Schinkendorf. A small German H0 Layout

Why build this layout? We were in the process of packing up and storing many of the things we weren't likely to need for a while, in preparation for putting our house on the market and moving. I wanted to be able to carry on modelling in the interim between, preferably to be able to run the odd train, but without doing anything too "involved" eg: hand building track, complicated electrics, modifying or building locos and rolling stock, etc. I had already built some some Scale Model Scenery Micro Layout Baseboards; these are designed to fit (in pairs) into the 22 litre Really Useful Boxes sold for storing wrapping paper, which has the bonus that should I need to quickly dismantle and store my efforts, it's really easy to do so, as (hopefully) will be transport to shows etc. I had purchased some Peco Setrack sections and four points to play with my old Tri-ang, so it looked like this project was going to be 16.5mm gauge. While I have a stash of kits and parts for 0-16.5...

Photos of the sort of line I want Schinkendorf to represent in the 1980s show a variety of passenger shelters. For example, several small stations on the Hunsrückbahn between Simmern and Boppard had what seemed to be a standard concrete shelter which was very basic, just a rather grim-looking open fronted box with a seat inside. There were also some older corrugated iron structures, again pretty basic. I chose to model something inspired by one of these, based on an Auhagen kit for a bicycle shed, which also came a cycle rack. I wanted windows (or at least window frames as most shelters seemed to lack glass by the 1980s!), a bench and an opening where the door had been removed. A simple bench was made from a scrap of styrene sheet, to run along the rear of the building. Two spare window mouldings, from another Auhagen kit, were modified to make a pair of two-pane windows and apertures were cut in the front wall to fit these. The doorway aperture was cut out from the end door, being car...

 ...until the Wealden Railway Group Personal Layout Show at Steyning. The layout is getting there, mind you the British Rail adverts used to say that and look what happened to them! Things I hope to get done today: Build the fiddlestick and figure out how to attach it to the layout. Build a little tin shed and fit it to the platform.  Start adding vegetation. The photos above show where it's at now (9am, 25th Feb.).

Schinkendorf is a small German outline H0 scale layout which is currently under construction. The scenic section is approximately 4'10¼" long x 8¼" wide, to this will be added a 2' long "fiddlestick". It depicts a small station on a branch line somewhere in Southern (West) Germany in the late 1980s which has become a terminus due to the line it is on having been closed beyond this point.  Rolling stock is typical of the era, small diesel locomotives with freight and maintenance trains and passenger services provided by the ubiquitous railbus set. There are a couple of sidings, one serves a small factory with a loading platform, while the other is for general goods loading and unloading.  The layout is scheduled to appear at the Wealden Railway Group's Personal Layout Show at Steyning on Sunday 10th March 2024. This is just over 2 weeks away at the time of writing, so I'd better get on with it!