Just because…

I was Pannier-less for about a week. Perhaps not even 7 days - no sooner has 1659 left I felt strange not owning one in any scale, so as a placeholder, a sort of emotional commitment to a future James, 6412 from Graham Farish now calls my little corner of North Wales home…

I don’t have space for the layout I want to build - as lamented the other week - but I do have space for a circle of Kato Uni-trak… that is due in the post from Japan. I also have a selection of old Peco wagons from my Grandpa - so I can run a branch-line of sorts… 

The sort we all started out with…

Last weekend I was in a funk. I have a wonderful life, making models for a living and living next to a preserved railway - but it doesn’t always correlate to good headspace. I’ve been tired for weeks too, so it’s ok to be kind to yourself. I wanted to make something and I had been lost in branch-lines for a week.

  

‘Lost in branch-lines’ - that doesn’t sound too bad does it, and whilst my heart said “build Watlington station” my head said “let’s walk first”… I don’t need this anyway, it was rather to exercise that creative pursuit, to marry up my desire to create, my current rabbit hole of GWR branches with the reality of my physical condition… 

This tiny signal box is the magical result.

Two observations. It is characterful, but perhaps too chunky. The roof worked well (the steps and windows too) but the planking whilst ‘scale’ is too crude. But this isn’t a model for a traditional layout, rather it’s a cameo for a table top trainset. A placeholder, as I mentioned, a promise to myself that I will build one, one day…

A branch-line of my very own.

 

In the meantime a circle of Kato track, a collection of old family models and a good imagination are a tonic worth savouring. Until next time, more soon…