Scalefour Crewe

The show in Crewe was an excellent experience. Very friendly and Tredethy Wharf received many compliments, it even gained one lady (with no connection to myself) voting it 'Best in Show'.

That said I've taken the decision to pack the layout away for a couple of years and concentrate on my Scalefour Jubilee Challenge layout,  Rospeath Lane. This is for a number of reasons;

• Time: September 2026 will soon be here and due to getting Tredethy Wharf ready for Crewe I've lost about 5 days when I should have been working on Rospeath Lane.
• Rusting Track: I need to solve the issue with the steel rail rusting on Tredethy Wharf. This winter I plan to install a dehumidifier along with some background heat in the log cabin. Next year I'll take a look at the track and if it is still showing signs of rust I'll have to make one of two decisions. To either scrape the layout and salvage what I can or replace the track with Hi-Nickle silver.

Depending on the above decision;

• Scenery: On seeing a few photos taken at Crewe I'm starting to feel that some of the trees look a little naff and other parts of the layout are starting to look tired. I know I could now construct better trees and possible better scenery.
• Backscreen: The back screen was a hasty replacement for the previous blank white background. It has always been my intention to add some subtle detail to the background but never plucked up the courage.
• Cassettes: These have always been a problem. Some being very difficult to use. I'm going to   build a different style of cassette for Rospeath Lane and if they work better than Tredethy Wharf's will scrape the cuurent ones and change to the new style.
• Locomotives: Before Tredethy Wharf's next outing I would at least need to complete the Beattie Well Tank. This has been on hold while I make a decision on converting the layout from DC to DCC. Rospeath Lane will be DCC which should help me to finally make that decision. I've also a GWR 13xx to build for the layout.
• Rolling stock: I have a Brake Van Special to complete along with building a few clay hoods to go behind a blue Class 08.

So, as they say, a layout is never completed, but I really do now need to focus all my hobby time on Rospeath Lane.