Well....good news and annoying news!

Well the annoying news first, the current iteration of the layout will be coming down due to the lack of finding suitable storage (i.e able to set it up in it's current configuration and work on it). So with that a search for a viable replacement option was on.

First thought was a small door with some unitrack to tide me over while I was in uni. Not a major fan....

Next thought, well this is the good news.

I've found that many 20' containers are dirt cheap ($1200-$2000) and most container storage yards are inexpensive on per month costs ($150-200). So if it can't be located at our soon to be found Gold Coast residence it'll have to sit in a yard, no biggie!

Look for a trackplan to come soon once I sort out the mess in my head that is the thousands of ideas I've now got....

 

Better late than never, photos!

Layout Progress

Well work has stopped for a little as our roo damaged vehicle has been repaired and drained the fun bucks fund but as that's out of the way it'll be back to normal next week. With that said some photos of where I'm at so far.....

The above shot is the entrance to the layout and what can be seen, there is a duckunder set at 1700mm above the floor (about eye level for me and really a 'stoop under') that carries the tracks from the climb up thru Cloncurry on the left to the side of the peninsula where it will wrap around and eventually run to Mt Isa at the end of the upper level.

 Looking left (that's the underside of the duckunder and the upper level at the top of shot) we see the end of the Townsville Jetty Branch that will have the coal unloading loop and associated buildings. The white ply sheets are only temporary for the photos to show the benchwork. It's not entirely finished and may get a tad wider, the loop end will be blob'd out a bit also.

On the other side is the beginning of the climb up the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range (as shown in the first photo). The grade on average up the eastern side to GDR Summit is a stiff 3%, empty coal trains won't need helpers and the ore trains run with DPUs however most other trains will run with helpers from Townsville up to the summit. The benchwork in the top of frame is the duckunder.

This is looking back down towards the duckunder, Townsville Jetty Branch on the lower right, eastern side of the GDR lower left, part of the upper level peninsula benchwork at top of frame (yet to be finished to the duckunder) and the duckunder and upper level benchwork is in the top middle of shot. Still a bit to go before the foam gets laid down.....

A quick view of the unfinished upper level benchwork.

 This is the end of the peninsula, the right side heads back down to Townsville, the left side continues up to GDR Summit then on down the west slope to Charters Towers (benchwork over on the far left of shot). Minimum radius here is about 21". Reflecting the busy nature of this RR there will be three tracks thru here, from Townsville to GDR Summit the line is triple tracked (empties, loaded ore, loaded coal). It'll be an interesting job to dispatch trains thru the area as not just coal and ore trains will be running, there'll be intermodals both directions along with unit fuel, ballast, mine supply, unit acid and copper concentrate trains. Oh, and let's not forget the daylight and overnight passenger trains....

The Upper level end of the peninsula, needs more to be done....

Coming around the peninsula and the climb is still hard, the now middle level benchwork can be seen below with the upper level above. Only some sections of the layout are actually triple deck, most of it is double decked. This was originally going to be the site of Charters Towers with the junction to the Lolworthy Creek coal mine up in the back corner (far far benchwork) but I decided to move it down along the benchwork as 1) Charters Towers is actually on the western side of the GDR, not the east and 2) it extends the run between towns (even tho Charters Towers is now above Townsville).

Another peninsula! Well not really, this section was added on to add some extra run to the mainline (also visually separates some sections). The climb looking steep is party a trick of the camera as it doesn't appear that steep in person, it's also partly because the other side of the peninsula gets to 3.5% just before the summit. It's about 2m or so of track that'll be at the steepest gradient but that's it as far as hard climbs go.

The other peninsula blob, it's yet to be entirely finished (will be more blobesque).

Looking at the other side of the peninsula peninsula, you can see both blobs in this view, won't be able to once the backdrop goes up. The upper level isn't in yet.

The climax point of the climb is the GDR Summit, here all 3 levels can be seen with Townsville on the bottom, GDR Summit in the middle and the eastern end of Mt Isa above. Across the backdrop from the summit is the beginning of the Lolworthy Creek Coal branch, there will be a helper pocket and junction here for trains to Lolworthy Creek Coal Mine. From here the track heading west is double track, the third mainline track splitting off to Lolworthy Creek Coal Mine. Signs will need to be placed here marking West and East as the western end of Townsville is on the lower level, however due to passing thru the backdrop and looping back around the peninsula the line swaps directions as you go from standing on the north side of the tracks (Townsville) to standing on the south side of the tracks (everywhere else). Never Eat Soggy Weetbix.....

 Another view of the area, more unfinished upper level benchwork. Happily the upper level is the only unfinished section so far and not much is really needed to finish it. Onward and downward, leftward and frontward!

Oh look, trackplans....

Turning the corner from the last shot we see the main section (unfinished) of Mt Isa above Charters Towers in the middle and Townsville on the bottom. In a self inflicted dick move there's alot going on in this one area however, in this part of Townsville yard there is only the ore yards (arrivals and departures) and associated loco and rolling stock servicing facilities and workshops, the rest of the Tville industries are on the Jetty Branch. Charters Towers here is merely sidings, a ballast pit at one end, a station in the middle and a fuel storage facility at the other end requiring not a huge amount of work. 

