Mike’s been in touch. He’s added to the collection of N gauge railways on the blog:
“Hi Alastair.
Thought you might enjoy the fruit of my labours.
I had built an N gauge railway about 35 years ago and still had much of the rolling stock, so in October I decided it was time to start again.
I ‘finished’ it this month (there’s always more to do) so I thought you might like to see some of the pictures.
It is called Maple Shade, after a small town in New Jersey where I lived for a few years before finally returning to my native England. Hope you enjoy the shots. And yes, I know a few chimneys need fixing…
First, an overall view of the layout. Note, no backdrop as I need to be able to see behind the hills.
Here’s the Mallard in Maple Shade station.
And the Flying Scotsman at the other end
The local diesel waits for the passengers to board
Then heads off
Another train ready to leave
At the works there are wagons to load
A goods train chugs past
The local tea rooms are thriving
The church sits on the hill
Here’s the station hotel
Main Street
An express rushes past the farmhouse
The fishermen watch a train go by.
It’s playtime!
Another goods train on its way
Bringing in the coal
Hope you enjoyed it.
Mike”
And now on to Bill.
He’s still working on his switching layout – and he’s sent in these fab bird’s eye views and a video.
“Hi Al
My switching layout continues to inch closer to having major work completed. I know a comment I’ve heard a few times is what does the track plan look like? I’ve climbed into my HO Scale piper and took couple of aerial pictures that shows the track on the ground 😀 between both sections there are 42 switches on the 4×16 layout. Most are #6 & #8 with a few #4’s.
I’ve also added a link that shows the layout set up in its second possible configuration with trains running.
As always thanks to you and everyone that submitted on your post. You guys got me back into being an active modeler!! Thank you !!
Bill in Virginia”
Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. Still going strong.
That’s all for today folks. A big thanks to Mike for adding to the N gauge railways collection, adn to Bill too. Impressive stuff.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here it today is the day you bite the bullet and get going on your very own layout.
Best
Al
PS More N scale layouts here if that’s your thing.
wel worth returning to the hobby Mike nice layout you have built there …and bills video is a good insight to his layout on wheels …. and switching as it can be done …Dangerous Dave
Bill I am interested in how you did the overhead shots. Also I have tried to do some editing on my videos with limited success. Is there a video camera that will allow you to pause between shots and then continue on the same video? I was sure when you started your project that you would have difficulty rejoining the tracks when you swapped ends, but It looks like you succeeded. Congrats!!
Beautiful switching layout and love the PRR theme and equipment , the switching has to be slower ,it’s way to fast
Just when you think you’ve seen it all in Model Railroading something new shows up on this website. The ‘Bill in Virginia” table switching is incredible. I would think it would require a lot of pre-planning to make it work properly. Then, if he has another idea I would think he could build a third table and just slide it in.
Mike
What a fabulous layout. Great job! Very well presented and much appreciated since I cannot even imagine myself in N scale.
Bill
Love what you do. I am freezing in my garage up here in Long Island despite the warm weather LOL. What now? Your talents must not be idled but be used for some other grand scheme.
Be well
Big Al
thank you-
you are the first thing I wake up to and your brilliant fan base just makes my day!
George from NY
Mike – your comment about no backdrop because you needed to see beyond the hills made me wonder – the view out the window seems to be the perfect backdrop in the photo! 🙂
Woo wath a great layout.
HC Treintje Belgium.
very nice, giving me great ideas,
Mike that is a beautiful N Scale layout and the fact you started it just last October shows you have a lot of talent!!!
Wot, no pub?!
Nice though.
Rod
The people of Maple Shade are quite jealous, as the burg never looked this good. As a S Jersey guy, I remember Maple Shade very well. Wonderful job and lots of scenes to get you sucked in.
Bill, thanks for the run-around. It gives me some ideas for some operations.
Nice level garage floor. Ours is sloped to a drain in the center so that would make it interesting to roll around. As always, wonderful detail on your design.
Thanks to both for sharing.
MN Dan
Mike, you must have been working 24/7 to do such a beautiful job since October. Only one thing, though. Maple Shade, NJ is flat as a pancake.
Two terrific layouts. Mike your N scale layout looks larger than N scale, very nice work and I agree with some of the others, I like how your railroad blends with the real backdrop, very nice.
And Bill’s fantastic work, it has been very interesting and enjoyable to follow your amazing progress from the beginning..
Dick from Hardin Mt USA
Nice well thought out layou Mike.Your Metcalfe models are so beautifully finished.I’m making the country school today when the farm buildings are done.You’ve set the standard.No pressure then!Thanks for sharin the pics,
Like watching tennis,need to make a complete circuit at some point.
Nice track work though.
I love your use of the Metcalfe building kits.
Mike, I love the Church up on the hill, with the individual rocks on the hillside. Also, the lines on the pavement where the children are playing. Have not seen that in a layout before. Great job!
Hi Mike
Nice layout great detail. One little point, that appears on many sites, is making the pavements ends square rather than round at junctions. It does stick out like a sore thumb. Rounding off the pavements would make such a improvement and would not draw the eye to them as it currently does.
Apologies for being so pedantic but it would really make that much of a difference.
Mike, What a beautiful N scale layout I can’t believe you achieved such a fine level of detail in N scale. Thanks for sharing.
Great layout. Having grown up out in West Texas, I love the
emphasis on the oil industry in this layout. Great stuff!
I would like to know how you built the stone viaduct.
Wonderful detail, good job.
Very nice!
Nice one Bill. Could you show how you decouple? What mechanism do you use for switching points?
Mike, I like your layout. It is busy but not as crowded as some layouts seem to be. I like that you’ve left some open space.
Bill, it’s very clever how you can reconfigure your layout. You’ve built a superb switching layout. I can see from the video, that one could spend many happy and satisfying hours in a session of running it.
Rob McCrain
Bill “in Virginia:” love the overhead shots. I like closeups, but I’m a both/and guy who likes to see the forest AND the trees.