​Well, where to start, its been a long while since I've posted anything for which i can only apologise, reasons for the absence was due to family life and changing of setting for my layout,

From the title you can guess that i have decided to start over, and not just in the loft (attic, roof space, which ever you prefer), after a short period of thinking, and i mean short, i made the decision to clamber down from my sweltering, cramped, uneven loft to a more accessible setting, where i can crash, bash and thrash around and know one really cares (except the neighbours, maybe), reasons being, in my haste to get trains running i threw down the frames and baseboards as fast as possible which inevitably resulted in uneven and quiet frankly a shocking excuse of carpentry, i had derailing locos and poor conductivity around the back loop which was proving more difficult to access due to 'life stock' filling the space and also realising that running the bus wire was more difficult due to the low height of the baseboards from the loft floor let alone trying to install point motors(solenoids)!!

So once i had disassembled the the ply and frame work after removing and saving as much track as possible i started tidying the garage, my first thoughts where like niagra, a vast space wanting to be filled with a huge fiddle yard, i station that would make newcastle look like a siding, a depot, TMD, goods yard, the lot, but then i thought naaa ill keep it simple.

Deciding to PLAN this time i built several 4ft x 2ft frames with 9mm exterior ply boards, initial thoughts were to build a 8ft x 4ft area on two levels, the lower for storage and small scenic at the front for the loop (main line) then rising, off scene, to the upper level which would be a TMD or similar for good operational interest, but using a 4ft width meant i could only just fit a 3rd radius oval with not much room for storage in the middle, also there wouldn't be much space for operating anything more than maybe a large shed for locos to be coming and going.

Back to the drawing board, so to speak, i then decided to put together a 10ft x 6ft area with an operating well in the middle, the rear side is 18'' deep which has allowed space for an up and down main line fanning out to 6 lines and one dead end, much more than the original plan, off which the longest can accommodate a full 7 car HST.

So thats where I'm up to so far, progress has been good but the current weather has been too good to let slip by pottering on my hobby in the garage, the pictures below show the progress made, i am planning to mount hinges and bolts to allow the frame to be lowered to allow access through the garage which is really full at the minute as were trying to clear a lot of unwanted and unneeded 'stuff' from our house.
My aim is to take the layout on the road but this is in the far future.

Thanks for reading
Sam

As you can see, theres still a lot to do, especially the surrounding areas.
Thanks again.