Name Change and Future Plans
Those that have followed this content over the last decade will be aware of a layout called Littlemore. It was seen operational with hardly any scenery at the 2mmSA 50th anniversary event and following that as a static demo at Peterborough in 2011. I worked on it some more since then, but not in the last 6 years. It's been sat in my new workshop for the last 4-5 years and been erected once. The latter event revealed that a number of Cobalt motors have failed (about half). Despite making the workshop large enough to erect it in it's entirety it is a tight fit and when folded and stored the design is such that, whilst compact, it only fits in the middle of the floor to one end of the free space. It would be most convenient if it would fit into the cupboards under my work surfaces but that would require a major reworking of the boards. When I built it I made some bold choices - by which I mean untried, untested and novel - and these have come to be problematic as time has passed and progress tried. Truthfully my attention and interest is on other things, and indeed some friends already know what my future plans are regarding a layout.
There are no plans to move house (hopefully ever again) and the workshop is established. One good idea for storing the layout is, I think, to be able to store it in the cupboards under one of my work surfaces and swap the layout with various machine tools and other items so that some or all of either the scenic section of a layout, or the tools &c that take bench space can be out at one time. This will create space in the workshop and should make it more pleasant and habitable. If I am starting over with the baseboards then I am starting over with a layout. Today that would not be the same layout since I now desire different things out of the model: Large engines (my favourite being 28xx) on reasonable length trains where rule 1 doesn't need to apply from something in most trains. I have a soft spot for brown vehicles (horseboxes/siphons &c.) and a branch line can only justify so much of that stuff and possibly none of some of the wagons in my stock box. I don't need a model of a station. A siding is mandatory for doing some shunting for operating sessions at home, but beyond that I really just want to see the trains run. (I must be one of those people for whom the layout is a means to display the trains.) For this reason I'm also completely sold on the idea of a roundy layout rather than a fiddle yard to fiddle yard set up - not necessarily for home use where a bit of shunting and use as a grandiose photo plank is what I am looking at, but - for any exhibitions it might attend. I've taken delivery of the baseboard kits already and at 650x450mm for the main scenic boards, 650x300 for the fiddle yard boards they are all portable enough, although they may not all fit in the car at one time with the end boards if more than 1 passenger is present.
Littlemore is therefore at risk of being no-more. I feel that I should be more sad to break it up than I think I would be and considered storing it in the loft. Doing so would allow time to make a decision and maybe one day retrieve it and complete it. It was disheartening when I last erected it and found that it needed a bunch of work to get it back to an operational state. Last year there was the call for layouts to be built as a challenge to get something smaller built as a possible entry into getting something going in 2mm, either as a stand alone layout or as the beginning of a larger project for the 60th anniversary event. I've thought a lot about what I could make, decided over and again that I would not or could not build something in the space or time available, and done nothing. I am still tempted to try though. Due to a clash of dates the event has moved back a week meaning that it might be possible for me to attend. I've thought again about a layout, which could potentially reuse a portion of the trackwork from Littlemore to give me a start. A rough calculation on weeks remaining and average modelling hours per week gives a product of around 180 modelling hours remaining. I estimate that's about the number of person-hours that goes into a Great British Model Railway challenge layout during the show. It is evident that they use a large amount of RTP along with their pre-built items. Not only would I like to aim for a higher fidelity I have failed miserably to work to deadlines and do not like to rush things when they are meant to be for pleasure. I still think that maybe it is something I should do as a preparatory prior to the larger project to have something achievable in a short amount of time.
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