Actually, it all boils down to the walls in my girlfriend Christelle's house: they are not straight. So having bought three Ikea shelves, she soon found herself in trouble: they simply would not hang properly. At my place, the walls are more regular, at least at first sight: Christelle gave me her shelves. They had to accommodate something. Why not a railway?
What I was after was both specific and vague. I had some specific ideas: a small layout with trains running permanently, no shunting. I wanted gradients, tall scenery that would be simply drawn, so that the trains would stand out on a white background. But also, via the drawings, I wanted to recreate something of the charm found in the toy trains of the late 19th century, whenstations, the fortifications found along the coastline of Charente, mechanical tiles, metal structures. Trains skimming the doors of dwellings and crossing the ends of streets as narrow as cracks, wobbly Renaissance facades and local pubs. I wanted profusion, crowding, something that, in graphic terms, would resonate with endless rail traffic.
