Having been a bit too active in the Wheeltappers section of this forum, I decided that I should show my rather humble modelling efforts here and I feel that the blog format is the best way for me to do that since at present I have a number of rather small and disparate projects on the go which makes conventional threads a bit untidy.

I aspire to have a P4 layout of a London terminus vaguely similar trackplan to Minories because I have a very soft spot for late 1980s BR especially around the Southern Region, Paddington and Euston.

Why am I choosing P4?

I don't plan to have absolutely everything perfectly spot on but having had a OO layout ( well just track on baseboard ) I discovered that the wheels on RTR were not consistent and some derailed on Peco track even out of the box, also kits seldom comes with wheels so I realised that one needs to standardise on the wheels to ensure that there is consistency between track and wheels. Having looked at OO and EM, I couldn't see any standardisation ie anyone could decide on what make of wheels to use and stick to it - fine if one make covers all your needs but that doesn't always happen! My mate has built P4 locos and stock ( though not a layout!! ) and I was very impressed with the appearance of the wheels. I quickly discovered that whatever make of P4 wheel one buys, there will be consistent dimensions between them unlike for OO and EM wheels.

Also I don't like RTR OO turnouts and track so would need to make my own track. So if I need to re-wheel half my locos and stock to fit onto home built OO track then why not go the whole hog and use P4?

Before I commit myself to P4, I am building a test track consisting of a B6 turnout with 300mm of straight approach and exit tracks and a branching curve of 1000mm radius. This curve is my ruling radius for my proposed layout and it will be used to test any loco and stock I convert.

I will update when I have made some progress and I will have to fit my modelling in with my piano practice!

See you next time!