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Any model makers here? This is a nice little add on.

Thanks Kenny, all. Wow, I have totally missed "T" gauge! Thought Z was tiny, good ness! I can imagine a lot will be scratch build for it, but that too can be the fun of it. I had my N gauge stuff around 40 years ago, and not a whole lot was available then, certainly a much changed game now though, and probably for quite a few years now. A lot of the companies that I bought are out of business now. I did have quite a bit of Atlas and Rivarossi, TRIX, Rapido I believe were the brands most popular back then.

I always liked weathering railcars, buildings etc. Was a lot of fun, almost as fun as running the trains! Lovely Esso tanker there!
 
Here you are Tim.....this is how the 125 HS comes. Pack is tiny.

Other shot is from last week just trial laying some track near a hill side I made.
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That is amazing Kenny, I am building some trackwork at the moment and that is bad enough, in T scale it must be insane
 
Very cool, Kenny, love it! I would need a huge magnifying glass to be set above all my work, would be really fun. I kind of miss having space and time to play with stuff like I used to. My main layout for my N-scale was on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, it was a nice layout but I always wanted more space! Will be watching this space with admiring envy-in a good way! Have fun and enjoy! Thanks for sharing this!
 
I'm a closet train fanatic. About 20 years ago, I had a wee N-gauge layout with a Roco DB set and an Arnold shunt engine. It kept me and my little girls entertained for a while. I really wanted a bigger layout, with remote switching and all the diorama drama, but family and other financial priorities got in the way.

I think N gauge is ideal for realistic curves in a layout that can be accommodated in a spare room. Does anyone have a preferred brand? I think Kato is decently built, but I'm not sure about brand interchangeability. Like Gareth, I think a trainset or two will feature in my retirement, and I might start collecting rolling stock and locomotives as they come up for sale.
 
The UK is reasonably well served with two main manufacturers in N gauge, Graham Farish (owned by Bachman (or Kader ultimately)) and Dapol (independant Welsh company). There is also Peco who make track and wagons mainly and then a large number of smaller businesses like my friends RevolutioN company. Quality is massively better than back in the 80's and 90's with modern locos having lighting, sounds and smooth reliable running. UK scale is 1/148

The US have probably the second biggest market in the world where companies like Athern, Kato, Atlas, Bachman, Microtrains and a few others dominate. Quality for most of these are excellent with Kato at the top with Atlas and Athern doing very well I believe. Scale is 1/160

The biggest market is Japan which is the only country with N gauge as the most popular scale and Kato again are the best but Tomix are even bigger and slightly cheaper but still excellent. Scale is 1/150

Europe has Fleischmann, Marklin, Lemke, Kato (again) and they are all excellent but expensive, scale is 1/160
 
kennyh said:
I've built a few scratch built models over the years although I'm not a full blown modelist so to speak.

However a mate I know is starting on an unusual diorama and is incorporating this magnorail system in it. Quite a clever piece of kit for anything you'd like to see actually moving.......I was impressed but I love stuff like this anyway....I'll get me coat :)

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Ive never done any modelling but i still think that’s really cool
 
Im a bit in awe...here am I complaining about a HUGE Bentley build being awkward, and then there is this other planet where blokes with tweezers and magnifiers and 1 hair brushes exist! On that scale you could fit Scotlands whole national network in the attic! I awe at this stuff. More photos please:)
 
TimF said:
Very cool, Kenny, love it! I would need a huge magnifying glass to be set above all my work, would be really fun. I kind of miss having space and time to play with stuff like I used to. My main layout for my N-scale was on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, it was a nice layout but I always wanted more space! Will be watching this space with admiring envy-in a good way! Have fun and enjoy! Thanks for sharing this!
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Thanks very much Tim. Sounds like the N Gauge layout you had was on a grand scale. That's very large for N I'd have thought.

That's the beauty of T gauge though. My base is 2 x 4 foot and just sits on the computer desk and causes no fuss.

