Layout Tour 2021 

That area in front of the houses would really lend itself to a market scene. Not like those plastic looking ones you see on European layouts, but something more like you'd see on Only Fools and Horses. Dodgy geezers selling out of the back of transits, and chippie vans maybe. I think you would be the person that could really capture an urban London market scene! Super video as always!

Still think this is one of the best layouts I’ve ever seen , so much attention to detail , the stock looks so realistic weathered to perfection

That scrapyard and canal are brilliant. Good to see how you've organized the whole layout.

I love your ethos. "Scenery that happens to have a railway in it". Exactly the approach I took with mine.....

Excellent !! Never really thought about it until now but your layout is my favourite on RU-vid because it's designed for "watching". The fact that your layout allows us to watch trains traveling through the rural countryside into an urban area to the built-up city, with such attention to detail gives the viewer so much more to digest. The graffiti and litter just adds to the realistic scene of the period you have created. What you have done with the trains in terms of weathering/aging then adding passengers and lighting, the roads with moving vehicles, just brings this to life - I can't wait to see what this looks like when you have the lighting complete with street lamps, house lights, platform lighting/covers, etc. Keep at it, it's an incredible piece of work, a masterpiece in the making, and like I said my favourite on RU-vid. Thanks for sharing 😉

It's a testament to your talents that I had no idea how small the room is. Also some of the best weathering on any youtube layout.

As I've said in previous comments on your postings your attention to detail is second to none. Viewers, if you are new to this channel have a look at how the station and its car park are developing. You obviously like the model making part of the hobby and prove there's nothing wrong with just watching the trains go by. Very well done.

Thank you so much for this complete layout tour, Richard! It really helps to tie together your videos from the last several months since I subscribed, plus the older videos of yours I recently binge-watched. You are an excellent model railroader and I'm sure your videos bring pleasure, knowledge, and inspiration to many others. Cheers from Wisconsin!

What about a police station and compound for that area at the front. Could perhaps be a flat roofed prefab type building keeping the roof line low for you And also lots of opportunities for 80s era police vehicles and perhaps some stolen recovered vehicles as well. The SD1 police car you have parked in that area gave me the idea. Anyway all the best and love watching your videos.

Thank you, Richard. It has been a desire to see it in an all-encompassing overview. Your attention to detail and dedication to making what you will enjoy moving forward shows in each aspect and corner. Brilliant stuff. Cheers.

Interesting, nice to see it all in context. Love to see a pub and pub garden in front of the houses that would be a good fit.

If you just happened to glance at this layout in passing you would think that you were looking at a real life scene - the trains are so realistic.

You station has a symaler layout to Cardiff with the branch line. The empty space in front of it is a small platform and staircase down to the lobby, as with your layout it is elevated above street level. Love your layout and you've got exactly the right attitude. Keeping things simple and having fun. Thanks for sharing your journey with us 😊👍

I came here through Hornby A Model World. Thanks for putting all your stuff on a channel. I'm not lying when I say that this is more interesting than most stuff on TV. I have a model village in my basement which is inspired by places I've been.

First time on your site and it's just brilliant. I had a oo layout as a lad and built a oo for one son and an N gauge for my other son, both of whom loved and played with them for hours on end. Then time passed and after constant pestering, an N gauge for one of my step sons, which I seemed to appreciate more, than he did, the ungrateful little sod! I will work my way through the rest of your vids..

Thanks for a great overview. It makes a lot more sense now. Your layout scenery brings back memories from when I lived in the U.K in the 1970s! Thanks again from New Zealand.

Richard, It was great to meet you at the great Electric Show at Milton Keynes on Saturday 2nd October. Marvellous! John.

hi i must say after viewing many of your videos, , i find that you are a very tallented chap indeed, when i build my aircraft i try to give them as much detail as possible, , watching how you detail your railway is so refreshing to see , keep up the great work

What amazes me is, not the size of the lay although it is big, no, what amazes me is how you find the time to do this to the level of detail and still find time to work and make videos. I speak for everyone here to say, thank you for sharing your passion with us...

Very good, thank you. I think this layout sets itself apart by running realistic speeds and not stopping and starting trains in a few yards. And, so far anyway, no unsynchronised steam sounds or spaghetti catenary. Very refreshing

Wonderful, finally a total overview of the layout. We've more or less had the same question here as well since we have followed the entire progress, but we have trusted that it should come about one day, and it has. Thank you, and what an astute effort.

Nice layout and I enjoyed the tour. Relaxing to watch the trains go round too

Great to get an idea of the room. I find it really interesting how modellers deal with constraints, especially UK loft layouts. Thanks for the look. Kev.

Just an idea about that open space across from the apartment buildings. Maybe a park with slides and swings for kids to play on at one end. In the middle a nice pond with gold fish, some small trees for shade and some benches for old geezers like myself to sit and ponder those decades that have passed too quickly. At the other end a dog park where the residences of the apartments can let their pets get some exercise. Then maybe a nice small sidewalk or path wandering through the park. Thanks for the tour, wish I had your talent.

Love the Victorian houses, and the cars running along the road are really good. Moving cars etc really adds to a layout, brings more 'life' to it, rather than just the trains moving!

@Everard Junction Great update enjoyed watching this, I went for the simple track plan for the same reason and it paid dividends on "Little Parsons Heath" a not to scale version of an area North of Colchester circa 1979 where the hobby started for me, it's great just watching the trains and as you say not having the worry of derailments... I must say that your scenic work has inspired mine as for a first time in scenery I can actually blow my own trumpet :) Looking forward to more videos over the Winter very impressive Richard.

Absolutely love it. The scrapyard is by far my favourite. The detail. I feel like I'm there.

