Revisiting the Corkboard

It's been a quiet month since I last posted and actual model-making has been in abeyance for one reason or another. That hasn't stopped the thought processes though...

Since seeing James Hilton's work at Doncaster I have been playing with a few ideas to revive the small corkboard layout I started a few years ago. I think I have now finally reached the conclusion that the "Avalon Brickworks" plan isn't going to achieve what I want to do and needs a rethink. As a reminder, after a year or so of inactivity it presently looks something like this:

So why doesn't it work? There are a few things, some practical and some just "me". One of my bugbears with it (of my own making) is that the track sits in a tray formed by the outer framing of the board. On 'Shifting Sands' I raised the track on thin balsa to overcome this and I regret not doing the same here in "lockdown" conditions. The other practical issue is that the facing point arrangement makes positioning MicroTrains magnets tricky, leaving a magnet on the main line behind the right-hand point in an awkward position, OK for swapping sets of wagons but less so to actually "shunt" individual wagons. The curve in the inner siding pushed the magnet back there leaving little room for manoeuvre. 

The offset circuit of James' 'Canal Street Wharf' inspired plan 1 with a siding added within the circuit. The idea is that it would be fully scenic all around, rather like my 009 layout 'The Old Quarry Line'. At one point I sketched in a loco spur top right outside the circuit but I felt that it made things look unbalanced so it was lost from the final version of the plan.

I then wondered how it would look with the offset of the circuit the other way around, i.e. with the point on the side further away from the baseboard edge. I redrew this as plan 2 which actually confirmed what I thought, that it looked more spacious the other way around with the siding closer to the centre of the board. On both versions there is plenty of space for uncoupling magnets on the straight lines from both arms of the turnout.

These ideas need a complete lift of the existing trackwork, but that is not a bad thing as it will deal with the bugbear of the sunken track. My thinking is either to add another layer to the board top to raise the trackbed, or the more extreme idea to flip the board over and add a new trackbed layer on what is presently the underside of the framing. This would allow some dramatic scenery below track level such as a bridge over a stream. 

However, plan 2 did lead to another train of thought, completely different to the original concept, plan 3...

This is something of a cross between 'Shifting Sands' and an Inglenook! The sidings at the front are a 3,2,4 capacity layout, which isn't bad for the space. All have nice straight runs off the points so uncoupling/coupling should not be an issue. The sidings at the back are intended to be hidden and can hold a loco and 3 wagons.

So back to that "me" issue... I had struggled to find a suitable theme and setting for the original plan. Whilst many feel comfortable with O9 in an industrial setting it isn't something I can relate to, certainly not with my current rolling stock. Steering clear of this theme, I would be looking at depicting a modern-day estate railway of some sort, concentrating on stock used for maintenance of the railway itself and the land, e.g. loads of ballast, sleepers, fencing material, cut trees etc, maybe animal feed. 

As to what will get built, we shall see...

Colin