It has been quite a while since a post has been made on this blog, for a number of reasons. Firstly, there has not been a great deal of work on the layouts since Yamanouchi Oshika attended Abingdon, and secondly because there has been a great deal of change within the club.

Whilst not wishing to bore everyone with internal procedure, the upshot is that Weyford-on-Sea is no longer a club layout, and now belongs to one of our members. Relations are good, and I am sure that a couple of update pictures will be posted of Weyford from time to time in the future...provided we get permission!

What this does mean is that the club is now starting to think about what we construct as a replacement. The new layout will be smaller, and will have to be more transportable. Also due to space, it will most be either a terminus or an end-to-end layout. Plenty to think about, and plenty to plan over the weeks ahead.

In addition, the club has purchased two Kato Unitrack sets; one in N gauge and one in H0. These have already proved to be a hit, and enable the club to have a fully functioning test circuit put together in less than 10 minutes.

Today, however, was one of our quarterly 'work' days at the local village hall. The centre of attention is Yamanouchi Oshika, which is remaining as a club layout. Quite a bit of further scenic modification is underway here as we try to improve the overall appearence. Today we centred on the rather flat area towards the front of the layout...removing the wasteland area, and part of the lower industrial estate.

The ground level here is being raised, for two reasons. Firstly it did not seem really plausable that you have hillsides behind the railway, but then it is more or less flat to the front. Whilst the reason given for this was due to the area at the front being the site of the old loco depot, this seemed a bit of a cop-out. Better to give the front more height and give the layout a little more sense of being in the landscape. Secondly, it makes the layout more visually interesting. The area occupied by the tracks becomes more narrow, and the trains partically disappear from the viewer behind the landscape.

This new area covers between the motorway flyover to the road bridge in the middle of the layout...quite a large area.

There is still much to be done on the form work, however it is intended to be fairly flat as this will be residential area, with blocks of flats. Currently I have my eye on some of these appartment blocks. Hopefully this will really provide some visual interest, especially in view of the huge range of little bits and piece that go with these kits...washing lines, bin bags, play areas etc.

In addition to this, a new access road is being constructed to the yard. Currently access is from under the motorway flyover, however when the area behind the flyover is reconstructed, this access will go. Now a new road will lead off from the station access raod along the back of the layout, and double back over the branch. This will help fill some of the dead space behind the signal box. What it does also mean is that the branch line is now becoming more and more hidden from view...got to have some pretty reliable stuff operating it, or we have trouble!

So far, only the ramps and supports are in place.

There were also some electrical modifications, including the movement of some of the switched away from the edge of the baseboards.

Also today, we had the H0 Unitrack circuit set up to test some members models...including a couple of Eric's rather nice Southern locos; built and painted by him.

Wills D1

Marsh Atlantic - cannot recall the kit manufacturer.

Wills H class with pushpull set. I'm also not sure of the origins of the push-pull, however it has aluminium sides and white metal ends.