting' by bending the rules as regards what's authentic.

 

One issue which I have highlighted is that if I am to be prototypical them most trains should be hauled by a DF4 variant, whereas I try to show as much variety as possible - if a certain class of loco might have hauled that train in 2001 then that's OK with me - more variety equals more interesting trains.

 

However, I am taking that concept way beyond that now - for several years I have owned a model of the experimental gas combustion system QJ2 0001. I think the real loco was built in 1985 and ran some tests, but was converted to a conventional QJ in 1988 and eventually scrapped way before 2001. Consequently, I bought it purely as a showcase model, but one day something bad happened to it - I'm not prepared t6o say what happened, suffice to say that soon afterwards I fitted a lock to my showcase!

 

 

Needless to say, there was more damage that you can't see in that photo, but after several hours work and a lot of expert help from Peter Morgan, it's 99% back to normal - and it runs nicely!

 

 

 

Having done so much work on it to enable it to rune, it seems daft to just put in back in the (now locked) showcase and consequently I plan to run it occasionally at future shows - I'll just have to change the layout description from "all you see on the layout is authentic for China in 2001" to "most of what you see on the layout is authentic for China in 2001" :-)

 

Will make an interesting topic of conversation with visitors to shows.

 

 

 

This is a perennial question for exhibition layouts (and also private layouts), the balance between realism and entertainment. While some have a rigid attitude to authenticity (down to timetable operation meaning very little happens) the result can be a bit dry, while running foreign outline or an HST on a 19th century layout may be fun but does look silly (though if it's the only layout available it is a way to operate trains in an environment like a model club or at home). Most of the good layouts I have seen have some rules at exhibitions but also stretch things to provide a good show, it's a balancing act and down to personal judgement.

 

In the case of Beijao I think there is both more latitude to be flexible and a better argument than most layouts. Very few British (or indeed European in general) know anything about China. They'll probably know the capital is Beijing, recognize the name Shanghai and after that it tends to descend into tropes about martial arts, carry-out food and such like. I'll hasten to add my own knowledge is very limited, I know enough to realise how little I know. A layout like Beijao is a great vehicle to introduce more people to the fascinating world of Chinese railways, so to me it is positive to stretch the elastic. The QJ was a wonderful machine so running them, including the gas prototype, is something I'd applaud. Though as a big enthusiast of the DF4 series ('the Chinese 47') I'd also not object to lots of those and if you had wires I'd enjoy lots of SS1 electrics. 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

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

 

 

 

 

[Al.]

3 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

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

 

 

 

 

 

You said 'trees'.

 

A single tree hardly meets expectations.

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

41 minutes ago, Al. said:

 

You said 'trees'.

 

A single tree hardly meets expectations.

 

 

We all have to start somewhere 😉

[Al.]

17 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

We all have to start somewhere 😉

 

Just a thousand more to go.  😁