crazyTgauge

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, sets and accessories. I resisted temptation for weeks over Christmas before finally purchasing a Hankyu set - a Japanese commuter train, with track, control box etc - a real starter kit.



When the Hankyu starter set arrived from Scotland, I suddenly needed to build my simple oval layout! A few days work, I imagined. Slowly, I discovered that even the tiniest model layouts still demand a big effort and a sizeable investment in time!



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Finally, a finished crazyTgauge layout - June 2022

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