Purespring Watercress. The end of an era.

The layout. The end.

That's it then. All done. Purespring Watercress is officially retired. It will see the light of day no more in this form.
The layout recently attended the 28th National Narrow Gauge convention here in Minneapolis, where it was very positively received by the attendees. Many of who were unfamiliar with English agricultural railways, micro layouts, and even cabinet style layout presentation.
Over the 4 days of the convention I talked myself hoarse on the two full days Thursday and Friday, explaining about the farm, the railway and the operation.
The highlight of the weekend for me was meeting Bob Brown, editor of the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette Magazine. He was positively excited to see something this small on show and encouraged me to submit an article for the magazine. Which I shall do in the near future.
The layout, though it operated smoothly over the course of the convention was not without its issues. The turnout in the scenic section could not be operated, lest it created a short in the layout causing operation to grind to a halt. The turnout in the rear too, had problems and had to have a wire soldered between the toe and closure rail so that it would operate reliably.
One car trains were the order of the day, two cars would derail, The layout was really showing its age. After surviving a flooded basement and getting battered in my recent house move, it must have all been too much for the old girl. It won't see the light of day at a show again.
That's not to say that I won't build another Purespring Watercress Layout. I am too indelibly associated with the concept to ignore the idea of presenting the idea in another form. Much like my favourite layout at the show. The Crowsnest Tramway, once owned by Roy C. Link and now in the possession of Craig Parry in Canada. Roys Crowsnest concept has been around in several forms and scales since the 1970's and is still going strong.  That was the big thing I took away from the show. It has taken me years and years to realise this. I need to stick with what I know with my modelling projects, and work with that.
Purespring Watercress, Sir Arthur Heywood and Lincolnshire Potato Farm Railways. My future layouts should be based around those. I know nothing about US Standard gauge and Narrow gauge. I don't need to try and create something that American modellers are doing far, far better than I.
So it looks like I will be selling off all my American stock. It will free up some space in our new house, and probably even help finance the new layouts. Perhaps even bringing life back to this old blog too.
It's been a while blog readers. I'll try and do better at keeping this up to date.