Happy New Year!  Well, I hope so.  As we enter 2024, I've been thinking about setting some modelling objectives.  Some find them helpful, whether it is the hard and definite deadline of a committed exhibition or show date, or practical steps to maintain progress on a larger project, or simply aspirational targets to aim at - in order to maintain some degree of modelling focus.  Some might be looking forwards to retirement, and want to structure their time in order to make best use of it, for others finding time in a busy schedule means that identifiable objectives improve the chances of something actually getting done.

Some well organised modellers end the modelling year with a review of progress, ready to go again after the holidays: three 2023 updates from layouts I follow on RMweb are @AndyB's Bentley St. Mary - A Southern vignette in N gauge,  @St Enodoc's Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in OO, and @ian's Die Ercallbahn - Fulfilling a childhood dream.  In my view each deserves a round of applause - not only for making regular progress, but for sharing it with us too.

As for me, paddling in the shallow end, I tried breaking down an early attempt at a project micro-layout into smaller steps to aid progress:

But a bookcase I planned to use for display and storage was repurposed and I lost the space I wanted (the bookcase later went mouldy while in our cellar).  Then a couple of years ago I tried setting myself a project progress target date:

Again, I'd not considered the potential loss of space that also saw a premature end to that idea too.

What have I learnt?  It seems that setting objectives or targets is not in and by itself enough: my ideas have been too vulnerable to external changes, such as when space is needed for other purposes.  That's particularly relevant for me at the moment because, as previously hinted at in earlier blog posts, our domestic objective for this year is as follows:

• Move House

We need a more accessible house due to health issues, and as our home is also my office and workbase, I have to have a suitable working property too.  A possible place has been identified, but it will require us to massively downsize (something we should do anyway).  I will also lose nearly all my modelling and storage space, leading me to another project re-think.

I need an approach to modelling for 2024 that does not depend on having any particular space.  At which point I refer back to a video from Dave Meeks' Thunder Mesa Studio I included in the first post of this blog, and the #1 thing he suggests we need to consider before starting a layout project (watch from 20:45 onwards for the relevant section):

1. Branch Shuttle (A Wittfeld Accumulator battery electric railcar)
2. Branch Passenger
3. Through Passenger
4. Local Goods

Older Fleischmann flanges need me to stick with Code 100 track, so I can also get out my few remaining pieces of legacy UK OO when the cameras are off.  

That 'just' leaves the Main Line story - which has been my undoing before (see here and here).  Trouble is, I do rather like full length 26.4m close coupled H0 coaches:

But with a four coach train (for example) measuring around 57" am I still being too ambitious, when my Branch Line Train is just over 2' long and an equivalent Narrow Gauge train in the same scale only needs 18" ?

That's my work in progress.  But I can make a start with some structure kits confident they'll fit the story, even if the size of the page is not yet known.  Of course, this has long been obvious to many, but it may now help me set and reach some objectives, rather than too often re-starting instead.

I expect things will move slowly this year while the house move progress (or if it doesn't).  I don't expect to share another update until February, when hopefully there'll be some modelling to report on at last.  It would be nice if that happened next.  Until then, thanks for reading, Keith.