In 2009, the 2mm Scale Association put out a challenge to build a layout for its Golden Jubilee event the following year. The challenge was to build a layout with a maximum area of 9.42 sq.ft - a nod to the 9.42mm gauge of the track. I finally had the space and spare time to build my first personal layout for over 30 years, so I threw my hat in the ring. How hard could it be?
The first challenge was to come up with a suitable trackplan. Having seen how rewarding it can be to build a real location, along with the extra problems that can also produce, I set to work, studying possible locations. However, most stations either cover a vast area, or only have a single siding. I wanted somewhere that I could shunt wagons around without getting bored.
Eventually, I came across Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. A small terminus, but with a number of sidings, all in a very compact plot of land. Checking Ordnance Survey maps, and Google Earth, I found the station could fit on a 5ft x 1ft 6in baseboard without any compression. This left just over 1.5 sq.ft for a fiddle yard, plenty for two sidings and the short train lengths expected.
However, the line from Newport to Freshwater closed in 1953, long before the invasion of enthusiasts arrived to photograph the remaining steam railway on the island in the 1960s. Photographs of Freshwater station are somewhat rare, but I have been collecting what I can from books and the internet, plus images generously sent to me by exhibition visitors over the years. The cost of film and processing back then meant photographs were taken of locomotives and the station building, and not wasted on goods yards and the like. These can usually only be glimpsed in the fuzzy background or edges of photographs of locomotives.
Missteps
I had no suitable stock for an Isle of Wight layout, so I started playing a 'what if' game. A railway tunnel from the mainland between Lymington and Yarmouth had been proposed, but never built. What if it had? All sorts of stock from the mainland could appear on the island. The line could even have been electrified with third rail. I was looking at building a Freshwater 'tribute' layout, and started calling it
