Wood Bros
[I had shown links to the Gnatterbox, the Gn15 Forum, where many of these builds were detailed, but the Forum is no longer available and the links don't work.]
Wood Bros was my first Gn15 layout, and an interesting exercise in getting to know this scale's possibilities. The baseboard was an old drawing board, with the landscape built up with grey foam blocks used for flower arranging - it's easy to carve to get the shapes required. The track plan was a simple U, with the choice of a plug-in two-track sector plate in the back left corner, or a plug-in semicircle to make a complete loop for continuous running. There was then a big amendment to the scene to accomodate the loop, which produced a more interesting configuration to the left side.
The building on the right was foamboard covered with downloaded, rescaled and printed brick paper, while the corrugated sheets on the left-hand building were from corrugated craft card, painted to match the backscene. Ground cover in the centre was sived road dirt from the main road outside my house. The final form is a little different from what I originally planned, but I hope is an improvement. The operation is mainly a short train of skips coming into view back left, swinging round the curve at the right side onto the tipping dock, where the auto-tipper deposits the loads into the waiting truck below (in fact, the gravel slides down through a tube and into a collecting box under the layout). With the additional semi-circle of track in place trains can also appear from the building front left and make the circuit to exit rear left, or run the other way.
The back-scene is a down-loaded photo and has come to give the layout its name - Wood Brothers. It was originally going to be Sea-Shore Shingle Shippers, but GnATTERbox members started calling it by the sign at the rear, so I went with the flow.
This was a time of trying new things - making Gn15 critters, figures, and buildings, seeing what techniques worked (and which didn't), all in a 3ft x 2 ft footprint.
The baseboard during construction, showing the foam blocks ready for carving to shape, and the hardboard trackbed.
The first stage; scenery complete, but operating potential limited.
Time for a rethink.
The two-road sector plate. Very simple and easy to use, but an end plate yet to be added.
Stage two underway; the left side has been built up, with extra factory buildings to add interest, and enable the plug-in semi-circle of track to make the complete loop.
The continuous running this allowed at exhibitions was very useful, when chatting about the layout or taking a comfort break.
The left side of the finished layout, showing the plug-in semi-circle Looking down the rear track - a view not possible at exhibitions.
through the factory door.
There are two albums of photos of the construction of Wood Bros; the first stage at www.flickr.com/photos/149926300@N07/albums/72157687350790941/with/37806698916/ and the second stage at www.flickr.com/photos/149926300@N07/37382784584/in/album-72157686450412672/
I was invited to take Wood Bros to MOMING'13 at Pewsey, so had to tidy things up in a hurry. I made a proscenium arch frontage and photo displays to dress the front up a bit, as well as a base to raise the whole thing so that the track was 48" above floor level. I described the various changes and additions on the GnATTERbox - http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?t=8675
I had a great time in some distinguished company and the layout seemed to go down well.
Wood Bros was sold to Barry Weston on 27th September 2015. Barry intends to exhibit the layout from time-to-time, so it hasn't disappeared for ever!
Page created 20 December 2020 Last edited 3 March 2023