Construction and technical
All about how the layout was built. (A page for modelling geeks.)
Boards
The scenic part of the layout is a single board of 9 mm ply, 1300 x 850 mm, with 75 x 25 mm PSE batten external bracing and 6 mm ply internal cross-bracing, supported on batten legs which fold up for transit.
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My original plan was to feed the layout from cassettes on side tables using an 850 x 650 mm open frame at each end. I quickly realised this was too slow to maintain a flow of trains, so I altered the side tables to support traversers: the south traverser had 8 storage roads, the north just two lines connecting to the Up and Down mains plus a third which allows cassettes to be used. A single hidden return line ran along the back of the layout, allowing trains to be returned to their starting point without turning.
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However, this fiddle yard also proved to be impractical, as I found I spent more time moving trains along the off-scene return line than I did running them through the station. The fiddle yard is now a single 12-road traverser on a 1300 x 600 mm PSE open frame base which is placed directly behind the scenic board. Two side tables connect the traverser to the scenic board along the Up and Down main lines, both with additional storage sidings; one table contains a pair of points to allow trains to access the carriage sidings from the Down main line.
Landscaping
The embankment was cut from 50 mm Celotex, with layers of foamboard added to form the basic sloping top. Wires for any lights were fed through the foam via channels made from bendy drinking straws. The whole was then covered in brown acrylic frame sealant, which is light, can be sculpted and has the advantage of being brown if exposed.
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The main Hibel road is very fine automotive refinishing wet-and-dry paper over a balsa base which had been sanded to create a camber. Other roads were made using Redutex.
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Almost all the buildings were scratchbuilt using embossed plasticard over a foamboard shell. The exceptions are some of the small huts (brass etch), the signal box (Saxby & Farmer, 3D printed) and the row of houses on Station Street which are Dornaplas kits modified to lower the roof pitch.
The platform canopy brackets proved hard to fashion as they differ from most ready-to-use which run parallel to the platform edge. York Model Rail kindly laser-cut brackets to my design. Of course, these are impossible to see now the canopy is in place, but I know they are there!
The wide Down platform, showing the platform canopy (1896, British Rail)
Electrics
The layout is DCC controlled using an NCE Powercab. Additional handsets use a WifiTrax NCE interface, controlled using old iPhone handsets running WiThrottle. 32/0.2 wire is used for the bus, 16/0.2 for the droppers.
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The turntable is from Peco, powered by a non-indexing Locomotech Deluxe motor which has been DCC chipped so it can be controlled from the Powercab.
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All points are powered by Cobalt iP Digital motors which are set using a Cobalt Alpha encoder unit mounted in a Perspex control panel. I used Perspex (3 mm face to match the required depth for the illuminated point selection switches, 5 mm for the rest) as it is both lighter and stronger than the original one I built from plywood.
Track
All track is Peco code 55, with electrofrog and unifrog points. The electrofrogs have been modified to avoid stalling/shorting,as described here.
Uncouplers
I adapted an idea posted in a 009 group on Facebook using square brass tube sliding inside another slightly larger tube, with a cross-piece on top of the smaller tube. I made the cross-piece the same size as a sleeper to hide it, but decided to add a small rectangle of thin plasticard (not yet painted in the video so you can see it) to give me more leeway when aligning.
The uncoupler hits the projecting lug beneath one of the couplings. It seems to work best with Peco-type couplings, which is good as that’s the norm for NGS kits, but only one wagon needs this coupling.
A servo below the board and Megapoints controllers allow me to operate these from my NCE Powercab.
Rolling Stock
Locos are a mix of ready-to-run Graham Farish and Union Mills, plus a couple of Dapol and 3D-printed tank engines. Wagons and coaches are a mix of RTR and kits, the kits being supplied by the N Gauge Society and Ultima Models. All stock is weathered.
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The Union Mills loco models have been detailed to the same standard as the RTR models by the addition of handrails, coal, crew, lamps etc., and where appropriate, lining. These shots of a D10 (converted from a D11) show some of the steps involved.
