A change of track?

The track is down, and after a few sprays of dull reds and browns. It looks like some rusty old track that's been laid in the country somewhere. 

But where? This really still isn't established yet. I've floated several ideas in the past few weeks. But we're really still no closer to getting the final subject really tied down. Peat. Shale oil. Sea Defences. No idea. Then I saw a post on Claus Neilsen’s Nystrup Gravel Blog about a Land Rover. Now I love Landy’s. The older the better. I have fond memories of riding in an old series 1 Landy with my dad as a child. A Landy on any layout of mine is a good idea. A Land Rover appears on my 00 scale “Nowhere Road Halt”. There are 1:18 scale Land Rovers out there. The temptation is strong. I even did a little quick sketch throwing a Landy in there.

I'm a little unsure of the size that a Landy would take up. A short wheelbase series 1 isn't very big, but in this scale is about 5" long. It would fit in the front corner area that I've drawn it in and it would certainly present an unusual view block. I doubt that the workshop would fit there to though. In that case it could be moved to the rear. 

But putting the Landy in there reminded me of home and my other great rail interest. The Potato Railways of Lincolnshire. I've been planning a Potato Railway scheme for the longest time. Yes. there's even a blog for it out there, untouched for two years. There were about 140 miles of railways serving potato farms in Lincolnshire. The majority of the miles were taken up by two systems. Nocton Estates, near Lincoln and Fleet Farms near Holbeach in the south of the county. But most of the lines were short, barely a couple of miles long, sometimes only a few hundred yards. Lines that ran from the middle of a field to a loading dock alongside a road. Hand worked or horse worked.  There's a fascinating book on the subject by Stewart Squires, that will tell you everything you need to know about even the shortest of lines.

The book contains many inspirational images that I have imagined schemes around. But nothing has stuck. Perhaps in this instance I’ve been trying too hard. I do sense a germ of inspiration here though. I think I need to take another look at Mr Squires book and see what I can find.