One of my first encounters with realistic model railway design was Cyril freezer’s Minories. His gave a simple and straightforward description of the design and operation of the layout. Up to that point I had felt frustrated with the domain–specific knowledge that was inferred by so much of the literature I had tried to read and understand as a beginner, and this was a real salve. It was natural then for this layout to form the kernel around which my layout planning would focus.  My first attempt was a 'Minories' set in suburban 3rd rail territory:

Godstone Road in embryonic form

The setting was inspired by Purley and Bromley North, with a stone and aggregate merchant in the rear, an island platform in the middle and a coal yard still infront. There were some key problems with this layout, however:

• The roof joists (I'm sitting on one to take the photograph, and one pictured on the right) were high enough and the ceiling low enough to make getting over them annoying, and the fiddle yard was on the 'wrong' side of one of them.
• The fiddle yard tracks were not perfectly aligned to the entry and exit roads either, so every single train movement would require hurdling followed by realignment of the table to the relevant location.
• The multiple units while giving a definite flavour were incredibly dull to operate.

I think ultimately the problem was not the plan, rather it was the requirement for shuttle operations and the crippled traverser.  I still retained a desire to operate a passenger-oriented layout with lots of remarshalling, shunting and NPCS - and so a slightly extended Minories design evolved with the help of many contributors, ending up as follows:

Edwardian Terminus

The inspiration is clearly visible, but with some notable tweaks:

• An additional route from P1 to the Up line to permit an exit from P1 while P2 is being entered. This is typical of Pre-group practise  greater number of parallel moves than a more parsimonious grouping or national company might ignore. 
• The inclusion of the track formation below P3:
  • A runaround to increase the variety of locomotive movements
  • A headshunt into a loading dock, as another destination for head and tail traffic
  • A carriage siding, to increase on-layout shunting opportunities
  • A headshunt 'Old Turntable Road', representing some kind of cobbled hardstanding.

One thing that is not resolved however, is the need for almost all movements to end up going off-layout. The initial phase of this project is set up to permit a traverser to bolt on to the right hand side of the layout, the rearmost track being kept clear as a headshunt. More on this particular wrinkle in the plan anon...