2 - 1974 - Bowcester & Vayne II

Bowcester & Vayne Mark 2 used the original layout as the starting point. There was a horizontal brace in the roof structure at the gable end of the house which was just at the right height, so a 12 ' long 6" board was fixed to it to make the long link between B&V I and a new board made in the same materials but 3 inches narrower. This had a dropped section to form the quay-side.

The B&V Mk1 trackplan was altered to do away with the rather steep incline at the rear. An additional piece was added to the back of the baseboard to run the track along to the link, and the area where the incline had been was redeveloped rather skimpily as a quarry. The rest was left pretty much as it was, and was supposedly the up-country terminus of the line.

The linking section was sceniced as a mountain-side with more scrounged polystyrene foam blocks, and a halt was put in half way along. I think it was called, with startling originality, Halfway Halt. The base for the halt was used to house the controller, as I thought I could stand in the middle of things and control it all from there. On the new sections track was again PECO 009 flexitrack, with PECO N-gauge dead frog points, operated by wire-in-tube.

The new board was developed as a bigger terminus, with 2 platforms, a goods yard, and loco servicing facilities. The main station building was raised above the tracks with footbridges running down to the platforms, and a range of low relief terraced houses lined the road running down the back of the station. At the bottom there was a blatant rip-off of Carr's Garage on the C&M. To introduce a bit of industry there was a very sketchy woodyard hiding the entrance of the mainline from the link section.

The buildings were again made of card and brick-paper, although a plastic kit building was used for the goods depot. The rusty old steamer at the quay-side was adapted from a cheap plastic toy.

In keeping with the improved signs at Bowcester, the Vayne station name-board was redone, existing rolling stock was repainted and lettered and new stock made. The locomotive stock was improved and increased as well - standards were struggling to creep upwards.