Once we had an alternative plan, and realised that we could use the room to extend the layout as well as to store trains, we decided into Yorkshire. There were two reasons for this. The first was that it allowed us to use stock mainly associated with the Eastern Region, and the second was that we wanted to increase freight traffic across the layout. What better places to focus on than the South and West Ridings.

The extension will take trains from Birmingham up through Toton (near Derby), then on to Sheffield, Wakefield and Halifax. There will be a plethora of industries en route including iron and steel, clothing and footwear, engineering, machines and tools, building, construction and textiles.

The plan is to build a large freight marshalling facility at Sheffield Darnall which will serve the whole of the McKinley layout. The line to Wakefield and Halifax will be primarily freight with limited passenger facilities.