Just over a week ago I broke up for my school's half term planning a relaxing week at home with my wife and new daughter. I had even hoped that I could end my modelling drought by restarting work on my home layout of Skaleby. But like the best laid plans of mice and men life does not always work out how you expect it. Visits to two model railway shows and several local model shops failed to find the dry stone wall pieces that I needed for my planned half term project. And with no other parts of Skaleby really providing me alternative inspiration, things have remained static in that area.

But that was not to be it of course. A flippant comment made during a school fundraising meeting has landed me with the job of organising a model railway show at the school. This will be to raise funds for our "fifth anniversary appeal". It also landed me with the job of providing a layout of my own for the show. Sadly, Skaleby is not portable so I have decided to start another layout which will be Skaleby's little brother and one that will be built specifically to attend shows.

So here is where we have got to now:

The show

Throughout half term I have been frantically researching show dates for the end of the year. The school's headteacher wants the event to take place in 2012 in order to fit in with our year of fundraising events. I have checked the dates of as many local shows as I can think of, and have come up with a list of prospective dates that won't clash. These will be taken to the governor's meeting later this week for confirmation.

At present I am 99.9% certain that the show will be on Saturday 10th November and will take place at Weston-on-Trent Primary School in South Derbyshire. Once the date is confirmed I will be turning my attention to creating leaflets and posters to advertise the event.

I have been very humbled by the response I have received from fellow RMWeb members and the offers of layouts I have already received. As this is a new show, and one that is being run to raise funds for the school, I have already stated the fact that I am unable to pay out much in the way of expenses. This has not stopped the layout offers coming in and I am really excited by the offers I have had. At least one layout offered had appeared on the "hit list" I dreamt up during the last few days.

I have also received two definites for trade stands too, and that was from the first two people I asked!

My recent visit to the Sileby show even brought up the possibility of a couple more layouts too. I am so amazed how easy it was to discuss this with people. As someone who admits to being quite shy, it was a big effort to actually ask people face to face for help. Thanks to all of those for being so helpful and understanding.

So I hope to be able to formally announce the date soon and will then start finalising the list of layouts and looking for trade stands. It is all quite exciting!

The layout

I never thought a week ago that I would be contemplating another layout build. I have so much to do on my permanant home layout, Skaleby, that starting another one would be a ridiculous notion. But I have promised to show a layout of my own at our show. In reality, building a show layout has always appealed to me anyway and so this is a good excuse, even if the Weston show may be the only one it ever visits!

As I am on a deadline and need to construct the model in just 8 or 9 months I have decided on a small micro layout. I have already purchased wood for the baseboard which will be 4 ft x 1 ft. The railway has been given a working title of "Skaleby West" and will feature a small branch line station complete with passing / run-round loop and a couple of goods sidings. This will allow me to transport some of my smaller stock over from Skaleby.

I am not intending to model a particular region, and will make things deliberately freelance and vague. That way I could choose to run the model as ex GWR, Midland or even North Eastern region as I have appropriate locos and stock for these areas.

So far I have played around with the track layout and have come up with what I think will be the final track plan. This is shown in the picture below. So far the board is sat on the top of the rabbit hutch which shares the railway room with Skaleby. I just need to run a few trains to check the plan is operable.