British Columbia Railway Dawson Creek Sub in HO

[Twist67]

Hi there,
in this thread I´ll show you the progress of my Dawson Creek Sub in progress...The layout is build in the basement of our house...one room is about 11ft x 11ft with an additional corridor with about 15ft in lenght and it will be build with two decks...I´ll make a drawing of the layout and the rooms for an better overview later...I´ll add some extensions to both levels sometime in future..
I´ve started the build of the layout in 2010...I´ve done a lot of work since that and hope to get started with some scenery,soon
I´ll start the "tour" with a new addition to the lower level.I started to build it as a place for shooting photos of rolling stock an other things...Will be some structures,tracks,road and other things...



It´s seperated from the rest of the layout,I layed the tracks through a hole in the wall...here is the other side entering the layout

on the lower level will be Chetwynd Yard and the start of the subdivison to Dawson Creek on the right side and the main north to Fort Nelson on the left down to staging.



Next will follow in the next posting...
regards,Chris

[Twist67]

So let´s go on with my layout tour....I ended with the part where the sub to Dawson Creek starts.

After that curve the tracks disappear through a hole in the backdrop over my workbench and through another hole in the backdrop into the Tremblay area with a grain elevator and the siding....




On the right side of the next picture you can see the helix to the upper level...the tracks will go throgh another hole in the backdrop into the helix....I´ll add some trees,a bridge,hills and other things to hide the holes in the background....

On the upper level the tracks appear from the helix to a small farmarea with some cornfields,farmbuildings etc.I think I´ll add my Saw Pit Store somewhere in that place...I found a picture of the kit in the net and made some research on the history of saw pits...




from there the tracks follow along some hills and a small forest to the bridge over the Kiskatinaw River...This bridge will be a wooden bridge I´ll model from some pictures...Actual there is a mockup for the bridge made from an Whalters wooden  trestle...from there the tracks go a little bit down into Dawson Creek with it´s grainelevators,station and other buidlings....



Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Starting from the station and freighthouse where the white elevater is located I´ll be model the Cargill Grain Elevator

From the other side with a cardboard mockup of station and feighthouse,behind the station Scott´s National Food Warehouse will be located.

Fosters Seed & Feed

Western Agri-Service Grain Elevator Complex will grow up in this free space

Alberta Pool #3 Grain Elevator


Northwestern Wood Preservers Planer Mill


I´ll scratchbuild most of the structures in Dawson creek....I have some little information about the footprints of ost of the Elevators and also station and freighthouse.I´ll make mockups for them and later model them from wood and sheet materials...clapboard walls will be build board by board etc...It´s a lot of fun building things that way...I ´ll open extra threads for the structures...The next days I´ll finish the tracks and will put power to tracks and turnouts and do some test...
Thanks for looking,
Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

I made some changes to the former Photocorner called section...It´s now integrated into the layout at Chetwynd...I made some elevations for the buildings and some other things and work on it from time to time....here some pictures of the actual progress:
behind me on the right side is chetwynd yard

View into Chetwynd




Mark on another forum gave me some stuff for thinking about with the street I thought about that and made a decision...He´s right...straight roads will look nice in the real world....but it don´t work in our small world with the limited space we have....so now the street sneaks to the right and will be hidden with some structures when you drive down the bridge into town...but because I have no matching buildings on hand I have to do some scratchbuilding....made some cardboard mockups of the buildings....
so here are the pictures.First one with the straight street heading to the wall...


And here is nearly the same view with the new buildings and the new street...


Some more pictures with the new arrangement....







Thanks for looking,

regards,Chris

[Twist67]

I reached a milestone finishing the mainline into dawson creek with one first train running the whole tracks from Dawson Creek to Chetwynd without any bigger problems...




Had some trouble with the selfmade turnouts so I used the peco turnouts instead and could install a smoother curve to the siding for the warehouse


I also cleaned up the electiral installation for the Layout and mounted it to it´s new place




And finally I started with the construction of the Dawson Creek station...




Thanks for looking
Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
finally I made some progress on the layout.I started the last section of phase 2.Track is going south to Dawson Creek interchange with the CN...there will be only a few buildings and a lot of nature....corkbed is glued in place have to glue down the track and add the feeders.Background is installed and have to painted.
I added a liftout in front of the door.Here are some pictures

The track will curve to the right side to Dawson Creek station.




