Back to the the beginning...

My intermittent interest in model railways was rekindled last year by a visit to the yearly Christchurch train exhibition, where there were a couple of 3/16ths scale New Zealand prototype modular layouts, and also a trip I made on the TranzAlpine to escape Christchurch for the weekend. Riding the train back from Greymouth, my imagination was again captured by the great scenery, and the potential to model this unique landscape.

My previous layout, which I built in 2007, was a roundy-roundy arrangement with a scenic area on the front and a staging yard at the back. It was based somewhat roughly on the West Coast side of the Midland Line. It was fairly successful, and I learnt a great deal while building it, but ultimately I felt it was flawed and lacked further potential. I was also having difficulty at the time working out where I was going to get rolling stock from, and my enthusiasm for the hobby diminished rather quickly after a huge pile of work landed on my desk. The layout was eventually sold on Trademe, but I figured that it had served its purpose as a bit of fun and a learning experience.



I had considered building another circuit layout, but I was ultimately unsatisfied with the realism and scope a manageable layout could offer, so these plans came to nothing. After seeing the modular layouts at the Christchurch show, however, I became convinced that a modular layout was the way to go. Here was something I could make a start on, and its modularity meant that the layout could develop and grow over time as my enthusiasm dictated.

I had been lurking at NZ120.ORG, and so I posted a thread about the possibility of forming a modular group, which quickly led to a long discussion about modular standards (that I will not repeat here). After a lot of discussion, a rough Free-mo standard was developed. It can be found here.

I was ready to start building. After a lot of thought and revised plans, I decided to build a freelance module based on a South Island location. I think that Free-mo is suited to freelance subjects, because ultimately the modules will be joined up in ad hoc and unrealistic arrangements anyway, and what is needed in a Free-mo module is something that is going to make a functional contribution to a layout. I haven't ruled out building something more prototypical in the future however. Thus the idea with this module was to build a yard that would be functional in a Free-mo layout, allowing for the staging of trains. The design would have a couple of passing loops, sidings, and a head shunt. I jotted down my rough plans on a piece of paper, and then calculated a list of materials.

Actually, this is a gross simplification of how it all came about, but I'll spare you the interminable sequence of decisions I made and latter revised!

Next post: buying supplies and making a start on the modules.