N Gauge Departure

[Muddler]

Good evening,

My son (4 yo) has been thoroughly enjoying playing on a little shunting puzzle of a layout I built in 00 gauge. With Christmas on the horizon I have been given the green light to build him a layout that will fit under his bed; a high sleeper with a workable space of around 1.8 x 0.8 m. I was fairly recently bequeathed an N gauge Castle and 4 coaches, some wagons and a two road engine shed with a picture of an HST on the front (Pendon this shall not become). He is very careful using my stuff and I am confident he will look after this; I anticipate we will be playing it together most of the time in any case. A tunnel is really the only other must have along with a station.

I have made a very slapdash approximation of what I'm hoping to achieve on Anyrail which I hope you will be able to see. I imagine a curved station in the bottom left corner with platforms finishing at the start of a tunnel which will hide the storage roads in the top left section. The engine shed will come off the Y in the bottom right corner and I was thinking a goods yard off the siding behind the station, probably with an additional point or two.

I don't want to cram the whole thing with track as I enjoy the scenic side of things and would like the practise of this before making something a bit more to my taste. I'm sure there is much that can be improved but if anyone has any ideas to make for more enjoyable operation I would be most grateful indeed.

Very best regards,
Muddler

[Mountain]

As you have a lot of space to play with due to the scale, a book I recommend is "The Living Model Railway" which though it is mainly about0 gauge, the priciples are good for any scale and gauge.
The basic concept is to have a reason for everything. This reason creates a realistic and fun atmosphere.
Sometimes these books come up for sale secondhand. I forgot about this book until you wrote this thread.

There are ideas to make the railway look larger than it does, such as bringing a track to the edge of the layout to make it looks like it goes to "The rest of the world" and not to run track parallel with the boards edge, but instead run it at a slight angle. Little tricks like that!

[Muddler]

Hi Mountain

Thanks for your reply. You're right I ought to give the layout some more thought. My son really enjoyed the shunting aspect in 00, (though I wonder if it's such fun in N!?) so perhaps a dairy or some sort of industry close to the station would be a good idea.

Having not worked in N before I'm not really sure how many buildings will fit without making it all look forced. A little mock up of some buildings would probably be a good idea. Just need to get a move on!

Thanks again
Muddler

[heda]

This might give you an idea of what you can do with the available space, a layout I built a few years ago before switching to OO, the size is very similar to what you have planned.
Dave

viewtopic.php?t=49491&hilit=N+gauge+in+the+countryside

[heda]

Just running through it a lot of the pictures are missing now but I do have them saved so can probably dig out the sketch of the track plan if it's any help.
Dave

[Richard08]

As you son likes shunting, perhaps a marshalling yard rather than goods yard might work?

[Muddler]

This might give you an idea of what you can do with the available space, a layout I built a few years ago before switching to OO, the size is very similar to what you have planned.
Dave

viewtopic.php?t=49491&hilit=N+gauge+in+the+countryside

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply. I've been at work this evening and only managed a quick glance at your thread but it looks very impressive! If you do have a copy of the track plan I'd be very grateful, as I think it's been lost on the thread. Will have a proper look at the rest of it tomorrow.

Thanks again
Muddler

[Muddler]

As you son likes shunting, perhaps a marshalling yard rather than goods yard might work?

Hi Richard

That's a good idea and something I hadn't considered, thanks! I have no prior experience of N gauge and my only reservation would be how challenging/tedious shunting is in this scale?!

I'm pretty new to all this so very grateful for the suggestion.

Kind regards
Muddler

[heda]

I'll dig out the back up hard drive in a while and see what's on there.
Dave

[heda]

I didn't keep a copy of the track plan, which would have just been a sketch anyway.

The first picture is of the track laid, it was all peco flexitrack, the section in the top left didn't go anywhere, I put it in to be able to add a fiddle yard at a later date.

Picture two is the construction of the tunnel at the back.

Third picture construction of the tunnel on the left hand side.

Last picture is the goods yard.

It might be a good starting point for you but if I were to do it again I would make a few changes. With the track set up at the entrance to the goods yard it's possible to have two trains running around the loops and shunt wagons in and out of the yard at the same time.
I'd suggest when you draw out your track plan post it on here, the more experienced will advise on how it could be improved.

I've got around 500 pictures of the build so way to many to post on here but if there's anything I can help with feel free to drop me a pm.

Dave

[Muddler]

Hi Dave

That's really kind of you, thanks for posting those pictures, really helpful. I'll have a bit more of a think about it and post again once the plan is more developed.

Muddler