The BIG news.

The development of Cuddle took a huge leap forward recently, with the news that the original Cuddle website has been recovered through the Internet Wayback Machine.
I must have been doing something wrong, because I couldn’t find anything. However, Chris Stockdale knew what to do and he found the original site archived. If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the link to “The Tramway to Cuddle”. It’s a delightful read to follow Andy’s thought processes, as he works through the history of his design, the operation of the layout, and the design of the buildings and stock.
For me, as someone who remembers the original postings on the site. It’s great to see this “old friend” again. But then again, it’s been so long since the site has been seen, it’s also like seeing it for the first time.
Some of the pictures aren’t there. But there is a small photo of the tiny retort house with a clock tower that he had found. As well as the panoramic photo of the cliffs behind Kimmeridge Bay with the original tramway course marked on it.
Then there’s the things I’d forgotten. Like the locomotives he had planned to build to operate the layout with, as well as his experiments with wagon loads.
Another thing I’d forgotten was that he had found the meaning behind the name of the location. Cuddle means “Yellow Ledge”, and doubtlessly refers to the limestone outcrops on the cliff face.

The “Yellow Ledges” are very apparent in this Geograph.org image

It’s a great boon to the project to have this at hand again. All micro layout designers could read and learn from Andys writings. It fires my enthusiasm for this project further. Hopefully, I can incorporate Andy’s visions into my interpretation of the project.