After more than a decade of development from a plain test track to a 47 feet long terminus to fiddle yard arrangement our old O gauge layout Gorbriton Hill was showing its age.
In that time it had been rewired four times, its points had been converted from hand operation to servo control, a centralised control panel been installed, Dingham couplings standardised on and DCC control had been implemented.
The fiddle yard had taken a couple of different forms: a traverser arrangement which was very clumsy, and cassettes which proved completely unwieldy when used with O gauge locos and stock.
Experience gained at a couple of exhibitions had highlighted various operational limitations as a result of the track plan and the inconvenience of the wide separation of the operators.
It was decided to replace the layout and a plan was drawn up (full size!) for a new one, which would be a continuous run (approx 30ft x 15ft). The scenic section of the layout would represent a station on a heritage railway
(allowing us to run member's locos and stock of all provenance) with a junction with the national system.
Construction is well underway
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