The Little Things Add Up

With this month's pay in the bank it is time to think what the key things are I want to achieve in the next month. Only a small part of my hobby budget is supporting this project, and in any case I suspect my time is going to be constrained with the possibility of spending the bulk of November working away from home.

As I mentioned in an earlier post even a small layout like this can soak up money if you don't already have lots of things lying around.

The key thing in November is going to be getting the track laid,with  the point working both mechanically and electrically, the wiring done and at least enough of the scenics done to get over the dreaded bare baseboard syndrome.

Track in theory is to hand. I say in theory because the more I look at the sleeper spacing on the Tillig track the more I find myself thinking about moving to C+L track.

I've definitely decided to go for the simple mechanical switching of the turnout using a sliding switch, as long as I can make it work.

Wiring should be really really simple on such a straight forward track plan,. Should be, but because I want toi experiment with DCC I'm going to use a bus with dropper wires, but I'm hoping that like most jobs I can fit it all into one evening.

Scenics is the classic case it seems where reverse economies of scale come into play. Small packets are horrendously expensive for what you get but I don't want to end up with a big stock of material I might never use. After all I've got no concrete plan for the the next 4mm layout and suspect it won't happen until after another house move. Still I've bitten the bullet and enough bits and pieces should be heading my way to at least sketch out the groundwork.

Then I can get on to the bits I'm actually looking forward to, rather than seeing as necessary evils. There is the distinctive overbridge to build, the typical Tanat Valley corrugated goods shed and station and the signal box.

OK I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the signal box. I've got a Ratio GWR kit in store  but really it needs the staircase on the other side to fit the site. Given the amount of kitbashing that will be needed to achieve that, and that the design still won't be genuine Tanat Valley I might have to scratchbuild that as well and I'm not sure that is a task within my comfort zone.

Some power would be nice as well, so I'm hoping my DCC controller will arrive soon.

I ought to start thinking seriously about rolling stock as well at some point. Obviously I'm going to need a Toad, and as far as I can make out the only way to get one which is even relatively accurate will be by building an etched kit. I suppose I'm going to have to select a loco that makes sense as well. The Sentinel is fun, but not really believable in context.