A few hours on Templot gives me something looking like this.

The Hump

I’M RATHER TAKEN with the idea of modelling the servicing depot at Tinsley, as well as the ‘hump’ itself (see my post last week about building a fairly accurate version of the Tinsley ‘hump’ in a manageable space in 4mm scale). However, it’s obvious that unless I plan out exactly what is forming inside my head, then I can’t make an informed decision about how best to proceed.

Digging out my copy of Martin Wynne’s excellent Templot program, I had an enjoyable yesterday evening seeing how things looked when I incorporated the Servicing Depot and Breakdown Crane shed into my original plan. The diagram above shows how things turned out (note: this is still a rough draft, but its a good starting point). The box scales to about 10ft x 7ft, making for an overall size of about 20ft x 7ft including the hidden areas (obviously most of this won’t actually be 7ft wide, that would be insane).

The extra track compared to the original layout idea doubles the commitment, as well as the size and I’m not sure if this is a road that I want to go down. However, the new section does have the advantage of cleverly hiding the left-hand hidden sidings, which was a problem with the original arrangement. Such an issue that I had to invent a footbridge just to hide the section where the many ‘bowl’ tracks went off scene!The new plan also scores on the ‘wow’ factor. I like it a lot really. I just have to decide whether it is something that I can realistically build and maintain on my own. Something to consider when I’m on riding around Holland on the train in a couple of weeks time.

Whatever decision I make, construction of the baseboards is planned to start as soon as I get settled in my new home - hopefully, some time around the middle of July.

By the way, there are some great shots of the Class 13s and Tinsley Yard on Les Pitcher’s Phantasrail site. See here and here. There are many images which show well the area which I’m intending to model.