Creech Grange - a distraction in 006.5...

So it was bound to happen, I tried to resist for as long as possible, tell myself I was only building the models to use on Tim's new 006.5 layout but alas, I was only kidding myself!

Any so it begins... the 'bug' has bitten. Reading Mark Smithers' wonderful book on Heywood and the 15" lines, and digging out my old Sand Hutton book by Ken Hartley and Paul Ingham my little grey cells were working away and planning all sorts of 'surely I could' and 'it would be useful for running in' and 'a nice scenic experiment'...

Out came my iPad and the Paper app - and first of all I found a real place called Hilton, introduced a 'hall' and started tracing out field boundaries and the standard gauge railway before adding my own estate railway. The concept was simple, a small line from a standard gauge interchange to the hall, and then onwards via a farm to the estate works, brick works and finally a canal interchange... all complete fantasy, but a fun little exercise.

The next, and most dangerous step was eyeing up Busch starter sets and imagineering a roundy roundy miniature layout... with the addition of one point and a length of P4 standard gauge track I had the idea that it might make quite a quaint and fun little micro, and somewhere to show off my small creations and have a little bit of a play with them from time to time... plus it would be tiny so something more easily finished than Booth Siding or Dawson Creek...

So after selling a few old models on eBay I raised enough cash for a new Busch Feldbahn set and some extra track. This is the NS2 set, more on that in a moment... I got a left hand point and some larger radius short curves as well as a couple of short straights to make a loop. The shorter larger radius curves form the first section of curve at each end of the straight, followed by 3 of the trainset curves. This works well, and makes the transition appear less of a trainset / industrial railway.

I dug out some P4 track and some old buildings salvaged from my childhood OO layout. The small brick office was built and painted by my father, the GWR corrugated shed scratchbuilt by my grandfather. I intend to try and model the scenes I sketched, albeit the point it as the opposite end and I may look at alternatives to the cattle grid to protect the estate gardens from the fields and sheep straying in.

The small Hunslet looks right at home, as does the Ruston Proctor, both appearing tiny next to the buildings, and the 006.5 track suitably TINY next to the true scale P4 track. The landrover is a Dinky model, I intend to restore it a little and use it either on here or on my Booth Siding. It belonged to my Uncle's when they were little, I think it might be a touch over scale for 4mm, but we'll see what it looks like restored.

So more soon as things progress beyond testing (not playing honest!) of the locomotives on this little circuit...