In September 2011 a move was made to a new location in Sandy Bedfordshire track was lifted from my old address packed into boxes and transported north with what rolling stock and engines I had at the time.

Planning permission was sought from her in doors, granted and work was started with the track bed being built up within weeks of collecting keys.

A large amount of soil was moved with structure walls being built from old railway sleepers at the bottom end, after my previous line had what can only be describe as large gradients, it was decided that the new line would be made a flat as possible.

Planned track laying change on a monthly almost weekly basis with what ever I saw online or at a show.

Originally there was to be no pond/lake with a centre quarry  planned in the middle but this soon gave way and  big hole was dug in centre with some goldfish to follow, the harbour that was planned never arrived and the direction of the line changed again.

In the end I took the decision of what was really required so I ended up with two large circuits and a steam up area.

Still to happen will be the lakeside halt which will break one of the large circuits into two smaller circuits if needed, also the steam up area will be extended back onto the main line creating a possible larger outer circuit.

The SBLR has been created not only for myself to run trains but with the idea that it is available to others within 16mm society groups which I belong to. Which gives me a lot of pleasure seeing others bring their different engines down to run. 

All track is laid on a product call Filcris, a type of plastic normally used on construction site hoardings , I went this route although more expensive purely because as previously mentioned I change my mind a lot and to fix it down using a concrete base to me seem inflexible. The Filcris is not fixed down but floats on a bed of stones which seem to work well except with a mad dog you do find yourself clearing the line of stones "and dog deposits" each time you run.

All track is Peco except for a few Marcway points which is then screwed down to the Filcris base.

 

As to the future well Lakeside is in progress and a new station at a different level will be created next to it, giving a chance for those who like to drive there locos to do some hill climbs and makes my Regner locos work that little bit harder.

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