If you're wondering what's been happening since 13/02/2014 then the simple truth, in model railway terms, is absolutely nothing. I have built a small barn in our garden to house our Marlin Roadster and carried out substantial repairs to my workshop but that was summertime work, so can't really be blamed. No, the truth is, I got it wrong. To quote my dad upon being asked for directions "Well, if I was you mate, I wouldn't start from here" and that's it in a nutshell. So I've gone right back to square one. The baseboards have been dismantled and I'm scheming and cautiously building.

My first mistake was in not constructing a box to define the area of the layout so my first move has been to construct the right hand back-scene and to determine the height of the main back-scene. My next mistake was in opting for a flat baseboard instead of open construction. I then realised that I could use the area under the eves to accommodate reversing loops and so now I have a scruffy sketch of what I think I'm going to build. My next job is to draw this at a much larger scale such that I can reasonably represent the correct track spacing particularly in the marshalling yard. My intention is still to have no fiddle yards and to have plenty of modelling and operational interest.

The layout, in round numbers, is 4.2 meters long and 650mm wide (not including the hidden loops under the eaves.

There will be three stations. Rosedale Junction, Fornham St. Jude and Corkerdale. Why these names? Well, our house is Rosedale; my wife's maiden name and our favourite niece's surname is Corker; Fornham already has a couple of saint's and St. Jude being the patron saint of lost causes, it just seemed appropriate!

The design of RJ will be my own as it is entirely a product of the station's function in the context of a model railway. The two termini will be heavily based on real GWR branch line termini. My desire is to be able to run from terminus to terminus via RJ direct and to be able to run round the main loop. The RJ goods yard will be on the road side away from the marshalling yard as will be the carriage sidings. There will be no engine shed as there are full maintenance facilities to the west and a triangle to the east. There will be basic coal and water at all three stations.

I'm stating all this now because it will be interesting to see if the final layout bears any resemblance to these initial ideas!!