Jeez this guy built a layout on his hat:D

 
cutting42 said:
That is amazing Kenny, I am building some trackwork at the moment and that is bad enough, in T scale it must be insane
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Very well guessed there. Yep the track work was/is a far bigger challenge than I had expected. My fault really.

There are basically 2 different types of track. 1) set track which is fixed 60mm lengths and various radius curves, clip together very easily.

I got a loop with the starter set to get my head around things......but have not used it on the layout.

I went for 2) flexi track, purely as it looks more realistic and lends itself to ballasting, also the lengths you can buy go up to one metre, which is a long way with a T loco. I used a mixture of 200mm, 500mm, 750mm and 1 metre sizes.

This decision did make the job a million % more difficult I now realise. I scrapped a lot of track and track connectors, and at 6 quid plus postage for a tiny pack of 4 miniscule connectors the costs built up. I was not really worried about the cost as much as supplies of these spares. With only 2 agents they are always out of stock from Japan, which kills the job.

As you'll know as you form flexi track in to a curve one rail "grows", so they need snipping to make them equal to fit connectors. Tricky but you get used to it in a way, straight runs were a doddle.

Other huge and what was my main ball ache was this flexi track objects to being flexi. It really does want to straighten itself out all of the time.
I'd read about this issue before I started.
With it being so tiny and fragile you can't use track pins, so are left with the only options of gluing or double sided tape to hold it in place.

So, you make a connection on a curve, loco runs well, you return a while later and the track has forced itself out of the tiny brass connector.........nightmare.

I took to sweating the joints together at the end of the build on some curves, especially the inner point to point track.
I'd line rails up, run the solder down them and adjust them before solder went hard. It worked very well indeed.

Just waiting for some springs to arrive now, then I can finish the rebuild of the loco I posted a pic of and get both lines working at the same time..........I hope. Cheers
 
Rockmeister said:
Im a bit in awe...here am I complaining about a HUGE Bentley build being awkward, and then there is this other planet where blokes with tweezers and magnifiers and 1 hair brushes exist! On that scale you could fit Scotlands whole national network in the attic! I awe at this stuff. More photos please:)
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Thanks for that but I need to pull you up straight away. The big Bentley you have will be just as much a nightmare and difficult as this in fairness to yourself.
You have nowhere to hide with a large scale model.......every mistake shows up.

For instance that big Waltzer ride I built, I must have done the artwork a hundred times in places.
It had to be right or it'd stand out like a sore thumb.
So say for instance I decided to put a "mini" 1/450th scale waltzer ride on this layout it would not be as hard.
I'd probably put a few different fairground colours on the brush and flick paint at it to give the effect....under a magnifier it'd look crap, but to the naked eye it'd fit the bill.

So as I say the Bentley will have it's own massive challenges to get right........oh and I'd like to see it!!!

Many thanks too for the interest shown.
 
Kenny, even with my N gauge, the flex-track was somewhat of a nightmare, just as you mentioned. Obviously not quite the pain of what you are experiencing, but still. And then there are the guys that are just buying individual rails and laying it down like a real rail would be, with sized rail spikes, cross ties, proper ballast and all, good grief! Hats off to them!

As to size, even my 4 x * sheet of ply became too small quite quickly. Once you add a small town and all the cool stuff you would like to model, it consumes space rather quickly. At the time though, I had a nice basement in which to work with. It was a lot of fun until we had a major spring time flood, filled the basement up to several feet, and a lot of it got damaged. I eventually sold all my rolling stock and locos, the scenery etc. was pretty much wasted. Sad that I have no pictures of it either.

Back in that time period, I spread myself pretty thin, as trains, hifi, and my other hobby, salt aquariums just kept me quite busy! I was young though and didn't know any better!
 
Tim, can you believe it, some guys in T Gauge are doing just that. They buy the rails and build the track up. I just can't imagine how hard and time consuming that would be in this scale. It's finer than the thinnest guitar string.
 
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