The Shed

The old shed 3.5m by 7m and was lined and carpeted. The new shed is 3.5m by 5.3m. Had the old layout not be bolted to the wall and built in large sections it would have fitted nicely. There was one small problem. The mower and push bikes were able to be stored under our old house and not in the shed. This is not possible at our new home. The solution of buying a new tin shed to store these in was soon realised to be impractical. There really is not sensible place to put this new shed. Any layout would need to be able to accommodate a mower and a couple of push bikes.

The mower was a simple solution. Just store it under the layout, preferably opposite the door. The push bikes however... It is amazing to think just how much space a push bike actually takes up, nearly two metres long and close to a metre wide.

Then there was the cupboard. It is 1.2m wide and is an old Department of Education 1960s vintage, storage cupboard, rescued from a fate in a skip bin. It is big, heavy and difficult to move but it is great for putting things in.

Taking all these things into consideration, furniture was moved about every now and then to see which shape would be the best. Various ideas were sketched on paper to try and find out what would work. I needed access for people to move about if I get a crew of operators, as well as a place to build models and the bar fridge. There are also two windows to consider as well.

Things to consider: bikes, desk, windows, bar fridge and a mower. And, somewhere, a layout.

 

In the end, the winner was a basic oval.  A simple design, with a staging yard at the back and the station at the front. It may seem too simple but I had to learn from old lessons that the last layout was too complicated for a single operator and it was an option that I had thought about building at our old house.

I started to build a small temporary folding layout in the meantime using some timber that I had saved from the old layout and had set aside before we moved. After a while this wasn’t going to do what I hoped it would. I came up with another idea. This folding layout involved moving furniture around the shed again. I couldn’t be bothered to do this and hinted that I could build it in the spacious back room of the house when I needed to. I mentioned this to my wife. She suggested that we should get the shed lined so that I could get on with the larger layout.

Done.

Lined, painted and ready to go. The cupboard is out of shot and didn't leave the shed during the entire process.