Introducing "Hawkhill"

What am I setting out to achieve?

The mission statement of this project is as follows:

To have an operable and exhibitable 4x1' finescale layout by November 2024, at least basically scenicked,  and operable hands-off with at least two distinct trains.

Let us step into the local alehouse:

From our viewpoint at the window of The Farrier's Arms, though a hazy rain shrouds the distant town in a grey mist, across the Alnwick road, the gas lamps of Hawkhill station flicker orange in the late afternoon gloom.

Above the crackle of the public bar's coal fire, you can hear the clank and rattle of wagons being pinched around the goods yard and before long, the rumble of a train.

Braving the rain and rising wind, with hat pulled down and collar up, you peer over a blackened bridge parapet and catch a glimpse of the afternoon goods: a rather poorly diesel shuffling wagons on the coal drops.

 Hawkhill is a fictional station on the Alnwick branch, scheduled for closure under the Beeching Act, but a skeleton service is still provided while the trackbed remains during the autumn of 1970.

How will I go about it?

The genesis of this layout lies in the desire to go back to finescale modelling after a dalliance with commercial RTR, and with bookcase in my office of 5' x 1',  the broad footprint was set: A cameo-style baseboard with a short bolt-on fiddle yard on one end, and the option for a plug-in fiddle-stick at the other.