Blank Canvas

A picture tells 1000 words they say. I've been up in the loft and taken some photos of where the train set will be.

On the plus side, the loft floor is already boarded. On the down side 7 years' worth of 'stuff' has been accumulated there.

So first job will be to have a good sort out!

The boards that are laid out on the right hand side of the photo are the sides from an old bookshelf. I've laid them out on the beams to get some idea of what it will look like. Once put on a suitable frame, this area will be the station. The line will go off towards the brick wall and curve round before passing over the viaduct.

This is the view looking the other way. The line will curve off towards the right and into a tunnel. Note the loft hatch is just visible at the bottom of the photo.

The final photo shows some some Peco track plans laid out. These can be downloaded from the Peco Website and printed off. I had to generate the straight track myself.

A little bit of history

Many years ago (more than I care to calculate!) I had a train set that evolved into a model railway. From the late 80s I had two successive model railways that I took to exhibitions. Various time commitments meant that in the late 90s I had to give it up. I sold most of the locos and rolling stock and sold the layout to a guy who lived in Winchcombe (just by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway - www.gwsr.com).

When I left home to get married my parents kept hold of some of my locos and they've agreed to let me have them back! So, we have an instant stock list as follows:

• 5080 'Defiant' - Castle class. Based on an Airfix model (I think) with extra detailing and renamed/numbered.
• 7752 - Pannier Tank. Bachmann model, renumbered.
• 'Robert Peel' Austerity Tank - Based on the Dapol J94, but repainted to represent an industrial tank engine that once ran on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.
• 'Robert Nelson No 4' - 16" Hunslett. My first brass kit - can't remember for the life of me who by! Painted and named to represent another industrial tank engine that once ran on the GWR (spotting a theme yet?).

Preparations are, then, continuing. Realistically I think it will be 6 months before anything is actually running - but that will coincide with my daughter's birthday at the start of August.

Thank you James May

Why does every Dad want a son? So he can buy them a train set of course! So having 2 daughters was a bit of a set back in this respect! And whilst my youngest daughter had shown an interest in Lego, Scalextric and Meccano, a train set still didn't look on the cards.

And then, along came James May and his excellent series 'Toy Stories'. In one of the episodes he attempted to build a 10 mile 00 gauge railway from Barnstaple to Bideford. My daughter watched the program and hey presto - now she wants a train set!

So, the plan is to run it around the loft. They'll be a station with an engine shed, a big tunnel a viaduct and much more!

It'll take some time to get going, but we'll try and keep the blog up to date with happenings! Not that anyone will probably ever read it!!!

For starters - I've attached the first idea for the plan. It's not to scale, but gives you an idea of what we aiming for!