The story so far - 2009 began with me feeling a bit down as my model railway room was 1200 kms away and my layout - St Alban's Priory - in storage following our move to Longreach in March of 2008. My darling wife, Amity (aka Sithlady, SWMBO etc) suggested I should "do something" and following a raid of the scrap wood pile in the wood work room at Longreach SHS (where I am presently the Year 11 YLC and SOSE SAC) my first independent modular layout "Swallow Street" was born. The trails and tribulations of this layout were blogged about on RMWeb during 2009. When RM Web changed to new format late in 2009 I didn't like the change and didn't roll over.
Somewhere in the journey of modelling BR(S) 3rd Rail in N gauge I ended up joining the 2mm Fine Scale Association (2FSA) with a view to creating, with Amity, a layout based initially on a Col. Stephens type light railway (we have Dapol Terriers needing somewhere to play). Further research and some books later, resulted in this being canned and a Wisbech and Upwell layout based on the vista along Elm Road was decided on - initially to be called Tuck's Bridge, and using the bridge of that name at Outwell as a rail bridge, rather than road. We had also toyed with the idea of modeling various Fenland buildings and using these to create the atmosphere desired.
Much discussion and viewing of photos later and Tuck's Bridge was canned in favour of modelling a stretch of Elm Road initially (those who are fans of the W&U and have the Reeve and Hawkins tome can have a look at pp27-29 for the inspiration behind this) with Outwell Basin Depot to follow when our confidence in all things 2mm FS increase.
Well, I am a little impatient and it is pretty obvious that Longreach doesn't really have the gear readily available to make 2mm FS Exhibition layouts - but I would like to do something. So I spent the weekend creating a Inglenook with Station layout which will fit on 1' x 4' and provide us with practice opportunities - 5 points, about 2.5 meters of track to build, the need to DG (or similar) at least 8 wagons, two locos and a brake van, as well as build the various items of stock (or convert some of my N gauge stuff - a Dapol 14xx and Autocoach are marked for conversion) buildings and scenery required.
So, not being a fan of the RM Web blog style I am doing this one here, on my own. Google is probably on the only way to find it but the address is in my email signature so it might get around. If you find it, and have read to this point, please leave a message so I know someone is reading!
