Here's a plan of the railway layout I'm working on for this year's exhibition. It is 12 feet by 8 feet and is at two levels, as last year, although instead of being in the middle the raised section this year starts at one end. The height difference between the lower and higher boards is only about 1 inch, but space in the car prevents anything more dramatic. On the plan, the raised section is squares 1 to 8, left to right and up and down, bordered in black. This will be a mixture of grass and tarmac. (Elaine, if you paint this before we arrive, green is going to be the majority colour, and I'll add the grey for the tarmac. Alternatively, I'll do the lot if drying time and setting up time are enough.)
The squares marked 9 to 12 are the lower baseboard which will represent water, so blue's the colour. It's meant to be a river estuary, so the banks of the estuary will be represented by sand. The areas bordered in red are raised sections I will bring, as is the viaduct, which I'm working on currently.
There will be a station called Sea's End (on the way to Norfolk we pass a sign to a village called Moulton Sea's End, which is where I got the name. At one time it possibly was near the sea or an inlet of the sea, but it certainly isn't now. There will be various buildings and other PM items too. I'm a bit limited on how much I can bring as we are staying on for a few days after the exhibition and so more luggage means less PM!
Currently I'm planning for the layout to be track powered and, if the layout is suucessful, then it will be the basis for a permanent layout.
The top line looks to have a very sharp bend in it, but this is a quirk of the computer software. The line moves smoothly away from the main line of the oval in practice and gives room for a platform and a good long runaround. I actually pinched the idea from a layout at one of the Malta railway stations.
