I have long been fascinated by colonial and other offshore railways like the Jersey Eastern and British-run companies in Latin America. This will be a small, experimental project, a bit of fun, to model something of the happy-go-lucky style of the more eccentric type, free from the attentions of the British Board of Trade and its successors.

You have to imagine a pier with trains and trams. The train part will be loosely based on the trackplan of Shrewsbury Abbey station, formerly part of the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway.

The main difference is that the left-hand goods siding becomes a line to the dockside. I have added a tramway with a loop, which also leads to the docks, shown here on the plan below.

Above the railway in this plan will be a sea wall. To the left bottom, the tramway and the railway combine for the short distance to the dockside, off-scene. To the right, both the tramway and the railway pass through a ceremonial arch into the fiddle yard, something like this...

...though the railway arch will have to be modified to allow trains to pass through. The tramway will pass through the central arch, along with a road.

Before finalising the trackplan. I am building an overall roof for the station - necessary to shade passengers and trains from the intense sunshine and add a unique character to the scene. This will enable me to judge better how far apart the tracks should be, platform width etc. I am combining four Ratio station train shed roofs to make this.

I am strengthening the structure by adding extra crossbeams along the full width of the structure. The next step on this roof is to add more crossbeams and detailed girders. I have also started work on fabricating a station building. I shall give a more detailed description of both in another blog entry, in due course.