Source www.britainfromabove.org.uk

As I get older I am beginning to forget when I started making plans for this layout. I've had a couple of attempts and fate rather than lack of interest has always scuppered progress, mainly house moves. However, now i'm settled in my own property, which is near Frankfurt.

I used to live near Helmdon, so as a boy (in the 1970's) I would often walk the old GC trackbed, I recall it being in quite good condition back then. Much different now. I have a lasting memory of Woodford Halse in the late 1970's and loved the blue engineering brick structures along the route, particularly Helmdon viaduct and the culverts and other bridges . This must have set off some slow burning fuse wire in my head as many years later I suddenly had an idea to recreate the Great Central, well not in it's entirety, although some of my previous plans have suggested this was in fact the goal.

As i've researched through books, internet and pestering people my interest moved to Leicester as I realised it offers huge potential for keeping the operator busy, plus many regions represented with the London expresses, cross country trains from the south to the NW & NE via the link from Banbury to Culworth junction , local services, the Windcutter express frieghts, general freight, parcels and newspapers and light engine traffic, plus some interesting railtours with Butler Henderson, LMS Compound 1000, City of Truro, Flying Scotsman, and i'm sure I saw Mallard in one of my books. Locos would be replaced at Leicester and might work back on a freight or another passenger. I'm a solitary soul, and remote from the action living in Märklin land where all the clubs are AC and there is more emphasis on model people with not many clothes on and buildings on fire.

I know a little about a lot, and not a lot about much but I enjoy it and that keeps me very happy. The last layout was always going to be temporary as it was rented and life plans were a bit in the air, so I decided to lay something relatively simple (for me) and learn the basics of wiring, DCC and the rest. I got trains running by computer and even started to understand some of the Digitrax instructions after 6 months or so.

I'm in the fortunate position that when I set about building my first layout I acquried a lot of the kit i'll be using here. So new purchases are quite limited (saving money for more trains!) But this is what I wanted to achieve.

• DCC control
  
• Varying degrees of automation, depending on mood and inclination, everything from full manual control to full automation with several steps in between.
  
• Kit i've purchased is Digitrax, Peco 100 in preference to 75 purely as when I made this decision there weren't so many DMUs on the market and I built up a ridiculous collection of about 15x Lima 117s which I intended to bash and wallop around to look a bit like the Class 115 4-car units. They didn't like the code 75 track. In retrospect I should have gone down the other route, not bought so many and waited. Other choices back then i've been happy with are Cobalt point motors, CML, Train Controller Gold from Freiwald and the best investment i've made, Anyrail which is millimeter accurate and invaluable.
  
• Late 1950's to 1960's, the GCR didn't close. My interests have expanded quicker than the manufacturers ability to bring out new product, so in moments of need I have creeped right up to Network Southeast territory. Having lived in Russia, Germany and travelled a lot I have developed a rather off tangent interest in Dutch, German and Russian stock. So we'll assume the channel tunnel aspirations of the GCR came to fruition. Unlike the direct Frankfurt to London ICE service.
  

The track plan changes frequently, I did recently post in a different section and had my madcap plans of lines all over the place, helix gradient mayhem brought back down to sober reality, for me the most useful aspect of posting. I also played with the idea of incorporating Leicester West Bridge Terminus and lots of coal sidings. However I knocked this on the head preferring to use the space with a larger fiddle yard and also more space for me.

I bought wood yesterday, a costly affair in Germany, however it's all good quality stuff. 8mm Gabun ply, whatever that is, and it's all quite straight. I was recommended "How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork" by Linn Westcott, and use the method he describes with Girders, joists and risers. As Leicester Central is elevated on viaducts and bridges this will enable me to have the trackbed raised with the ground level, being, well on the ground, the River Soar will be river level. I think that makes sense. Anyway the frame has proved pretty tricky to build with only one pair of hands. But it's now sturdy and stable and i'll continue tomorrow.

Anyway, that's enough for now. If I make significant changes to the plan i'll delete the old one and repost the new one in this initial post (providing I can edit).

Today's update on the trackplan was incorporating the casette storage system I was reading about in BRM on Peterborough!

Looking forward to getting this thing done.

Trackplan updated 2/08

Teatime, and maybe a Pils.