Empire Mills - the final name for the layout 'collective' that is the MRC's EMpire project, has just finished its first outing as something rather more than the bare boards state it was seen at Ally Pally in 2013. For the 2014 Ally Pally bonanza we had scenery and buildings! Yes, I admit, it isn’t finished, but you should have seen the layout at Christmas – it’s come on in leaps and bounds (more in a later post).

Empire Mills is a shunting layout; it is the end of a freight only branch line, presumably a short distance from a main line. To encompass a range of modelling interests it will have a number of different options. The current plan (which of course is a basis for change) is

• A china clay works (the current option under development)
  
• A coal mine, maybe in Somerset, or the North East, or the Midlands
  
• An exchange siding with a narrow gauge line
  
• An exchange siding with a War Department depot
  

They way we will ring all these changes of industry and even location is to use lift out sections that plug into the main run-around loop and siding. The ‘industry’ is reached by a kick back siding that leads onto the lift out sections, and as long as you meet the geometry of the track at the join to the lift out section, what you do is up to you. Also, to make things a bit different, the layout will be set after a fall of snow – it will also help reduce the number of geographically identifiable features on the permanent part of the layout – at least that is the plan.

Incidentally, if you live in or around London, are an EM modeller, or want to give it a try, or are a 4mm narrow gauge modeller and fancy taking on the narrow gauge bit of one of the options, come along to the MRC's HQ at Keen House, Calshot Street (it’s about 10 minutes from King’s Cross station) any Thursday evening between 7.30pm and 9pm and say ‘Hello’.