First (little) steps in N Gauge

[Colin]

This is my first ever venture in N Gauge after 40-odd years of exclusively 00 modelling (I certainly haven't abandoned 00, just fancied a change) - I briefly dabbled in N back in the '90s but never got further than making a small test track before losing interest. As a departure from my more usual BR/SR leanings, the layout is intended to depict a former MR branch line through station (using the Scenecraft Oakworth station building rather gives it away). The availability of a good selection of smaller LMS and BR Standard steam locos also influenced my decision. Normally I scratch build most of my buildings, but decided this time around to make use of available ready made structures altered or detailed as appropriate plus a few kits.

Rather than post lots of pics of bare track and baseboards I thought I'd wait until I'd reached a reasonable stage of construction - it's taken me about a month to get this far and much remains to be done, particularly in the station area and the farmyard on the far right corner. The layout is a simple continuous run and measures roughly 5'x2'; my intention was to build an exhibition layout, and I already have one invitation. The two baseboards consist of 2 sheets of foamboard laminated together and lightly framed with timber; consequently they are very light and easy to shift. Track is Peco Code 55 in the visible area with Setrack and Code 80 Streamline elsewhere. I've kept electrics and other controls as simple as possible - it's unashamedly analogue and points are all manual using good old wire in tube. Stock consists of tank and small tender locos plus a couple of green diesels and DMUs.

I view the layout as pretty much disposable in that it has enabled me to see if I can build something satisfactory in N Gauge and may have a fairly short life if I decide to embark on a bigger project. I'm now looking at replacing the awful Rapido couplings with something better, any recommendations? Any comments/advice (especially from experienced N Gaugers) are of course welcome!

 

[Ian Smeeton]

Looks Good!

 

DG seem to be the most popular amongst the 2fs fraternity, but as I am only a short distance down the 2fs route, I have no real opinion to give, except that Rapido must go!

 

Regards

 

Ian

[south_tyne]

Colin,

 

That looks absolutely smashing and shows the real strengths of N gauge to the full. I'm pleased that it has proved a really useful testbed for trying a new scale. 

 

I like the sound of your lightweight baseboard. Do you think it is robust enough to stand up to the rigours of attending exhibitions or would it have a fairly limited lifespan? I would be interested to hear whether you would use a similar method for a future layout. 

 

Good stuff and please share more!

 

David

[Colin]

Hi David, thanks for your comments. The baseboards certainly seem quite strong, in addition to laminating 2 thicknesses of foam board by coating with PVA and leaving under piles of magazines overnight, I covered the top face with fairly stout card to provide a suitable surface for attaching scenery. The boards require careful handling as the corners are particularly vulnerable, but so far I’ve managed to avoid inflicting any significant damage. It’s been quite a steep learning curve so far and I have made a few interesting discoveries along the way, the first being that I should have rewired the points for switched frogs as blade contact can be sporadic, especially in the scenic area.

If I do build a larger layout in N, I will probably return to using ply for my baseboards as I have my doubts that foam board will be robust enough for a layout consisting of multiple boards joined together - another consideration is that I intend to motorise  most, if not all of the points on a future layout.

 I’ll post some more pics when I’ve made further progress at the station end of the layout.

[south_tyne]

Thanks Colin - that extra detail regarding the baseboard is very useful. I think your thoughts echo my own in that foamboard is great for highly portable one piece layouts but may not be the best solution for multiple board projects. 

 

Look forward to seeing more in due course.

 

Thanks again!

[Richie Kynaston]

Hi Colin,

If you've achieved all that in a month, you've done incredibly well!  Id have been at the stage of pricing up wood for the baseboard!!  . 

 

Looks great tho - oh and welcome to N gauge - Im a recent returnee as well, although a totally different period and area to yourself, but very impressed with what you've achieved.

