I'd like to see more

I'd like to see more

Oztrainz,

I'd like to see more of the modules. Some close ups would be nice.

Bernd

I 2nd that comment

I 2nd that comment

Yes please show so more information. It looks like wonderful modeling and designing. Haven't you shown a few random pictures in a few threads? Craig

Australian prototype?

Australian prototype?

Is this the area of the prototype railroad?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrimal,_New_South_Wales

I'd be interested to see more about your operation.

Definitely not the same old same old.

Definitely not the same old same old.

Oztrainz needs an attitude adjustment. There is so much here for us to learn from. Start at the beginning and just keep publishing as the spirit moves you. Blayne

Some answers

 Some answers 

Hi all,

First off -  for Craig 

Yes it is based on an Australian prototype of the steam operated 2' gauge railway that ran between from mine on the side of the Illawarra escarpment above Corrimal and the self-acting continuous-rope incline that lowered the 2' gauge coal skips about 300' down a 1 in 4 (25%) grade. This railway ran from 1906 to 1955, but the incline itself dated from the early 1880's. From 1890 the original incline was truncated at the bottom of the steep part of the run and the coal was loaded into colliery-owned standard gauge wagons that ran on a combination of colliery-owned and government-owned tracks to Port Kembla, about 10 miles south of the mine.

At Port Kembla the coal was loaded onto ships for delivery to destinations as far away as Hong Kong and San Francisco. Some of the smaller sized coal was supplied to the domestic market locally and in nearby Sydney for household rather than industrial use. All fines were converted to coke in the colliery's own coke works. This coke works was originally at Unanderra but moved to beside the Government tracks and station at Corrimal in 1912. The Corrimal coke works finally closed last year, but the cokeworks is outside the scope of the model.  

And yes photos of parts of this layout have appeared on different threads here for a while. So, you might see some photos here that you might have seen before, but can't remember where. 

For Bernd - 

As requested, some photos of each module will begin to appear here on a module-by-module basis.. Some of the photos might be of each of the modules as displayed at last Easter, and some might be in the construction phase. There was at least one of the modules that I didn't get any photos of when the layout was last together at Easter. But perhaps, first we should have a look a what module goes where on the trackplan to help with the photos as they start to appear. 

This should help you to work out what is actually in photos of the model. The above sketch is not to scale as far as the trackwork goes, but the module sizes are drawn to scale. Modules are either 1200 mm (4'} long or 1400 mm (4'8")  long by 600 (2') mm wide.  

A brief description of each module, its purpose and key features, as we head to the mine:

1. Bottom End - contains the Tipple and Screens buildings and the kickback siding for the 2' gauge track from the incline, the non-operational 3' gauge stone disposal track from the Screens, and the standard gauge tracks arriving from Corrimal that feed the empty wagon standage sidings for the screens and the Screens themselves. This module is the downhill end of the operational incline
2. The Incline - contains the 2' gauge tracks on the operational incline itself, including a catchpoint, and the rest of standard gauge empty wagon standage sidings below 
3. Top End -  contains the end of the incline, where the empty coal skips pass over the loaded coal skips wating to go to the tipple. The significant structure on this module is the incline Brakehouse. This module is the uphill end of the operational  incline.
4. Dead End - contains the headshunt to feed loaded coal skips to the incline top and a culvert for a creek. 
5. Water Tank - contains the iconic water tank (see  https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/239348687?keyword=corrimal%20colliery&startPos=20 ) and ashpit for the steam locomotive, standage sidings for skips diverted from the incline top, The Fulls skip track that is used to feed loaded coal skips to the incline top via the Dead-End module, and, is the pickup point for empty coal skips going back to the mine, hauled by the steam locomotive. There is also a sand drying shed. 
6. Trestle - this is a scenery module that features a timber trestle over a larger creek and is the change over point from steam to the battery-electric locomotive that is used to feed loaded skips to the incline top.
7. Jump - this module exists as the "jump" to and from the two Brokers Nose modules. The use of this module avoids a 4-way module joint. 
8. Brokers Nose 1 - this is a scenery module that features Brokers Nose and a "recent" landslide.
9. Brokers Nose 2 - this is another scenery module that has the locomotive shed and a waterfall. A non-operational track diverges here that goes to the Workshop on Mine 1 module.
10. .Mine 1 - contains the exchange sidings where the steam locomotive takes over for the run to the Trestle module from the battery-electric locomotive used for "underground" haulage. Key buildings are the First Aid Cabin, Workshop, Mine office and  the Rope & Cable Store. . 
11. Mine 2 - contains the tunnel portals and the end of the exchange sidings at the mine. Key buildings are the Lamphouse, Weigh Cabin, Spare Powder Magazine and trestles to feed the Powerhouse coal bunker. This module is mainly required to swing the tracks through almost 270 degrees to enter the Main Haulage portal for coal. There is also a separate "Men and Materials" portal.
12. Underground: - a simple balloon loop behind the portals that serves as the loading point for loading coal into the coal skips, behind the backscene and tunnel portals. The radius here is down to 10" in places.

