Right, well, those of you who were following my blog last year will be aware I was modelling in N scale. This year, a scaling up in the size of my student flat (plus new flatmates I actually intend to live with for more than a year) has allowed me a little more time and space, and as such the N scale has been packed into two shoeboxes, for playing with at a later date. However, I now have a 5'6" x 2' alcove in my new bedroom, and the blessing of the two flatmates to build a layout. Nothing fancy, but a little 00 gauge shunting plank.

Before I started, I had a few requirements for this layout.

To use Peco code 75 trackwork and electrofrog points (neither of which I had used before, only ever having built one permanent layout before)

To use the Metcalfe range of buildings, and have at least some of the buildings built by friends and flatmates

To find a decent, cheap, pulse-width modulation controller, or build my own

To avoid as far as possible the appearance of the great hand from the sky (see point 1)

With this in mind, I opened up AnyRail and Google SketchUp, and came up with the following basic design:

where the right-hand side is still subject to change into possibly a cassette or traverser type fiddle yard. A little playing around in SketchUp (well, a lot, I love that program!) came up with this, to get an idea of the scale of the buildings and trains:

The building layout is still very much subject to change. I would quite like to use the Metcalfe bus garage to have a shed with a siding disappearing into it for scenic interest, possibly with a lorry poking its head out too... Ideally, this layout needs to be finished (to some level) within a year or two, allowing me to move it if necessary due to a flat move (a frequent occurrence as a student!)

So far, my ideas about the points and signal control are to use wire-in-tube, and possibly the old Playcraft signal kits, with GEM ground signals, also connected to the wire-in-tube. Now, all I have to do is get my hands on some of the GEM signals, which seem to be like hens' teeth!