Like many model railway enthusiasts, my first introduction to model railways was 40 years ago when dad built us a permanent model railway at home. Looking back it was quite basic, and while it was dismantled when we lost interest in our teens.
The desire to build a layout never went away and I’d often think about the dream layout. Life of course took over and many years I built a layout for my son though he never really had the same interest I had. I dabbled with N gauge for a while, but really struggled with the size and didn’t have room in the house for a OO gauge layout.
Inspiration
I turned 50 during lockdown and I found myself binge watching model railway channels on YouTube and a couple of layouts in particular really got me thinking seriously about building my layout. One was a OO gauge West Highland Line layout, the other an N gauge multi deck layout based in North America. I wanted to build a Scottish layout set in the 1980s, single track as per the West Highland Line, but multi level to maximise running space.
The wish list
With no rolling stock from previous layouts I was starting from scratch, After much research on YouTube my wish list for the new layout started to form. The layout was to be OO gauge, DCC Controlled, with plenty of sound fitted class 37 locomotives. I also wanted to have the layout computer controlled.
Scenery
Modelling the West Highland Line meant scenery would be an important factor. With a single track line, running trains would be limited, so I wanted the scenery to be a major focus with lots of hills, rivers, bridges, and trees, hundreds of trees!
Track plan basics
The West Highland Line is mainly single track with trains passing at stations. I wanted to run trains from hidden storage yards on the lower level, traversing up the line through stations finally reaching a top level off scene storage yard. A return loop would be required at the end of the storage yard to allow trains to return back down the line when their turn came.
On arrival at the lower staging level, another reverse loop would ensure trains were turned and readied for then next deployment.
The model railway room build
In early 2022, I took the plunge and built a dedicated model railway room in the back garden. The ‘shed’ as it became known as, was 16ft x 8ft in size, insulated, and wired up ready to go. As it turned out, this was the easy part and the complicated construction work was about to begin
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