There are six baseboards which make up the whole layout. I’m going to choose the easiest to begin with! The baseboard which mainly contains the St Mary Mead section doesn’t have any points, making the track work and wiring a lot simpler. This is a great bonus considering I’ve never made my own track before! I will be building track using The 2mm Scale Society components, but to the 9mm gauge and the standards of the N Gauge Society.

The absence of point work on this section of the board also means there is plenty of room to place the Command Station (the brains of the DCC system) and the Wi-Fi router so I can wirelessly control the layout with my iPhone.

I’ve chosen MDF tops for the baseboards, which I got cut to size by the supplier. These will bolt directly to the Aluminium Extruded frame to create a strong but light baseboard.

Because the layout has been designed entirely in AutoCAD, I have printed the whole thing out to real-life size. This means that I can place everything accurately on the baseboard as it appears on the design. Not just the track but also the sleepers, roads and all the buildings

Having a full size plan also helps with the electrics as well. All the holes where the wiring will pass through the boards to connect to the rails have been marked. I have done this not just on the top, but on the bottom as well. When the holes are drilled everything will be already labeled on the underside making wiring a breeze – you need to make sure you correctly flip the printing for the underside to match the top. The wiring for St Mary Mead is very basic, but for the more complex sections of the layout this is going make things a lot easier.

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