British Columbia Railway Dawson Creek Sub in HO

[Twist67]

Hi Bob,

I hope that operations will be fun here...So if you ever make a visit to Germany you´re very welcome.

Some years ago when I started with model railroading I was looking for pictures and inspirations for my layout...at the end my choice was the British Columbia Railway...The scenery,mountains and Lakes and those Alco engines are fantastic...But with the space I first decided to use for the railroad I had to look for a part of the line I could model...so I started to build the Dawson Creek Subdivison....
The Layout itself started in 2009 but there were made some big changes to the point I´m today...the part from Chetwynd to Dawson Creek and both yards are mostly like the Original with some compression,the expansions are more freelanced based on the prtotype theme....
With the interchange at Dawson Creek I could use some CN and NAR Power...
I collected a lot of material about the prototype over the years.The wiki about BC-Rail also is helpfulhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Rail
Don´t know if I said it earlier but the timeframe of my layout is the early 70´s around the company name change from Pacific Great Eastern to British Columbia Railway with the two tone green livery....I have some other models but that´s ok  for me....
So I hope I could model what I want to....I have the finished look of it in my head 

Regards,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
so here are the pictures with the basic foam landscape for the last expansion of the Dawson Creek interchange section




Last picture looking through the lumber shed


So I hope to get more work done this week.The shelfs above the layout will be mounted higher for more modellingspace...

Thanks for looking,

Regards,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

Good to see your progress continues. The trestle area will really look good when finished. Thanks for sharing the layout with us.

Tom

[ak-milw]

Looks like a good start, I will be watching!

[Twist67]

Hi there,
finaly made the last feeders for the mainline and could now run trains around the whole layout.Have to finish the wires for the rest of Dawson Creek yard,but I hope to finish this the next days while it´s raining all day long...next rain is expected later today,so no outdoor work....
Also made some progress to Dason Creek Interchange and started some rough landforms and put in some trees to get a feeling for that place...





Also had some fun with some trains going from Chetwynd to Dawson Creek and switching some cars on the interchange "yard"
Doing that found out that I had to smooth out the curve on the liftout section in front of the door so yust ripped of the track and reworked that thing

[Twist67]

so after some final rearranging of some structures I think I´m ready for scenery on that section of the layout...I changed the tracks to the feed mill and the other industrie, relocated the elevator.Have to glue the track to the ground and add some wires to the tracks.Started with cutting the background wood and will install it,soon...

There will be a backgroundbuilding on top of that yellow foam with some fence around it...


Feedmill and elevator...the signs on the wall will be removed...

the opposite side of the mill complex...

New location for the wooden elevator.
And two more pictures of the final arrangement of the structures on the liftout section and to the left of it

the empty space between the houses in the background will be filled with a walthers house my 8 year old son will be building..

I have a removable background piece of wood for the liftout....

So that´s all for now....Most trackwork is done in the Dawson Creek yard...made some testrounds and all worked fine...
any comments and tips are very welcome.

Thanks for looking,
Regards,Chris

[GPdemayo]

Great progress Chris.....you are making lot more headway than I am at present, keep the pictures rolling!

[bparrish]

Very cool.

Thanx
Bob

[Twist67]

Hi there,
thanks for the comments.I´m very busy with my job so it´s so little time for the hobby.
I made a small change to the Dawson Creek Interchange section of the layout....I added 12 cm to the front of the shelfs to get more room and decided to build a row of elevators as it is seen on older pictures of Dawson Creek http://knowbc.com/limited/Books/Encyclopedia-of-BC/D/Dawson-Creek
I´ll build three of those elevators.Maybe kitbashing from Walthers kits and some scratchbuilding.



And I started a more or less big rebuild of some part of the layout.The area I´m talking about is the Tremblay elevator and siding....

below that area and the helix was a return loop with a hidden siding but it doesen´t work right.So I made some plans to develop a 6 track staging below Chetwynd yard.The entrance to that yard will be the loop below the helix.So I ripped the track out,removed the wood and made some changes to the benchwork.




On top of it will be another change.No more elevator and other buildings.It will be Sundance Siding.More pictures will follow as I´ll preoceed....

Thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,
made some progress over the last days on the rebuild project.The Benchwork is finished and I started with the backdrops and tracklaying...


The track in the front will be the line to the north staging.It comes down behind the low backdrop and makes its turn on the lowest level of the helix.
I test installed the wood for Sundance Siding.You´ll get a Idea how the scene will look when it´s been finished.I also testinstalled the fascia.




When the tracks are installed on the staging entrance I´ll start with the scenery for this area....
I hope to make some progress this week to get the construction finished.

Any comments are very welcome.
Thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[Twist67]

Hi there,

Made some progess on the scene with some foam scenery and also tested running a train to the end of line...worked out nice and I think it will be looking nice when the scenery and lights are in.





next I´ll have to paint the backdrop and go on with scenery.I´ll go back to the basement later today and hope to get some work done...also have a free weekend so I´ll do some work downstairs.It´s raining outside so time is best used on the railroad.
Any comments are very welcome,thanks for looking,

Cheers,Chris

[ACL1504]

Chris,

Wow, you have been busy on the layout and it is looking great. I really like how you carved the rock face from the blue foam. Great progress and ain't it fun? 

Tom

[Twist67]

Hi there,
Tom,thank you,I hope I could catch the look I´m hunting for....
So while I was waiting for the plastercloth to dry on this portion of the layout I started to develop a solution for my northend staging problem.....
First thing to do was to remove the small townscene around the corner of Chetwynd....


I made a small plan with Anyrail to for a more prototype scene with the large Planer Mill....

http://binged.it/1t5dPhsThis is a link to a bing photo of the area...
Started to lay down some track and spread some buildings around to see how it will look and I think It´s okay....I also made some minor changes to the tracks on this side of the yard.I´ll post some pictures of that tomorrow.
Most of the buildings of the townscene will get a new place in Dawson Creek...so more to come later....

Any comments are very appreciated.
Thanks for looking,
Cheers,Chris

[bparrish]

Chris...

Making changes to track work in reality is always going to happen.  There is something about how the drawings fail to consider some little thing or another. Usually the length of the turnout leads depending on manufacturer.  Some are longer after the frog than others.

This is however, the fun of laying track work.  My test for bullet proof track is to push a string pf cars through everything at insane rates of speed........... as in ............ all ahead flanktastic ! ! ! ! !

If they push well they will surely follow under scale speeds.   

Also consider some sort of expansion joints on long straight runs if you have significant temperature fluctuations in your RR room.

see ya
Bob

[LongHornCaddy]

That's a nice looking layout.  Looking good!


Good advice Bob!