I was amused by a couple of snippets from this month’s model railway magazines.  Firstly, Hornby magazine, and the most excellent Mansion House.  Stephen Grant says:

One of the advantages of a city location is that it is much easier to model bricks and concrete than trees and grass…..

I found designing and building the railway’s built environment one of the most rewarding tasks of the whole project.

Meanwhile, in Model Railroad Journal, Jas Millham writes about his equally excellent, but much smaller, Abbey Street, a small ‘S’ scale urban terminus:

I know what I’m doing with a country branch; I’ve extended Yaxbury several times and managed to produce a convincing model at each phase.  I’m satisfied with Three Mills, but an urban setting is a different kettle of fish altogether.  Most of the prototype stations that I have researched have no habitation in sight or are on the outskirts of town.  An urban line that worms its way through a townscape to a cramped site in a built up area is something else.

My sympathy is with Jas Millham – it seems easier (and much quicker) to put together a field scene than a city street.  But again it shows the varied nature of our hobby.  We all have aspects that we are good at, and others where we struggle.  The test must be when to play to our strengths, and when to set ourselves a new challenge.

Talking of challenges, here’s a ‘believe-it-or-not’ moment for your station…..