Will - the t gauge is the 'looe branch' model...correct? hence the bubble?

Hi Pete,

sort of, it will be a sort of mish mash of various bits of Cornish branchlines, a bit of Looe, a sprinkling a Golant, elements of the line to Newquay. To be honest my scattergun modelling mind hasn't quite decided on how it will appear yet... but at the moment I'm imagining the lower reaches of the Looe branch, scenically, but with the occasional HST or China Clay freight train to spice up the operation a little.

It needs to be at the estuary end of the imaginary line, so as to include:

http://www.tgauge.co.uk/product/41/4/watercraft-set-a

I assume you could also make your own in perspex and attach to the chassis?

Absolutely. I guess conventional wisdom would not call T a scratchbuilder's scale due, obviously, to its tiny size.

But then maybe it is a scratchbuilder's scale as you could print out liveries for as many carriages you would ever need on a single sheet of A4 paper. For more 'depth' to the sides, I wonder about using a side with cutout windows (either an etching or a fine laser cut), and sticking this onto the clear perspex 'shell'. A flat dark grey paint could be applied to the inside of the shell. This way, the windows would have a bit of transparent 'depth' but you would not see all the internal 'gubbins'.

Or... maybe with a decent printer simple printed sides are the way to go. The realism would be in little additional '3-D' details, like some litte exhausts on the one end of the bubble car made from bent wire?

The bubble car next to an N gauge terrier, I guess the smallest motorised model of a British prototype that you can buy off the shelf, to give scale... that and 50p!

Next step, a bit of fettling to the ends of the shell to make them a little less square...

Looking at that shell, an FR 'Barn' body in 1:200 scale looks tempting.

I had been wondering about the same sort of thing. Maybe a model of the Aberglaslyn Pass based on some of this T equipment. The only problem with T is its small size, perfect for being itself at 1:450 scale, but try to use it in 1:148 scale and you soon realise it is just too narrow for conventional narrow gauge (as in 2' ish), it is more suited to 15"-18" ish gauges!

My thought was to model at 1:220 scale, whereby the track ends up fractionally too wide, but makes it possible to use commercially available 'Z' scenic bits and pieces such as road vehicles.

That, or model to 1:200 and use 'Z' bits anyway!

....Though I guess this approach has more to do with my 'modern image' tendencies, along with my 'modern image steam: Victoria Bridge' project, I would want to carry on the theme with 'modern image narrow gauge', hence the need for tiny saloon cars and people carriers to accompany the model!

how do you make those overlays