Stalled

 I'm writing this whilst supposedly packing up the office and studio before the house move. Ideally, of course, I would have been at Warley this weekend.

I say supposedly because I'm running out of boxes and places to store them. The multitude of cats and dogs isn't helping. Another cat has just arrived through the window as I typed that. Yesterday she tried to come in via the door.

It also doesn't help that I keep coming across things that I'd forgotten I owned, many of which are relics of past projects that stalled because of home office moves.

There is no doubt that, with less space to play with in the new home, I have to do some thinking.  The plus side is that the new house will need less in the way of outdoor tools and equipment. The ride-on mower can be replaced by a small robot one, and I hope never to have to start another cheap two-stroke garden tool.

I've also made room by moving Tug and the coach offsite, into the care of Steve Purves and his There and Back Light Railway. They now reside on the Stapleford Park estate, and Tug is destined to a rebuild to 10 1/4" gauge. Not to run at Stapleford, though that would be amazing, but to be available for semi-commercial work. At the same time, Teddy has finally come to the end of its overhaul and should be returning to me soon. And rather splendid it looks as well, thanks to CDM Engineering's protracted overhaul. 

The future ELR will use lightweight temporary track, but I've decided to keep hold of the current PNP track for now.

The garden railways will adhere to my belief in simplicity, a simple L shaped 45mm 7/8ths line hidden in what is now the flower bed, and a slightly raised 32mm circuit in an island bed for Grandchildren to run robust 16mm stock, and me to run a couple of my 18" gauge 7/8ths models.

So we come back to the indoor projects...

My plan, if we weren't moving, had been to move to 7mm in the long term, with a GVT based line and a simple interchange with a very simple standard gauge line. The whole office/studio was built with housing that in mind.

The good news is that the original Roy Link GVT plan that was based on will still fit in the new house once I retire. For now, though, 7mm is a non-starter.

I really want to try out TT120, but not for a big project. I think I can fit something onto one of the existing TAoC baseboards. TAoC itself looks like being the other major victim of the move. There is one possible location for it, but it would need to be hidden away when not in use. 

Looking at a map, the Tanat Valley will almost be within cycling distance. It will be a very low priority, but I'm wondering about a 2mm version of the original Apa. 

The Cadeby and Flemish Wharf micros will continue to sit in their existing bookcases. I have half an idea for a very simple Penhryn-inspired OO9 layout as a home for some of the recent RTR products. 

So what will be my main focus? Well, I still have a lot of W&U tram locos, and I love the Rapido W&U coaches. So I think I'll carry on with that plan, but with two significant changes.  I'm going to drop the Inglenook aspect and abandon the White Swan Yard second baseboard. I'm also going to move it to a more generic East Coast LNER location and add in some North Sunderland aspects to widen the options for stock. Whilst exhibiting has never appealed to me, I suspect I might build this layout with that in mind.

And the overall winner? We need to move in first, but I think it might be a relatively old-fashioned OOn3 layout set in the Welsh borders, and using a corner cameo location. As much diorama as layout., where nothing much happens and most of the stock will never move again.