British Oak in an APA - The Concept

Here's the idea then. The APA box we are all familiar with. If not, review this other blog posting. 

A Google search for "British Oak coal disposal point" will reveal some remarkable pictures to whet your appetite.

Trackplan wise there's not an awful lot you can do in 25" x 11" and given the industry the plan sort of suggests itself. One road to deliver empties to which are then picked up by a small shunting loco to be loaded at the screens. Yes, really loaded. (You know my beliefs about how small layouts should have working features to keep peoples interest up.) before being returned to the front road to be collected and sent off to the rest of the railway system.

As I got to thinking about this basic idea my attention was caught by my DMIR stock and looking at pictures of loading screens on both sides of the Atlantic I realised they aren't all that different and one structure could easily cover both locales. As this rendering shows.

So, a transatlantic layout could be on the cards then. This would make things very interesting at a show.  Bored with operating UK trains? People not interested in British Rail Blue? Change it over to DMIR maroon.
I like this idea.
A lot.
Follow along.

...and we're back.

So, after lying low for a few months things are moving again on the British Oak Coal depot scheme. With, however a significant change. That being the layout will be built in an APA box.
What prompted this return to modelling? And in an APA box too.
Well I've always liked the idea of having an English outline layout to show at train shows in the Midwest and already having the stock means that if anything was going to get built it would be something along the British Oak lines. (Pun not necessarily intended)
I don't quite know what prompted me to consider using an APA box for it though. I think I was perhaps inspired by what people were doing with the APA on the RMWeb community. They were putting me to shame. I mean, I proposed the idea of building layouts in APA's and I've done so very little with them. I was in the mood to do some "hands on" model making as much of my model making lately had been concerned with learning how to create 3D printed models for a new T scale layout. While technically "model making" there's no hands on cutting and measuring, just dragging boxes to shape and size on your laptop screen. That's not what I need right now, I want to feel like I'm building something.
So, I'll share the scheme with you later as blogger still doesn't seem to be suited to the iPad with regard to image posting.
But rest assured, there is progress a d new will be coming soon.

Fail.

It doesn't work.
Spreading the concept out over a period of time. It has to be done on 5 continuous days.
Monday was Martin Luther King day. I expected to work on the layout.
Below zero temperatures kept me inside.
But there was no motivation, no inspiration.
Nothing to get me off the couch and get modelling.
Big Fail.
Questioning my abilities in the hobby.
Other people have no problem building layouts.
Check back when I'm done feeling sorry for myself.
Normal service may be resumed.
Who knows?

Inertia

Clearly this isn't working as well as I had envisioned. It has been over a month since I last posted about the new layout progress and to date there hasn't been any further developments. Which, though not a cause for concern is a cause for comment. The first time I took on this 7 day layout malarkey it was so very easy with my calendar free and one days progress very naturally followed anothers. This time the gap between construction days means there's a huge inertia to overcome to get going again. There have been a couple of free days available to me to get some work done, but I just didn't feel like it. There's also been a lot of work pressure going on with ridiculous amounts of overtime to be had which may well have contributed to my attitude.
Right now, I'm hoping that I'll be fired up to get something done on Martin Luther King Day as the day is a holiday from work and I have had that day earmarked to do layout construction right from the outset of the project.
But then my good friend Ed Traxler found a certain picture on the internet and who knows where that might yet lead...