It's difficult not having a firm vision in my mind, as I really want to get on with things. There are at least two areas I can develope, being the station itself and the hardstanding.

The station is fairly easy. There are certain things which need to be there, such as lighting, train information, benches and ticket machines. A recent find in Mack's Track takes care of much of this, although it's not as fine as some more recent models.

Yes, it really was $48. Unfortunately the shipping costs from the only shops online I could find selling the Rietze ticket machines was Eur33- rather more than NZ$48.

I've already indulged in a bit of kit-bashing. The waiting shelter was a double sided affair for an island platform. I cut the roof in half and removed a set of legs from the supports, and now it seems much more in keeping. It does look quite modern, possibly too modern for the 1980s. That's a push towards Epoch V then! I've already mentioned the main problem, namely that the printing on the sheet of signs and posters is out of register. I'm happy enough with the ticket machines though, so that's an important feature that can be put on the layout soon.

I'm not too sure what to do with the area to the left of the station building. There's a wide expanse of platform greater than that really needed for the traffic. My current ideas are trees (if doing Westphalia/Saxony), a car park, the back or side of an industrial or commercial building, or part of a ferry terminal (if doing a Lower Saxony/Schleswig-Holstein secene). A car park would give some purpose to the collection of H0 cars I have been slowly amassing. It's one joy of H0, everyday cars are readily available for most eras. See what you recognise here... there shouldn't be anything particularly exotic.

And there's the hardstanding. There are actually a lot of possibilities with this. The Ratio gantry crane was my first thought, as it makes up into an attractive model. This would be good for loading steel wagons onto a waiting flatbed truck. Or, as an even simpler option, a forklift and a curtainsider, with some kind of palleted goods being transferred between modes of transport. Or a grab loader for timber- this would be in keeping with a forest setting. All these ideas come from my present wagon fleet. If looking beyond this, there could be fuel oil for the ferries, beet loading (suggested by mr45144), or a ramp for Autozug (in keeping with a holiday destination). In between typing paragraphs I'm already searching ebay for ideas.

I think my next action will be getting some lining paper and sketching backdrop ideas, to try and get a feel for which settings work best. Once I nail this, then perhaps the rest will follow.