Page 8 - January February 2008

Our N Scale Layout
A short time ago our group decided to build an N scale layout, but first let me tell you a little about us. We started out about six years ago as a group of two, and have continued to add to our members, mostly one at a time, and now number well over a dozen. We also have managed to lose about half a dozen on the way, mainly due to them moving away or a change of job.
Called the “American Model Railroad Group of Gosport” with, naturally, a mainly American interest, we had already started an HO layout 8' × 12' in 2006, on a set of baseboards donated by one of our members, Stuart Burgess. These followed traditional British construction with a Sundeala top and 1" × 2" timber frame.
However, as the N scale group membership is mainly the elder variety, who thought them a little bit on the heavy side, we decided to try to make ours a bit lighter, going down the foam and plywood route.
Our main objectives were:
1) Light and manageable
2) Compact for transport
3) Integral legs – no loose bits if we could help it
4) Built­in power supply and controls if possible
5) An oval of sorts, as the public like lots of movement.
One member, Allan Dobson, had already built a complete 7' × 2' layout weighing only 22 kg or 46 lb in old money, so he had achieved the first objective. It was decided to follow this good practice, though we stepped up the frame size a little, and in­ creased the frame size material, using 9 mm plywood instead of his 3.5 mm.
Numbers 1 & 2: Light and manageable; Compact for transport
The compactness was achieved by reducing the module size to 1000 mm × 500 mm. We decided that any member, even with the smallest of cars, could get in a couple of modules, fixed together box­shaped, on the back seat, and most boots should accom­ modate them easily.
Due to the practicalities of the woodwork and our lack of profes­ sional equipment, it was decided that a local timber merchant should cut the frames. They were to be approximately 100 mm, or 4", tall. After careful measurements we saw that out of a sheet of 1200 × 2400 plywood we could get our local timber merchant to cut us 12 strips the full length, provided that we reduced it by the width of his saw blade, thus getting enough timber for eight modules out of the one sheet.
These would then be cut through twice into 1 m lengths, and the remaining off­cuts would already be the right height in size to be cut up into kits of parts for our leg boxes. Eight of the 1 m strips were then cut to make the ends of the modules and 12 of these ends were drilled using a drilling jig, for Red Dog dowels, leaving four plain ones for the ends. Four of the back strips also needed drilling for the joining dowels.
This done, a suitable piece of 4' × 2' × 1" thick stiff board, mostly made up of glue and wood shavings (name unknown) was found stashed away in the shed. This was pressed into service to make a jig for building the frames. This was marked out carefully, and retaining corners were made of pieces of scrap 2" × 2" planed timber drilled and firmly nailed to it, to hold the frame for gluing (Figs 1 & 2).
Number 3: Integral legs
The third problem to solve was the legs; normally you end up with them being loose, or perhaps fixed and having loose extra braces, which in turn means having to remember them each time, plus extra trips to the car both ways, which also adds extra
Allan Dobson
Fig 1
Fig 2 Fig 3
Fig 4
weight, extra fittings, which in turn equals extra expense and weight.
We hoped to avoid this by designing corner boxes for the legs, which in fact were also sockets; these we would make up as separate units, to be added to the frames during their construc­ tion. A sample one was made from scrap timber and foam, and worked completely to our satisfaction. The measurements of these turned out to be roughly 100 mm square by 35 mm wide, and for the hinge mechanism itself all we were going to use was a wooden dowel and a slot in the legs (Fig 3).
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