When originally planning about 5-10 years ago a layout based around the Bricklayer’s Arms area of South London (an idea that might be re-visited at some point, it just became too complex an idea to ever go beyond planning for us both sadly, but the research was fun!!) we (Natalie and myself) were going to various exhibitions and considering whether to stay with OO or go to EM or P4.
If it was just myself doing a layout with a small amount of stock, I think I’d of gone with EM or P4.
However, Natalie has a LOT of stock, some of it dating to the 80s or 70s. Some of it is likely to be usable in some cases. She didn’t fancy having to re-gauge all the stock if we went EM/P4 on a layout plan.
The expense and extra time also dictated it a fair bit for us both I think.
So, we decided West Cromwell Road and whatever the Chilmark inspired layout gets called (Winterbourne Exchange was proposed by Natalie, which I like), will be OO, to save initial time and cost.
With my health now being very poor to how it was 5 years ago, I think for me it is also the best option. I simply wouldn’t have the patience, time or ability to re-gauge all the stock we’d expect the Chilmark layout to need (West Country, Merchant Navy, Warships, T9s, Standard classes etc).
Natalie is also planning a Portsmouth area layout herself, and some of the stock might well be interchangeable between that and the Chilmark layout. So if EM/P4 was chosen it’d effect both layouts.
One thing decided though was Peco track wasn’t going to cut the mustard. So likely C&L Finescale OO gauge track will be used. Certainly for West Cromwell Road as less track will be needed for that.
Model Railway Musings by D827 Kelly 