Dargan

Thanks Gary

You are right about the pressure. We should not feel that but we all do. It is human nature when we are demonstrating something that is quite dear to our hearts. Wow did the time go quickly though and of course we all learned a lot from each other. Imagine what can be done with regular (though not frequent) meetings between like minded experts?

Now for the Rosehill event!

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard.

 

Hi Folks

Progress Update # 11

Well I finally got a place for visitors to stay with the construction of the Railway Hotel but Dargan is now in need of another place to eat.

Post war Australia saw a huge influx of immigrants, initially the bulk of these coming from the UK but very quickly followed by those from Europe, mainly Italian and Greek. These new arrivals bought about cultural change, particularly in the then very narrow cuisine practised by the locals. With their substantially rural background, many Greek and Italian immigrants elected to settle in rural areas and it was not long before local restaurants reflected these new and much wider tastes. So just about every bush town soon saw the opening of establishments with names commonly seen like "The Athenia Cafe", The Acropolis" and of course "The Paragon". This expansion of tastes continues today with Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine.

But for now, Dargan just had to have "The Paragon" and naturally next door to the pub. A little bit of rust around the signage and rear parapet but only mild.




Here she is next door to the pub:



Naturally an evening view:




And with the pub:



Well thats it for now folks with the next project being the completion of the full street layout including installation of the street lighting.

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard

 

I was always thinking about what the scale length of the extended Dargan came to. So today with stop watch in hand and in the knowledge that all my locos are speed matched to precisely 70 kph, away I went. Dargan is precise;ly 3.4 scale km. Now that may not mean much to most, but for me at least I now know!

Back to my red.

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard

 

Hi Folks

When I was compiling the start of this thread, I knew I had some photos somewhere of the buildings on the original layout under construction. Just found them and thought you might be interested. This is the roundhouse and carriage workshop under construction. All beams and supports are scale copies of the originals.



This is at October, 2011. I remember that they took quite a while to complete.

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard

 

Forgot to mention that the lumber (timber?) was from Northeastern Scale Models.

 

Hi Folks

Progress Update # 12


The next stage of the extension has involved a fair degree of planning and review as it was necessary to decide on the final street layout for Dargan before I could progress. Dare I say there have been quite a few designs adopted and subsequently deleted as a variety of planning issues arose. Finally the street scape has been set and completed. There will be no more changes...well I think so anyway. So one way or another, here it is complete with roads, kerbs, footpaths and street lighting:



Now I thought that was the hard part until I had to spend a considerable amount of time under the layout installing all the wiring necessary to cater for the street lighting and provision for future building lighting. The aches and pains arising from this process are long and legendary as are the burn marks suffered from upside down soldering! But completion has been achieved and as is often said, let there be light:



Now I can move forward with other interesting structures but that will need to wait a little while as after an extremely long time, my three Auscision 48s have arrived and I need to go and play trains.

So for now happy modelling.

Richard

 

Hi Wombat

Thanks for your kind words.

I looked at quite a few turntables and finally settled on a Fleischmann as it had a motorised locking system that secured each end of the turntable track to the exit and entry points. There are release levers so you can also operate it manually which I do regularly as I generally use my NCE remote and the turntable controller is not close by. I have no intention of trying to figure out how to operate it via DCC!

It misses out on my Garratts by 20mm but covers all other locos easily.

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard

 

Thanks for the understanding on soldering Tony and Timbersurf. Have put you on my "follow" list so I do not miss any future tips. Thankfully most soldering is done now and includes plenty of provisions for the new buildings to be connected plug in. I am using simple RCA set ups. Early planning was deficient of course as the lighting design evolved as I was moving forward and naturally it grew to be much more extensive than originally conceived but I am glad I did it. I have also included additional circuits to allow for connection of the complete stages of my level crossings and their actuators as well as other refinements. Welding units for workshops, neon signs for commercial buildings, etc. None of these were planned but now that I have found them they are must have items!

Cheers for now and happy modelling

Richard

 

Hi Folks

Progress Update # 13

It is now a while since my last update and during this period of a month or so I have been faced with that great dilemma we all come across at some stage...."Where to devote my time and energy next?"

a) The extension is looking great and has now reached the stage where I can get on with really making the town/City of Dargan achieve its potential, particularly with the installation of residential buildings. Continue down this path?

b) Wiring under the new extension is something I am pleased with. All circuits are trouble free with every joint being soldered and protected with heat shrink insulation and nicely tethered. But what of the existing layout and much of its spaghetti like wiring and the odd spark or two, not to mention all of the redundant cabling which used to support block sections under the old DC system? How long can I ignore this?

c) The central western section of the original layout was always intended to be some sort of industrial or light industrial area...but the refuge I built to allow for this does not accommodate any of the laser backdrop kits I have seen and liked very much. Also one of the controlling turnouts has malfunctioned and needs to be replaced. So to fix this needs to come up 1.8 metres of completed and ballasted twin track plus the offending turnout.

d) We still need to devote at least some time to that underlying pastime of actually running our trains!

The new Canon equipment which has allowed me to post pics that can actually be seen also has a top quality video capability. A good friend of mine is a video tragic and cannot understand why I have not let him loose on a Dargan Video but preferably a series of them?

DECISION TIME!

Requirement 1) In order to achieve electrical consistency across the whole layout and while my ageing bones can cope with the demands of lying under the layout for extended periods of time, fix the old wiring.

Solution 1) I have now totally rewired the original layout to the same standard as the extension. The completion of this entailed reworking the last of the old control panels to more properly reflect DCC operations. I wanted the refurbished control panel to show me at a glance where all turnouts were set. Sure this signal box control panel for the Hartley Grange area could be based on LEDs but just thinking about the number of cables coming back from every turnout motor left me a bit cold so I settled for PECO switch levers but with them set directly into the board rather than using their installation system. Neater and smaller although you need to be very accurate when cutting out the installation slots as a snug fit is necessary. This is what the old board looked like:



But with a bit more plastic wood, some fine sanding and spray painting, we now get:



All is now ready for the final install of the PECO switches and layout diagram. That will have to wait until the paint dries!!

Cheers for now and happy modelling

Richard

PS items a,c,d and e are under active consideration

 

Paint still not yet dried...too cold at the moment but a nice sunny day is predicted for Sydney so here's hoping.

Cheers

Richard

 

The paint is dry but is anyone actually watching or are just the UK members awake?

 

Yes the old control panel was the last remnant of the old DC system and the holes were where block switching used to be. Never quite got around to fixing it but I am glad I did now. Here is the finished product although I wish I could find my 3 mm black graphic tape so I can complete the design:



Now the remaining issue is that I need to complete the Glen Davis panel!

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard

 

Hi Folks

Progress Update # 14

As I mentioned in update # 13, now to devote time and energy to fixing the original central western section of the layout with its defective turnout and inadequate spacing between track and rear wall to accommodate the desired industrial buildings. This is the main offender, the turnout:



Followed by the narrow clearance to the wall so there is a fair bit to demolish (1.9 metres of twin track:



Demolition completed. Don't you just love pulling up ballasted track work and then trying to achieve a new level finish !



The first warehouse and carefully set out to make sure this time we have the correct clearances!!



New track, ballasting and building electrics finally completed:



A lot more time in the study and all buildings now completed and installed:



Naturally they are complete with lighting:





Well folks that is it for now so onto the promised time to just run some trains. I really do need to think about back scenes though as it just looks unfinished. But then there are some structures needed for the Dargan extension and also more practice necessary for my embryonic video attempts. Oh well, time is a problem faced by us all.

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard