Life is full of changes, some good some not so good.  I’ve recently undergone a change within myself.   For some time I have felt a disatisfaction in my photography. I just did not get the same buzz when taking or editing pictures, this became clear in my recent pictures.  I felt I was on the same treadmill visiting the same places at the same time of year. In fact I often took the same shot from the same spot.  Yes it was a different picture, light was different, weather etc.  Apart from taking event shots for SCDA I’ve taken no personal pictures since the 8th June 2016 and that was of a wild flower. 

On the 12th June I took a picture at a Model Railway Exhibition at Summerlee Museum of Industry of a Steam Shed Layout in Hornby DoubleOn three rail and exclaimed that I could create something similar.   This elicited a question from Susan (my partner) about how? I lightly said I have a model railway in storage and I’m sure I could build a similar layout using the stock and track I have.  Her retort of “Well why don’t you” set me to thinking. It did not help matters when our friend Sid said “Yes why don’t we”.  Please note the we – it is important.  On returning home I extracted my old train sets, tracks etc. from storage.  Yep all were there apart from one case – and I’m still looking for that case.  A lot had changed since I packed it away in 1970 and again in 2003.  however,  I had ample stock and track to make a layout that measured 12 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet – a U shaped layout in 2002.  I had previously attempted to restart the hobby in 2002 but life events interfered with that plan so I took up photography.  Seeing that simple layout re-activated the interest I had in model trains of the 1950-1960 era of BR. The computer age and Internet came to my rescue by allowing me to access free track planing software – I opted to use Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeller SCARM.  Using that simple utility I came up with the design of the layout shown on the above image.

However, if you have a engine shed, you need a reason, so changes to the plan were made:

Still not quite right, yes I now had a reason for the shed, a station – good.  Now what happens to the trains …

Now the Shed made sense, the station made sense and trains would leave the station and disappear into a tunnel and away on its journey.  Now the discussion became serious.  I had a viable playout plan, the track and the stock.  I also had the room – but I did not have the know-how to build baseboards and that is where the very important “we” uttered by Sid came in.  He was a chippie, a worker of wood, joiner, housebuilder and soon he would be a baseboard builder – when we got the wood.  Continued in next blog.