I do like these shunting industrial layouts you don’t need a large base board ,it doesn’t have to be perfect , and you can build it to whatever you like ? It was when first seeing a shunting layout on budget model railways that I knew what I wanted to do, country stations with the white picket fencing and the trains going round are nice but give me the industrial layout anytime 😌 Paul

Paper clips on skewer sticks... flippin' brilliant!

Who doesn't want a model of Kings Cross to scale???, Fact is most people want more than they have money for, space for or time for so to build something simple like you do is an inspiration and keeps the mind from dwelling on a world that is getting more crazy every day

Nice bit of shunting.Like the built up back scene.

Love the layout. There is loads of train operation and shunting despite its small size. Very enjoyable.

Your blue diesel reminds me of a GE 44 tonner. Railroads liked them, because the labor agreements in place at the time required any locomotive weighing 45 tons or more to have two crewmen. Since it only weighed 44 tons it could be operated by one person and not violate the labor union agreements. And isn't that just how management thinks?

Every time you do a small layout it gets beter and better. There is no reason you carn't have a layout. Great

If anybody has any ideas for a name for this layout, please comment below.

Hurrah! Thank-you!

This really is an example to people who say they haven't got enough space for a railway layout in their home. That layout looks small enough to fit on a windowsill, bookcase top or even a coffee table. I think with the various shunting layouts you have created over the last few years, this really proves that you don't have to have a huge layout to enjoy the hobby! This is an excellent layout. I do wonder if it would benefit from the Peco points however, as those Hornby ones are probably going to be a pain. I never had much luck with those points when I had my 00 gauge layouts, especially with my older locos with deep flanged wheels and the old three pole motors.

For a fiver you can buy enough 1mm piano wire and 2mm brass tube to operate 5 - 15 points via wire in tube (depending on how far the runs are). This layout would probably require about £2 worth.

Nothing wrong with the HOG operations, and it's in keeping with your philosophy I think. I am averse to automating everything (and spending money! ;-0) and even lo-tech methods require quite a bit of work and enginuity. More power to your paperclip!

You really do have a knack for creating these little layouts. You are the kind of player this hobby needs to bring in the next generation. Oooh, that sounds a bit grand, but hopefully, you get my drift. We need low-cost interesting options for newcomers and you are so good at showing that. Big thumbs up to you.

Changing points manually gives me a greater feeling of involvement with train movement. After all, points were often changed manually. You can be a driver and a signalman.

Try some silver foil on the frogs . That Crain base is brilliant !

Another super update. Nice to see a little bit of running too. As you say it’s a simple set up but you can still get a lot of enjoyment from it. Just what your person starting out in the hobby without a lot of spare cash or someone getting a child interested in the hobby needs. It’s not going to take months and months to build it, so they won’t get bored because ‘it’s not ready yet’

This channel is pretty poggers ngl

Very believable small layout. And why not? I like the history you've given it.

Excellent little layout good work Mike - like your Southern brake van as well!

A very believable and interesting layout. I, too am making a layout. Mine is 6x4 and depicts Ongar Station as it is today. On top of that, I’m a volunteer on the heritage railway that runs it.

Love the crane paint tin ‘base’! Excellent use of an otherwise thrown away item!

Those Dapol/Airfix figures are really well detailed and very cheap. Especially when you consider they were carved over half a century ago. Well painted, they blend in with the 3D printed figures of ModelU or Hardy’s. Mr Maple there, being a case in point.

I can fully understand preferring the Hand of God. I like that more myself - although I wouldn't be averse to using some kind of mechanical contraption to let me remotely change points in far-off parts of a line. I do love watching some of these you make. It really helps me temper my plans rather than going overboard. I'm currently still waiting on getting baseboards set up, so in the meantime I've been doing more kit stuff. Got a nice rake of the Dapol meat vans, an old airfix mineral wagon, a Parkside Dundas CCT van which I need a drill to finish, and finally, I'm currently in the middle of bashing a GWR 101 with a Dapol Pug kit to create an industrial 0-4-2 locomotive.

I started operating layouts when I was five years old. Most of them were based around the Lego Town Plan board. I haven’t yet even started my Ongar Station layout in 00!! I’m waiting to move home first.

Your comments about the hand of god have given me flashbacks to when I used to exhibit a layout which was very much a beginner's exhibition layout (several of us were teenagers at the time) at shows years ago. Some people take it all too seriously - which is fine, I love a realistic layout too, but there's got to be room for fun, too.

...absolutely love it! who says you can't have a OO layout in such a tiny space, brilliant work & truly inspirational 👌

"It's 10 inches by a meter" That gave me an amused chuckle, I've never heard someone describe dimensions using two different measurement systems before :P

Great detail work and operations!

Looks great chaps! Loving the backscene and old metal fencing! Like the little Mini Van :)

Looks great really starting to come together now! Especially love the mini! Quite by chance I was having a look at the workings of the railway coal industry out of curiousity and wanting to see how things worked and found out that coal yards used to commonly load straight into vehicles from the trucks instead of having staithes backed onto the sidings as loved by modellers to save time and labour! So quite an interesting one there! 😊 (but in my opinion they definitely look good backed onto the sidings! )

Great update as usual. I know you said you don't mind the "Hand Of God" but if you wanted cheap remote point control you can use a paperclip bent to L shape, one end through the board to the point, the other attached to some garden wire (or a coathanger) with a choc block connector which then runs to the edge of the layout and you can either bend the wire to make a "handle" or push the boat out and buy some cheap pine knobs and glue them on...works a treat! (Not my idea, explained here with helpful photos; yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=10845&forum_id=6 Andrew🙂👍 PS There's also nothing wrong with Hand of God 😁

Fantastic use of simple materials brings the era to life.....there is a perceived depth to the look..absolutely amazing, used to go to wargamers in Worthing mid 70s

Wow this is your most detailed layout yet!

