Fish River Update and Tour...

All,

With all of this hot weather, work on the layout proper has been limited.  As much as the train room is fully insulated and lined it does preclude comfortable working during weather extremes and other pursuits are attended to during these periods 

I have however brought the track plan up to date and have included it with this post to allow readers to follow the progress and to discuss what comes next.

I have labelled points of interest and will refer to them in the post...

Layout Total Area...12metres x 3.8metres

Directional Note: As an Example

 From Point "A" Down Trains toward Point "C"

Up Trains From Point "A" towards Point "J"

A.  Fish River Station and Yards...The station building and platform has been removed from the layout and is undergoing a makeover before permanent installation. The yard and features will be discussed in a future post.

B.  Loco servicing road.  As much as the points from the main have been laid in...the final configuration of this area will occur some time soon.  I have a 90 foot TT built by Bruce Akrigg and this may end up being positioned in this area. If not a minimum will be a coal stage and other servicing requirements.

C. Fish River yard entrance and positioning for tunnel portal to take the main under the elevated branch line that will terminate at point "E" (More on this later)

C1. Tunnel Portal to bring main line back into view.

D.  Divergence point for the branch line from the main...The branchline which terminates at point "E" will begin to climb from shortly beyond the junction with the main line and will climb at around 2% to a point where the branch crosses over the main at around point "C1"  I have not made the decision as to whether the branch between these two points will be visible or hidden.

Note:  The main line run between points "C1" and "D" will be rural running with a wayside station and most likely a short loop. I have intentionally laid the main at an angle so as to try and get away from parallel to fascia track work in an attempt to add some visual interest and variation.

E. Branch terminus.  My feeling at this stage is that the finger bench that will house the terminus will contain a cement works and a small passenger station.  I have an extensive collection of buildings completed for this area. The "finger" benchwork will be at a higher level than the balance of the layout.

F. Main line tunnel portal...The mainline will circumnavigate this room hidden behind a screen backdrop and will only reappear beyond point "H" and the tunnel portal to take it into the main layout room.

G.  Branchline terminus area.  The branch begins at Fish River and the tunnel through the "existing wall" at Point "I" will act as a scenery block...between the branch terminus and the layout room proper. I have no final plan for this area at this stage.

H.  Main Line tunnel portal that returns the hidden main to the layout room proper.

I.  Branchline tunnel portal that creates a scenery block between the branch terminus and the layout room proper.

J.  Fish River valley....this area and related bridges over the river has been extensively covered in previous posts and photographs.

K.  Named Henderson's Siding...and will have a ( namesake) flour mill and quite possibly a fuel depot.  Flour Mill building is almost complete and again has been covered in previous posts.

X to X.  I have purposely left the trackwork missing between these two points on the plan.   There are two possibilities here.  Presently the trackwork is in place between Fish River yard and presently terminates near the tunnel portal at point "H" The track presently acts as a shunting neck extension of the loop through Fish River yard and may stay that way.  The other option is to extend this track thru the tunnel keeping it hidden with the main beyond this point and exit the layout through the wall where the isolated section of track marked "X" is located at bottom left of the plan...and into the newly built "modelling room" This extension could become a repair road and could later contain an "off layout" marshalling area located in the modelling room.

Presently all track with the exception of the branch diverging from the main at point "D" and the branch terminus at point "G" has been laid wired and all pointwork motorised.  The two main control panels ( discussed in previous posts ) have been completed and are operational.  There will be a need for "satellite" mini panels at different points around the layout as work progresses on both major branch lines and these will be tackled in due course and when final configuration of these areas is decided upon.  Of course there are smaller areas that need to be planned and decided as well such as the loco service area etc.

With an operational loop of the layout room now completed, attention will now focus on completing scenery on the Fish River station and yard area and when this is complete I will then have the opportunity to look at the rest of the layout and begin to finish scenes as "instalments" to the bigger picture.

Well that's about it for now...I hope that this up to date plan and description has given readers of this blog a new perspective in which to follow progress.