That'll do for this post. It's probably too long already,

Thanks John

Thanks John

I'll be watching for the pictures. Thanks much for the response, much appreciated.

Bernd

looking good assembled

looking good assembled

Great to see a photo of it all together john.

Hopefully I will be able to get to an exhibition to see it before you decide you have had enough exhibiting.

:> )

cheers

 Bob Comerford

Thanks all so far

 Thanks all so far

For Bernd.

I'll start with a wide view of each module and we can go into more detail if and when required. Most of the photos I have are "working" photos that were intended to document the journey, but not shot under controlled lighting intended for publication. Given that most of this layout was built outside in my driveway, lighting conditions were very variable. 

For Bob,

There is still a few months of work in front of us yet before we can announce the layout's availability for exhibition work. We've only been working on this since October 2005, so a little longer shouldn't  worry us too much?

The saga of how all this got started way back then should perhaps should be kept for a different posting? 

For all.

If you spot anything of interest, please ask. I'll do my best to answer your questions. This layout is not "Top Secret" but does use "Black Magic" on the 1 in 4 or 25% grades, 

Module 1 - The Bottom-End (of the Incline)

 Module 1 - The Bottom-End (of the Incline)

Hi all,

so let's start with the Bottom-End module. Because I am unsure of copyright status of any of the online records, I'll post links here rather than the actual photos that are displayed at those links. 

The Bottom-End module overall.

 
Key features- left to right

1. Under the layout is the control panel that controls the turnout on the kickback siding and the tipple operation (yes we actually dump coal) 
2. Immediately next to it, is the control panel for the under-track chains that simulate the incline upstream of the tipple and and creeper chain operation downstream of the tipple. This completes the description of anything under the baseboard on this module. 
3. The grey cabin at extreme left on the upper level camouflages the servo arm driving the kickback turnout. Below-track point motors are not an option because of the under-track chain.
4. The horse and wagon on the lower level are on the Stone Disposal Road. On the prototype this track was 3' gauge and went several hundred yards away from the screens. This wagon was the only 3' gauge wagon on the mine property. This track was used to dispose of any stone manually picked from the coal in the Screens building before the coal was loaded into the brown standard gauge wagons below.
5. Heading diagonally down to the right above and behind the horse and wagon is the track from the kickback siding that disappears behind the Screens building. This track leads to the start of the Empties Incline (see #10).
6. The green 0-6-0 steam locomotive is on the arrival track and has 4 more empty wagons for loading at the screens. The locomotive is an Ixion Models Hudswell Clarke. It is a fair approximation for the two 1880's vintage 0-6-0 tank locomotives built by the Yorkshire Engine Company (UK) that worked the prototype.
7. The larger grey building spanning 2 of the standard gauge tracks at baseboard level is the Screens building. Here coal was sorted by size before loading into the brown standard gauge wagons beneath the screens. 
8. Immediately behind the Screens building is the roof of the Tipple House. This is where the coal is tipped by a servo-powered side-dumping tipple. The tipped coal is collected under the layout.in a sealed container. The Tipple House is connected to the Screens building by an operational drag chain conveyor that looks like it is lifting coal from under the tipple up into the top of the Screens building.
9. Immediately to the right of the Screens Building is a small Stores Building, with  some the more weather-poof supplies for the mine laid out behind the standard gauge tracks at baseboard level.  
10. Behind the Stores building and rising diagonally to the right is the Empties Incline that returns empty coal skips to the top of the Incline
11. Behind the Empties Incline is the tipple deck for loaded coal skips arriving from the Fulls Incline. This is marked by the horizontal white deck edge. 

