Building the girder turned out to be the easy part. I wanted to have the track near to where I sit, so that I ccould watch the trains in the same way I did Ria - just enjoy seeing things move. But, there were already a number of things sticking out of the bookcase, as those who've seen my "pockets" page will have noticed. There was especially a big baseboard, once intended for a model railway when I was told I could use one shelf, but actually stacked with books and magazines. So, that had to be emptied and all the oversized books from the bookcases all over the house had to be put on it. Then I'd have space for a narrow shelf for putting frequent-use paperbacks next to the computer, and the girder would clip on there.
The board turned out to be a monolithic thing I'd glued together in situ. It took a little while getting it out. Then the shelf-brackets were too wide just to move the shelf down one place. So I had to make some composite beams and that meant I had to do the ones for the dining room games cabinet as well. Eventually I had all the relevant books stacked up. I found some early "Model Railways" magazines, an Edward Beal track plans book, and Ron Warring's balsa modelling book with the station and signal-box in it. Let's not get distracted, though. I laid out the big books and the little books, and finally, Toby could trundle backwards and forwards along the track.
That, unfortunately, was as far as I got in 2001, in terms of the bracket at least. Now, at the end of 2003, the bracket is still there. I ended up doing a vast amount of travelling, but I did at least do a fair amount of research. I worked out how to operate the thing the way Ria worked, and I did some serious research on the local shale-oil industry, which would later stand me in good stead for a return to the Cuddle concept under different circumstances.
I'm still looking out for applications for the shelf I've got two more spare chassis and I' really like to examine the modular buildings system in more detail, but I intend to tackle the shale-oil wharf first and it won't work on the bracket.