One of my first encounters with realistic model railway design was Cyril freezer’s Minories. His gave a simple and straightforward description of the design and operation of the layout. Up to that point I had felt frustrated with the domain–specific knowledge that was inferred by so much of the literature I had tried to read and understand as a beginner, and this was a real salve. It was natural then for this layout to form the kernel around which my layout planning would focus. My first attemp