Blog- Neil_S_Wood's Blog - Stocktake

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It had been a while since I've been working on my layout I've forgotten what I needed to get and what I already have. I did have some of this information on spreadsheets but am not able to find them either now. For example, I could have swore that I had 4 Lenz LS 150's (point decoders); 1 that I'd broken and 3 that worked. Couldn't find the third working one so ordered another. Lo and behold, I'd just bought another one when I came across the missing one the following day! Inevitable really. So, after that, I went through all the storage boxes to see exactly what I had in them. Found most of what I had with soem nice surprises too. Still a couple of missing items though. Also changed over my stock from era 1 to era 2 as this is what I will be running mainly.

 

I had a couple of base board areas which still required completion. One which would only hold buildings and was going to be constructed of lighter plywood. The other area was a square hole in the main station area which I'd left for access. I did have a square bit of chipboard on the floor underneath the layout which I had always assumed to be the piece which filled the hole. I tried it in the gap and surprise, it didn't fit at all. No idea how that came about! I then cut a new piece of chipboard to size and fitted it so the track work can continue when I get more in a couple of weeks time.

 

The other bit that needed completion is the bit in the right hand corner here. I cut a piece of plywood to size. Doesn't need much strength here as only buildings on top.

 

 

 

Now the plan was to have parallel shuttle lines running down the very back of the layout. I had already cut some chipboard for this. However, when I married up the cut chipboard with the bridge sections it seems that the bits I cut were too narrow. I'll still be able to use some of it but will need more.

 

 

This picture shows where the shuttle line will go and the difference in size between the two bits of chipboard. This also gets further complicated because I will be attached the backboards with backscene to the back of this. I'm having a bit of a pause to think about this. My current thoughts are to scrap the previous stuff I cut and just buy more chipboard and cut it to the right size so that it fits straight on both sides.

 

The section below will be the old town and have old world buildings. I have a few in storage which I can use. The plastic bridge to the left is the one which the shuttle lines will cross.

 

 

While I was doing this I thought I'd pull out the buildings I had for this section to see what I had. I was going to order some more but am now thing the ones I made weren't bad so might make some instead. There's certainly some space to fill. The walls will go round the edge closest to the rail lines.

 

 

This view shows how it will fit in with the main station area.

 

 

On the opposite side of the station area I was going to put in some services like coaling sand etc. The size here will be limited by the curved shuttle line cutting in and arching round.

 

 

I had already cut the base board for the shuttle line so this will give you an idea of the space available. I might have to recut this and make it wider next time though.

 

 

Not completely convinced there's enough room but will build all the items and move them around to see how it all looks. I had originally intended to put the turntable in here but, clearly, that's not happening. I've run out of track now so in the meantime I'm building all my kits. Have a bit of a backlog of these. Might scratch build some new buildings but will see where I'll place the existing ones so that I can tailor the new ones to available footprints.

 

 

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