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What do you do, when the real estate you can dedicate to your layout amounts only to a little over 2´by 4´? Well, you take a look into those smaller scales, N scale or even Z scale. But what do you do when your eyes need to be armored with bifocals and your hands are getting shaky? Forget N or Z scale and take a look into those bigger (much bigger!) scales. Now that seems to be contradictory, but it isn´t at all. After meanderings into various scales in the recent past, I have finally come to terms with G scale. Yes, this scale requires a lot of space, which I don´t have, and a lot of money, which I don´t have either. Yet there is a way to model in this big scale and the answer is modeling a 2 foot narrow gauge industrial line. The German company Regner offers kits for little Diesel critters and plenty of scratch building materials for rolling stock. The size is big enough for my bad eyes and trembling hands, and also suits my budget. 1. The Story Schietwedderooge ("Schiet" meaning bad, "wedder" meaning weather and "ooge" meaning island in the lingo of the German Northsea coast folks), is a small fictional island set on the North sea coast in Germany. The island is populated by a hearty bunch of folks, who made their living being pirates. Later in history, the entered the whaling business. When that was gone, tourism took over - another form of piracy. The islanders became wealthy people, investing their money in proud buildings and, at around 1900, a small light railway line, which served the island before the advent of the automobile. The early 1960´s saw quite a lot of road improvement work on the island, and a ferry terminal was built to shuttle the islanders to the mainland and the tourists to the island. The railway line was no longer needed  and most of it was dismantled by the end of 1969. Only a small and nearly negligible rest remained, as part of the local fish(or North sea crab) processing plant Jenssen & Jenssen. 2. The Plan The layout is just a little over 2´by 4´ and sports two detachable "wings" serving as fiddle yards or staging.The track plan includes only one switch, but a sector plate, hidden in the factory building. Operation is fairly simple. The crabs are unloaded from a fishing boat into a car, which will be moved to the factory. Within the factory, it is unloaded and the finished products, cans containing crab meat is loaded into the car, which then is moved to the warehouse.. Those cans designated for export, will later be moved to the loading dock, where they are being loaded into a boat taking them to the mainland. <a href="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/SWOKSpurG_zps9515bb19.jpg"><img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/SWOKSpurG_zps9515bb19.jpg" alt=" " border="0" /></a> For those who are interested - the above plan was drawn with WinRail, aka RTS. The layout will be built like a box, so I can transport it easily, as I intend to display it at train shows at a later stage. 3. The Challenge None of the structures are available commercially, all of them have to be scratchbuilt. I plan to use as much "original" materials as possible, i.e. wood will be made from wood, brickwork will be made by miniature bricks, the windows will have real glass window panes, the roof tiles will be miniature ceramic tiles and the cobble stones will be real miniature granite cobble stones. All of the track will be hand laid on wooden ties, using miniature spikes. I know it´ll be a tedious job, but I want this layout to be my masterpiece - my last layout. I also intend it to be a homage to the late Carl Arendt. Another challenge will be lighting, sounds and smells(!) I know there are little sound recording devices available, so you will be able to hear the sound of waves banging to the quay and an occasional "keeyah" of seagulls , but how to stimulate the olfactory senses? You know this certain small of salt water and dead fish ... [swg] 4. Next steps My piggy bank will have to die. It should contain the funds necessary to buy all what I need to get started on the layout. I will start with ordering the kit for that little Diesel critter.<a href="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/Critter1_zps40db2d73.jpg"><img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/Critter1_zps40db2d73.jpg" alt=" " border="0" /></a> (Photo coutesy of Dirk Becker) Stay tuned for more to come!
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