Saturday 1 September 2007

Here's the latest version of the track plan, with the new baseboard size:



The 'back' siding will actually run behind the platform with a loading dock at the end. The 'reverse' siding at the front I am now thinking will be an engine servicing road with a small engine shed, water tower and coaling stage adding visual interst at the front of the layout and helping to break up the view a bit. I've also shortened all the turnouts from C8 to B8 to eek out a few extra inches here and there.

Having got the new basebaords set up in the spare room, covered them in cork (B&Q cork floor tiles) and laid out the track plan on top (and while waiting for all the 00-SF track gauges to arrive or become available), I've been able to spend some just trying to visualise how everything will fit together and look once its finished. For me this is a crucial part of the planning - even though I'm modelling a fictional location I want that location to be as real as possible in my imagination so that when I start building I'm working from a mental picture I already have rather than simply hoping it will all add up to a convincing scene once its finished. I need to know how many lamp posts there are on the platform, where the point rodding goes, the size and position of the trees, whether a boundary is a fence or overgrown hedgerow.... all the sorts of things you could easily find out from photographs if you were modelling a real location and all of which go together to make up the unique feel and atmosphere of a particular place.

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