When I started to be disillusioned about Penmaenpool I could not get in the mood to carry on with it. Hence the coach and loco building since Christmas. The old layout sat there half completed, Tortoises on their backs, no scenery and so on.
What a difference a decision makes:
I am standing in the doorway, to the left and behind me is a two track lifting section. The LH point in the foreground will be connected to the inside track. The turnout will feed the old Legge Lane turntable, already in place but in need of some TLC. The straight point continues as a two track circle which passes the far side of the turntable and will eventually do a complete circuit with a storage loop behind scenery. The turntable represents Tyseley 84E and although not part of the Moor Street scene will be fully scenicked with storage roads to display various locomotives I own. This is where the Dolgelley fiddle yard used to be.
Beyond the turntable is a module from Penmaenpool containing the engine shed. I cannot junk this, it took a summer to design and construct, so it is going to serve a new purpose, a staging post for Large Prairies, etc. that need servicing but don't need turning at Tyseley. That's something Dr. Beeching never thought of! The old track section was careful cut out and will be sunk into an appropriate space beyond the throat of Moor Street Station, which will be round the corner to the left of the camera.
I have made the turntable easily removable for servicing, etc. It slides forward though there will have to be some removable "keepers" to prevent that sag that is just about visible and will only get worse. There will be roads off the turntable to display perhaps 4 or 5 locomotives. The turntable has a DCC module and is operated under address 88.
The back scene here will be a synthesis of Digbeth/Small Heath urban sprawl, and I can think of nothing better than including the old Singer factory. I remember it well because I thought they made sewing machines there! Well, my mother had a Singer which explains my naivety. The main line was on the long blue brick viaduct so the viaduct wall will be a useful scenic break with only the tops of the buildings beyond actually showing, becoming smaller scaled, Paul Bambrick style.
One departure from previous L Girder layouts I have built is that I am going with large sheets of plywood, each sheet firmly fixed to numerous uprights. I have been kneeling on top of one such sheet and it is rock solid. I need more sheets of 10mm ply (I thought it was 9mm) but cannot buy any at the moment as there is a
Tramontane (like the
Mistral) blowing at around 60kph and plywood acts like a sail when being transported across the car park. As it was I nearly lost some smaller sheets of white hardboard I did buy this afternoon.
The plan is to continue to build the outer two track oval. Only then will I build a new diagonal section across the room and this will be Moor Street Station.
Paul