Sandy Shores - Baseboard Pt. II (+ Trackplan Explanation)

OK, time for the second part of the baseboard construction now that the jigsaw battery finished charging. Concerns were raised (and rightly so) about not being able to run around trains for the return trip off the layout once wagons have been shunted. This (surprisingly for me!) was actually intentional. Allow me to explain the usual operation:

1) The train comes in from the FY (top right in the photo below) hauling 3 wagons onto the headshunt (jetty, left out of shot)
2) The loco then reverses, pushing the wagons into the two sidings on the right of the layout  and shunts as deemed necessary
3) As you may have noted, the loco will now be the wrong end of the train. Either the train will push the locos onto the FY, or it will marshal the wagons to the position shown below so that a loco from the engine shed can take over from the other end, the previous loco either sitting on the end of the jetty. (I'll make sure to include an isolation section on the end of the pier long enough for a loco), or retreating back to the sidings on the right out of the way.
4) The other loco can then haul the train back into the FY.


And so back to the baseboard. Let's take a look at the progress. As you can see the trackbase has also been cut out. As said previously, I've made critical areas wider than necessary (around points) to both hide the holes for the point motors, and also to allow for any misjudgement from the point turnouts/spare track.


Also you can see the final building to be mocked-up, the lighthouse. As mentioned previously, it will be based on the Spurn Point Low Light. It's a tall structure (but quite short given typical lighthouse heights!) for the size of layout. But the contrast between this and the small buildings around it I think is very appealing visually. Of course, the sea hasn't been dug out yet so it will in fact sit a couple cms lower anyway. I won't decide on the final size of the lighthouse until the pelmet is either made, or a mock-up of it made. Then I can begin to really understand if it is too overwhelming.

The project is coming along nicely, I feel!


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