Looking further along, where the sheet of ply is is where the 2 rotary dumpers for the ore trains will be, passing infront of that will be the tracks to the Jetty Branch. Down that end also will be the iron ore loadout at Mt Isa on the top level. This silly approach of putting everything together was chosen as the close proximity of the loadout and unloader allows for the complex and rocket geologist designed system of a bucket to collect dumped ore and a smaller bucket to return dumped ore to the loadout bin to be located together. Less leg work equals less work to reload the loadout equals a happier me. Why don't you just position the loadout over the dumper and save the need to run trains you say? No fun in that!

A slightly higher view, Mt Isa is just at eye level for me and I'm considering a step ledge along the floor to make switching the joint easier. Otherwise I'm happy with it and I've got no choice anyway, keeping a decent amount of space between decks is a tad difficult in places where I'm trying to follow the real geography....

The rotary ore dumper section.

Looking back the other way at Mt Isa.



Closing in on being able to start laying foam sheets on top of the benchwork sections (or modules as they are) and once I get the base layer in I'll be able to rough in the roadbed and basic scenery and get tracklaying. The old man laid down the challenge of having trains running by the end of the month....chop chop.....

Bit more, just some Loco waffling this time

The Roster

As with all railroad's there's generally a roster that accompanies the information, I'll be posting mine here (most of the locomotives will be on the layout).

All the SD80MACs are used on ore train services (62x individual rakes) whilst the SD50s, SD60s and SD70s are used on coal trains and other freights. The GP60s are used for coal rake shuttles between the main Townsville yard and the Jetty Branch unloader (the line is limited to 4 axle power only due to curves) and the GP60Ms and Bs are used on the 2 intermodal/TOFC sets in A-B-A consists. The SD45s and SD40-2s are used primarily on MoW and fuel/supplies trains to the mines.

Maybe some layout progress photos next time?

All about the GDRMCo, sortof!

This blog will chronicle the ongoing construction of my freelanced HO scale layout and also provide an insight into the history and thoughts behind the Great Dividing Range Mining Company, GDRMCo for short.

With a history stretching back 17 years now and a fictional history in it's 101st year the GDRMCo for me has been a near life long project and undoubtedly will continue on for as long as I see fit to work on it! 

The Great Dividing Range Mining Company started out as an idea I had when I was about 6 years old and was originally called the Queensland Mining Company. Whilst the name changed quite early on the premise stayed the same, it was to be a mining company digging up iron ore around Mt Isa and shipping it to a port at Townsville for export. My plan was to have it always set in the present and I'd 'run' it like it was a real RR/mining company. So far this plan has worked well other than me changing my mind on things....



The layout itself fills a roughly 7.5m by 6m space in a 3 bay garage (one bay is used) and will be a triple deck N scale representation of the mainline from the port at Townsville to the mine at Mt Isa. The Townsville Jetty Branch is included aswell as the Lolworthy Creek coal mine branch just west of Charters Towers.

4 towns are included on the layout, these being; Townsville, Charters Towers, Cloncurry and Mt Isa. 

• As has already been described Townsville hosts the iron ore port and coal dumping plant at the Jetty but also has a second yard for intermodal/TOFC sorting, a hardstand and TOFC loading point, the fuel distribution facility for GDRMCo, a sulfuric acid loading point at Incitec Pivot, a passenger station for GDRMCo services and the GDRMCo Rail Heritage Society facilities. Townsville is situated on the bottom most level of the layout.

•  Charters Towers is on the second level of the layout and is the junction point for the mainline and the Lolworthy Creek Coal Mine branch, due to traffic density the mainline from Townsville to Charters Towers is triple tracked to handle the large flow of iron ore and coal trains heading to and from the mines/port. A small yard is included here aswell as a small passenger station and ballast loading point for MoW trains. MoW service locomotives can also be fueled at the servicing pad located at the fuel distributor facility.

• The Lolworthy Creek Coal Mine branch is also on the second level but passes thru the backdrop to appear on the other side of the peninsula from Charters Towers. Sidings are provided for coal trains to arrive and wait to load, supply trains to be unloaded and MoW trains to be stored. A fueling pad is also provided alongside the fuel train unloading point. The main coal loading loop passes under the coal loader and allows trains to run continuously without having to swap locomotives from one end to the other.

•  Cloncurry is on the third level and is a loading point for containerised copper concentrate that is unloaded at the Townsville Jetty hardstand (then trucked to a unloading point at the port). A pair of sidings are here with the track embedded in concrete to allow easy loading and unloading of the containers. No fueling pad is included due to the proximity to Mt Isa.

• Finally there is Mt Isa and the iron ore mine and loading point. Mt Isa has a large yard for arriving and departing ore trains, the departure yard includes fueling points spotted to allow locomotives and DPUs to remain coupled to the consist thus speeding up turnaround times. A large servicing workshop looks after locomotives and rolling stock but also mining equipment for the nearby iron ore mine (I have a P&H 4100 series power shovel model that will be included as part of the scene), the workshop will also have a smaller facility attached for the GDRMCoRHS division to maintain it's equipment. Xstrata has a spur off the eastern end of the yard for unloading the sulfuric acid trains from Incitec Pivot, also at the eastern end is the main fuel distribution facility for the western terminus of the railroad and the iron ore mine.

Coal trains will be 50 cars long whilst ore trains will be 100 cars long and have DPUs cut in halfway along, live loads for both coal and ore will be used and this means I'll be building working coal and ore loaders and rotary dumpers (along with the rotary couplers needed to make it all work). 

A post will be going up sometime with photos of everything done so far, stay tuned!