Hi,
Thanks for dropping-by. For those that have read my previous ramblings, I had to shelve the 3-board project, all the track was laid and running beautifully, but the space left for platforms was too small and the sheer volume of buildings and scenery was too much, I only ever managed a nibble at the workload, so progress was too slow to keep me happy. It was going to be a slow project and that means not fun. I did a cracking job of track-laying, so recovering track was a careful, yet sometimes brutal job. I want somewhere 'scenic' to run my stock.
I've always admired micro layouts, so I bought a copy of Paul Lunn's book and read it from cover to cover.

The layout idea Retro Railcar caught my attention and so I got together some track on a sheet of card and had a play.

Then drew it up on Any Rail (ideal for this job of planning and refining ideas)

I got worried about getting the sector plate tracks to line-up, so I tried without the hidden kick-back sidings, obviously that limits the amount of stock, but I want to get a scenic layout running, so simplicity is vital. My next iteration made the sector plate simpler, but that made for a large non-scenic right hand end

I drew up AnyRail schemes to use a 3-way point at the fiddle yard end of the scenic layout and do away with the sector plate.

But now the simplicity has gone, shunting the kick-back siding needs too many moves and is severely limited by any stock in the lower left siding and including an off-scene track (head shunt?) will add extra length.
So, I decided a single-slip is needed.

OK, Single-slip acquired, now to refine the track lengths, it would be easy to make the layout longer to accommodate a 'good' length of train, but I want to keep it to 4 square feet with a short loco and 2 wagons in the platform road clear of the right-hand point and 4 wagons fitting inside the loop, if I can squeeze a short Type 2 diesel and 1 wagon in the platform road even better.

Buildings/structures

I want to keep these simple to maintain momentum, a packed-earth passenger platform on the lower left with a stone retaining wall, a corrugated waiting shelter and lamp hut (and a lamp) will face across the lines to a basic goods lockup on a short platform. I thought I'd try to hide the sector plate behind a basic creamery, but still apply scenic textures to the sector plate to give the layout 'depth'. I would really like a coal siding, does anyone have a suggestion where it could go, I originally thought lower right, but it wouldn't disguise the sector plate.
Edit; I've been planning rolling stock moves in my head and I've realised that with the current plan the goods road will have to be empty to shunt the creamery, so I need to swap passengers for goods and put the halt platform upper left and goods siding lower left.

I've mocked up the goods platform to get an idea of how it looks, I haven't got much space and I want to keep it simple, I want a Goods lockup, probably a pre-Grouping outside framed van body.

The passenger platform was too large, so part of the plan is to make it overgrown and to blend it into the landscape, I've added a paper 'skirting' at the back to help create the illusion in the mock up.

The roadside bank (rear-right) enabled lorries to reverse off the road and tip into wagons, the ground cover will be worn down by vehicle movements, so dusty ground, low grass and scrubby weeds, I'm thinking it will need weathering powders and fine dust. The backscene can be dense, low relief trees very appropriate for the location.

Work has started on the baseboard, I decided a sector plate was needed for the runaround so the picture below shows the underside of the sector plate end.

I constructed a simple cassette to enable trains to run onto the layout (although it should be operable in a simple way without the cassette) and to enable trains to be changed off-stage

The backscene boards have been sanded and painted, (curved corners are needed) the boards are clamped in place to check look and fit.

The right-hand point, single-slip and the track to the sector plate have been soldered together to guarantee alignment, note the super-hot micro blow torch it makes getting enough heat into the joint a breeze, but you need to be hyper alert.

A metre rule was used to align the track with the sector plate.

I've hit a 'snag', having aligned the platform track with the sector plate and let all that set overnight, the geometry for the loop is badly wrong, it would need an 'S' bend to work. But I have the remedy in shortening the sector plate by 6", filling-in the resulting gap, extending the platform track and giving a few more degrees swing to the sector plate. Not a disaster, I know what to do, I don't like damaging what I've done so far and I will need several hours set aside to ensure a good job.