Herrenscar Harbour
A 4ft x 1ft shunting layout, whose main feature is a dockside line, with small fishing boats one side and a steam boat the other. I have built a Langley "Clyde Puffer" kit for this, adapted to take ferry passengers to Dogfish Island, as well as cargo.
Another feature is a kipper smoking factory (with siding, of course), where some of the herring catch goes. Its name is "Cottlestone Kippers", with grateful thanks to A. A. Milne.
Herrenscar Harbour appeared for the first time on May 26th 2012 at the AGM of the N Gauge Society in Cotgrave, Nottingham. It worked well, and the "water" in the harbour attracted a lot of interest. But it wasn't quite finished, so we did further work over the summer, and took the layout to a small show at Launde Abbey over the August Bank Holiday weekend 2012 - part of a larger event.
One significant change is the introduction of cassettes instead of the hidden sidings. I can now load 6 or 7 trains without having to take stock off and on the track. My thanks go to Brian Gillespie who designed and made the cassettes, and who has helped me with his encouragement, engineering expertise and enthusiasm over the last several months.
Herrenscar Harbour has been to several shows, mostly local. The most recent (and furthest away) was Grantham in September 2014. It is still fun to operate, and my team has been joined recently by Anthony, a fellow vicar and friend, and his daughter Erica, who's got the model railway bug in a big way!
But in some ways the most satisfying demonstration was to a group of residents at Grey Ferrers, a BUPA care home in my parish. With the help of my friend Lee Palmer, I was able to show a complete working "day" on the railway, from the early morning passenger train to the late night fish train. It took 45 minutes, and the audience loved it.