Test Track (N, OO, P4, O)

The need for a test track came about when we had to leave our original church hall and take up a temporary residence at a nearby church with a smaller hall. As a result, we had to put our larger layouts into store. In order to have something to run, we built the test track. Originally it was a 22 foot by 12 foot oval carried by 12 baseboards each not exceeding 5 foot by 2 foot. Each end is formed by four boards creating half an octagon.

The boards are made of 6mm plywood with aluminium angle to provide the stiffening on the edges. The whole layout sits on simple trestles. Cork was laid, then the tracks. It provides a circle of O gauge, P4 (18.83), OO gauge, and N gauge. Each circle has a loop for the use by a second train. Each loop is fed by a controller which is not built in. This allows testing of alternative control systems.

The boards are kept in their own covered in, mobile, stack just over 5 feet by 2 feet by 3 feet 6 inches. The layout can be erected/dismantled in less than 15 minutes. More recently the layout was extended by an additional 4 foot board on each side to give longer running for O gauge trains. A single lap of the track is now about 48 feet - some of the smaller scale locos have never run so far!