Totally agree, this format right here is the new Model Railway Club, everyone is welcome wherever in the world you might be. 👍🏻 Yeah it’s nice to go to shows and exhibitions etc but on here is where tips, tricks and advice are at from the comfort of your own home.

Fab layout, so much interest yet with a uniform look, not easy to do. Have a look at the little electric railway at Hellingly Hospital. The Kato budget loco is near perfect for this and the hospital wall is perfect to divide the layout. Also they used a tram to transport inmates and visitors. All the best, Charles

Better than you expected Mike!! You are to modest, it’s brilliant

The 10”x2’ layout has the look of a very compact representative of a shortline rail service. Potentially, you place a wall or a a hill behind the station that can run 45 degree-ish towards the upper right of the layout that hides what could be an interchange track and loco storage track. A loco positioned on the lower track (loco storage track) could pick up wagons on the upper track (interchange), run to the west and around the curve to deliver wagons to the station side track. The runaround track could be used to shunt wagons from the station side track to the lowest track on the layout that could be staged as a team track (not sure what that would be called in the UK) or to an industrial building platform (food, lumber, paper, etc.). I may have a go at this myself …. It is a very simple track design with a lot of operational potential. Luv it!

Castle town has come along really well :)

Thanks for the video, time is definitely moving forward on the model railway seen The layout looking good, looking forward to seeing the people and other little bits added!!😎🚂🚃🚃🚃🇬🇧

The village is outstanding!

We have a hobby store here that was pretty much foot traffic heavy, now they are online traffic heavy with foot traffic making up the rest of the sales. The hobby isn’t dying as you say it’s the way we purchase that has changed. They still have a store as they sell more than just model railway gear. I’ve been getting into doing a slate layout…but your seaside idea sounds interesting as well….hmmmm 😉

They are both beautiful and brilliant layouts. Micros and small layouts are the future. People are nomadic these days, and you can't take a room-sized layout everywhere. Your observations about the "death" of the hobby are bang-on. Things change. In the 40s, you listened to big band swing music. Every ten years thereafter, you were listening to something new. Same concept, although the model railway world moves at a slower pace.

Mike may I suggest your point to point layout have a double sided crescent shaped backdrop. The convex side could be a seaport and the concave backside a mountain village on a one inch raised elevation. Goods and passenger trains would shuttle between the harbor, up the mountain to the village/rsort. You could use some foam and cardboard to elevate the mountain village. I'd use a road overbridge as a transition between the two sides. A small bridge crossing a brook on the curve leading into the resort sidings as a transition.

As one who does not have space, 4' x 12in I am always surprised that the model railway press sticks to large layouts. I was a great follower of Model Trains International, to me the bible of small/micro layouts. Shame it had to stop I am currently building a micro and find that I still get enjoyment from the hobby. As you say its not dying but changing.

The Castletown layout looks terrific mate! Amazing how much you have fitted in. I like how since it is a medieval town it doesn’t look too crowded precisely because that is exactly what a medieval town WOULD look like! Lovely job on the station. Very small suggestion: maybe a girder under the signalbox? Just thought it would look more realistic ☺️ I’d definitely go for the small quay Cornish idea as it gives you most scope and excuse for more extreme depth to the scenery. I like railways that almost look like they are clinging to the side of a cliff 😎 BTW, I don’t know if you’ve had it yet as a suggestion, but the town square is crying out for something. Maybe a sizable statue? Or some sort of market folly building that overlooks the square as one finds in various historical towns. I assume they were used for something like storage for stall holder or even as a central lookout for the market admin 🤔 Have a great weekend mate 👍😎🍻

Hi Mike that looks wonderful i love Castletown.The other little board could be a China clay scene like Charlestown in Cornwall.

Castletown looks great. The Mirror tile is a great idea to add depth. Thanks. Stay safe and happy modelling Mon

I am amazed so have got so much into a small footprint, it looks great to!

Castletown does look good. As to the second layout, I wonder about one big industry with a couple of places to spot cars on the straight. Or it's an interchange between two railroads. That might allow the two fiddle tracks to represent two separate railroads. The train from railroad 1 comes in and drops off a car or two then departs. The train from railroad 2 comes in, does its pick-ups and drop-offs and leaves, and on and on.

Layout looks fantastic Mike your imagination is second to none . While I am talking is it possible for Doug to send me a list of components to add lighting to my coaches .

