crazyTgauge

Having laid the track in the t-gauge layout, we now need to start placing buildings on the industrial side. Because of the limited footprint available for our buildings, we need tall skinny buildings rather than low flat constructions. We also test a crane (though the prototype shown is vastly overscaled for t-gauge)! Once rough placed around the layout (and it is always important to do such a 'dry-run'), the buildings are fixed on place using multi-purpose glue and Isopon (car body filler). As ever, these are prototype buildings. We've since refined the CG models and done 3D reprints. The boat house shown here is a case in point - much too low and narrow to work as a proper boat construction house! For this first layout, the test prints work fine. We'll bed them in and then paint them up with various rusts, washes and highlights. Next, we start biting the bullet on the agricultural side of the layout. How will we get trees, hedges and fields done? https://youtu.be/1nN1

This time, we test run a Hankyu t-gauge motor unit on the roughed out layout. We also fix some problems with bridges and tunnels. T-gauge tunnels need ready access from above, to reach derailed or stopped trains and (most importantly) to clean the track. With an impossibly small scale of 1:450, even small flecks of dust can stop your train dead! A couple of problems were identified with my layout's 3D printed bridges. The rail arches of the larger bridge, loosely based on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, turned out to be too low for the trains to pass through. The miscalculation was based on the fact that I'd forgotten that the raised eichindo trackbed is around 1.5 mm tall! This comedy error was quickly rectified and the 3D bridge model was fixed for future printing. The layout's smaller 3D printed bridges posed a slightly different problem - once assembled, they were just too narrow to admit the eichindo trackbed. Again, a simple problem, easily fixed in the 3D model. As ma

Christmas is always a dangerous time! Last Christmas, I became fixated on a relatively new model railway gauge, called 't-gauge', the smallest working model railway gauge in the world! The track rails are only 3mm across and the scale is around 1:450, but the trains have real wheels, tiny electric motors and microscopic couplings! The trains, tracks and many accessories are produced by Eichindo in Japan. The attraction is that you could build a model railway layout in a very tiny space - let's face it, no-one has enough space for anything more in their house! A tiny, fully functioning model layout? The penny-pincher in me also thought a smaller layout would mean less materials used? A smaller layout would mean a quicker build? I'd also be able to test my 3D printing abilities, printing bridges and buildings for my layout? t-gauge.com in Edinburgh are the global distributors for these trains and their excellent website is a feast of locomotives, rolling stock, tracks, se