MODEL RAIL'S GREAT BRITISH MODEL RAILWAYS

It’s always nice to be invited to
exhibitions. Of course, all layout owners
want their layouts to run well at shows
and entertain visitors, so constant and
reliable train action is a prerequisite.
However, as we discovered, when
you’re concentrating on talking about
model railways to visitors, derailments,
or making an error with a point can
become an embarrassing hazard.
SOUND JUDGEMENT
To enhance our presentation, we hand
out leaflets to visitors. Certain areas of
the layout have extra ambience, in the
form of sound samples of a busy main
line station, some brass band music
that emanates from the bandstand, and
seagull sounds from the beach area.
‘Rockcliffe’ has been a hugely
worthwhile challenge and we’ve learned
a lot from each other. We keep our
minds open to new ideas and we listen
to comments from friends, family and
viewers, which keeps us on our toes.
We faced many challenges along the
way, and made many changes -
sometimes it felt as if we would never
finish. The layout is radically different
to those initial plans, but our skills
certainly developed as we went along.
We hope that ‘Rockcliffe’ reflects
what we learned along the way.
13
11
12
LAYOUT FACTFILE
Things you might have missed
ROCKCLIFFE
Rolling stock: Mix of RTR and scratchbuilt
Signals: N/A
Power & control: Gaugemaster 100 Electronic
Loco Controllers x4
Buildings: Metcalfe kits and scratchbuilt
GREAT BRITISH
MODEL RAILWAYS
N
GAUGE
Gauge & scale: 2mm:1ft scale, 9mm gauge, ‘N’
Prototype: Fictitious
Size: 6ft by 4ft
Track: Peco Code 55
Locomotives: Ready-to-run
1
12
10
9
8
6
11
13
4
3
5
2
7
130 From the publishers of Model Rail
www.model-rail.co.uk
131