Hi,
For some considerable time now I've been toying with building a narrow gauge model railway, but being essentially a newbie to the hobby I thought I'd ask for advice on what I'm sure is a large and complex topic.
Ok, a bit of background...
The last input I had in building a model railway was when I was young (pre-teen) with my father. The layout was N gauge and since neither of us really knew what we were doing it was riddled with electrical issues, and as a consequence its running was flaky at best, non-existent at worst, and so didn't commence much beyond the bare baseboard with a couple of card buildings, and some patchy crude scenery. The remnants of this (mis)adventure now languishes in a cardboard box in our loft (see attached photo).
Since then I've been an armchair railway modeller off-and-on but as I have now entered by fifth decade, and with retirement now appearing as a faint glimmer on the horizon, the desire to build something has returned.
So what do I want to build?...
The layout needs to be compact, so that I can easily store it (possibly on a shelf) and move it around, so I guess a micro or cameo sized layout would be best.
I appreciate that many very fine minimum space layouts have been built to standard gauge, but narrow gauge has appealed to me for some time now, and lately industrial narrow gauge has particularly piqued my interest. I think it’s the griminess and the slight air of dereliction and neglect that is often inherent with this type of railway that has captured my imagination.
As far as scale is concerned, I’m thinking 7mm, although I’m not fixated on it. I like the increased level of detail that can be incorporated into this scale, especially when taking into consideration my ageing eyes, and when married to a narrow gauge subject a reasonably interesting layout should be possible in a reasonable size.
Now we turn to the gauge to model in.
There’s O-16.5, which I believe is the most popular narrow gauge because it uses OO ready made track, but would the pointwork for this gauge be non-prototypical for an industrial themed layout?
For some time I was thinking of O14 because I was drawn to KB Scale’s range of industrial trackwork and rolling stock, but I understand the owner of the company is currently struggling to find the time to devote to the venture, and of course everything would have to be hand built, so perhaps for now (and considering my newbie status) this will have to be relegated to the back burner.
Then there’s O9, which again employs ready made track; N. This has an appeal because of its space saving potential, and also the fact that I’ve got the remnants of track from my youth, but I have read that rolling stock can be top heavy due to the 9mm gauge, and therefore be more prone to derailments.
Having listed these gauges, I’m not really married to any of them, so please feel free to offer your own thoughts on the subject, after all the purpose of this post is so elicit useful advice and information from those forum members who are far more experienced and knowledgeable than I am!
Finally, where do I start?…
In common with the majority of people who are new or returning to the hobby after a number of years, I’m keen to get track laid and trains running, but should I instead concentrate on building my skills, possibly by constructing a couple of items of rolling stock, or a building? That makes sense to me, taking small steps at first and building confidence, but does it risk my becoming disheartened if it doesn’t seem to go well and abandon the whole venture as a result? I wouldn’t say I was fickle, but I’d be lying…!
Well this first post is getting long, so I’ll leave it there for now. If you have any thoughts, questions, advice or information that you think useful, please let me know.
Here’s hoping this is the start of a wonderful new adventure!
All the best,
Tony.