No news is not bad news...

I feel the pages of this blog are long overdue for and update.
So what has happenned in the last month to this layout?
Well not a lot really. I'm encouraged to see that Ultrascale charged my credit card for the Class 08 conversion unit I ordered a few months ago. Perhaps that will be here soon and I can get a locomotive running that would really fire things up.
I have started assembling various wagon kits as well as the Wills Chapel that will grace the layout. I had forgotten how well made Wills kits were and how easily they go together, it's such a long time since I had one.
The piece of wood referenced in an earlier post ended up getting used on a totally different project. Something totally off the wall and diametrically opposed to the P4 layout in so many ways. But it was great fun though a part of me wishes I'd built that in P87.
One final thing I got my wish in the end and wasn't accepted for the London Marathon so perhaps next year I can time my visit back home with a visit to Scaleforum...

Mystery Baseboard

Sometimes something just hits me. This offcut of 1/4 ply has been lying around unnoticed in my garage for a long time. Yet today when I came back from a 15 mile run (should have been 20 but it got too hot for me) and saw it there I was struck by the curved edge.

"You know what? That looks like a riverbank" I thought to myself. Immediately I started to think about if this was a possible baseboard for the Haven layout. No matter that I was totally jiggered from running 15 miles in upper 70'sF heat. I had to think about it. Deliriium perhaps. The wood is 5' long x 12" deep at the deepest point. I'm not saying that this would be the baseboard for the layout. But its certainly useable for part of the quayside I think. Anyway I've not posted for a while so I thought I'd just throw this out there. Just to show I'm still actively engaged in this project even though there are other things on my plate.

Mail call

Blimey. Jeepers. Golly.

Scalefour News arrived today.

I have to admit I was rather puzzled when I picked up the brown envelope. There was something different. It was thicker. More robust.

"What's this?" I thought. "Something's going on here." I wasn't even sure that it was the News for a moment.

However that fear was dispelled as soon as I opened the envelope. It was a double bumper issue! Not only a copy of the News but also a nice thick Scaleforum 2009 guide. Full colour and everything. Just awesome. Showing me exactly what I'm missing by not being there.

Just what am I missing? Only some of the (personally) most influential P4 layouts going. Bodmin, Hepton Wharf, Llanastr. It's just not fair! I would kill to see all these layouts under one roof. OK perhaps not literally but you get the idea. The selection of layouts looks outstanding and a longer list of traders there to boot.

It makes me actually hope that I don't get accepted for the 2010 London Marathon so that we can time next years visit home with Scaleforum 2010.

Huge compliments to the producers of the guide and I hope that Scaleforum 2009 is a huge success.

Lest we forget

Things are very quiet on the Haven layout front. So I don't want anyone to think I've abandoned it. As I've stated before marathon training takes a lot of time. This week alone I have two eight mile runs and a twenty miler to get in. Plus, I have discovered a distraction in the Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway and I am inspired enough to mess around with some ideas for a small layout.
I have spent some time staring at a "baseboard" with some track laid out on it with some building mock ups on it to get a feel for the layout. I was hoping to be able to fit the layout into a 4' length for ease of construction but the more I look at things the more I realise it needs to be 4'6" perhaps even 5'. So a case of "best laid plans of mice" there.
I'm still knocked out by the design and the sketches when I look at them so the idea isn't going away. No chance.

Some thoughts

Been somewhat quiet on the update front of late. Mileage is starting to ramp up for my next marathon. So that takes priority.

I have placed an order for a couple of Tortoise point motors for the layout though. Some of the parts for the Scalescenes goods shed are sitting under some weights while the glue sets. Actually they've been sat under the weights for 2 weeks so I think the glue is well and truly bonded now.

Also today a slight cause for concern. I finally dismantled my Wold Farm Mushrooms layout. Ripping up the track and removing the hills, ostensibly to fit everything in the dustbin easier. But, and this makes me re-think the pink foam method, everything peeled off the pink foam easily. Too easily. So easily that I have a new baseboard for another layout with a minimum of clean up. Bit worried about the pink foam baseboards now.

As the world spins

A wet rainy Minnesota morning seems very far removed from the delights of Cricket on an English summers afternoon. But that is what I've been thinking about this morning.
Perhaps it was yesterday's stunning England victory over Australia at Lords. Perhaps it was the fact that while I've been working on assembling the Scalescenes goods shed I've been doing so to the strains of the Duckworth Lewis Method.
But today it is more than likely because I just followed the links from a recent comment to one of this blogs postings. That led me to the website of Brocklesby Park Cricket Club. One weekend, many years ago, I played there for Grimoldby CC. I went in at number 10 or 11 and the first ball I faced was a bit uppish and I decided with a rush of blood to the head to hook at it. Which being a number 11 batsman I totally mistimed and the ball crashed into my shoulder. I think my pride was hurt more than anything. It certainly caused some consternation amongst the home team though. I don't remember a lot about the innings after that. Did I score any runs in my innings? I don't think so. Did I get out next ball? Knowing me probably.
What has this got to do with Model Railways? Absolutley nothing. You just never know where the next memory is coming from.

A flight of fancy

Imagine yourself on a light aircraft flying along the East Lincolnshire coastline. A few miles North of Mablethorpe you take a look out of the window. If you are imagining hard enough you might see this scene below you.

This then is ideally how I'd like the layout to look when finished. The length of the layout would run from the goods shed to the chapel graveyard and depth wise from the quay wall to the front hedgerow. Hopefully I could get the finished layout to look like this. It's certainly something to aim for.