James Harrison

I'd like to see (and I've emailed Peco to ask them) a Y-point and a three-way point in the bullhead range. They've said they've forwarded the suggestion to the design team.

I've just set this up in SCARM; without altering the track centres it clocks in at a smidge under 3'. I do rather like the flow of it, I think it is certainly worth further investigation.

For Christmas, I would like the Poseidon please.

Certainly interested- please do.

You're right, it can, can't it? Yes, I think it should actually. I managed to get the station side skewed around a bit more too, it's surprising how not having everything at 90 degree angles or parallel to the walls makes for a more interesting plan. Plus, although the boards will be deeper, it really gives me the opportunity to indulge my wannabe architect habit.

It might just be possible. This fits in 10' x 8' 6" to 9'. At which point I ran out of bits on my free copy of SCARM. There's a bit of tweaking I want to do- I'm sure, quite sure, that I can get the station (at the top of the plan) on a bit more of an angle to remove the blocky not-quite-oval look, maybe put the platforms on a gentle curve (but I find SCARM awkward to use when it comes to flexitrack) and have a bit of a play with cranking the loco depot (which isn't fully shown by the way) to get it sitting inside that 9' end wall (more like 4' to 5' once the curves are in). But plenty of time to mull it over yet.

Well, the next one up is a kiloNewton (kN), equivalent to 98.1kg mass (sometimes rounded up to 100kg for simplicity). You get 10 of those to a metric tonne so probably too large a unit.

Thank you! Well, it was a long day but probably 95% of my stuff got moved over, plus I had the pleasure of spending money on house stuff, plus there was of course the usual disagreeements and smouldering arguments but for a given value of 'in', I am in. Internet won't arrive until early March, so until then updates will be intermittent, but the important thing is that all the railway bits are over and the earmarked room has been well and truly claimed, so it's now locked in that I have approximately 12' x 9' to play with. Less say 3' for the doorway in (9' x 9') less the fireplace (turning the other 12' wall into three 4' lengths). One of the charming things about buying a house dating to around 1900-1920 (documents are a bit hazy on the date of construction) is that every single wall has some or other feature that breaks it up. Great if you don't want acres of plain wall space, perhaps not so marvellous if you want long unencumbered runs.... but for my purposes it shall suit admirably. The last few weeks I've been wrestling with trying to get my trackplan to work. To be honest, it just feels too plain and clunky and the more I've considered it, the more I've thought it somehow lacking. So I went back to the layout plan books that I've found most inspiring: the PSL book of trackplans by C J Freezer and Modelling Urban Layouts by Iain Rice. So the designs I've always found myself coming back to for the dream layout got another airing. Of those, the 10' terminus plan was what I originally looked at, discarded and then kept coming back to. I think the more I look at it the more I like it; with some additions.... let's put that down one long wall. Then we'll make a long 180 degree plus turn through the width, and inside of the running lines I'll extend one of the sidings into a lead for that 6' MPD design (which will of course have to be cranked into a 'C' rather than a simple length. Then- the lead carries on- it will run into a decent goods yard lifted from one of the room-filling plans. Which I think will be on angle in front of the fireplace. Meanwhile- the mainline just runs into a fiddle yard. You'll see that's sadly no mention of Cremorne for Pittance (though it will be retained and possibly extended- there's just no room for it in this plan- or the narrow gauge line. But I'll be getting probably 80 to 90% of my list, which is better than nothing.

Starting to get just a little tiresome with the end of 2019/ February 2020/ Easter 2020/ ??? due dates now.

The big move takes place tomorrow, then I might well be compelled to 'go dark' for a few weeks until internet is installed (in early March).

Yes, bit of an unintentional pun there This is the slate sheet I have: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/South-Eastern-Finecast-FBS415-270x380mm-HO-OO-Slate-4mm-Scale-Plastic-Sheet-T48/121569614183?hash=item1c4e1d1967:g:CIAAAOSwv0tU3g18 which is actually by South Eastern Finecast. The reason I didn't use it is because to my eyes it looks too much like cobble stone; I was looking for somethig with an obvious lapping effect as you will find on a roof.

Have you read the much later (much, much later) companion piece, Mrs Pooter's Diary?

From memory (you'll have to forgive me, it was a few years ago) they came from Slaters.

How on Earth did you guess that's one of my favourite books? (Alongside Three Men in a Boat, the Complete Works of Saki and AA Milne's satirical essays for Punch).

Nothing is getting set up for a while yet; I've bought the house itself as a sort of project (as in, I want to restore it to vaguely it's Edwardian appearance)... the current plan for the back bedroom (home of Red Lion Square and Hednesford Stafford No.1 Shop) is to paint it a cream or ivory colour (I think a neutral background like that will work well for not leaping out in photographs) and take up the carpet (hoping the floorboards aren't full of holes).