Trenholme Junction - the next phase

The following notes are to accompany the film 'Cab Ride 1 - Trenholme Junction Calling All Stations' published 19th February 2017

In my first blog, I spent a lot of time discussing the entertainment that is derived from building a layout and this layout has certainly provided me with a great deal of that. After making over 300 films from it that people still enjoy watching, it's fulfilled its role. However, there is a limit to even a layout of this size and complexity can produce and I think this limit has been reached. Thinking of new film subjects and routes has become increasingly difficult so now its time to make changes to the layout for its future.     

Tunnels

I have had more questions about the tunnels on Trenholme Junction than on any other subject, particularly about filming in these dark, featureless places. Up till now I have merely faded out the film on entry to the tunnel and then faded in the emergence, usually with a text 'tunnel' for a few seconds. I did this because filming inside the tunnels only reveals the baseboard bracing and the wiring of the board above plus a narrow chunk of illuminated wall. My films are about creating the illusion of the real thing, and, although I've said it before, the unfinished underside of a baseboard destroys this illusion. 

Since I published my thoughts of the 'Infinitive Layout' I have started to make the changes to Trenholme Junction, in preparation for its dismantling, and the links to the new layout. The new layout has a working title of 'Ingleby Junction'.

The two layouts will be linked by tunnels, filming will take place on Trenholme Junction (TJ) before the layout is dismantled and subsequently on Ingleby Junction.(IJ). 

In order to have continuity I have decided to model the inside of the tunnels. Joining the two films together is much easier in the darkness afforded by the inside of a tunnel. 

Of the films made on TJ, many are of trains entering and leaving the existing tunnels already on the layout. I have kept all the original footage and will use this stock to link these films to others made on IJ in the future.

There has been four new tunnel mouths added to TJ over the last few weeks. Note the use of the words 'tunnel mouths'. Deliberate. Complete tunnels are no longer required for this stage of the project. The 'tunnel mouths' are the exit (or entry) points to (and from) the new layout. Three of the tunnel mouths are permanent fixtures on the layout built in the traditional way but the fourth is not.

The fourth tunnel mouth is built on a portable baseboard and can be moved around the layout. This allows for a pop-up tunnel, at the end of a siding for example. The new layout will have several portable tunnels, standard sized, which will be plugged into the new layout (or its modules) to create many variations and filming combinations. 

This film is a cab ride on board a first generation DMU using all the new tunnels and is intended to demonstrate how the tunnels allow so much more flexibility to even the existing layout let alone the possibilities for linking to others. Each tunnel you enter could emerge anywhere, on any layout, in any part of the world. Or even in the Garden Shed.

The film also indulges my love of DMU cab rides from all those years ago.  

Please post all comments on the YouTube page.

To view the film Click here