Saturday Ramble

It's funny how the mind wanders all over the place, especially when there is no 'must get it done now' project on the desk. Morton Stanley has taken residence in Crawley for a while to have some more buildings sized up by Nigel and there is nothing really that is urgent to do (this is a blatant lie as I have plenty to be getting on with).
One thing that does need doing, as it has a deadline (as if getting books written and completing my accounts don't) is a fiddle yard for Edge. This need only be a temporary affair as it has but one outing and this is where the mind wandering comes into play: why build a baseboard that will only be used for 6-7 hours? Why not make it do something else? Those that have witnessed my carpentry will suggest that firewood may be a good future option. Older readers, as PECO would say, will remember an earlier post here titled An Elderly Gentleman's Travelling Companion in which I toyed around the idea of building a public transport friendly baseboard. This is very timely as Maurice Hopper's piece in the current RM speaks very negatively about the experience, though my thought is to build something that is able to be carried by train, not that has to be carried by train, but is within the Euros**r maximum dimensions of 850mm - I started from this point whereas Mr Hopper has had to adjust to it according to his article. The idea then is this: the FY would be somewhere in the region of 32" x 8" with one of my usual 3-4 point plans in 009 on it. However as a first move, only the first throat point is laid along with two lengths of lightly tacked track, thus creating a embryonic tiny Krupa-bahn type layout and initially a two road FY for Edge. The former would be designed to have no FY therefore eliminating the need for the same problem again,

Then there is the subject matter. Again older readers will have noticed my liking for the bizarre and particularly the railway artistry of Emmett and more recently Peter Barnfield. Could all these ideas be bound together and would something be possible in 4mm/009 rather than the lately more common Gn15? the header is one inspiration being the Emmett line at the 1951 Festival of Britain (a quick you tube search throws up plenty of visuals of this). Something beachy? Sort of Far Twittering meets the Rye and Camber, meets the Cruden Bay Hotel Tramway? Maybe not...