Westerooge is a sketch, and a pretty rough one at that. It’s based on the Halligbahnen in Germany, which link the tiny islands off the coast to the mainland. There are two such lines still operating, and they provide the only way for the people on the island to reach the mainland- and that only when the tide is right. ‘Westerooge’ is a tiny mash up of some of the features of the Hallig lines, such as how the railway is dwarfed by the signs and buildings around, the open scenes with only a couple of shiny rails showing that a railway is there at all, and the impression that the place as a whole is more sea than land: the sea is never far away.
As I was building a model of wide open spaces and endless skies, I naturally decided to put it in a box file. This was partly because of space constraints (The layout has to share the flat with three small boys) and also because of people like Colin Peake who make beautiful models in tiny spaces like this, causing wannabe modelmakers like myself to try and emulate them. For some odd reason I also decided I’d have a 5-month deadline as well. I had to try several new methods like all-live pointwork and controlling points from a distance. Previously I’d chickened out of such things. The biggest challenge one was the sector plate and I still can’t quite believe that works.
The one loco on the island manages to run up and down without stalling or falling of the track in an embarrassing manner, and the whole is reasonably finished: these two alone set this project apart from all the other railways I’ve tried to build. I don’t know if this will be followed by any other 09 models, as I’m rather too fond of main line narrow gauge to get too enthusiastic about small industrial prototypes, but on the other hand the ‘large scale, small space’ is fun, and my wife likes it too. It also me a layout that looks like a perfectly normal office item, which can be put to its real use quickly when no-one is looking and I feel like a few minutes of train running on my private island.
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Hi Andy
Nice work there.
To create a so convincing atmosphere in such a tiny space is already a triumph and that little wooden ‘tool/mess’ marvel is another one. Chapeau!