Initial Plans

Considerations

The most important function of this layout is simply rail fanning - to watch the trains go by. I have 14 feet in which to work and I want wonderful scenery. Switching is not a concern, firstly I've had my fair share of switching layouts in the past both private and at exhibition (4mm British outline) and secondly, my 5 year-old son likes to see the trains whiz by. This, combined with the need for the thing to be portable (and capable of being stored in the cupboard under the stairs) meant that the concept would be ideal for an exhibition layout.

I had already decided that the only way I was going to create anything like the essence of the prototype in 14 feet would be in N-gauge. I thought about Z-gauge for a while and did see a wonderful American outline Z-gauge layout at the Ally Pally exhibition - but it was just a tad too small for my eyes and although technology is moving very quickly, I think it will be a while before we can get on-board sound in Z-gauge. At the time of defining the concept, there was no on-board sound for diesels in N-gauge. I went ahead anyway because it was only a matter of time and now of course, MRC are producing sound chips for N-gauge diesels. I have a number on order with Model Junction.

First Sketches

	First sketch plan

The first sketch provided for a double track mainline which might actually be operated simply as a siding with a high-level single track mainline containing a junction which branched off into two tunnels. The high-level track ran over a trestle with the low-level trackwork running over two plate girder bridges. All was to fit on four, 3.5 feet baseboards. I played around for quite a while, particularly with various radii for the curves, even managing to get the board width down to 2.5 feet.

 

	Various curves were examined to narrow the width of the baseboards. The original plan only had an eight-road staging yard.

Unfortunately, this is where I hit the first snag. Although I Could just about get the front scenic section and the rear staging area on the same board, the difficulty was having the stagings at two different heights. The difference in track levels meant that to have one directly on top of the other would severely restrict access to the lower staging. The rear of the scenic section was now, also getting too close to the front most part of the upper staging. I played around a little and eventually came up with the plan shown below.

	The final plan before mocking the design up in cardboard.