6 …and a cheeky sixth!

Here’s a bonus sixth favourite offering: whatever track plan I’m working on, I always see it in my mind’s eye in three dimensions and can change the viewpoint or angle almost at will. For those who watched the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Sherlock Holmes, you’ll know how his ‘mind palace’ works and that’s spookily close to what happens in my head.

There’s never enough time to design and illustrate every track plan that appears in Model Rail with a piece of 3D artwork and the realist in me is fine with that. However, occasionally, a track plan goes into print and I think that I would have really liked to have done a 3D illustration to complement it. One such occasion was this design inspired by the narrow gauge/standard gauge interchange at Blaenau Ffestiniog and the former branch to Trawsfynydd nuclear terminal. It appeared in plan form in MR244 (February 2018) as part of the ‘Dramatic Lines’ series.

It’s not a full 3D rendition, but a doodle to give an idea of what

I had in mind. Please note: for clarity I’ve not shown fascia boards or the Maentwrog Road scene on the illustration.