How it Happened

This layout happened because of a loco or, to be more accurate, a loco kit. All my locos to date had been ready to run purchased either new or second hand, I'd never contemplated actually building one. One thing missing in the manufacturers' ranges though was a Peckett industrial loco. Although my family name is Peckett we know we are not related to or descended from the Bristol engineering company family but I still have a soft spot for them so when I found a kit from N Brass Locos I decided I had to have it.

Having bought the kit I realised that it wouldn't be right on the coffee table layout I was slowly building so that prompted me to look at another piece of furniture, a bookcase. Obviously the layout was going to have to be compact as my aim was to do the minimum of modification which ruled out cutting holes in the furniture sides (I had the bookcase and a dresser custom made through a local company, if it had been IKEA Billy I wouldn’t have hesitated to modify it).

I need my layouts to have a realistic back story albeit one that may stretch the boundaries of truth. One place I know there was a Peckett Saddle Tank is Wm. Doxford and Sons shipyard in Sunderland; I probably saw it in the 1960s as my Grandpa worked in the time keepers' office and we were taken to see a ship launch. I've subsequently seen photos of the engine shed and thought it might make a suitable model so that was the starting point for the design. Setting things in the working days wouldn't be viable for two reasons, it would make the running very boring and models of the famous crane engines are not available in N so I stuck with the same basis as my two previous layout plans, make it a preserved railway. The backstory is here.

The irony in all of this is that in the end I didn't use the kit built body, I replaced it with a 3D printed one.