That's another brilliant but simple idea to paint all the station buildings in the same colour scheme, as you've also done with your Ratton loft layout. It means almost any spare building or hut can be pressed into service and looks completely convincing as part of the station.

Superb mate. Reminds me of something you might get in the backwaters of old villages and towns that were once isolated but ended up getting swallowed by London as it expanded. Brilliant! 😉

Brilliant.Your small shunting layouts are definatly the best. Pity you never completeted the docklands layout a few months ago. Love the history part of this.

Great progress!

All those little extras have added greatly to the atmosphere and brought the layout very nicely to life. On my little layout, I've used coat-hanger wire for 'remote' point operation, it just runs across to the baseboard edge and was very easy to set-up. I did it mainly as I can't trust my clumsy hands to not send anything they come close to flying. Made an uncoupling hook very similar to yours. I do giggle when I read or see some of the angst, not to mention costs, that some expend on point control and couplings and I marvel at the ways such simple matters can be made so overly complicated! Happy Easter :-)

Excellent video, lovely little town scene and the story totally believable. The small layouts seem to be a major strength of yours and still more to see! I get the impression you enjoy making them as much as I enjoy watching them🤣

Nice update Mike that layout really does have a lot of opperating potential for shunting i even found my layout having a lot of opperating potential for shunting and i love the platform canopy too nice work mate.

Truly like the small details. Were all about that on our layout. Very good 🚂🚃🚃🇨🇦

Enjoyed the video very much with loads of detail.Doing a layout too .Take care.

wow....thats so good..love it !!!

Great little station - happy Shunting 🚂👍🏻

Brilliant again, great scene, love the corrugated fencing.

Great layout you’ve got there with so much potential. The buildings and accessories look great! The story you have aswell, makes it even more believable and fun, great! 👍

Really nice layout. I love all the little details that bring the scene to life.

Thanks for the video , it’s a great little layout with a lot of detail. Happy Easter 🐣

I wonder if using some conducting paint might help with plastic frog issue? Of fiddling with aluminium foil?

Wonderful imagination there. Its well beyond time for me to properly start my layout

Nice as always

Hi, long time viewer first time commenter. Gotta say I love this layout you’ve created, and given it a history and a story. That’s just as important as the running in my opinion and makes the playing all the more fun :D In terms of hand of god I very much agree it’s a part of playing trains! One thing I’ve incorporated into my layout is little cut pieces of clear plastic over a few sleepers to act as uncouplers, you can barely see them but makes shunting much easier without breaking the bank :) Keep up the great work!

Really enjoyed watching your trains shunting, very therapeutic, and love all the little details that really make a layout like this come to life👍😁

Love the layout. Where did you get your corrugated fencing from, it looks great. I want to get some myself ?

Love the historical note, I am still working on my own version of the history of your railways, currently in the late 1880s with the formation of the Roselands Hill Light Railway and the history of locomotive designer Michael Potter the 1st. I´m basing the area in the Midlands going by the majority of LMS and ex-LMS stock seen on your layouts, hopefully over the next week or so I should have some time to make some progress and will be incorporating the bits of information you have given into the story.

Railcars are what we call multiple units

Cute, simple, efficient, I"m going to build me the same ! For the points, in the US, lots of modellers uses what is called there a functionnal ground throw, which is a HO scale full manual lever mounted on the side of the points. So, motor or not, it is a question of taste... What facilitates it for the UK/Continental modeller in OO/HO, is the fact that you have a locking mechanism on Hornby and Peco (including Streamline series) that locks the blades in place in each direction. So, you can take a paiur of insulated tweezers, a plastic rod or whatever you want to move the point blades manually. I will do that after using N scale points with integrated motors, because it's simple, costs nothing, does not requires wiring (a plus on modular layouts like what I am un to), and you are really playing “hands-on” with your layout. For the couplers, well... For me, the most obvious problem is that there is never an uncoupler where you want to have one, or else you put dozens of them in your layout. UK tension lock couplers have a fall-down hook on the top that can be lifted with your clever tool. For my own, if you buy new models with NEM pockets, I have found what I think is the best system in OO/HO. It is the Roco “”Grendizer” coupler, not the harpoon-like sold by Hornby for their coaches. Cheap, efficient, and comes with a decoupling paddle sold with the boxes of 12 ou 50 units, as simple and efficient as yout tools. I'ts my pick for all my models, tested and working in OO scale. It doesn't change the fact that your tool is the best kind of decoupler to use with tension-lock couplers.

I guess I must build a small shunting railway, classic rail goods and coach stock must be pennies, which means staying in the under €22 in total will be easy

Lovely little layout! Really enjoying your channel! Is there any plans to 3 d print the little tram engine again? The one that fits the hornby 0-4-0 chassis? Thanks Iain.

Your shots show the main area of the layout. You can’t be wanting any more than you’ve got. The whole layout won’t fit into a camera lens, however small it is!!

As usual a really impressive layout. I also have issues with Hornby points on my small layout, so glad to see I am in good company! I like the idea of the background story, I have tried to do that with my main layout as well. Out of interest what size is the layout?

Hi, I am just a newbie to the hobby, the shunting layout looks superb, please could you give me the details of the pieces of track required so I can have a go at building this. Many Thanks

Very nice station looks the part. How did you get the fencing please

Ah lyons tea, Lyons Irish breakfast tea with no milk and strong

Where did you get the corrugated fencing?

Absolutely on board with *Hand of God* operation ... ℹ "created" this ; metaphorically ℹ'm god - & ℹ can Do what ℹ Want O ;-{

Hurrah! Thank-you!