Well a couple years, several moves interstate and another coming.....GDRMCo v1.0 never got to the tracklaying stage and I've since lost the space I had for it....
Now I haven't got a space dedicated for a layout *yet* but we are moving in Jan/Feb and I've made it a priority to find somewhere with a spare room. Looking around most rooms are about 10x10-12x16ft in size so I've gone with 10x15ft as a working point and I'll be finding somewhere that has a room that size. We'll be in the same place for atleast 5 years so this layout can finally get some real progress (maybe even "finished").
So without rambling too much more here's the trackplan.
Metric it's 3100x4600mm and covers 2 levels with a lower staging level.
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Operations wise there's long thru freights, ore and coal trains, acid, fertiliser, concentrates and a passenger service.
On layout there is the three coal mines that will be served by trains of rotary gons and live loads. Pentland and Mt Coolon are both balloon loops while Mt Wyatt is a siding.
Grades wise the lower level will be mostly flat with a slight grade down from the Burdekin River end to the other helix (Charters Towers is on the west side of the Great Dividing Range). Spurs will have level track.
Mt Coolon to Summit will be a steep grade and require bankers out of the loop for loaded trains. A pair of banking locomotives will be based out of the industry siding there and will push trains up to Summit. The lead unit will have a special U shaped coupler to enable it to push the car ahead but cut off on the fly so the loaded trains won't have to stop to cut the bankers off.
Each mine and Charters Towers has a fuel unload (storage facility at Charters Towers) and a warehouse to supply fuel and machinery and food supplies to the mines. A reefer and 60' boxcar will be required at each and will be served by a dedicated supply train.
Intermodal traffic is conveyed as part of a general freight train each way, cars will be dropped off and picked up from the Intermodal yard.
The general freight will also drop off the cars for the supply train.
Most other trains will simply pass thru on the mainline.
I've been considering adding a locomotive facility at Charters Towers for the Mt Coolon bankers and trains passing thru if needed. Would also be somewhere to park locomotives for a little display of sorts.
At the Charters Towers station there is a track behind the platform for a MOW set (building a "first response" track repair train to base there) and the local shunter will store at this track also.
Thoughts?
