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Marlott

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N Gauge

Grafar!

So pleased to find this reproduction of the 1973 Grafar (Graham Farish) catalogue. The models were so basic compared to the amazing ready-to-run that we get today but in 1973 when I was still a child, making the first move in to N Gauge, this was the first I saw of what was available. It was very exciting at the time. I ended up with a 94xx pannier which, despite the original plastic chassis worked very well; it ran reliably for years and had excellent slow speed performance. I also got a Hall (
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goldngreen in N Gauge

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engine shed

Engine Shed Details

A quick run down on materials used for the engine shed.     Outside bricks: Scalescenes Red Brick TX01 with the colour dulled down using The Gimp Inside white washed bricks: Scalescenes Painted Brick TX05 Guttering: Ratio Guttering & Drainpipes Doors: Ratio Doors with the arched tops removed with a razor saw Roof: York Modelmaking Slates N-Tiles01 Windows: Scene-Setters Glazing Bars 3x4mm -  I got these at a show. They are not currently
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goldngreen in engine shed

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engine shed

Engine Shed

After a long hiatus for the summer progress has continued a little. The engine shed has been largely finished for some time but I put the internal white washed bricks in this week to finish the job. The engine shed will be adjacent to the coaling stage, to which I am adding coal now!    It is not modelled on a prototype. It is however in the GWR style with similarities to Tetbury without the water tower, or a shorter version of Wallingford.      A view looking insid
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goldngreen in engine shed

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Control

Control 2

In control I explained how the underside of the layout is wired. Now for the controllers and control panel.   I decided on two controllers. This is perhaps more than necessary for a layout of this size but I wanted two controllers to get optimum control of different loco types. I find that the older locos and some recent ones respond better to PWM feedback controllers. I used the now defunct ECM controllers on earlier layouts many years ago and found them to be highly effective. The mo
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goldngreen in Control

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Control

Control

I opted for DC rather than DCC for a number of reasons including:   I have a number of older locomotives that would be more difficult to chip I felt that DCC was unnecessary on such a small layout – although I am now in two minds and I ended up over-engineering the DC anyway!   I chose cab control as described in Wiring the Layout Part 2 (my copy is about 40 years old but I do not think cab-control has changed much) mainly because it is what I had done before on a pre
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goldngreen in Control

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Yard

Coaling Stage

The coaling stage is built from the excellent Poppys Woodtech laser-cut wooden kit. Despite the small scale the kit goes together very easily. The fact that it is real wood makes painting and weathering easy. I used a combination of water colour and pastels. I just need to get some coal on it now.  
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goldngreen in Yard

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Yard

Coal Merchants Office

My most recent project is not very ambitious: a coal merchants office for the yard. It is based very closely on the Scalescenes kit, however I modified the window to suit a prototype I found on the far right of a picture of Kings Heath Station, just because I liked it. I realised having completed the build that it is quite similar to a OO gauge kit given away by Metcalfe on the front of the Railway Modeller a couple of years ago. The brick work is just the Scalescenes original however I put the
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goldngreen in Yard

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Scenics

Cheating - a very similar but different photo

Here is an attempted wide angle focus stacked image to get good depth of focus close up. Unfortunately the wide angle does not focus so well at this range around the edges. My eyes are not what they were either so my judge of focus may be impaired, however I think it is all in better focus than any of the images that went in to it.       It is similar to the last photo I posted but is actually completely new.    
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goldngreen in Scenics

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Scenics

Bridge

The line exits stage right through the back-scene. I have decided to use a low relief bridge to disguise this exit. The exit is just a hole in the back-scene board and also cut in to the back-scene sheet:     The idea of the low relief bridge is that it will just slot in to the hole to make it look more bridge like. Since I want it to recede in the gap on the underside, it also has to be removable to allow separation of the layout from the fiddle yard.    Here are a
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goldngreen in Scenics

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Other

Billy Bookcase Fiddle Yard

If I can build a Billy Bookcase layout, then perhaps I can build a Billy Bookcase fiddle yard.   Adjoining the 80cm Billy Bookcase on which the layout lives is a 60cm Billy Bookcase. I do not think that the 60cm version is made anymore, however, I have one and it is the ideal place to locate the fiddle yard.    Although the layout itself will only accommodate short trains, I did not want the fiddle yard to be restrictive length. I therefore decided to build a traverser rather
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goldngreen in Other

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Planning

Best Intentions

A short list of best intentions I would like to adhere to for the layout: Diorama presentation controlling the viewing angle Continuous backscene with curved corners Effective hidden lighting Lightweight rigid ply wood baseboard Analogue control - too many N Gauge models of the type in which I am interested would be difficult to chip Peco code 55 track Mechanical remote point operation Only large radius points Try to get the colour co
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goldngreen in Planning

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Marlott

Baseboards

5mm ply was selected for the baseboards. If offers enough rigidity for a micro layout but is also very light. The small layout size means that a shallow edge frame suffices to provide the necessary rigidity. Having made these decisions the ply wood was bought. The images show the boards upside down showing how the edge frames are attached.   No scenic sections are planned to be lower than the track so the baseboard covers the entire area. The baseboard for the fiddle yard uses the same
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goldngreen in Marlott

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Ballasting

Ballasting

For ballasting I use sandpit sand bought from ToysRUs before it disappeared. It is reasonably coarse so can pass for ballast in n gauge.    One of the things I do not like about commercial N gauge track is the depth of the sleepers. I therefore wanted to use the ballast to hide this depth consistently. After some experimentation I came up with a scheme to achieve this.   Once the track was laid, I lined the edge of the sleepers with evergreen 1mm quarter-round StripStyrene. T
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goldngreen in Ballasting

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Diversion

A Diversion - Stamford Engine Shed

I came across a model I made some time ago just for interest when I did not have a layout: Stamford Engine Shed in N gauge based on the Prototype Kit:     I scanned in the original Prototype kit and then used The Gimp to replace all of the brick surfaces with a Scalescenes equivalent. The roof tiles were replaced using the same technique with a home made slate paper made from a photo of the roof of the school at the Beamish Museum. The water tank sides were drawn from scratch
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goldngreen in Diversion

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