a week of dwelling...and some thoughts for the future...
Good evening,
Can't believe this time last week I was weathering the roof canopy, painting the track and adding brute trolleys to the ends of the platform
On reflection this week, I have been giving a lot of thought to the future of PWBIAB and indeed all my layouts with our impending move back to the UK. What is clear is that we will have to cutback big time on space requirements so some layouts will have to go.
Firstly, PWB and some upgrades to it will be: replace all the cardboard fascia panels with 3mm laser cut ply, install the digital photo frame depicting images etc, redo the station canopy, rethink the fiddleyards and detail the rolling stock. I think this layout has some mileage as its quite simple and once the appropriate rolling stock is gathered could be interesting to hang on to. The new Dapol 33's could be rather attractive additions to the fleet.
I think that it may well be my last boxfile layout not only due to the lack of need to travel with it by hand luggage anymore but mainly as it creates too many joints...the alignments being the main problem at the debut show. I did think of doing a Kyle style upgrade to a 1900mm Ikea shelf but that will equally give length problems for travelling so am now thinking of permanently joining the two scenic boards together and having two similar length fiddle yard boards which can be stored in a modified 'double box file' arrangement.
Kyle I think will have to go. It was fun to build and do the upgrade and, I learnt a lot from both builds but in terms of operations PWB has much more potential.
Of my sons two 4mm layouts I will ditch the large roundy roundy and try and keep the 1900mm Ikea shelf layout which forms part of a layout thread on here somewhere. It all works fine and needs ballasting and detailing etc but I guess it was always built with the future in mind where they could shunt rather than race trains
My growing 7mm collection of rolling stock will stay but I will hold fire on building the Wenfordbridge dries model just yet (another 1900mm Ikea shelf layout) as it seems silly to start something else too soon.
That just leaves Coombe Junction - Moorswater. I started the week with a view to scrapping it all...but as the week went on, I felt more and more uncomfortable with that. At 3.3m long it has its problems, not to mention my very first hand built pcb trackwork which is a bit dodgy but it occurred o me yesterday that a good compromise would be to keep the Moorwater board. This one has had the most work on it to date and will include the viaduct and the dries buildings whereas the other two boards could be scrapped to make space...and perhaps I can rebuild them at a later date, when we have more room.
I did post an entry some time ago saying the Moorswater board could perhaps go it alone and whilst it wouldn't be the most exciting of layouts at an exhibition, it could be fed with cassettes depicting various train movements.
Here's a more pictorial view of what I am proposing:
I won't be ditching stuff just yet so perhaps can take some photos before but at least it does start to thin out railway stuff as it is quite apparent how the collection of train related stuff has grown in the last 5 years or so.
Next up, I might try and build a 7mm kit I have just to see what it is like working in that scale...but I think after last weekend, despite my eye deteriorations and frustrations, I still enjoy modelling 2mm FS too much to completely turn my back on it.
Have a good weekend all
Pete
- 9
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