Looking to the past, planning for the future

To be honest, I have little interest in the mainline steam locomotives offered by Hornby in their initial phase one run of items. My interests lie in the workaday green diesel locomotives and DMU’s that I used to watch from the footbridge of Mablethorpe Railway station as a toddler. I’m also rather fascinated by light railways, like those owned by Colonel Holman Stephens. To that end, many years ago now. I created an entire alternative history around the fictional “East Lincolnshire Light Railway”. A line that left the East Lincolnshire loop line at Saltfleetby, north of my home town of Mablethorpe, and meandered north, up the flat coastal plain serving the small communities and potato farms of the area, before ending somewhere near North Cotes. The route is planned out on an Ordnance Survey map in great detail. I still have all the paperwork somewhere, and a few of my smaller layouts in 4mm scale have been a part of the concept. It’s not unreasonable to think that any layout in TT:120 would form a part of the scheme.

Rudimentary goods facility. A grounded van body

The entire length of the layout 2' x 8"

A solitary person waits at the short platform

Pictures of the layout originally known as “Nowhere Road Halt”. The name was later changed to Skidbrooke Halt to fit in with the E.L.Lt.Rly concept. It definitely has the "Light Railway” feel I'm always after. The track plan was a simple one. A through line and a short siding, long enough for one, perhaps two, at a squeeze, wagons. Despite these limits, it was very relaxing to switch wagons singly, in and out of the siding.

Atmosphere in black and white. You can see how simple the track plan is

My wife Lorrie, is kept busy shunting the pick up goods train. Viewers watch intently.

This was Covenham. I really wanted to go for a wide open, winter feel with dead trees and muted tones with this layout. Though I feel that it was a fail the way I presented things. However, it went to the Worlds Greatest Hobby show in St. Paul, MN as well as the Granite City Train show in St. Cloud, MN, and was a great success. So much so, that it was going to get a whole rebuild with a cabinet finish. Then a couple of weeks later, Covid set in. Wood got very expensive and the cabinet never got built. The baseboards are still in my basement, waiting for the rebuild to be completed. The layout, just a loop and a single siding, was simple to operate and rewarding to work. Perhaps this is the future look of the E.L.Lt.Rly in TT:120.