Wishlist 2015

2014 has been a good year for Eskalon, we've managed to iron out (most) of the operational problems and made good progress on scenery and building up stock. With the year now entering its final few months i thought it was time to plan what Eskalon needs to achieve in 2015. Maybe late next year we can revisit this list and see how much we've deviated from it...

• Another locomotive or two is planned though the layout is starting to fill up. Rotation of stock will be employed next year with locomotives and rolling stock spending time in storage.
• Scenery building will continue, the centre of the layout needs to be finished.
• Improving the appearance of the track is a must, making it look a bit less "train set".
• Adding an isolation section on one of the sidings to boost locomotive storage potential.
• Some more people... and road vehicles!

Plymouth hauls a coach!

To complete the proving trials of Plymouth with normal rolling stock and not the industrial waggons (i've wanted to remove from the layout) he set about trying to pull one of the 2 coaches. As the coach is rather heavy Plymouth did struggle a bit especially on the slightly up inclined sections of the layout but he did make a full circuit!

Waggon 5

Waggon 5 is an open one like Waggon 1, actually its very similar but is a different colour and has different markings. Its an older Liliput model i picked up of eBay. To celebrate its arrival Falcon took all of the layout's freight stock on a trip. Waggon 1 has left the layout now though to undergo some maintenance. Some glue got into the coupling mechanism when i was giving it its coal load earlier in the year so now its prone to derail whatever its connected to!

Plymouth freight thrash

With all this talk of a new switcher loco to handle shunting and freight trip works maybe my existing switcher Plymouth might be feeling a bit left out? The modified couplings on the non-mineral line stock actually work really well with Plymouth too so here is the Minitrains loco handling the Liliput stock van train, and handling it well too.

The identity of Engine 4... and 5?

We plan to add a fourth locomotive to Eskalon in the next month or two. Its most likely going to be D10, a Liliput model of a Zillertalbahn shunter. It will fit in well with the layout.

However we've also got our eyes on a Roco shunter too. This may follow later in the year or early next year to help supplement Plymouth on mine work. One problem with HOe is that you arn't inundated with choice with regards to rolling stock. Still this makes the choice of what to get easier and saves money!

More trees

I've added 10 more trees to the layout, some different heights to mix things up. Plus i've resited some of the older trees. The new tree avenue corner of the layout is coming along nicely.