OK, it is a lovely room, and it is big, but I could do with some more width. This shows why.

You will see that I have put together some very rough card buildings so that I can get an idea how things will look and fit. You will also see Gravy Train's lovely Great Northern hotel, which I want to be a major feature. Now look at the width of the station forecourt. No good. On the old Peterborough I first positioned the hotel where it would be in reality.

This just did a good job of blocking the view of Allan Downes' lovely station building. Never mind, this wasn't a prototype layout, so I put it here.

Much better. And it gave an opportunity of this view as well.

But the new layout is supposed to be Peterborough North, so I can't do that.For that reason, I decided that the layout should be viewed from the opposite side this time, so that the front of the hotel would be visible. I found though when setting out templates that in order to get everything on a three ft 3 inch baseboard, the result was as shown on the photo above. You would have a job to swing a cat on that forecourt, let alone turn a vehicle. Does it matter? Yes, because the forecourt was a dead end, so everything had to come out the way it went in. I need to be able to access the windows, so a foot width must be left there. I also need three foot width for the fiddle yard. If I make the station baseboard any wider,the operating well is going to be cramped to say the least. That is not all.By the time I have drawn a three foot radius curve on the main line, I have used six of my ten feet of width. How do you get a decent number of good length storage sidings from there? Bear in mind I need to store 10 ft long trains, and plenty of them.

Time for a second opinion, which came from Messrs Tony and Tom Wright. Turn it back the other way, they said, then you can put the hotel and forecourt on an island baseboard protruding into the operating well, so you won't lose width all the way along.And, the reverse curves which were such a feature will now be towards the top of the baseboard, rather that near the bottom, so you will get much more room for entry to the fiddle yard. I thought about it, and drew it. Here it is.

Now, who would design a track layout like that? It's crazy, an operating nightmare. It is also correct for Peterborough North in 1958 folks. It's compressed, and there are a lot of sidings missing, but all the main running lines were as shown.It also, as predicted by Messrs Wright, solves the problem of access to the fiddle yard. Life is all about compromise. I have to go back to having the station building to some extent masked by the hotel, and look at the back of the hotel instead of the front.It is a shame, but the benefits of doing it this way far outweigh the disadvantages. That's how I see it anyway. Unless anyone can come up with an even more cunning plan?

Gilbert