Creech Grange in 006.5: Estate railway planning...

I've been away from my workbench over easter but took my iPad with me, and have been drawing up ideas and doodles for the estate railway project...

Now provisionally named the EHLR (Ellis Hilton Light Railway - as the concept is a bit of a collaboration with Tim) rather than the HBLR (Hilton Brook), my thoughts are both Sand Hutton and Heywood lines in character - probably leaning a little more to the Sand Hutton in period...

You might remember this sketch from a few weeks back? This was the original concept for the small estate railway...

However, I have been pondering an entry in the Dave Brewer challenge this year... a model shamelessly inspired by Sand Hutton Central and Bossall stations (if you can call them that) on the SHLR. The competition limits to a single track, and baseboard dimensions. I would plan to scratchbuild the station and reuse some old trees my Dad made many years ago, presenting the whole thing in a small display, a miniature Cameo, with the ability to add fiddle sticks and a simple Busch controller for back and forth shuffling if desired...

I have also been developing the micro layout concept and have found a nice wooden box on eBay similar to those Tim already uses with his projects. This has an external size of 60 x 40 x 24cm deep. This will allow the full oval and point, and the standard gauge siding on a small baseboard. The idea is the box will contain the layout and all the stock and controller - so sketching out ideas on how to package this up, using the lid as the baseboard, or more traditional arrangements. I've not yet decided although I do like the idea of the layout with drawers built in! However I think the under baseboard tray option is probably the best, because it means I can totally protect the stock with foam, from moving around - I'll make a full decision when I've seen it in the flesh. You might notice the sketch includes a GW pagoda (Wills) and a brick office building (Ratio) - although neither is quite right as I was doing it from memory! More soon...