Squiffy-Waterton - A little sliver of Sodor

This is the plan of Squiffy-Waterton. It is designed to fit whole through doorways, being 81" by 23.5". It is also designed to have one of each type of track section, left points, right points, Y-point, curved point, 3-way point and double slip. It offers continuous and end-to-end operations.
The blue track is on the upper level, the brown on the lower. The transition in orange is inside tunnel. The minimum radius of curvature must be 11" to achieve a turnaround in the space.

This photo of Edwin cleaning out the baseboard probably gives the most clear view of the topology. There is a loop on the bottom, with a passing loop and shunting yard on one side, and a single station on the other side. On the top is a passenger station---the "Squiffy-Waterton" of the name---two industrial stations and an engine works shed.

The layout is named "Squiffy-Waterton" because it is a recently-created site like Great Waterton in Thomas's world of Sodor, but it is designed to be small, hence the very-British sounding Squiffy. The "Waterton" is Edwin's contribution, and "Squiffy" is Jonathan's. The lower stations are "Waterton Docks" and "Passing Waterton". The last is Kay's contribution, a neat triple pun. The industrial stations do not really rate names, but we think of the quarry station as "Inky Shadows" because it has a quonset hut (from Car Talk puzzler references).

This is the part-finished layout in our loungeroom, set up to do some station-sizing. The layout is DCC, and is designed to have Thomas and four of his friends working it: Percy, Toby, Bill and Jonathan (a recent addition there).

It looks good in daylight...

...but it is designed to look good at night, with all buildings (including the stationmaster's greenhouse) and all stations illuminated:

The DCC decision makes wiring easy: Absolutely everything is powered through the rails, including the small computer that flashes the TARDIS light in sawtooth fashion.

The docks-side station is illuminated by floodlights on top of one of the tunnel portals, giving a stark, unoccupied look. Note the concrete-sleeper track.

Docks looks more friendly in normal daylight.

The layout is also designed to be accompanied by a "Where's Wally" list, a sequence of things you can look for on the layout, like something out of an "I Spy" book.

This is the Where's Wally list:


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