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After a long break and
lots of sleepless nights thanks to Keith's ability to talk more
than his old man, I thought it was about time to put fingers to
keyboard and fill you all in on the latest happenings on the Wuiske
Layout.
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As promised last chapter, I thought I should
let you all know about our visitors from late November. As it was their
fateful trip which led us to remove a good portion of the layout.
After threatening to arrive on planet Jandowae for a year or ten, the
Thornes peoples did in fact turn up late one moonless Friday night.
Ahhhhh I remember it like it was only four months ago. |
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The moon had beaten a hasty retreat, the cows
were in hiding, the sky started looking ominous, the dog tried
to hide behind her own tail and Jade had done some shopping (Edgar
Allan Poe eat your heart out).
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Upon the arrival of our latest visitants,
Anita and Jade retired upstairs to talk about Jade's still (at the
time) very pregnant belly as well as their plans to overthrow the
male population… Well they talked about something, but to be honest
I wasn't really interested, I mean this is ADAM'S CORNER after all.
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| So whilst the womenfolk were busying themselves
with their female tribe speak, Mick, Eric and I ventured into the layout
room. |
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Now it is worth mentioning that most people who
enter our layout room tend to say "ooh and ahh" a lot and then
proceed to try and work out how the controllers work.
Not this time.
Both Mick and Eric had discovered the controllers only a few seconds
after having discovered the doorway into the layout room.
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I must say it was pleasing to see
some people who came to grips with the controllers almost instantly.
As soon as this had happened, Mick and Eric were "discussing" who
would be first to use the dispatch panel. All of this was working
out extremely well for a bloke who enjoys watching others operate
his layout. |
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All three of us had an absolute ball, right up
until the point where I realised the layout had reached saturation
point with only four or five trains running at once. We discussed
a few options for "extending" the layout, all of which would have
resulted in me being issued with a framed death certificate for
Christmas.
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Over the following day or so, a few
little ideas seemed to pop up. Most of these happened whilst we
were playing Monopoly. I think it is only fair to mention that Jade
played an excellent game… Right up until the point where she was
beaten by a ten year old. |
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Obviously by saying that young Eric had beaten
Jade, I am also saying that the rest of us lost to a ten year
old as well. However (as I'm sure you can imagine) I handled my
own defeat with all the good grace and gentlemanly behavior that
you all know me for. On a side note, I had been doing rather well
at quitting swearing…
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| That was until we played Monopoly you understand. |
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By the time our visitors had left
and the dog had stopped trying to hide behind her own tail, I once
again decided to have a look at the layout. After much thought,
confusion and tears, I worked out that I could build a branch line
along the former Western end of the layout. |
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Throughout early January I managed to remove
most of the old section of the layout and start on the relaying
of the yard. The branch line now progresses toward the helix and
into a small loop on the lower level of it. This loop we will
be calling Hillside Station. Hillside will have a small cabin
and station building and that's about it.
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From Hillside, the branch will enter
another tunnel and proceed to gain another four inches of height
as it does the second loop of the helix. Once it appears again,
the branch will lead into Warthorpe Station (cheers for the name,
Mick) and the terminus of the branch. |
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| As I always tend to get ahead of my self in these
little ventures, I started fitting the chicken wire to the area
around Hillside Station. It was at this point that I realised that
the hill will actually be over six feet high and be larger than
the hill we have built around Holman. Essentially, when you walk
into the layout room you will,in fact, be walking between two mountains.
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| As always, I have many plans for this new
section but we shall see how we go. |
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