A model railway in N gauge

Latest Posts

I have resurrected the locomotive 7029 Clun Castle. I was given it as a Christmas present when I was 12.
Ages ago I made some little changes here and there, and didn’t post about them. Among those changes was the station car park. It was a bit ridiculous just having a sloping car park up to the platform level, so I rebuilt it all at platform […]
I’ve now finished the dry stone wall around the churchyard, and added some gravestones. The dry stone wall is alright, but it’s not quite as good as I’d hoped. It’s Hornby Lyddle End – solid resin sections – so, not conducive to going around bends. But […]
I’ve started adding more little details, bringing some life to the layout. I was tempted by a superb looking playground set on eBay from Faller, but a) I’ve wandered into the trap of spending too much on eBay before, and b) I think less is definitely […]
The two higher level tracks on the right hand side of the layout were very tight for space, and after adding the scenery, trains on the mid-level track would catch on the hillside. So, I cut out the hillside and replaced it with a double length […]
I used the three remaining lights I had to light up platform one – I intend to add more to platform two at some stage. But I also added some passengers to platform one – some people sat on benches, which I inherited from my Uncle […]
When I first laid the track, I was sloppy and didn’t use my 6ft way gauge properly. So the longer wheel base trains and carriages snagged on the corners. I’ve corrected the last of those problems today, along with fixing a bit of scenery that was […]
I had previously added street lights, but they were the old style grain of wheat bulbs which tended to get very hot. So, I replaced them with LEDs over one weekend – and it did take most of the weekend. Each lamp needed to have a […]
The next little project was a Monkey Bridge over the river, made by the Scouts from the campsite. This has to be the fidliest, most annoying and tricky build I’ve attempted so far, but I’m pleased with the results. I also added a couple of spare […]
Before now, the front edge has been a little on the ugly side – the baseboard and underside of the scenery visible. So, my plan was to extend the scenery over the edge, and cover over the gap between the scenery and the baseboard with plywood. […]
Before and after. I rerouted the wires through the bottom of the control panel. I managed to only get two wires in the wrong places. Then I added a plywood frontage. I just need to join the frontage with the scenery now.
I finally replaced the trestle bridge on the far side of the layout. I’d used corrugated card as the base, and it was causing a hump. Also the trestle sides were too long. So I went with thin plastic and plate girder sides to replace. Second, […]
When I started, I hadn’t actually planned a backscene, or a cover. Due to the long gaps in working on the layout, I had covered it with an old bed sheet, and when I started working on it more recently, I had started to make a […]
The town is mainly made up of Hornby Lyddle End buildings, the school is Graham Farish, and the workshop is a card kit, all off eBay. Back when I started construction in 2011, I went a bit mad with collecting Lyddle End. I’d made a start […]
The original plan was for the hill to cover most of the right hand side of the layout. But I thought it would be a shame to cover so much of the track, and it may cause problems being able to access the covered track. I […]
After many years under a dust-sheet, I started work again on the layout during the Covid-19 lockdown, inspired by one of our Scouts who had a layout of his own. It’s been an ideal distraction in the autumn months of lockdown. The first thing I did […]
I started building a layout in my teens, but I never got very far with it. Then I started my current layout in 2011. It progressed fairly quickly – I got the baseboard built, all of the track and points laid, control panel built, and I […]