Friday, November 26, 2010

Alice Springs yard research


Hi All

Attached is a plan of Alice Springs in 1981, there are a few dashed lines so not sure if these tracks were actually built. In the industrial area there has been alot of changes.
For example lot 12 is now Mobil, lot 18 is now Kleen Gas.
lot 22 & 23 is now a junk yard.
In South Australian Diesel Pictorial the 80's on page 81 there is a a shot of 863 shunting, the shell siding, but if you look closer it seem to be the mobil siding see the Mobil Sabadin petroleum road tanker in the background. Taken in 1989 show the two track in the foreground are still laid. This leads me to believe that there might have been more industrial trackage operational in 1993 than now.
By the way you might notice on the same page a shot of 863 under the gantry crane, and proceeding south to Roe Creek through Heavitree Gap with a string of cattle wagons.

Anyway compare this diagram with the ones previously published examples of the model version. I had to "distill" the design features of the yard to ensure that the key elements of the yard were retained to continue "operations" both for era 1993 and present.
To give you an example of the scale down process, the yard width in scale is 7ft 6"
this had to be designed down to 2ft 6". thus this was an extremely hard process to ensure faithfully reproduction and "flavor" for the yard while reducing the size and complexity of the trackage. As you can see by the final model plan I retained almost 100% of the intermodal sidings as these are the key feature of the yard.

I also managed to retain the crossovers, but moved them into the middle of the yard, which would be easier to operate in the ultra modern version.

Anyway, please feel free to compare this this diagram with the model.

Enjoy

Scott

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