Confession Time

I inherited the Gerald Rd/Gerralt Rd project off James Hilton around nine months ago. Since when I have barely touched it.


On the surface, that is rather silly. James had laid the track, added the uncouplers and done all the electrics. "All" I needed to do was to add the scenics...

...Which is where it gets complicated.

James built the barebones with a specific project in mind. I saw an opportunity to move the location to my beloved Tanat Valley Railway whilst keeping some features of his own concept, particularly some of the decrepit office buildings.

As my Irish side would say "If you want to go there, I wouldn't be starting from here"

Or in one case, in Belfast, in the middle of The Troubles, when I was on an IRA death list, I handed a security guard a route map of where I wanted to go and got the response "I'm sorry, I can't help you, I can only tell you how to get there from where you are now."

Reader, I walked away from the checkpoint in the pouring rain before processing what he'd actually said. 

It is important to ask the right questions, and to understand the answers.

And that is why I think I've been struggling.

I think I'm beginning to answer the right questions; whether my answers are right is another issue.

First of all, some important background "noise"

We moved here in February, which was total chaos, and then on top of that, we had the crisis with my mother. Add to that a recurrence of Covid that put me out of action for the last quarter of 2024.

It has only been this week that I've cleared some modelling space. That alone has been a massive task. Unfortunately, one consequence is that as things stand, there is no way I can use the loft space for a layout. And yes, my last great project remains an O16.5 GVT layout. I THINK I could still fit that into my office space. Eventually.

Finally, I'm still trying to work on various 7/8ths and 16mm projects, as well as disinvesting, for now, from 7 1/4" gauge.


My main questions of the layout start at the back, literally, with the backscene.

Key for me to the whole concept are two elements. The limekilns, and the level crossing. What I can't yet figure out is how to segue from one to the other. I have some local examples, like Oakamoor, where, though you can't see it, the kilns are close to the road. But you can see that the height of the kilns doesn't reflect the height of the surrounding land. It is prototypical, but will it look believable?

The other issue, which I'll cover next is "scale." I don't know how to articulate this. It is about the perceived scale of objects. Railway and road items I have a feel for. Buildings sort of, Where I feel wrong footed is scenery. It is stupid but I struggle with sizing trees and hedges.  A bit of me wonders if this is about colour. I'm used to using a quite saturated palette in 4mm, but in 2mm I might need to dial the colours back a bit

They are basic issues around the composition. I think, and I don't know if James picked this up intuitively, the whole scene feels 6" too long. On top of which, as Gerald Road, it had a clear start, middle and end.. But as Gerralt road it has a lot of middle that needs sub-dividing. I think what it needs is one slightly off-centre structure to provide a visual bridge, something like a crossing cottage.


If all that sounds negative, I've been doing many things in the background. I've got a lot of structures lined up to be built. They might not be the ones I use, but they should help me with the composition before being used elsewhere.Most of my scenic elements are lined up as well. So perhaps one day I'll make a real step forward. One day....