END OF THE LINE

Despite the enjoyment and the hours put in in creating a rather unique and rare London Underground 00 gauge layout, it has sadly come to an end. It is also rather disappointing that some of the members have spent numerous hours of research of trying to make sure that their rolling stock is just like the real life ones. For example, adding antennas to the Bachmann S stock or making sure there is the correct detail on the locomotives. It is a shame that these trains that were used with Abbey Park and Abbey Road will probably be never used again on an exhibition layout. Even I was looking forward to making the London Road Models 'Chesham Branch Set' carriages that I have still yet to make and the likelihood it will probably never be made.

Some of you may question why it has come to an end and why we didn't start again. There are multiple reasons for this and I shall give a fair answer that is correct to the viewers but also making sure to not start any arguments within the Team.

Firstly, most of the key members that were doing the scenery, electrics, baseboards and trains had retired by this point and so therefore each member had moved away from London to their new home. This therefore made it difficult to meet up or most importantly transport the layout to other people.

Secondly, most of us had different priorities in life and the motivation of wanting to make another layout had diminished. With lockdowns in 2020 being introduced, it was harder for us to not only stay in touch but to decide what to do with the future of the layout.

Thirdly, each member had different views on how the layout should be built. This had resulted in conflicting views and others had lost interest knowing that someone would do most of the thinking. Because this had happened and not much planning had gone into it at the beginning, we had issues with trains not being to fit in stations and the boards being too long. Each section of the layout was 6ft so not only was it heavier than the previous layout because of the additional wiring, but it was also more difficult to fit in our cars. Again, making it difficult to transport it between homes. Some of the members wanted to keep the controls of the layout simple as it was a proven success however others wanted to make sure to get every detail and complication in as possible. This made it awkward as not everyone could understand the wiring and should something fail, it would probably not be fixed quickly enough and could lead it to not being operational for exhibitions for the next month. The advantage of Abbey Road simple electrics that everyone knew how it worked and it was easy to rectify any sort of issue that may rise and could be fixed at the exhibition rather than at home.

Another reason why the layout had come to an end is the condition the boards were left in between exhibitions. Sadly, there were left in someone's garage which had temperatures that fluctuated up and down a lot across the years causing the boards to expand and contract in places. This had been a cause of why the boards were not able to line up. In Conclusion, it is very unlikely that the Team will get together again as a whole and come up with a strategy with what to do if anything. Before you ask "what happened to the trains, scenery and electrics", they have been cannibalized off the layout and shall hopefully find a use in the future. The trains are still stored with the owner and shall hope it will stay like that for a while. Scenery has been stripped as much as possible with the hope it will kept for some project. Some of the electrics such as the Cubloc computer will be used for other projects that may benefit from it. Point motors and train detectors will be sold in the near future.