In the Railway Modeller magazine in October 1978 the late Roy Link designed a layout called ‘The Art of Compromise’.

It’s inspired a number of people including Chris Ford, who published his version of the layout in Railway Modeller 40 years later, in October 2018.

I didn’t see the articles in 1978 or in 2018 but I came across them recently and I thought it could be a great track plan for my layout in a box.

As you can see I’ve been roughing out the idea using my 009 stock.

The challenge with the original was fitting everything in across the depth of the baseboard.

The original was 00 scale in 6 x 1 feet (180 x 30 cm). I have narrower track, a narrower loading gauge and 2 cm of extra baseboard width, even then I found it was a bit of a squeeze!

On the right the station and on the left a loop, goods shed, coal siding and headshunt. Road behind leading to an bridge on the right.

It fits and it looks interesting to operate.

I’m not sure it’s quite right, perhaps the left hand side is too cramped. I think it could do with some ‘tweaks’.

So I thought I’d put in online and ask for feedback.

How could it be improved?