What Was -

Looking from the end of the standard gauge tracks, from where these tracks head out into space, this link is to a 1906 photo held by the Library of NSW that shows the eastern side Corrimal colliery Screens building at the foot of the incline and the loaded standard gauge wagons. Note the difference in the size of the coal in the wagons between the left and right hand tracks.  Brokers Nose towers over the scene at top left. The incline itself appears as a smudgy gap through the trees heading uphill from top right of the Screens building roof.  

That completes the overview of this module. 

To close out - the first wagon of lump coal has been loaded and run clear of the screens under gravity. Another wagon is under the lump coal chute. The first wagon of the small coal is still under the loading chute on the adjacent track, while Neddy looks on from the 3' gauge Stone Disposal Road. His timber side-dump Western Scraper wagon is just out of shot to the left.  

So where to next? More photos of this module or do we start to head uphill to the next module? - Your call. It doesn't worry me either way,

Photos

Module 2 - The incline module

 Module 2 - The Incline module

Hi all 

Next module uphill is the Incline module of the "hill" itself.

Key features on this module (left to right again):

1. The two narrow-gauge incline tracks rising from left to right, The rise here is just under 300 mm over a 1400 mm module length. This equates to about 1-in-4.7 or a 21% grade.  
2. A Peco O-scale double-slip had to be bisected because it spanned the module joint. Part of the double-slip can be seen at the extreme left of the middle standard gauge track.
3. A cross over from the track closest to the module edge to the double-slip,as seen in front of the 3 parked standard gauge wagons.
4. Three standage sidings used to hold empty standard gauge wagons for the Screens on the previous module. On the prototype, wagons on these sidings were gravity-shunted down to the Screens for loading using the wagon handbrakes. .
5. Three brown standard gauge wagons on the inner standage track These wagons were never fitted with airbrakes. The fixed hopper with bottom dump doors was unique to the local region of NSW. The models were custom lasercut and detailed with some commercial castings. 
6. A partially-completed rock wall. This will be expanded to cover the flat brown painted vertical surfaces. These are "soft rocks" made from foam and are hot glued onto the vertical wall in front of the incline.
7. A derailed coal skip in the undergrowth to the left of the incline tracks. I'll save the story of this "wheely-bad" skip for another posting. 
8. The 2 white dots are actually 1/43 scale children figures placed to represent the mine manager's children in this historic photo 

What Was:

This incline was a self-acting (no external power required) continuous-rope incline where one track was used for loaded skips going downhill and the other track was used for empty skips coming back uphill.  The incline dropped approximately 300' (100 metres) vertically over the length of its run with a documented ruling grade of 1-in-4 or 25%. Individual skips were clipped to the incline haulage rope and were dotted along the length of the incline.  These skips had to be unclipped from the rope at the end of their run. At any time, 22 loaded skips, each with about 3/4 ton of coal on board, were heading downhill. The weight of those skips going downhill provided the power to:

• bring the empty skips back uphill to the top of the incline
• bring mining supplies to the mine via the incline in either empty coal skips (eg bagged chaff for the pit ponies) or on special purpose wagons (eg pit props, oil drums, etc).
• drive the elevating conveyor that lifted the coal to the top of the Screens building, and,
• drove the vibrating screens in the Screens building used to size the coal
• and there was spare energy (to be covered next in the next module)

This incline rope has been documented as being of 3.5" circumference steel rope. There was about 26 tons of tension in the rope.

Remember that this incline dated from the late 1800's, well before electric motors were used in industry. 

The Peco  O-scale double-slip mentioned in #2 above as "out of shot" to the left. A construction photo of this has been posted on here previously, so here it is again.

