For some strange reason this site has been picking up a lot of visitors lately. Even though I haven't posted anything constructive since the passing of my/our good friend Carl Arendt. It's not for want of trying but in that time I put together a fun Z scale layout for a local train show and then went into training for a marathon which eats up all your spare time You can't begin to know how much time it takes up until you do it).
Now the marathon is done and I have a few weeks of recovery before training starts for the next one. So I'll try and put some ideas up for you all.
This concept, called Sheffield Peake Street after my old friend Colin Peake, has been down on paper since 2007 (5 years! I don't believe it). It was designed as a layout to fit in a couple of IKEA "SNACK" boxes. It was to be a model in P4 (English 4mm finescale using 18.83mm gauge track). For some reason it never got built even though I had locos, rolling stock and trackwork. I think there was a concern with the snack boxes only being about 16" long that there would have been too many track joins in a small area for the typically short 4 wheeled British Railways stock. Though you will notice I did make an effort to circumvent that by removing any pointwork (switches) from the design. All the switching around of stock would be done offstage on traversers.
This was how I described the original vision on an earlier incarnation of RMWeb:
"At the right we have a road overbridge with the very end of a platform ramp poking out from underneath (Probably an island platform) the 2 lines of the island platform head to the left before disappearing behind something, retaining walls maybe. Perhaps a signal box that straddles the line, homage to days when the line was much busier. Now it's just a rundown twig of a branch. Kept open because of rush hour commuters and the factory/warehouse sited just across from the platform end that sees several wagons delivered every day..."
So the idea lay dormant for 5 years until recently, when it jumped to the forefront of my mind having joined the Micro layouts design group over at RMWeb and been fired up by some of the links posted therein. So I looked up on the IKEA website to check the availability of the Snack box, and lo and behold, it seems to have gone!
But not to worry, I found a newer, seemingly better box. The APA, this baby is almost 28" long x 14" deep and 11" wide. A really tempting size for a small layout. At 28" long it's almost twice the length of a Snack box so less baseboard joins for the stock to navigate. The depth of 14" is more than adequate and gives you plenty of scenic opportunities. The 11" width would make a very attractive picture frame/proscenium arch to show off the model when finished.
Though the idea is presented here as UK outline there no reason why the basic themes of the concept couldn't be translated to any other country with an intensive suburban passenger service to counter act the quiet leisurely shunting at the factory. For US outline modellers a Budd RDC always provides good passenger service and the freight duties could be covered by an SW-1200 or an MP15, switching whatever kind of car is deemed necessary by the industry.
These boxes are only $14.99 each, so even if the idea doesn't work it could still make a very good sized stock box don't you think?
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