Onwards and ever so slightly upwards

Life keeps on getting in the way of the growth of Port Lucy but tonight I took a big step forward; and a couple backwards.

As I mentioned before the base board I had built was too big and so I needed to chop nine inches off the rear, ideally some more would have gone but if I cut anymore off Port Lucy would be even smaller than it now will be.

I took the plunge and partly un assembled the pre existing structure, no mean feat in the confined space and with all the boxes of crap stored underneath. Anyway to be brief I managed to cut it down and fit it back in by using my super powers of contortionism. I previously had no idea these existed and now my back hurts quite a bit: If I ever build another layout it will be much smaller or I will have won the lottery and will get someone else to do all the tedious bits like woodwork, track laying and electrics. 

There we go nine inches shorter

So I looked at it and came to the terrible realisation that my legendary measuring skills had resulted in my building the new board a couple of centimetres lower than the bit it will connect to. First I thought about just ignoring it but that wouldn't help the track jump down a significant distance. There was only one thing for it and that was to screw a piece of wood onto the bottom of each leg. Contortion time again.

Now the correct height and with a connecting bit of wood.

Hopefully that is all the back breaking wood work done and I can now get on and sort out a final track plan and start being able to play trains again.

While avoiding woodwork I have done a bit of work on the next section of Station Road.

The old vicarage and the Town Hall and tower.

These are the next two buildings which will be on a hill

Imagine the platforms and track in the space.

A long way to go but it is starting to seem like it might one day get somewhere like done. I do hope so as I have a large pile of kits to build and more that I'd like too.

Port Lucy wasn’t built in a day

 I’ve been away on holiday and busy at work and now I have a filthy cold which won’t go away but I’ve really got the urge to get on with Port Lucy. What I really need to do is to get out in the garage and sort out the baseboard but that’s not been possible. While I was away I did lots of thinking and scribbling of track plans. This needs to get simpler and less ambitious as usual. 

The latest plan

Anyway, today I decided that I would start making the street which runs up the left hand side as I’m pretty sure which buildings will be where and am going to put them together in modules so that I can work on the lap tray and then fit them together onto the layout complete with details. 

Module one is the buildings at the front of the layout which form the street area which the station buildings face. 

So this is Station Square, the cobblestone road is by Noch and it’s sort of embossed, printed card. A bit shiny but a spot of weathering and maybe a waft of Dulcote once it’s installed and it will be fine. 

The next module will feature The old rectory and the town hall and its clock tower and garden.