New 00 gauge home layout - a mixture of everything really

[norseman]

I have this quite large layout which I have exhibited a couple of times. But at 20 foot long + fiddle yards it is way to large to put up at home. And in a way I have lost interest in it, and currently it is stored away in a shed. So I am looking for something much smaller to play with at home, and have come up with this idea, to enable me to run the stock I have. Which is mainly DMUs with 1980s livery + a few diesel locos (class 33, 37, 47, 56), and a 08 shunter.

 

 

Basically it is a small town station, where the goods sidings and a siding to an external industrial site has been kept open due to them being used for maintenance crews etc. The scenic part of the layout is 220cmx50 cm, with a sort of traverser fiddle yard in each end. Probably not very prototypical for the era, but I am more concerned about it giving us some operational potensial.

 

It will be built in two sections which can be bolted together for storage/transport, and I hope to start building it the next few weeks. Currently I am working on a semi for the top left corner, while a row of terrace is finished

 

I plan to incorporate a home made variation of the Faller Car System, to keep my lad occupied, as he is going on about Faller Car System all the time. But I think it is a bit on the expensive side. I will make two channels underneath the road bed, where I will install ropes with strong magnets with holes. A smaller magnet underneath/inside the car will make it move when the rope is pulled. I have tested this on shorter runs, and the effect is quite good.