10’6 x 2′ isn’t a large space, but it’s one I can dedicate freely to a layout without having to worry about ‘setting it up’, or converting a room by hanging L-girders off the walls, or clearing the junk out of my spare room or spending the next 20 years building it.
“Nothing is Enough for the Man to whom enough is too little” goes the quote, and I’m trying to find positives in this choice of space. It will be manageable and cheap, disposable and easily stored.
The problem I seem to run into regardless of theme, scale or locale is that in such a small space there are compromises to be made which are almost inexcusable. There are three scenarios which seem available to me – either british in OO or EM, or N gauge American.
With the space entirely precluding 1:87 American trains and my large collection of post-transition era ATSF stock, a yard-based operations-focused layout set in the late 60′s would make the most sense. In the space available I could accurately model a branch yard, with local yard switcher duties being represented. The unfortunate lack of meaningful run either side of the layout would mean that no wayfreight or through trains could be run, which limits the appeal of yard ops and by extension – the whole layout’s purpose.
For an EM layout, all locomotives and stock would need to be re-gauged, re-wheeled or otherwise modified. This essentially means it’s a no-go for the steam era. By focusing on fidelity (which is why we’re hand laying the track) it would require similar fidelity in track plan and scenery to not seem incongruous. A greater fidelity in track layout and less compression means that really only a section of station or mainline would be possible to model in this space – which means that operational interest post-completion would likely be limited in nature.
The dark horse alternative is to create a layout with hand-laid OO gauge track – this would allow RTR steam locomotives without scary rebuilding for a nicer setting than privatisation or banger blue. It does beg the question however, that if I’m going to hand lay the track, adjust the coupling system and spend some hours on this, why not just learn how to re-wheel a steam loco and go the whole hog in EM?
Decisions, Decisions.