Yes you can do this type of stuff but, if you can avoid it, then my advice is to do so. We didn't have an option given other factors.  And back together again, with a train parked across it and the module joint

That ought to do for this post, 

Late edit - link to historic photo fixed 17/7/2019

A Wheely-bad skip and the Mine Manager's children at the Incline

 A Wheely-bad skip and the Mine Manager's children at the Incline

Hi all,

as mentioned in my previous post 

Well that posting has arrived...

In 1926 a travelling photographer visited Corrimal mine and took some photographs. One of those photos was the photo in the link above. The date of the visit was determined by one of the other photos that was taken on the same day with the same children in the same clothes standing beside the Corrimal #2 mine portal. This portal was dug to access another of the coal seams in the side of the hill. But this mine only existed for less than 2 years. So the date has been set. But what else can that historic photo tell us? 

So how did the skip end up in the undergrowth?? Let's have closer look at those 2 white dots and the "wheely-bad" skip.

If you have a close look at the historic photo behind the link, on the other side of the tracks from the children, is a catchpoint. At the top of the incline there were 3 of these that perhaps can only be described as masterpieces of "Aussie bush engineering". How these worked has been documented in several publications. 

On the prototype, the skips were attached to the haulage cable by a Fisher clip. These three catchpoints were rigged to derail:

• any skip where the Fisher clip was incorrectly attached. If correctly attached, the Fishher clip tripped levers that held over the catchpoint blade while the skip passed.
• any skip that had broken free of the haulage cable and had started to run away on the grade. In this case, there was nothing to hold over the levers that would allow the skip onto the steep part of the incline.
• any skip where a problem was spotted after it was attached to the haulage rope. All 3 catchpoints could be instantly triggered by a tripwire leading from the start of the cable haulage. This dislodged a counterweight at each catchpoint that disabled the holdover levers above. 

The historic photo shows the third and last catchpoint before the steep part of the downhill run for loaded coal skips. 

So what's this about a "wheely-bad" skip? The model coal skips were one of the things that took a lot of design effort, testing and time to get reliable (aka "bazooka-proof", in that they have to work "first time - every time" they go out onto the 20%-plus grade). Sometimes you get unexpected results in testing. Like this skip that was heading uphill empty.

In this pre-scenery testing photo, a bearing block failure locked up an axle that caused a "wheelie" on the grade. Somehow the downhill coupling got jammed and prevented a runaway. When inspected after the event, this skip was assessed as a "total failure" that could not be fixed. 

So... never being one to let the truth stand in the way of a good scenic cameo, this "wheely-bad" skip was relegated to scenery, as a victim of the catchpoint. It recreates what must have happened when things "didn't go quite right" at the top of the incline...

... complete with a spilled coal load.

And, from the other side of the tracks

And so ends the saga of the "wheely-bad" coal skip, 

Late edit - link to historic photo fixed

Wheely Bad Skips

Wheely Bad Skips

Dear OzTrainz, Brings a whole new spin on the term "Troublesome Trucks" (apologies to any Thomas fans) Happy modelling, Aim to Improve, Prof Klyzlr

Module 3 - The Top-End (of the Incline)

 Module 3 - The Top-End (of the Incline)

Hi all again,

Uphill of the Incline module is the Top End Module. Photos will be after "Key features", so that they make a bit more sense. 

Key features of this module:

1. The brakehouse - this is where the incline haulage cable changes direction from heading uphill to heading downhill. This is the only building on this module.
2. A trestle bridge, where the empty skips arriving off the Empties Incline track at the top of the incline after they have been "unclipped" from the haulage cable, cross over the loaded skips waiting to go downhill on the Fulls Incline track, 
3. A divert siding at the top of the hill that leads to the standage siding on the adjacent Water Tank module.
4. A customised pulley arrangement that is use to drop the level of the outgoing cable from the brakehouse to the below rail height of the lower level of the Fulls Incline 
5. A catchpoint down hill of where the skips join the incline haulage. 
6. A fixed ramp uncoupler positioned just before the Fulls Incline haulage cable crosses to in between the rails (more on how this works in a subsequent post).
7. A customised pulley arrangement used to divert the haulage cable on the Empties Incline horizontally from between the rails so that it can be fed to the brakehouse
8. A customised pulley arrangement used to divert the haulage cable on the Fulls Incline horizontally from the brakehouse so that it can be fed to between the rails.
9. Timber retaining walls to support the higher level Empties Incline track. One section of this wall is removable to assist with threading the under-track chain paths.

