I was given this commission by a local model shop, the baseboards were already made and installed. Mike Allen, who was the person that wanted the layout already had scale drawings available for the proposed layout. Mike had decided that he wanted to go DCC, and this was entrusted to another person. My part was track laying and all the scenic work, although I reluctantly had to help with some basic wiring.

As the baseboards were already made, when I put on the track some hefty changes had to be made. I tried to engineer the points  away from baseboard joins and cross members, but this was not always possible  and some sawing had to be done. Moral of the story, when you have a scale drawings,  make the baseboards and cross members to fit the drawing! To increase interest I suggested a branch line with a terminus station – Mike agreed.

This was a big commission for me and Mike had done meticulous  research, not just on the area of Lincolnshire railways to be portrayed, but the surrounding  area, its buildings and terrain.One nice touch was that some shops etc were to named after his relations.

This layout has appeared in MODEL RAIL. No. 106  JULY 2007

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