Thinking outside the box pt2

A couple of days ago B.SE commented on the Cross creek loco depot idea;' I'd been considering the Incline as a project for a while but had given it up as it seemed impractical in the space I had and with the budget available. It would be very cool to see someone do something in this vein. I shall watch with interest'

Again the little gray cell roused itself from bed, put on its reading glasses and had a think.

The way that I would approach a project like this (and this goes for any project but this is as convenient and close to my heart as it gets) is as follows.

First up, and assuming you have done the research for your location, is to start building some rolling stock. its an easy start, and if you decide not to continue the project then Trademe can leap the the rescue. For the incline this is mainly short wagons (no modern Lc types) and short bogie wagons.

After this then you will no doubt want some locos. Be warned that the next paragraph may contain some heretic thoughts (my inner finescaler is safely locked in the trunk of the car, where's yours?).

The H is a large chunky loco so there is plenty of room for a motor and other bits. looking at the superstructure (the upper bit) there are actually very few differences between the 2 types. The most noticeable are the steam dome and the cab front windows. Creeping below the waistline, here is where some may wish to skip a bit. The Atlas GPXX bogie has the correct wheelbase ans wheel size for the mech. The big question I'll pose is 'do the waggly bits' actually have to go round?'. many moons ago (more than either of us will care to note) Kiwibonds built a Mitsubishi Dsa with outside frames on an old tri-ang Jinty 0-6-0. The outside rods were fixed and didn't move, yet to our eyes it looked really good. Why not apply this to the 'H' problem, at least initially until someone develops the skills/insanity to make it all work.

Right, skip back in. As well as rolling stock, its also possibly to build some of t lineside buildings as well. In this case, railway houses, jigger sheds and station buildings. These can be mini detailing projects if so desired.

Ok, so theres no layout building, but you could build a small yard to do some shunting etc, possibly modeled on the north end of cross creek, the loco depot, or even part of the summit yard.

The overall aim with all of this planning and building (and for any sort of project like this) is to strategically position oneself so that if the domestic circumstances change 4-5 years down the track, one is situated to immediately take advantage of it, rather than waiting round for the perfect opportunity to present itself, and then be overwhelmed by the modeling projects that need to be completed to even consider starting the dream layout. Its also easier to hide a drip feed project from the lady of the house.....

(As an aside, I keep looking at this as a layout project, and I consider it to be possibly the ultimate challenge. It was a toss up between this and Paekakariki, and I can't remember what the final selection process involved, maybe I'd relook at it if i moved to England for any length of time)