Nige has been back in touch with an update on his multi level model railway N scale:

“Hello Alastair..

It’s been a long time since you had an update on my multi-layered N Gauge analogue layout based on an Alpine theme.

In fact when I started tracking back (pardon the pun) it seems it was over two years ago since my last post which I have to say is somewhat remiss of me especially when you consider that I retired some 14 months ago and should have had a lot more time to spend on getting on with my layout, however things didn’t quite work out that way.

Retirement came in March and a good holiday was the first thing on the agenda which was taken in May, then there were all the projects around the home and lots of time being grandpa to my now two and half year old granddaughter involving lots of trips out and about, which were just wonderful !

With all this going on it became a bit of a non-event in terms of progressing with my layout which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Although no real progress was made with the layout I did do a considerable amount of thinking in terms of what I was wanting to achieve and how I was going to go about it, ultimately this resulted in me making some key decisions on how I wanted to develop the layout and importantly prevented me from making some big mistakes going forward.

In my last missive I had completed the lower deck staging areas along with the gradients upto the main level where the scenic area of the layout was planned to start and I had fitted some backscenes on three sides of the layout.

I realised that i was not entirely happy with the backscenes, when I purchased them I was unable to get what I really wanted which was Alpine mountain scenery, so I opted for what I thought was the next best thing available which happened to be the Rocky Mountains !

In summer last year I came across a guy in Austria who could produce a continuous wraparound Alpine backscene without duplicating any of the images, so with the help of google translate and a few emails the backscenes duly arrived and were successfully installed early this year.

When that initial phase of the lower level had been completed I only had a very rough plan drawn up on how I was going to get four mainlines running around the scenic section of the layout.

After a great deal of soul searching and some ultimate common sense being applied I decided that my initial plan of four mainlines was neither practical or realistic in respect of the ultimate result I was trying to achieve ( I ended up asking myself ‘where have you seen four mainlines in the images you have seen of a swiss mountain layout ?’ ) .

So the decision was made to have just two mainlines but to have them going around the scenic part of the layout three times gradually climbing as they went, to fulfill my wish to be able to have four trains running at the same time I decided to have two power districts on each line thus allowing two trains to run on the same line at once.

One of my other concerns was trying to avoid the layout looking too congested and again un realistic.

My original intention was to gain the required height to make the three loops using just gradients but I started to ask myself how this would look and importantly would it be a true representation of what it was like in real life.

So bearing in mind ‘ what goes up has to come down ‘ as the saying goes ‘ so I decided to have a helix to obtain the height, this was possible as I had some unutilised space near to the door entering the shed which afforded me enough room to fit a helix with 2nd and 3rd radius curves and then various gradients to get back down.

This resulted in me having 50% less gradients than I originally had in mind which ultimately would avoid the layout being too congested, it also allowed me to set the gradients no steeper than 2% and in most cases avoid having them on curves. I have also tried to conceal some gradients in tunnels again factoring in the realism aspect.

In respect of the tunnels ( of which there will be quite a few ), I have tried to avoid having them too long as access will not always be easy and there is always the concern of trains getting stuck, unfortunately with the design of this layout there will be what I would call ‘Black Spots’ where access will be either difficult or not possible at all obviously I am trying to minimise these as much as possible.

With all these factors in mind I managed to get a workable plan down on paper at the beginning of this year and after fitting the new backscenes things started to move on with the construction of the helix which was completed in late April just prior to the arrival of grandchild number two, a baby boy..!

We are now in the middle of summer and further progress has been made, testing of the helix has gone very well, I managed to set the grade just over 1.50% which is allowing me to be able to run long trains ( including my longest passenger coach sets of up to eight coaches ) without any issues, obviously the up line is on the outer circuit (radius 3).

The helix, which can be accessed from one side and the top by removing a loosely fitted lid, takes the layout from base level to just over 10 inches in height, the descent back down will evolve over various gradients and bridges as the tracks loop around going over and under in places back down to the base level.

The track coming up from the lower level through the planned station area and into the lower part of the helix has been laid and the first bridge at the top of the helix is fixed in place with the track going across it, all track is laid on 2mm cork with neat PVA which I prefer to pinning especially given the fiddleness of N scale track pins.

You will see from the pictures I have included the predetermined position of some of the tunnel portals on the layout and the first of several gradients which show the start of the climb upto the top of the helix, at the time of writing the inclines were fixed in place with PVA and the track loosely held in place with push pins.

The station will have three platforms that will be able to receive 8 carriages, there is space for an engine or two in short sidings either end of the station. .

Entry to bottom of Helix and Top with Bridge across track on a lower level

Helix end of Layout

Helix just inside the doorway

Image showing the various levels prior to landscaping at the helix end of the layout( one level still to be added between the top level and third }

View of Layout from top of the Helix.

In the coming months the plan is to press on with constructing the basic form of the landscape using both polystyrene and timber and getting all the bridges constructed and in place.

I’m hoping to try and get all the track laid and tested with trains running before starting any scenic detail however I’m somewhat unsure whether this will be possible as I get further into the build, we will see how this goes I guess !

Hope you enjoy the update and pictures now things are moving along somewhat. I feel confident more timely updates will follow in the future..

Kind Regards

Nigel (N Gauge Nige)”

A big thanks to Nige for sharing his multi level model railway N scale update.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.