I had planned to build an Nn18 line using T gauge equipment, however the reliability of the T gauge stock left something to be desired. I have all the parts nessecary to build this layout, but because of that reliability issue it is now on hold. I may return to this concept in the future but for now; :(

Currently in the planning stages, my Nn18 layout will use T Scale track and N scale bodies to depict a post-WWI light railway.

Inspired in equal measures by the Rye & Camber and Sand Hutton

18 October 2008

Nn18 is an (apparently) new scale in which T scale equipment (3mm gauge) is used as N scale 18inch-ish equipment.

28 October 2008

Very rough Sketchup of a potential plan for this layout.

While I'm waiting for the T scale equipment to be delivered I decided to finally put pen to Wacom and start figuring out what this layout is supposed to be. My inspiration for this is Les Tramways de Port Petiot à Fort Goffiot by François Fontana and Denis Fournier Le Ray which is featured in Carl Ardent's Micro Layout Design Gallery.

While I originally wanted to replicate their use of twin ports (replacing one with an interchange with a standard gauge system, I've since ruled this out as impractical, T scale - and by inference Nn18 - is a runners scale, not an operator's. I still wanted both a town scene and a more rural or agricultural scene.

Trains will leave the staging track and round the curve through a meadow for a distance before plunging into a small grove of trees and into a terminus at a small town somewhere in the countryside. Trains will pause here (for 3 seconds on automatic) before repeating the journey in reverse.

The village will have a few other tracks (a loop and a short freight track) that will be accessed by a combination of a double track traverser and a sector plate. I forsee these as mainly being scenic additions to the layout but that may change depending on the characteristics of the T scale equipment once I get to actually run tests with them.