Yesterday saw quite a bit of time spent pondering the next moves. I'm not as scatter-gun as some people, but I've always got more than a couple of things on the burner. The AoC is in some ways the main project. I mistakenly thought that it would be quite a quick game and as it was so simple in execution that it would be easily achievable. In it's base form it is - four point terminus on 6 x 1', however Roy Link is a wily old bird and he hints on the original piece in 1978 that it could be a long project should you choose. What I spotted yesterday was that should it end up in RM like most of my efforts this century, that I can't play the 'game of one' freelancing card - I'm up against all the other GWR termini. So while the wagonary is OK, the coach and loco stud is sadly lacking in detail. The layout itself is 95% done, the rolling stock for it is somewhere around 20%. There is still much to do and I have to focus on getting it done and not wander off.
Simple compromise solution maybe Chris - do it as the outer terminus of a small preservation/heritage railway then you can invoke Rule 46b(iv) - I can run what the hell I like and nobody can say it's wrong. Prototype for everything department (amongst many others I'm sure) could be the East Somerset Rly near Shepton Mallet where the outer terminus is a platform a run round loop capacity about 3 coaches plus loco, set amongst trees and nothing much else. Total running stock notwithstanding gala days is a couple of coaches - a mark 1 2nd open and a brake/second (I think, didn't look closely and travelled in the 2nd open myself on my one visit) plus one of 2 locos - a GWR (pause for intake of breat) 0-6-2T (I think) and an Ivatt or Riddles Mickey Mouse 2-6-0 2MT which was the one in steam when I visited. Simple but credible. Food for thought perhaps?
ReplyDeleteMick
I think it depends what you're aiming for.
ReplyDeleteTo me,the project seems somewhat "vintage" ('70s/'80s) in approach as befits the original idea, and there's nothing wrong with that.
OK, so the track is code 100 and some of the rolling stock may not be superdetailed etc.,etc.,etc......
But so what? It still doesn't prevent it from being an atmospheric layout.
One day when I have time, there's a whole box of old kits dating from the last 40 or so years which I've collected, often at knock down prices, with the idea of building a little GWR layout in EM, probably inspired by the likes of Torpoint and similar layouts that I misspent my youth reading about.
If I ever get around to it, it won't be state of the art but hopefully it'll convey the sort of atmosphere I want it to......and that's what matters, surely?
S.
The general time place and operation is fairly well set now. I think what I'm aiming for is not so much super detailed finescale (which it can't be) but just a general level of finish across the layout. All the scenic stuff has been diddled with in some way and painted up - I have to continue that with the locos etc.
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