So to the photos - looking uphill towards the brake house...

...with loaded skips awaiting their run down "the hill on the lower level, and the Empties Incline track climbing away on the right. The first catchpoint is between the second and third rollers that are used to support the haulage cable. The brakehouse rises on the skyline beyond the trestle. The haulage cables are not installed in this photo. Both incline tracks cross the module joint at the same level and same grade, just out of shot in the right foreground.

This photo shows the cable and uncoupler ramp at the start of the lower Fulls Incline track and some of the empty skips delivered after tipping on the upper level. The divert road is seen curving off to the left of the trestle bent

This photo as viewed from the next module shows the battery-electric loco shoving another load of loaded skips towards the incline top. The orange locomotive is just on the Top-End module. On the right is a short stretch of track that connects the Water Tank and Dead-End modules. 

The divert road curves of the right of the trestle pier carrying the "No Way" sign. 

This photo gives an idea of the how the divert road , the trestle and some of the retaining walls fit into the top-end scenery

What was - 

In the brakehouse was a hardwood-clad drum with 3 1/2 turns of the haulage cable around the drum.  Either side of this drum were two 7' diameter brake paths. The rope actually slid sideways on the drum as the drum turned. Water-cooled hardwood brake shoes mounted in calipers acted on these brake paths. The speed of the incline was controlled by a ball-type governor. As the speed increased, the brakes would apply more force to the brake paths. When at full capacity on the incline the brakes were absorbing 40 HP of energy. This energy was absorbed by evaporating off the water used to cool the brake shoes.

The brakehouse operator also had a lever that would drop the brakes on fully if anything went wrong on the incline. Beside the incline was a wire fence that had 2 wires. If there was a problem, then the wires could be twisted together to ring an alarm bell in the brakehouse cabin. The incline was not to be restarted while the bell was ringing.   

The divert track - If the incline was going to be stopped for a protracted period, loaded skips could be diverted to a standage siding before the cable haulage commenced. This track was horse-worked. Once the incline was restarted, horses would haul a cut of loaded skips back to the incline track to continue their interrupted run downhill. The divert track could also be used to cut out any damaged skips before they got onto the incline.

Outgoing loaded skips - were man-handled beyond the start of the haulage cable. The Fisher clip was placed over the uphill drawhook of the coal skips and tightened onto the cable by hitting a collar on the clip. As soon as the clip tightened, the skip moved off at the speed of the haulage cable, and another ton of skip and coal were on their way downhill, provided they cleared the catchpoints.    

Arriving empty skips - were automatically unclipped from the cable by a "knocker-off" (this was basically a sprung fork that pushed against the collar on the Fisher clip on an arriving skip ,releasing its tension in the clip and the clip's grip on the haulage rope. If this didn't work, some quick work with a hammer was required to release the clip before the skip got to where the rope was diverted from between the tracks to the brakehouse, as shown below.

After an empty skip was disconnected from the rope, it rolled by gravity over the trestle and onto a storage track, where the individual skips would be re-coupled into a train consist of about 30 empty skips for their mile-long run back to the mine behind a steam locomotive.   

That ought to do for this post,

A diversion (Part 1) - Staged Layout Construction (TOMA almost)

 A diversion (Part 1) - Staged Layout Construction (TOMA almost)

Hi all 

what follows is a diversion away from the descriptions of the chain of modules comprising this layout into the staged construction process we used to build this layout. Initially all modules were planned to be 1200 mm (4') long by 600 mm (2') wide. 