It's quite sad that such events as Varley have stopped but perhaps as you say the hobby is moving to more online content. All hobbies seem to be cyclical - they are born, they flourish and then they die. Later still they are reborn - as an older person I've seen it before. Hopefully the big online retailers will be okay but I actually though Hattons was big online and look what happened there😥. The future is, as always, unknown and interesting😀

With your preference for Euro freelance. You could do something like a Norwegian harbour with iron ore and lumber delivered by rail. Perhaps fish traffic. Definitely would be different. Anyway great content as always and for me on point. Thanks

This really is a fantastic layout!👍😊

I really like the little end to end one. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

Beautiful Castle Town. You are great in making small layouts 👍 By the way, any possibility to interconnect them and let them double as a larger modular exposition layout with separate theme "rooms"? Trains could then be running from one "room@ to another, which may be interesting for visitors? Great update video 👍

Love your ideas on the layouts, with the smaller ones you get more time to create some cool details. And as for the hobby dying, it's not from a lack of interest. It may just be reinventing itself, new technologies might make it more accessibe to more people. Happy modelling to you 😄

Superb, amazing what fits in such a small space

I gotta say the mirror is convincing. You were explaining it and I still thought it was an extension of the layout. 😅

Not bad the backscene. I love it, and it's on my shopping list.

Hello,the layouts are looking brilliant.the first one,castletown is so compact it seems busy.cant wait to see how the other one turns out.

Very creative!

nice layout keep up the good vid thanks lee

I always fancied building a line based on but not an exact copy of the industrial Hamworthy Branch to Poole Quay and that type of thing may work for your layout. Model Railways aren't dying, just changing. We need a return to making more rather than just buying everything ready made. Never been to Warley; stopped buying from Hattons 18 years ago when they showed a distinct lack of interest in a rather large order I placed that went astray. I chased it myself and when it had been damaged due to poor packing they kindly offered to sort it IF I returned it at my own expense and the paid for delivery again. Sad as they were really good for mail order back in the 80's & 90's. Try to shop local wherever possible now which is usually Trains 4U at Peterborough or KS Models in Stevenage.

This is what you do best.......keep it going..

Castletown is looking simply splendid! I think the idea of a mountain top for the end-to-end layout would look really good. Echoes of a rack railway in Switzerland? Have the track coming around a really impressive mountain and this will avoid the cliched "enter through a tunnel" we see on so many layouts.

I'm thinking of buying one of these Pocket Line loco's from Kato, probably one of those freight train packs. They are so cheap at 20 euro's and you not only get a loco but also 2 wagons. Although if i do get one i'll probably removed the body and replace it with a custom H0e (European OO9, but H0 scale) body.

I love stone buildings as it is what I am used to

I think the problem with Warley is the fact that a single club was trying to run an exhibition at what has become a very expensive venue. Yes the NEC has good transport links and plenty of parking, but they don't half know how to charge for that parking. This will make people think twice about going and from what I've heard visitor numbers were down. Reading between the lines having "Warley at the NEC" is probably over because of the finicial risk, I've yet to see anything about "Warley at ????" never happening. As for Hatton's I think international trading problems have caused more harm than good for their particular business model (which they may or may not have seen an easy way to change). So it's better to get out now whilst still solvent and not owing suppliers and customers money/goods. It wouldn't supprise me if something didn't rise from the ashes.

Did you ever think of making a rabbit hole layout in a very small space using N

My HO layout is a "micro layout" based on Inglenook Sidings. It's 1 x 6 feet and built on a shelf unit. Were I to build up your new N layout, I'd designate the stub end of the run around track as the connection to the outside world. I'd place an industrial flat on the backdrop at the back siding and a team track on the siding next to it with a dock and gravel area by it for loading or unloading. I very much like your idea for a port dock at the siding by the run around track. Just some thoughts. Cheers from Wisconsin!

Castletown layout looks great. How about a winter alpine, ski resort scene, with the track exciting from a mountain tunnel to a station on the edge of town.

🤠

Hey, just stumbled onto this channel! Good find! I have been wondering about a smaller scale railway but not quite sure where to start.. saw some z-gauge stuff and T gauge? Just wondering if anyone knows the best option meaning the most accessories and availability of scenery etc. N gauge they way? For a smaller scale? Many thanks!

How about a inland riverport such as might be found on the Rhine or Danube.

Could you send some plans for a2by4 or 2by3 or some web pages so I have got a rough idea which to use

European canal wharf?

You keep stating radius when you mean diameter!

There is nothing natural at all! How about at least some street trees or a tiny garden somewhere?

Don’t you answer peoples questions