A layout at home

After over a year of procrastinating I still hadn't got around to actually starting work on my home layout, I started looking into the possibility of buying something ready made and even bid on a couple of different ones on ebay.

I got talking to one of the chaps at the club and discovered that he had a layout in storage there which was in need of a new home, so after a bit of negotiating, I finally have myself a home layout, and not just any layout - this one is rather special.

I am now the proud new owner of Godinez, Iowa - a compact exhibition layout based on a fictional Rock Island branch line in the mid fifties.

The layout was originally built by Peter North in 2008 and has been shown at several exhibitions as well as appearing as layout of the month in Continental Modeller magazine.

It's a beautifully detailed layout and packs a lot into a very small space, with an entire small town and grain elevator crammed into its five feet length.

The layout has been in storage for the past couple of years, so it needs a little bit of tlc and some minor repairs, I will also need to repaint a few locomotives for Rock Island as I don't have anything suitable in my roster.

I've started a dedicated blog here to track the progress of the layout as I get it up and running again and hopefully attend a show or two.