Now I´m able to place some of my favourite structures to the layout,a gasstation,a diner and a small scrapyard with used and rusted cars and other things...
I made some small chages to the liftout section and laid tracks around the edge of the room into the other one and made the benchwork for the Dawson Creek interchange above the TV.
before the change

and after


New place for the Fred & Red´s Cafe

curve around the corner with some rough foam scenery

and into the other room for the interchange.It will be a small two track yard and some warehouses etc.....




The interchange will be used for an just to buy GP9.that will be decaled and painted in NAR colors...there will be rolling stock from CN and some NAR.I`ll use it for staging and it will be the connection to the rest of the world on that side of the layout....So I´ll be able to run some other rolling stock than only PGE/BCR...

Regards,Chris
Thanks for looking,
regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
so finaly the old layout introduction is over and here are the actual pictures where I stand for today.
The Lego starship has left the area and there is place for some trackwork and more.
Left side there is the Walther sunrise Mill with some Silos


Maybe I´ll cut the Silos into two and add a second spur for unloading grain to the elevator in an enlosed shed.
one the right side there will be an Grain elevator with some surrounding buildings...


In the background there will be three of the Walthers Parkview terrace background flats and in the front ther will some soon to be named industries



And here is an overall view of this section...I´ll build a small removable two track staging to the left in front of the window...




So that´s all for now,I´ll hope to start with some scenery ,soon.Track and turnouts are wired and tested...
Any tips and comments are veryx appreciated...

Regards,Chris

[S&S RR]

Chris

Great to see a new build thread - your layout is looking good.  Thanks for sharing we will be watching your progress.

[tabooma county rwy]

Chris,


Thanks for the "in progress" layout tour - you have some great scenic elements incorporated in your design.  I think Mark was right in suggesting you re-direct that road a bit - adds some interest and breaks up the monotony of that long straight stretch.  Having the mainline run over your workbench is a neat idea, too.


Al Carter

[ak-milw]

Keep up the great work and keep posting pic's.

[ACL1504]

Chris,

Wow, you have been busy my friend! It looks great and I appreciate all the effort to get the photos up, I know it takes much time.

Tom

[Twist67]

Hi there,
thanks for the comments...was so busy with other things so I haven´t done anything to the layout....Started something new just for fun,but that will be another thread later this week.....
But I hope I´ll get some little things done and start with the backdrop for the last part of the layout....

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

as I mentioned in the last post,I was very busy with workthings and haven´t found much time to work on the layout...also said that there is something for fun in the works....
So the fun thing was I´ve planned a small N-scale switching layout on four modules but I stopped that.I´ve just bought the plywood for the modules and build them up...

so why not use them for a final extension for my layout itself....So here it is....the last post shows the Dawson Creek Interchange as it showed up in April.....I changed some structures and put a second track for the millbuilding in...



The track turned to the left over a small liftout in front of a window and to the final section I mentioned above...
So here are the pictures of the new added section...
Left the liftout to the right of that structure...you can see the corner of it

The mainline will head on straight to the wall and end there...it´ll be some room for staging....hidden by buildings and trees or something like that...left spur heads behind some buildings to a farmers coop and a lumber dealer...structures in the townscene will be form Downtown Deco,Branchline,scratchbuild etc...here are the pictures




So this is the arrangement how the structures will be placed..I just started some base landscaping with modur foam but have to take pictures of that this evening....with that addition I´ll have some more place to store some rolling stock on the layout....

Another smaller change will be pictured in the following posting

Any tips or ideas are very appreciated...

Thanks for looking,
Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi,
the other change I did to the layout was on the lower level in the small corner in front of Chetwynd yard.The problem there was that it had no room for trains going through the yard heading south to Vancouver...I thought about building a small modular stagingyard to connect with the mainline located to the left in the following picture

But it doesen´t work because I have extended the layout to the other room as you´ve seen in the previous post.So the former mainline is now the tofc track and the former spur to the right is now the mainline...

tofc ramp in front,in the back the track with the engine is the main....

I´ll build a fold down piece with track on it used for staging behind the boxcar and the switcher....
I also rearranged some of the buildings in this townscene.The water tower is gone and two new structures are placed....

Here are some more pictures..




I think this part will give some nice photolocations with finished scenery...
Please tell me what you think about the changes and also any other tips or ideas are very welcome.

Thanks for looking,
Regards,Chris

[bparrish]

Chris.......

I don't know about suggestions.......... you have a great start and a fun meandering plan.  Operations should be fun on this one.

So where in the country are you located......... How did you get connected to Dawson Creek?

see ya
Bob