Stage 1 - Six modules with a train turntable as staging (Mine Run 1 module) as displayed at the Australian Narrow Gauge Convention in 2013 and 2015

Stage 2 - Nine modules with the train turntable still as staging (Mine Run 2 module)

Stage 3 (original) - 11 modules with the train turntable module re-purposed as the U/Ground Loadout module

In public exhibition use, it is intednded to run with a 600mm "No Go Zone" around the layout. The extent of this "No Go Zone" is indicated by the red line around the layout.  At the Australian Narrow Gauge Convention, this "No Go Zone" was dispensed with to allow other modellers to have a close look at how the layout was heading towards completion. The ANGC is a totally different operating environment than a public exhibition.  

Stage 3 final - 12 modules with the train turntable module re-purposed as the U/Ground Loadout module, as displayed last Easter at the Australian Narrow Gauge Convention in Geelong. The Jump module was a later addition to the Stage 3 plan to avoid a 4-way module joint at the Brokers Nose modules. Such 4-way module joints are more difficult to fabricate and maintain for accurate track alignment.    

OK so that was the plan. Much has been/is currently being said about the flexibility of the TOMA approach of staged layout construction. Come back next time to see how this flexibility was used and what was repurposed or changed as we went along and the rubber hit the road. 

Interesting

Interesting

John,

This is quite an involved project. I'm following along. Thanks for the posts.

Bernd

A complex subject

A complex subject

Look forward to more of your posts on this fascinating little coal railway John.

Cheers

 Bob Comerford

Module 4 - The Dead-End (of the Incline)

 Module 4 - The Dead-End (of the Incline)

Hi all again

A diversion from the diversion and a reversion to Bernd's original request for more about each module. The next module up is the Dead-End module. 

This module is one of the 120 mm long modules and serves as the headshunt to the Fulls Incline track. 

Loaded coal skips were moved by horse from the Dead-End to the top of the incline. Making operational 1/43rd scale pit ponies was never going to be an option, so a battery-electric locomotive is used to move skips to the start of the incline on the model.  

Track work as viewed from near the culvert, with the battery-electric locomotive delivering another cut of loaded coal skips to the incline top.

Before more trees grew...

The vegetation is this area is intended to represent wet schlerophyl rainforest on the Illawarra Escarpment, like this

and these are small gum trees at about 100' high... Storage and transport considerations meant that the trees were limited in height to about  200 mm or 8" actual height above ground level which scales out at about 20' actual tree height =  a very baby gum tree. 

Looking up the creek at the culvert...

...with the tree ferns in the creek gully. 

What was

 Printed references describe a culvert under the track as being present but give no description of what materials were used in its construction or its dimensions. The culvert remains are up on the mountainside somewhere but there are no photographs known to exist of it or the dead-end while the incline was in service.   

How the prototype Top End of the incline was actually operated is worth a posting in its own right, after the next module  description - The Water Tank module. 

Until the next time,

Look forward to the next bit

Look forward to the next bit

Look forward to the next bit mate.

Did you make it to Thornleigh?

regards

Bob Comerford

For Bob,

 For Bob,

Hi Bob and all,

Yes I made it to Thonleigh on Sunday. Some O narrow gauge, no O standard gauge, but also a lot of N and HO stuff on display and a good selection of trader stands. I probably took about 300 probably-not-very-good photos of stuff that interested me. I suppose I could start a new thread for Thornleigh if anyone else is interested. Failing that I'll pm you when the better ones have been put somewhere accessible. .  

The Water Tank module should be along a late tonight if things go according to plan. I need to check on something before I can turn it loose on a public forum.    

Module 5 - The Water Tank

  Module 5 - The Water Tank

Hi all again,

and so to the Water Tank module.. But what' this about a water tank? All railways have a water tank for their steam locomotives, but not like this one In model form, as an overall view of this module we have:

with key structures from left

1. the sand drying shed. This was a simple corrugated iron shed with a small sand drying furnace inside it. the furnace provided dried sand for the steam locomotives working between the mine and the incline top. Only 1 photo is known to exist of the front of the shed only and no photos exist of what was inside it.
2. the elevated water tank - a cut down vertical boiler of unknown parentage or origin mounted on timber piers.  
3. An ash storage area to the right of the water tank.

As far trackwork on this module goes:

• only one track leaves this module to the left and heads "to the mine"
• the trackwork layout on this module closely matches the prototype's actual track layout but all siding lengths have been heavily compressed.
• the orange battery-electric locomotive, to the left of the watertank, is parked on the Fulls Track. This track connects to the Dead-End module (module #4) via a short piece of track on the Top-End module (module #3)
• between the water tank and the battery-electric locomotive is the Empties Track that connects to the Empties Incline at the right of the module to the Trestle on the Top-End module (module #3).. 
• the 2 skips in front of the tree are on a skip repair siding from the non-operational cross-over track that crosses this module from right rear on the Empties track to the Standage Siding at front left of the module. The horse with the 2 skips is on this track
• the siding to the sand-drying shed comes off this cross-over track behind the horse with the 2 skips.
• the upturned skip at front left is in front of the non-operational Standage siding that is at at the front of this module and connects with the lower level Fulls Incline track prior to the Trestle on the Top-End module.(module #3)
• The trackwork at the right of this module jumps to the adjacent Top-End module on 3 different levels.
• Apart from the Fulls and Empties tracks, all trackage is non-operational scenic enhancement.

The above photo is of skips lined up on the Standage Siding at the front of this module. On the prototype this siding was used to store loaded coal skips if the incline was stopped for a protracted time. This siding could also be used to divert any damaged skips that were likely to cause problems on the steep incline. These defective skips would be repaired. All traffic in and out of these sidings was horse-worked.

This module will eventually grow more scrubby trees along the far edge of the module, with more "junk" and weeds around the track as well but apart from that it is complete. Tall vegetation on his module has been kept to a minimum to allow the locos-swap action at the back of the module to be seen by the public.

That ought to do for this module,

Very cool, do you have any in

Video??

Very cool, do you have any in action videos?

Good observant modelling as

Good observant modelling as usual John.

I do hope no one wants action videos of the horse though  :> )

cheers

 Bob Comerford

Module 6 - The train turntable - End of Stage 1

 Module 6 - The train turntable - End of Stage 1 

Hi all again,

Thanks to all who have dropped by for a look. It's nice to know there is someone is out there who cares to drop by and peer over the fence to see what's happening here. 

So now we come to Module 6 - the train turntable...and the end of Stage 1

Why a train turntable?

If you break the incline operation down to its most basic geometry, then the  incline track work is simply a "Y", but a rather specialized one, as shown in the sketch below.

For various reasons when designing the coal skips (skip design and the iterations we went through is a whole other saga for another time), the coal skips are not symmetrical as was the prototype, so the skips are reversed when they run the incline. But the incline is designed to handle the coal skips "this way downhill". So after the coal skips have done their run downhill loaded and returned uphill empty they are facing the "wrong way" for another run down hill. So they have to be turned around  before they can go downhill again.

If we don't have the mine trackage (coming in Stage 3), then we have to fudge things at Stage 1. So a train turntable...

The Train Turntable

This is about as basic a train turntable as you can possible have: 

• A bolt for a centre pivot
• A disc of MDF for the table itself
• Some flex track offcuts for the track on the approach ramp, the turntable and the overshoot track
• Some tightly fitting nested rectangular brass sections as "shot bolts" at each end of the table 
• On the table, each channel piece is connected to its adjacent track
• Adjacent to the table on the approach and overshoot track, each channel piece is connected to its adjacent track and this channel piece is energised by the track
• The track is unpowered during turning and is only powered when aligned by the shot-bolts at each end.
• The track is bent around the centre pivot, just because we could (because of the short-length rolling stock we are running)
• An inverted and recessed bolt in the turntable to act as a "handle" for the turning operation 

Operation 

The steam locomotives always were smokebox first towards the mine (onto the turntable from the Water Tank module), and Corrimal had no facilities to turn a locomotive. So if the incline was to be operated as close to prototype as possible, then:

1. The skips had to be turned though 180 degrees, but
2. The locomotive had to be turned through 360 degrees
3. The skips can only couple to the locomotive from one end only.

I'll let you work out how it can be done.

Like Douglas MacArthur, the train turntable module "shall return", sometime in the future,