Second Level of Waterkloof SAR Layout
The Corona virus pandemic caused a lot of havoc worldwide. However, all the results were not totally negative. Many of my friends and I found that during lock down we now had time to work on our layouts. When I planned my layout, I planned it as a double deck layout, and now I had to time to start construction on the second level. There are however some challenges, as the two levels are only 25 cm or about 10 inches apart vertically. Thus there should be minimal wiring and other objects hanging below the second level, as not to restrict access to the lower level. Here are a few photos of the progress made so far. Two of the three towns planned for the second level is under construction. Most of the photos in the gallery shows Vlakteplaas, a small fictional Karoo town, with a steam locomotive servicing facility. The second station is Bloemfontein, a passenger terminal, that is the one with the 4 parallel tracks.
The third area on the upper level will be named Power, and Power has two major industries, on the one side a coal mine as can be seen in the pictures above, and on the other side of the same shelf a coal fired power station. (still to be constructed) This shelf will also house 4 staging tracks, holding a full and an empty coal train. The full coal train will depart from the mine, run once around the whole layout and terminate at the power station, going back into staging. From the power station, an empty coal train departs also doing a complete lap of the layout, before entering the mine to be loaded. ( the empty train is also staged in the staging yard.) This type of operation is called a loads in/empties out operation.