Great Dividing Range Mining Company

[bdennis]

Leggy,
Ouch.. !.. Glue = presents a small problem.

As the new location is likely to not match that of the existing location I tend to agree that Mothballing is prob not a good idea.

Time to find a HCD for use in your new / temporary location.

[S Class]

Damn mate sorry to hear, I'm in the same boat with my digs and study wise otherwise I would offer a home for it down here in mexico.

[Leggy]

I've got a ton of unitrack from a while ago (just wanted to run trains) so I might find a door or something (probably use a couple of modules and some new legs) and set up something that can tide me over until I'm back in the real world.

[Leggy]

Well here's some gooder news!

The plan now is to find a 20' container to build a layout in (they're relatively cheap around here), when we make the move we'll be looking for a house with a yard that it can be put in but if that's not possible there's a number of container storage yards around that it could go to. It'll need to be insulated, etc, but it's a decent space and I'll be able to hang onto it for a long time (plus if I ever move I can use it to cart my stuff in). So, time to find a container....

[flight2000]

Where's the "like" button....oh wait, wrong forum...

Good to hear some good news, although the reason your moving is certainly a big step towards being able to really feed your addiction, I mean passion...

Cheers,
Brian

[mu26aeh]

Can't you take the screws out and just use a circular saw or sawzall at the joints ?  A lot of work but a lot less storage space required .

[Leggy]

Passion? You mean possibly ******** full blown OCD for something that's based on complete fiction! 

Addiction will do tho....

I did stand in the shed yesterday and ponder doing just that (a couple of the modules were made like that) but I'm keen on actually having a layout....just real bored of looking at my stuff in a display cabinet, I want to see it run! Going the container route is about the easiest I can go for in terms of having a layout and being able to move it.

[GaryHinshaw]

The plan now is to find a 20' container to build a layout in (they're relatively cheap around here), when we make the move we'll be looking for a house with a yard that it can be put in but if that's not possible there's a number of container storage yards around that it could go to.

This is a pretty good idea, but it won't be very cheap to get one in a condition that you'd actually want to spend much time in.  We have a 20' container at our telescope site that we use for housing computers and supplies and we spent ~$10K to get one that wasn't a rust-bucket, had a blown-in insulation, basic electrical circuits and lighting, hvac, and a human door and window.   (You probably don't want to use the freight doors on a routine basis, they are very cumbersome.)   We didn't bother to cover the insulation with interior walls, but you might want to, otherwise the wall surface is irregular and prone to damage.

Also, in urban/suburban North America, you would be hard pressed to find many back yards that have truck access for container delivery, and really hard pressed to find sites that would let you have one in the front yard.  It's easier if you'll be in a rural setting.

The space is ample for a nice layout though!

[Leggy]

Other than insulation and an aircon being added I'm not going to be going too mad with it, alot of the work to get a cheapy up to snuff my father and I can do here so I can save quite a bit in terms of work being done to get it livable.

Housing regulations here are a bit different, if it fits it sits. Most of the time things like car ports and what not unless in a planned community can go up just fine. Atleast that's what we found when we were up in Darwin and added a car port to our driveway (went up to the fence line).

Should have a trackplan soon thanks to DKS. Other than it being smaller one of the biggest benefits of moving from the shed is there's no longer a minimum height restriction....

[Leggy]

So here's the latest DKS has wizarded up for the container layout:


This is the lower level, mostly the ore yards (green), the South Yard and station (orange) and the Jetty Branch (orange). I'll probably have the South Yard and Jetty Branch slightly lower than the ore yards and facilities behind to give some visual separation, the lines splitting off the main drop down anyway (one passes under the mainline) so having the orange section lower would make some sense. Would also help making things behind easier to see. The station will be simply represented by a platform to save space ( and not block the yard behind from view).


The middle level, joined to the lower level by the top left helix, it joins the upper level with the lower helix. Charters Towers is sort of midpointish and has sidings for trains either waiting to enter the Hughenden yards or servicing the ballast siding. I've thought of possibly adding a station here and a small intermodal hardstand (could go on top of the helix?) but haven't decided yet on that. The EP Branch and Hughenden will be operated with a pair of GP15s with various mine service looking mods that will pull cuts of cars from the empties yard to the loadout, load the cut then drop it back to the loads holding yard to make up a train for a set of road locomotives to haul back to Tville. Heavy machiney, supplies and fuel would also be dropped to the empties yard to service the fuel distributor in Hughenden and sidings at the EP Mine.


Finally the upper level, this has both Cloncurry and Mt Isa aswell as the Phosphate Hill Branch. The hardstand at Cloncurry will be used to load half height 20' containers of copper concentrate (powdered form) that would then be transported to the Jetty Branch for unloading/loading empty containers for the return trip. Fertiliser (Tville), nitrates (mines) and sulfuric acid (Xstrata and Sun Metals) trains would run from the Incitec Pivot facility at Phosphate Hill to the other facility on the Jetty Branch, EP Mine Branch and Mt Isa. As these trains will be either tank cars or covered hoppers they can simply run back and forth with no need for simulated loads (like the ore trains).

While I despise helixs they're the only real way this plan would work so compromises will be made, just gotta find a container.....

Thoughts?

[bdennis]

Leggy,
Looks like a plan.
Do you know what height each of the levels will be from the floor?
Only concern would be depth of the deck on the top and the ability to reach the brown tracks at the back to switch cars.?
Perhaps move the Green yard to the back and bring the brown forward?

Looking good though..

[packers#1]

The one thing is how well will the operators for the mid level mine get along with anyone trying to work the lower plan? It seems that there is plenty of room for people to move around with the length of the plan, but it still seems like a high-traffic area. However, I don't see any real way around this compromise.

[Leggy]

There's not going to be a container full of people in this, I'll be lucky if there's more than me normally operating it...

Height, the lowest level will likely be around 800-900mm, middle level around 1300-1400, and the top level will be about 1600mm.

[bdennis]

All sounds like a plan. Whats your longest train length going to be? I see the middle level has a passing siding that is longer than the yard sidings in the towns.
Will the train enter townsville and split into 2 to fit or is the yard sidings as long as the longest train?

1600mm is fairly high. I assume that the grid sizes are 300mm? If so a 600mm reach at 1600mm to get to the back tracks at Mt Isa is a hard reach. Unless there is going to be a stool to stand on?

[Leggy]

Longest train is about 1.6m, roughly 2 SD80s, a fuel tender and 20 ore hoppers. I did consider doubling trains and using Charters Towers as a doubling/drop tonnage yard but I'll probably just leave as is.

Height isn't totally set in stone and I may play around with it, if it does stay as I've already said tho I'll probably build a step along the edge to be able to reach to the back of the scene.

Also, this has sprung up as a way to run some trains while I'm saving for the container....

Not sure how far I'd like to go with it but yes, all those metal wheels on Unitrack laid loosely on bare timber is extremely bloody loud in a small room 
The 2 trains are 20 hoppers, a fuel tender and 2 locos, one train had a pair of SD80s and the other an SD80 leading a SD70ACe. Gives the idea of train sizes.