Great Dividing Range Mining Company

[Leggy]

93 sticks of 35x70 structural pine just delivered, ~500m in total, enough to get the main structure of the layout built ready to hang modules from.

[bdennis]

Leggy,
And then you need another 500lm of pine for the frame to house it in.
I got 420lm 70x19 for the structure of mine plus 40 odd lengths of 70x35 for the centrre dividing wall studs.

Its only money

[Leggy]

Its only money

Ain't that the truth.

[flight2000]

Dang, I'm jealous....   

Great start and I'm looking forward to the prgoress reports.  Just hope I can keep up with the power requirments...   

Brian

[Flagler]

I would like to get a better feel on how you plan to get from one level to the other.I plan to build a similar RR in the near future. How will it be supported against the wall and the outside edge
?
,

[Leggy]

Flagler, in response to your first question, the layout is a 'nolix' design where the whole layout is essentially a helix, in this case the towns are flat areas (except Charters Towers, only the ballast siding will be level) and the peninsula forms the majority of the rise between levels.

As to the second, well I plan this whole deal to be modular and movable and here's a shot of the first segment.

As you can see this section is sitting on top of the large benches in the shed (they can't be removed so will stay), it's missing another section to turn it into a corner module but that's the bare bones of it. The layout modules will sit on brackets and the backdrop will affix to the main stucture. It's ~370mm thick, 1070mm long and 1100mm high. The thickness in the middle will be for hidden trackage (more on that later) and wiring and areas to house DCC boosters and associated items. It's fairly lightweight (I can move it by myself quite easily) so it is movable in name and practice.

The sections that aren't on the benches will be much the same, they will be however 2000mm tall and in essence be 2 of these small modules stacked on top of one another. They'll also have a base on them to stop them tipping over...

[Leggy]

Mmmm the sweet smell of progress. Finished the supporting structure modules for the Mt Isa side of the layout and will soon be moving to the sections across the garage doorway and the Townsville wall before moving on to the peninsula and the 'open' side.

I mentioned hidden trackage earlier and I've made some adjustments to the plan to accommodate what will be an empties in/loads out connection between the Mt Isa ore mine and the Townsville port and the Pentland coal mine and the port. The blob end of the peninsula may be expanded some to fit a helix inside which will be used to move empty and loaded hopper rakes between the ends, the road locomotives won't venture along this connection and I'll get some GPsomethings to use as power solely for this section. The EP mine branch will have it's own stub ended staging yard housed within the support structure modules at one end to facilitate a empties in/loads out operation (the mine will only have a certain number of loaded rakes available to swap for loads so won't be visited as frequently as the Mt Isa mine).

And an image to illustrate!

The backdrops won't be glued and screwed to the support structure, just screwed so they will be removable to access the hidden trackage and wiring, power boosters, et al. The example in the picture is just an example, the hidden track will be Unitrack and will sit on a proper baseboard with fences either side to stop anything falling off in the event of a derailment. Detectors will also be setup to follow a train....

[Leggy]

Bout time I posted some more progress eh? 

Been a bit on and off with motivation and the heat in the shed some days putting me completely off but alas, things have been progressing along lately and I've so far completed the peninsula support structure and will just have to finish 2 more sides and I'll then be able to start on the other stuff, like insulating the area.....

Anyway, a picture.


And for those that know (and anyone who doesn't) most of the motivation issues stemmed from there not being a working rotary coupler available and I had no good ideas on how to make one...Athearn Genesis Virginian SD70ACe later and I was convinced HO was where I should go and thus made plans to go with that scale. Until today and it's back to the original plan of N scale as I finally came up with a working rotary coupler!



So it looks a bit rubbish and sticks out a bit far at the present (it'll be set back a bit once new pewter floors are cast for the hoppers) but the main thing is it works and so far seems to be quite reliable. One part down, now to build the rotary dumper and get it working properly and all I'll have left to do is build a functioning ore loader. Oh, and the rest of the layout....

Onwards!

[bdennis]

Leggy,
Nice work.!
A friend of mine here in Melbourne has a working rotary dumper and also has working rotary couplers made from fishing spinners (I think).
Let me know if you need more info.

[Leggy]

West Coast Mining right? Always wanted to get my hands on one of Mr Purdy's Pilbara cab etches.

I did consider the fishing spinner idea as a rotary drawbar but I decided against it. This version is a bit more flexible IMO and also realistic.

[bdennis]

Mate,
Yep it would be Noel I am referring to..
Here are a pair of them in action in Hackney on the SFRSD recently.


Let me know if you want any more info on what Noel has done..

[w neal]

Off to a good start mate! Really looking forward to watching your progress. Having once visited Townsville and inland to Mt. Isa, your layout really inspires me and brings back memories. Thanks for sharing with all of us.

[flight2000]

And he tells me this right after I shipped these to him...   













Oh, I have a headache now...

Cheers,
Brian

[Purrs]

Evening Leggy, It's a bit surreal to read your own name in a post! I have only noticed your layout recently and I wish you the best with your endeavours. As Brendan has indicated I do model the N/W in my own fashion. I would dearly love to have such an accommodating shed to build and run my empire in. Noel Purdey

[Ian MacMillan]

Mate,
Yep it would be Noel I am referring to..
Here are a pair of them in action in Hackney on the SFRSD recently.


Let me know if you want any more info on what Noel has done..

Now those are some neat locomotives. I like the looks of the cab. Would make some nice US/Canada MOW units for rail grinders, etc. Are they actual 1/160 scale cabs or something like 1/150? And where do I get one!