I have now almost competed laying the track on my new baseboard and am testing a train on it.

I have also decided where to put the Engine Shed.

Next the electrics will need to be sorted out and the track fixed down properly, as its currently held in place with nails into the polystyrene base. I' hoping it will relax to the shape it is in now, rather than springing back to straight as soon as I take out the nails. Lets see the track test again.

A new Layout

I decided to make use of the old 4 x 2 piece of wood with the abandoned N gauge project to create a new layout, in Narrow Gauge or 009. Using a couple of examples from Railway Modeller Magazine I have started this and was woring on it in the garden the other day. To see what I am planning you will have to wait a while but I have been watching videos on youtube related to 009 layout building and hope to have something to look at soon, in the meantime here I am in the garden with a few bits and pieces.

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Unhappy with the trucks purchased for the Narrow Gauge section, I have bought some slightly larger ones, together with a second loco.

Here they are as delivered, as finished and on the layout. I still have a bit of work to do on the couplings, it appears these small locos have various types of couplings, but they aren't all compatible with each other.

I have been doing further work on the narrow gauge railway and have now laid all the track, ballasted some of it and can run a loco from end to end.

Here is a video of the loco in action.

Building an 009 Loco.

009 Locos, (Narrow Gauge 4mm scale) loco's are quite expensive but you can buy 3D printed models which you construct yourself.

To go with these you need an electric chassis and I used a KATO 11-109 Chassis purchased from Tramfabriek, the owner of who I saw at Rattery Exhibition.

The kit (shown in last blog) itself was purchased from Brooks 3D Models.

It was supposed to be easy to put together without instructions but I followed a Youtube video Constructing the Glyn Valley Loco which was very good.

Pictures follow of various stages in the construction. The scale is very small and it wasn't that easy. Tweezers are essential as are good eyes, mine could be better!

And here it is on my layout with some slate trucks also bought fron Brooks 3D Models and put together by me.

Further changes to the layout

Inspired by a trip to a model railway exhibition in Rattery which was mostly Narrow gauge (009 gauge) and by a free backscene which came with a railway modeller magazine, i decided to add a narrow gauge line on my layout. I was surprised by how small people could make a narrow gauge layout and just how much detail they could add.

I have decided that my narrow gauge will run from behind houses at the back of the layout, through the town and on to the front right corner, running over one of the storage sidings which will become a hidden siding.

For Christmas I rquested a 009 locomotive kit and a chassis to fit it on, and I now have to construct and paint the kit, add the backscene on the layout and modify it to take the narrow gauge track. That will keep me busy for a while.

While adding the people etc. I just thought I'd get a quick video of a couple of the trains running.

I've added a couple of coaches to one of the trains.