What is proving to be my yearly post on RMWeb. A lot of time spent building my tallest scratchbuild building to date and doing other activities.

On Baseboard 1 some houses blocking the view behind have been removed from the front and replaced with back gardens and a station garage with scrapheap on different levels. Next stop Warley to get a lawnmower and other scenic stuff.

Work progressing on Baseboard 6 which I started last year. The boards in my railway room go round the room in clockwise fashion. Board 6 is the one that you see when you walk through the door with the bridging section just in front of it. Last year I added a disused spur line at the back and then started sketching ideas for what I could do with the front - an oval space about 25 inches long and 15 inches deep and its widest point. After sketching ideas I decided to install a narrow gauge industrial line with a single run round loop a siding and a line around to a loading platform which connects to a new siding to the main line. The narrow gauge line enters the factory which has a loading platform and other ground floor interior detail.

The factory itself is mostly scratch built with the only kit being the chimney. I used my usual method of plasticard with slaters sheets (flemish bond) for the glued to the exterior. Windows are a mixture but I was careful to use the same on each side. I actually ran short so decided to block some of the windows up. On the yard side I added the loading doors with a girder at the top.

Then things changed - the original plan was to create an L shaped set of buildings some of them ramshackle tacked onto the factory with the narrow gauge entering through another building on the right. However for some time I had been musing about the area at the back of the board with its temporary buildings (American and Continental Outline) and have now decided that I didn't like it. A bit of mulling (and sketching) ideas and I have decided to install a second narrow gauge layout seperate to the first one on a different level. This actually crosses the mainline and the first narrow gauge layout on a spur down to the factory. The section at the back is just about large enough to put a circle of track in with a lowered section for a narrow lane. Bridges to be installed for the narrow gauge. Plus a tunnel to really add something to the terrain and an engine shed area. Small halt to be put in too. In essence this is a novelty layout but I am a big fan of narrow gauge lines.

Narrow gauge Engine shed - I think its an old faller kit coming from an old layout at my parents house (26 years old) due to be fully dismantled in the next few weeks.

Back in January I visited the Weston Super Mare show with some mates and we were talking about challenge layouts - last year they had built theirs and the plan was to exhibit them sometime this year - but I think that may slip and it may be now be next year. A bit of banter with - we have done ours - its your turn - (followed by - No No I haven;t got time I have enough my plate - maybe I could do a timber yard - how about that certain factory - ok I will do it)

The challenge was to build a complete model railway in 24 hours that had to be to exhibition standard. Rules were:

You can plan your layout

You can shop for materials

You can sleep

You can build a framed baseboard

Layout scenic area to be no larger than 2 feet.

It has to be suitable for exhibition

You can make the windows (too expensive to buy 200 odd)

So on the weekend of the 31st Jan / 1st Feb at 10.15am (with a hangover) I got started. - For a full report of that one see here: http://bambam897.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/24-hour-challenge-layout-day-1-first-12.html and

http://bambam897.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/24-hour-challenge-layout-day-2.html

Though I managed to get something complete by the 'times up' point I had to seriously short-cut on quite a few items, this then led to the last couple of months of adding a bit, repainting a bit here, weathering a bit there and I am still not happy, more scenery needed but at least the operation side works well (analog). Its based on a famous factory near Bristol which is still standing although the track has now being removed.

So anyway - today with the weather poor I have been indoors playing trains and modifying 009 track and generally tinkering with bits and bobs.