I have decided to try building a fairly simple model railway in N Scale – probably either 1:150 or 1:148 scale. I have some track and a couple of locomotives ordered and have started some preliminary track layouts.
I don’t have a name for it as yet though I am thinking it may just be Hamlel. It will be fictional and in a small rural location set in a pre-1970s time period as locomotives will be steam. General feel of location will be United Kingdom but no specific place is being modelled. The locomotives and rolling stock I have at the moment are Japanese but I will either ignore the discrepancy as being a fictional location that obtained second hand train stock from Japan but hadn’t refinished them or possibly weather or mask any Japanese script on the train.
I’ve tossed up between a door style layout – maybe slightly larger than a door or doing a layout across the full width of the pool room (4.7m). The door style layout is potentially portable while the full width would not be.
I think I will try the first of these layouts. Although it doesn’t give anything like the same length of running it will be portable, has plenty of room for scenery and has a combination of continuous running and shunting. Most of the back of the loop would be hidden with a possible thought of an exposed section for a viaduct.
Initial inspirations are Wrenton for the general feel and style and Chandwell for the construction techniques.