My greeting to the group

Greetings to all of you
I've just joined this group and am look forward to sharing my experiences and yours.

I model both standard and metre gauge French railways in Ep III covering the post-war era when many secondary, mostly metre gauge, railways including some rural tramways,  were still going fairly strong and steam was only starting to give way to diesel. 
My actual layout building has been slow to say the least but I also write about French railways so my modelling is part of a wider interest. 
 I currently have two layouts on the go.

 Le Goudron-Calandre is a small horizontally folding layout representing the end of a standard gauge d'interet local line- the rough equivalent of a light railway- in the wine growing country south of the Loire.




It's operated from the front with manual point levers (Caboose Industries) along the front of the board connected directly or via short wires in tube to their respective points and section switches also locally mounted on the front of the baseboard. It was designed to be operated either conventionally with a fiddle yard plugged onto it or as a shunting layout with the fiddle yard replaced by an end board. Though it was never intended for exhibition it has been to a number of French Railways Society and Wealden Railway Group  events.
The name is a pun on the layout's oriignal name when it was in bare boards form of Termingle  (Terminus Inglenook) as the plan includes the classic Ingelnook Sidings shunting puzzle with the addition of a five wagon run round loop and a kick-back siding (which was going to be a loco shed till I realised that a private siding gave far more play value operational interest.

 My other more recent project is Le Goudron-Canal,  the canalside terminus of a local metre gauge steam tramway that runs down a street behind a quayside to reach a small terrminus with a loco and goods shed and a siding kicking back onto the quayside.


 The layout is on a single120x30cm (4ft x 1ft) board with a separate fiddle yard but, though it runs, is currently a bit stuck as, although I've  completed the buildings for it,  I can't quite figure out a scenic  setting that I'm entirely happy with.

 
David

 Wet nice. 
Welcome to the group :cool:

Hi David,
Welcome to the club.

Nigel

Welcome to the club David.

Hi David and a warm welcome to the club.

Very different but interesting lay out topics. Please keep us updated as to their progress from time to time and in between writing.

Welcome from some way south of the Loire David.   :cheers

Do the wine barrel trucks actually exist or is it all part of the "scene". ?

Welcome from a fellow new member

Hi David.

 :Welcome


Ed

Hi David,
Look forward to see photos of your narrow gauge.

Hi David,

Sorry I'm a tad late to welcome you to our little niche in the world wide web, as I've been on holiday in the Dordogne, but now back home in our wine producing village in Maine et Loire.

Both layouts provide plenty of operational value and are delightful and I'm looking forward to future developments, particularly with the canal side scene.

A 90 year old friend in the village is a railway enthusiast and his dad an engine driver in the 20s and 30s and was also sent all over occupied France in the war to maintain the new, once reliable diesel railcars, which mysteriously proved particularly troublesome under German rule.

Best,

Bill

Hi David….I'm even later, but welcome to the club!
Michael