Hi all.

The last few weeks I've been giving some thought to making the final jump and building a 2mm finescale layout. Ropley was always intended to be a learning process, a method of proving to myself that I could work with easitrac and produce hand built track that would actually work. Now I've somehow managed to achieve that, I have been giving some thought to what a first 2mm layout might look like.

Due to space limitations at home, any layout would have to be fairly small. Having seen others make use of them in the past, my first thoughts are that an IKEA Lack shelving unit would be ideal, being small enough to store easily and having the added advantage of being a ready made baseboard. This would give me an area 110cm long by 26cm wide to work with. Now I've never really been a fan of layouts where there is as much track as possible crammed into the available space, generally they just don't look realistic to my mind. I find simple track plans often give a much more realistic feel to a model. With this in mind, and the dimensions dictated by the shelving dimensions, I set about searching for some inspiration.

After a browse around on Google images, I came across Sudbury Station:

This got me thinking that a small terminus, heavily rationalised, would probably be nice first project and just about fit into the available space. Obviously Sudbury at this time is a rather extreme example and is rather limited operationally, so after some pondering, and with inspiration from the likes of bcnpete of this parish, I came up with the following plan which would allow a little more in terms of operational interest:

This would be a rationalised terminus, which has lost most of its infrastructure, but the site has not yet been fully cleared, so there is a lot of overgrown trackbed and platform area. The station is located in the South and to take advantage of models such as the Farish Class 411 (The black rectangle represents the length of the CEP) and inevitable 2EPB & Class 450 that are sure to come, would also feature 3rd rail.

All of the above said, I do keep coming back to the location and orginal plan that started this blog. As much as the layout above appeals, I still have a hankering to takle the swing bridge at Somerleyton...............Hmm, decisions, decisions!

Anyway, ponderings aside, work on Ropley continues, and the roof of the Carriage & Boiler shop is now underway.

Cheers all.

Tom.