Brace yourselves, photos taken with an actual camera are coming
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.....
This is a shameless repost from my blog:
http://gdrmco.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/better-late-than-never-photos.html
