A layout with a difference.

A couple of years ago I decided to dip my toes in the waters of " N ".

I have been collecting locos for around 30 years, mostly " OO " Hornby and Wrenn.

I noticed that several " N " locos had sneaked in and I had nothing to run them on.

In 2016 our youngest son purchased a small Macadamia Orchard just outside Gympie in Queensland.

Our eldest son had purchased on in the same area in 2015 and it was he who was responsible for talking his younger brother into buying.

As he, the young one, was working in Mackay and had to sell his house we offered to look after his new property until he sold his house in Mackay.

When we moved into the new property we found an unusual fixture, the previous owner used to keep snakes and lizards in a custom built cage on the verandah.

Fast forward to 2022 following the " Pandemic " the light bulb came on and I had somewhere I could run " N ".

Now I have to add some pictures so here goes.

You cannot put tracks down on Tiles so I thought foam board from our local hardware shop would do.

I wanted a 2 level layout so started setting out a few bits of track.

More instalements to follow so watch this space.

What’s the size of the space. Looks about 1000x 5 or/600 mm. 
My layout is on a 800x500 board and yours looks to be a bit bigger. 

Following along 

Hi Gray,

The size is 1600 x 800.

here is more progress.

Lots more to come Ed.

It’s progressing very fast, what type of scenery and theme will you be doing. Look forward to seeing it completed. 

Basically all I wanted to do was to run trains on as much track as possible, hence the two levels are actually 1 continuos run.

I don,t plan, I just start with an idea and let it flow.

I have been working on this for a couple of years so you will see changes fairly quickly.

The layout is now , in 2025,  almost finished, still a few touches required to the scenery.

Over the 2 or so years it has evolved, as you will soon see.

The upper level station in the last post did not last too long, the " Axe " swung, old YMRC saying.

The idea was for it to be removable and keeping the tracks aligned didn,t work too well so it had to go.

New simplified plan.

Is it dc or dcc. 

AUSSIETRAINS said

The upper level station in the last post did not last too long, the " Axe " swung, old YMRC saying.

From “Post #291,517”, 21st February 2025, 9:23 am

Ah, the dreaded Axe 



Ed

I'm pretty sure the term was "Tim's axe" - I wonder where Tim is now ……………………

Petermac said

I'm pretty sure the term was "Tim's axe" - I wonder where Tim is now ……………………

From “Post #291,535”, 21st February 2025, 9:55 pm

You should start an "I remember" thread Peter, give us a few tales from the early days ? You never know it might shake some "Oldyins" Oot the trees to chip in !. .   NOT that I'm saying YOUR old Peter. .   No Never ! . .  
BTW how IS Noah doing these days 🤔.  🤭🤭🤭

Oh and sorry AUS, there seams to be a bit of a flurry of N gauge running in the Forum just now, following along with interest . . . We going to see the Odd snake pop up ??? 😬

That's a good idea Matt but not sure how to paste my chalk board on here ………………….

There must be other members from the black and white days but not sure - I'll check the members list ……………..

Hi Gray,
Sorry I,m a bit late.
The layout is wired for DC and DCC, it,s just a matter of pluging in a controller to match the loco I want to run, I have both DC and DCC locos.

Started to do some scenics.
Taking pictures looking in through the window can be a bit hit and miss.

It’s looking good, that’s a nice enclosed area for a permanent place for it to reside. My 800x500 lives on top of the wardrobe. 

Overall view of the start of the scenics.


One corner started with truck just making it up the hill.


My plan is to slowly work around the layout.

Is there any particular theme you’re going for, industrial or rural etc. it should progress quickly now you’ve got the track plan down.