The Little World

Or as the British Lords Of the Admiralty were in the days of sailing ships?

The heyday of the Royal Navy in the 18th century saw construction of many wooden ships. Plans for these were a complex thing to see and the contractors proposing them to the Admiralty often had difficulty explaining the lines to the sea lords. They adopted the practice of having unplanked models of the ships constructed from wood as a visual selling aid. Some of the most magnificent ship models the world has ever seen exist in this form in the Greenwich Maritime Museum near London.

I, too, have difficulty with track and room plans if I have to draft them out on paper. Even the plastic templates that the model makers supply don’t help that much.

So I have taken to measuring the space to be filled accurately, drawing a plan view of the open area and then making a handful of cardboard rectangles with the dimensions of furniture, trestles, cabinets, etc. these can be shuffled in the imaginary room until they fit.

To assess the curved track I make up similar patterns in full circles with the various radii that the track can adopt. I can place these over the trestle table blocks to see if the curves will have enough room.

You can do as much shuffling as you like before spending any money.