The Original Layout;
The Ringbalin Light Railway consisted of two layouts the ‘Mainline’ and the ‘Cane Line’ that operate independently of each other and did not connect.
The layouts were freelance, i.e. follows no ‘prototype’, the railways only existed in the Kepnock Valley which geographically occupies a part of my backyard and a portion of my imagination.
Track Plans of the layouts evolution can be viewed on the Track Plans page.
The first layout, the "Mainline", was an elevated dual level closed loop (The Upper Line and the Lower Line) Large Scale/G/Garden railway with trains running on 45mm, Code 332 track.
It was a small scale operation with a few older steam engines and some small industrial diesel engines.
Its traffic was mostly raw sugar collected from a sugar mill via an interchange track plus a little timber, some coal and some freight, there is a passenger service for the town folk and a railcar service for the workers at the mill.
It traversed across the yard following "Back Fence" of the garden around the "Corner" formed by the intersection of the "Back Fence" and down the "Side Fence" (which runs the full length of the house block, but only a small part is used).
The upper level track then descended to the lower level with an overall grade of 4% which consists partiality of a 14 Foot long curved trestle bridge across the “Corner”
Once the 2 tracks are on the same level the line crosses a lift up bridge which allows access to the inside of the loop where there is a landscaped seating area.
The lines then passes across a free standing table type area 900mm above the ground, it is here that there is a crossover formed by 4 LGB points so that trains can move from one loop to the other in both directions.
The ‘Upper Track’ then ascends back up to the upper level via curved track, that crosses a bridge part way up, while the lower loop continues across the front of the shed on bench work. It is here that there are two sets of points back to back that connect the interchange track from the Cane Line to the Mainline.
The second layout, the "Cane Line", is a single level
Large Scale/G/Garden railway with trains running on 45mm, Code 250
track; it has as it's centrepiece, a sugar mill precinct and there is
a line that runs out to the "Farms".
At the end
"farms" run there is a loop that has a Y point that has no
centring and uses a loco pushing through the blade to change it.
The way that works is a train enters on the LH leg and exits on the RH leg changing the point as it passes through; the next train enters on the RH leg and exits on the LH leg and so on, each alternate train travels around the loop in opposite directions.
The mill layout is a stand alone with an interchange line that
connects it to the mainline layout.
So I can have a train
running around the farms loop, do some shunting inside the mill
precinct and a train on the interchange collecting the bulk sugar and
have trains running out on the mainline as well. This should
provide some operating opportunities.
In real life cane lines and the mainlines never connect to each other because of the different gauges, Cane 2ft; Main (in Queensland Aust) 3ft 6 inches, the mainlines do run spurs into the mills to load the bulk raw sugar this is the logic behind the plan.
The Reconfigured Layout;
With the demise of the “HO Division” Ringbalin Light Railway HO division I decided to reconfigure the layout and make it “point to point’ instead of a pair of loops thus the The Uppen Down Railway was born
This new configuration will give me more shunting and running options instead of just trains chasing their tails which became rather boring.
I started by dismantling the ‘HO division’ which left a high shelf that was turned into a yard area, I then dismantled the ends of the loops running across the shed front.
The main Districts of the railway are;
Ringbalin Yard (Old HO division)
Logging Siding
Crossover
Gravel Siding
Ashton
Sugar Siding
Long Siding
Wharf
Branyan Yard
Coming from “Ringbalin Yard” the line runs out through the right door of the shed (looking from outside) on a lift up section and connects to what was left of the old ‘Upper Level’ outside where it runs across the backyard toward the high trestle in the ‘Corner’ (where the logging siding joins) continuing down the hill, it crosses the lift up bridge onto the level across the garden and enters the shed via the left door and a lift up section at the same level.
It continues on under the ‘Ringbalin’ shelf across the shed, it is here that ‘Ashton’ is located which provides another shunting opportunity.
After ‘Ashton’ it exits again through the right door over yet another lift up section under the first one. It then links up with what is left of the ‘Lower Loop’ where it continues over the low trestle, around the end of the loop, across the lift up bridge over the level that crosses the garden parallel to the line that came down from ‘Ringbalin’ before entering the shed via the left door and still another lift up section.
Just before the door the line splits and runs onto either the ‘Wharf” line of onto ‘Branyan Yard’ located an island bench.
In both yards there is a turntable to turn locos, I did consider a Wye reversing track but opted for a turntable to save space.
The crossover formed by four (4) LGB points that allow trains to move from one line to the other in both directions has been retained so that a train can take a “shortcut” into the ‘Branyan Yard or the ‘Wharf’; this will allow trains coming from or going between Ringbalin and Branyan to overtake one another
There is a planned interchange line that connects the “Cane Line” to the mainline of the layout again by yet another lift up so that produce from the sugar mill and its associated Ethanol plant. The use of a lift up bridge allows me to conduct shunting between the “Main” layout and the “Cane Line” and still be able to walk right around the lines following a train.
