CHINESE HO EXHIBITION LAYOUT

[TEAMYAKIMA]

To give you an example.

Here is a Preiser HO figure hanging up washing...............



And here she is a couple of hours later having been chopped up and glued back together, now as a student putting her suitcase on top of her wardrobe..........

[IanAlan]

I sympathise with you regarding all that work to make each figure suitable for your layout. I wouldn't want to make generalisations about the PRC, but your scene is clearly urban with 30 bicycles, so I just felt that it looked like it would benefit from more people.

I've seen figures for sale on ebay from the People's Republic of China which looked like ethnic Chinese although these might have been OO gauge, not HO. The issue of clothing is interesting because most packs of unpainted figures are (1) predominately male and (2) dressed circa 1950. I've cut a lot of trilby hats off of heads or carved them into baseball caps. I've also added filler to create female figures from male (I won't elaborate beyond saying that I didn't just add long hair). Buying ready-painted figures is very expensive, so I understand the issues of having to adapt.

I like the before and after photos. I wish I had taken some of my modifications. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing how your layout develops.

[Brian]

Wow... Not only taking a HO scale figure and modifying it, you have totally converted it from a Female in a dress and apron with one hand raised above the other to a female with jeans on and both hands at the same level and increased her hair length too!.. Congratulations..
Far more than I could undertake or actually be worried about that level of detail.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

More progress................

After 4 years of trial and error the Faller roadway is finally ready. I began work on it in August 2017 but it has never been used at a show due to unreliability, but now it's ready to go.

The biggest problem was getting the level crossing to work automatically and now it does. The light loco has already triggered the barriers to come down in this test/demo video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz41kPPs5zk

[Chops]

Remarkably well done.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Remarkably well done.

Thanks.

My biggest problem is that the layout can (generally) only be set up and tested at an exhibition as it is too big to set up at home - it's 26ft x 10ft.

But occasionally, if the weather is dry, I can set it up in the garden for testing.

[Chops]

Yes, it is a big chore to move something that big, and trouble shooting problems before the show can be unbelievably stressful. Been there, done that with modular exhibitions.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

One of the layout's main USP's is a train of just 11 loaded coal cars with a 2-8-2 at the front and two bankers and I think the sounds are incedible.

BTW this is totally authentic - on the Chengde industrial system trains just like this headed of to the steelworks up a 1/30 gradient.

Take a look here ......................

https://youtu.be/RqFCv2hxAag

[Chops]

I must say, this is a remarkable effort. A nation not typically represented in model rail, the sights and sounds are impressive.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Thanks.

I have been testing the layout before our next exhibition and choosing which loco is allocated to which job. I have chosen the loudest locos for the uphill departures, as shown in the video, and the quieter ones will go downhill.

I have also chosen locos for the uphill trains which speed match the two consisted bankers and so in that video all three locos are consisted making operation much easier.