Attic Life

As has often been the case, Mickleover has proved to be a boon to productivity and the modelling mojo. 

Living in a house that used to be a pub, we’re blessed by a good sized (and tall in height) attic. Which gives us a carpeted (and insulated) room accessed by a proper staircase in which to store the myriad of things that we need to store, many of which our daughter has either grown out of or yet to grow in to plus space for model railway(s).

It was in need of a tidy up, sorting out and a good clean, which happened in the week following Mickleover. There is even some artwork gone up on the walls! The space vacated by ‘Elsbridge’ going to Mickleover gave the opportunity to reorganise the space to better suit my current needs. 

‘Elsbridge’ has moved, but now has a good home in one corner all set up and ready to operate. The map of Sodor that we had as children is now framed and hangs above the layout. The layout once again has Neil’s tram cars and stock running on it rather than mine. 

‘Wheal Ponder’ is all set up and has the space to work on as I wish. The track modifications are complete so the next stage is scenic work. Though the last few days has been spent testing out some PH Designs coupling hooks in an attempt to make my couplings hands free. They have not been plain sailing through various reasons, some being through their design and others being the suitability or not of O-16.5 stock as opposed to OO gauge ready to run. The jury is still very much out on these and there is still some testing and tweaking to do before I decide whether they are suitable for my needs or not. 

There is also space for a return to the Melyn Valley project once Wheal Ponder has gone green. 

The tidying (and hoovering) does mean that I can now accommodate visitors to the attic and being the start of half term, this morning saw a very important visitor, my daughter Annabel who wanted to run her namesake loco.

Once her seal of approval was given, we took a look at ‘Elsbridge’. Although only five, Annabel remembered seeing this layout at Mickleover and Neil letting her blow the whistle and ring the bell on his DCC and sound fitted tram locos. We had a chat about what had happened to Neil and Annabel was pleased that “we are going to look after it for him.”

We ran a couple of trains before it was time to come down for a lunch. ‘Elsbridge’ ran its first Motorail service as Gumdrop and a tractor went for a ride, with the whistle and bell proving still to be just as popular. Annabel liked the cows and the people and I now have a wish list of items that I need to include on my layout.