The Shadow of Gate Seven

The Fernwick Model Railway Club room smells of engine oil, cold tea, and decades of careful ambition. The club's prized layout — 'The Fernwick Valley Line' — fills the central table: forty square feet of papier-mâché hills, painted farmhouses, and tiny signal gantries. Tonight is the annual Judges' Inspection, and someone has hidden the trophy locomotive, Engine No. 7, as a prank. The clue they left is characteristic: 'Find the shadow before you find the engine.' You are Dora Bliss, club secretary, and you have one hour.