Track building – Part 1

One of the more frequent questions I get asked at exhibitions is how the track is built. Modelling in EM there isn’t much choice for anything other than plain track, but my track building goes back to my teenage OO days. Despite living only a couple of miles away at the time, I originally stumbled …read more.

“Narrow Gorge” – OOn3 microlayout

“Narrow Gorge” is Tom Cunnington’s entry in the MRC’s 2015 layout challenge.

Although not his first layout,, it is a first attempt at a number of techniques, including narrow gauge (all the kit-built stock is new for the layout), modelling cliffs and water, and trying to give depth in a very small footprint. It was also a bit of a rush, having previously decided (several times) that it would be a distraction from other projects.

It’s built at 1:76 scale, the same as OO, but with narrower 3′  gauge track – normally called “OOn3”

Here’s the diary of how it was built over 18 days, mostly an hour or two later in the evening (with apologies for viewers on some mobile devices – the photos keep rotating back)

Class 127 DMU

  Class 127 4-car DMUs formed the local passenger services on the Midland main line south of Bedford, so have always been on the list of stock required for Minories. A club member started work on a unit back in 2007, but it didn’t get very far. In the interim, I made a 3-car 116 …read more.

On our way to Peterborough

Our invitation to the National Festival of Railway Modelling has been the incentive to get a few more things progressed on the layout.   A major resignalling scheme has seen searchlight starter signals mounted on an etched brass gantry installed, replacing the Berko 3-aspect signals originally installed as a temporary measure hours before the first …read more.

Baseboard Joints

Baseboard joints are a necessary evil if you ever have to move your layout. Scenically they create what is often an obvious rift line across our otherwise beautiful handiwork, but operationally they can be a major cause of unreliability. So I try to make the joints as unobvious as I can, but robust enough to …read more.