 

Richie

[Colin]

Been rather busy at the station end, here's the results; I think I may have overdone the tree-planting (Mrs W thinks so) so I may undertake a bit of forestry and thin things out a bit. I've also added a sort of backscene which hopefully suggests North Country hills - it's only a vague impression, made of cereal packet card hand painted in cheap acrylics from Hobbycraft and given a pale grey wash to "fade" the colours further. Although the layout appears fairly complete, there is still much to be done - top priority for me right now is getting rid of those Rapido couplings - unreliable and generally awful IMHO. I'll be taking a long hard look at the DG couplings next time I get the opportunity.

[south_tyne]

Colin,

 

Again I really like this little layout. Your scenic work is superb and I think the backscene works really well, blends nicely with the layout. 

 

I love that first photo of the couple of 16t minerals in the goods yard. Such a spacious scene that defies the relatively small size of the layout. 

 

Smashing stuff and I can't wait to see more 

 

David

[Chris M]

That's an excellent piece of N gauge modelling. I hope this slight diversion is ok bearing in mind the discussion about baseboards.

 

We used styrofoam boards with a thin ply surround on our G scale club layout. Because of the size of the boards we had to join the styrofoam together and so used another strip of ply at the joint. We put long screws into the foam at the joints and glued it all together with pva adhesive. The ply around the edge cages the styrofoam in and protects it from knocks. A few years and a number of exhibitions later the boards are still rigid and in one piece; they have caused no problems.  Ours is probably the only layout where the track weighs more than the baseboard it lies on!

 

Being G scale we use the rail joiners to hold the baseboards together but don't try this in N! Also fitting under track point motors wouldn't be straightforward.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Chris M

[nharding99]

That's looking very good Colin. I like the compact signal box, it looks good sitting there.

 

I use the Dapol Easyshunt couplings. They are less obtrusive than the standard Rapidos and function well with magnets. DGs would look even better though I found then rather fiddly when I tried them out and you either have to dispense with any existing NEM sockets or come up with a solution to fashion a plug that fits into the NEM socket. It can be done but there are limits to my patience.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing further developments.

 

All the Best

Nigel H

[Colin]

Hi Nigel

 

The signal box is actually from the Bachmann Scenecraft range, as bought it looks very Southern despite the maroon & cream colour scheme - I have a feeling that it might be based on a LBSCR box. Anyway, I fitted finer window frames and made one or two alterations and it seems to fit into the station scene quite well.

I think I may experiment with DG couplings (although a friend uses Dapol and is quite happy with them), perhaps  I’ll try them on a couple of wagons and see how things go. 

[Colin]

A few more pics mainly showing some recent developments at the right hand end of the layout - I still have some work to do on the farmyard at the back. Elsewhere, I have added a dog walker strolling in one of the fields (all my layouts have to feature dogs and their owners) and scratch built a greenhouse which sits next to the large stone house at the left side rear of the layout. Progress has been rapid mainly because I was able to obtain clearance to put the layout on our dining table while I worked on it, but it's now had to be moved elsewhere due to forthcoming family visits, hopefully to return in a couple of weeks.

[Titanius Anglesmith]

Stunning. I disagree about the deforestation, I like the trees 

[Karhedron]

On 19/03/2019 at 19:53, Colin said:

I think I may experiment with DG couplings (although a friend uses Dapol and is quite happy with them), perhaps  I’ll try them on a couple of wagons and see how things go. 

 

I quite like the Dapol couplings too. More expensive than the D&Gs and not quite as unobtrusive (although still better than Rapidos) but they work well and I like the ease of fitting as well as the ability to swap back if I ever need to sell anything.

[Colin]

Just a quick postscript: I received a few exhibition invites for the layout (all cancelled due to you-know-what) but just as well really - I got the layout down to test it in April, only to find that the boards had warped to the point that the layout was completely unusable- instead of track joints I had yawning gaps at the baseboard joins and it was impossible to get anything to run. Earlier this week I bit the bullet, stripped and demolished the layout, managing to save everything except basic scenery.

Next layout (there will be one) will use plywood- I’m sure others have had success with foamboard but something certainly went wrong for me!