CURRENT NEWCASTLE PLAN

Here is my current design for a Newcastle layout drawn using AnyRail.  It is based on the 1937 track plan you can see below. The station throat has been straightened using double-slip points and simplified, to allow easier running for through-traffic on my mythical North Coast Line, which runs under the Hunter River utilising the Brunel inspired Newcastle Harbour Tunnel [?].  The simplified trackplan will also be controlled from computer or tablet, with just a simple single button press, setting multiple points and signals. Access to the shunting neck [which is longer than the prototype] is also via a double-slip point [now], allowing the pilot engine to access ALL platforms, rather than see-saw to reach platform 1 as it had to do in reality.  There is not much room for a yard, which in reality was huge, however there is space for a small goods shed, a loading bank with crane, a carriage shed, and a few coal roads. The arrival and departure roads had to come to the front due to lack of space to the rear.  Of course there is an oil depot, allowing me to rekindle that moment at the terminus of Wickham Branch, where as a small boy I was lifted up onto the footplate of a 19-class, and my love-affair with trains began.

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Staging is in the form of a true flat spiral. The idea came to me while playing around with track pieces in AnyRail while designing a return loop, and not wanting to use multiple layover tracks with points, as the points took up so much room.  My design creates 24 metres of storage. 

Only after completing the design, did I remember that maybe I had seen something similar on youTUBE before, and in fact, I had; a creation of James Risner - you can watch his version at the following link.  He runs super-long trains through his trackwork.  I will be running much shorter trains, usually only with one engine, and with timed separation between each train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtc__nxtQSc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN6BXDROBVk&t=95s

For those of you who cannot find the video on youTUBE here is a short sample.

THE SHORT NORTH LAYOUT - THAT NEVER WAS

This layout was destined to be built in my double garage which at the time had no cars in it - but inhabited by a lot of... 'collectables'... and WE were the only ones who could explain why we wanted to keep them!  The fact that we found it so hard to part with things, was one of the reasons the layout was never built. It did, however, take two or more years of my life to design, using WinRail 10.0, and it featured two levels with a climb up Cowan Bank getting trains to the upper level.  I will never build it - but I think it has a lot going for it, so feel free to pinch my ideas and run with it.  Let me know how you get on.

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Over the years this mythical layout had a number of other names including 'Broadmeadow & Beyond' and 'Mullet Creek'. The layout provided options for many types of rail activity - such as load balancing in Hawkesbury River Yard - adjusting the length and tonnage weight of each train - according to historical records, adding bank engines front and rear and facing the challenge of the steep Cowan Bank, plus a goods-shed and wharf sidings and refuges.  Wyong was expanded to include some of the functionality of Gosford - loco services including a pit with ashing facilities, stockyards, run-in and reverse-in refuges, Steggles, race-day trains, timber siding shunted the wrong way - what WAS I thinking! Ourimbah and Woy Woy had many shunting options. The upper level featured Berowra and a fictitious branch to Lake Cargelligo that included sites that I loved like Ben Lomond, Lue and Carcoar.

MODELLING THE RAILWAYS OF NSW 36 - 18 MAY 2019

I was a presenter again!

Overall I think it went well... but I was working under duress!

I could not use my OWN computer and mouse, [on which I had thoroughly rehearsed and was fairly slick]; because my laptop was too modern and incompatible with the projector. [It could not connect to USB! It would only party with a 15-pin VGA connector.]

So, I had to borrow an unfamiliar computer at the last minute; and at times, this made me look like a goose.

What did this do for me...?

• I could NOT see my presenter notes, so I had to guess what I meant to say with each slide, which was not easy, and it made me hesitant
•  it compressed some of my slides so the text appeared in crazy ways
•  the mouse was very sensitive - often it would run on two or three slides ahead
• with a different mouse in my RIGHT hand I started pointing at the computer screen in front of me with my LEFT hand; instead of using the mouse-arrow that appeared on the projector screen for everyone to see - and of course I had only used the mouse pointer in rehearsal! LOL
•  the videos did not run, or ran with sound but a black screen
•  in later shows I was able to set up my own computer, and play videos there...and...
•  Jonathan Hilliard, my co-presenter; downloaded software onto the computer that allowed some videos to play, but not all
•  I fumbled with my demonstrations - in hindsight, I should have just left them running the whole time

In spite of these difficulties, people did seem to respond well to the presentation, and I made some new friends.

I promised to put up some posts based on the presentation so I will do that shortly...