Hello all

After having an RMWeb account for some time I finally thought it was time to put pen to paper and document my grand scheme under construction. 10 years in the making and I've finally got some trains running, so it feels like something has at last been achieved.

We moved house in 2000, and having had a fair say in the design of the new property I managed to get a roofspace with no interfering roof timbers that was big enough for a major project. Once floored out a usable space of 32' x 10'6" was available. The intention:

• East Coast Main line in LNER days (principally 1930's)
• A representation of Chathill station in Northumberland
• Semi scenic fiddle yard area representing Edinburgh to the north and Newcastle to the south
• A Viaduct (Something the size of Ribblehead in my mind's eye) but limited to about 4' in practice!
• A locomotive depot

The standards:

• Already owning a fair bit of stock, it needed to be '00'
• Finescale, but life is too short to handbuild track, so Peco Code 75
• All pointwork electrified
• Working signals
• Scale length trains.

Ah yes and the dilemma, my other love the Waverley route in the 1960's. More than once in the early stages of construction I've been tempted to rip it up and start again, with a full change of emphasis, sell all the 30's stock and replace it with 60's Waverley stock. So we have hit a compromise. Chathill at the moment remains, with prototype trackplan, and will be completed with all the North Eastern Railway finery and be modelled as a 1930's set, while the viaduct section will be given a moorland setting and an ex North British flavour made as far as possible timeless, so that anything will look right running through it.

So, the main line circuit is laid, and is operational, and the trackwork is complete in Chathill station, next challenge is completing the wiring in the station yard. Ah, wiring! this is where matters get complicated, having laid a good deal of track with the intention of DC control I've now switched to DCC. Wish I'd modified all the pointwork before it was laid! Isolating all those electofrogs retrospectively is a chore!