Here's an idea for the spot across the street from the terrace apartments. How about a small restaurant with an outdoor eating area behind it? Maybe some pergola style thing with an awnings over tables or tables with umbrellas over them? It would give an opportunity for more greenery in pots or planters and you could have lights in the pergola like the fancy places do. Maybe you could make it with fiber optics and disguise the bundle of fibers as a vine like a wisteria?

You are so bloody clever Richard, well done!!!

The layout is turning really well, although I would have added a parcels & Royal Mail small terminal beside the station to add a little bit of operational fun. A suggestion though about the Magnorail would be to add a cab, a police car and perhaps an ambulance mixed in the traffic. It also allows to plan for a cab terminal near the station and a cab company small garage in the suburb (beside the commercial building along the canal, perhaps ?). But what impresses me the most is how the railway looks integrated in the landscape instead of landscape haphazardly tossed around the tracks, as you so well explained. I wait impatiently for the station area construction as I may take inspiration from it for my future 1970's -1980's N scale layout, after I made my small N portable layout first to learn as much as I can since it will be my first attempt in this scale.

Watching in March 2023. You've made so much great progress since :)

Just love your layout. It is a perfect example of if you are going to build a layout then have a look at yours. So many great scenes and ideas. Love your moving cars. I will have a look for that video later.

A full bust market opposite the Victorian houses would be amazing, I had one on mine and it was incredible to add life to the scene. 🥰. Absolutely love your channel so much, takes me into another world 🌎

The beauty of this layout is its (relative) simplicity, properly inspirational especially to those, like me, prone to overelaborate plans!

The vacant area in front of the road and the the houses would be perfect for an underground station entrance. The. You could build yourself a short underground line in the facing boards of your table, or just underneath it. It would be a great project to make a couple of stations and then all the tiles and the tunnel sections. A great use of the space too. Loving your work my friend.

Once again been away from the hooby due to work and moving home but I will be returning soon. As always been following your progress as your builds and videos have so much detal and insperation, thanks Richard. The layout is becomming a real place and somewhere I would be happy to live lol. In reflection I can see at times resemblance to your former layout, but also other times mind plays tricks and I am unsure if memory of old layout or maybe a real place I have seen in the past or maybe its some place new I have never been. Great build Sir. You named the layout in honour of your Dad, aa a father myself may I say all the work .detail and determination you put into the layout Im sure he would have been so proud of you.. Take care buddy Quarry Central will return soon.

I have really enjoyed watching the progress of your layout over the last year or so. I think the scrapyard is genius! The magnorail scene looks great. I have taken inspiration from your level of detail. Such a simple layout, but you've got a shed load of detail going on. I'm looking forward to seeing your station take shape. Thank you for sharing.

On that free triangle You can build public park with streetlights and some fast food restaurant to not obscure tunnel view.. 😉 Great layout review. Nice to see all layout together in one video.

It’s great how you used the space you have. Beautiful job.

This is definitely a better layout than the first one you made and it’s good to see this one coming along.

bloody hell, a Rumbelows store, thats a blast from the past!!!

Thanks Richard, as ever a very inspiring video, I love your comment about Scenery with a railway running through it, which is exactly the way I am headed :)

Loved the tour, great to see the scale of the layout. Also great to see things like the lighting which although simple make a big difference to the overall success of it all. It would be great if more RU-vid layouts followed your lead.

Out of this world detailing! Aesthetically mind blowing! Is it open to the public? Everard junction forever!

Great video Richard. Thanks for sharing. 👍

less is more. it’s coming along very well - the level of detail really brings the layout to life and is a great tribute to 5he era. Awesome.

Merci beaucoup pour toutes vos explications sur le fonctionnement de votre réseau ! Super Richard ! 🤩

This is inspiring. I have a 3year old boy and he LOVES trains. So I will learn about trains and build my own junction 🙂

Thank you for the layout tour Richard , fantastic to see one of my favourite loft layouts. 👍

The area discussed at 14:30 would hold a nice little market with stalls, burger van, ice cream van, etc. Loads of scope for detail - and all low-level, so it wouldn’t obscure the view.

Congratulations on getting your new layout up to this amazing level. Nick Australia

Great to see the whole layout - um - laid out. Fascinating to see the scenes all blending together, and great to see how you have integrated your fiddle-yard and support spaces. 14:24 Maybe a construction site with new housing going up could be a good compromise between urban setting and keeping the views open?just a thought. More hoardings, scaffolding, piles of materials, builders vans, site hut/portacabin, porta-loos, etc. If not the whole sit, then just a few infill spaces between the remaining buildings? Someone else mentioned the possibility of an Underground station. If Cheeky can manage it in his tiny space… maybe something for the 2030s?

Hi There from New Zealand, while I'm not a Brit railway modeller, I enjoy the work you do on your channel and thanks for the layout tour, it put all the bits and pieces together as a package. Keep up the great work.

Great layout, I have followed your 'hobby' work for a while now and are always impressed by your attention to detail. The open space in the town area around 27 minutes - you could make a petrol station as that would not be too tall and could allow you to still see the cars on the road moving around the town.

Thanks Richard, great video and one I think most of us have wondered about. Lots of room for more scenes and scenic modelling which I look forward to in the future….regards, Chris

You've certainly made full use of the available space. I can't imagine how you got all that lumber up the ladder? 😄

Thanks Richard. A great tour and an excellent railway, no doubt.

Your dedication in building this is phenomenal.

Good to see someone other than myself uses a lenz system. Having a look online one Sunday seeing what systems were available and reading through all the magazines on readly seeing that everyone was using either an NCE power cab or a Gaugemaster prodigy but those units just have too many buttons. I'd be spending all my time looking at the controller rather than the trains. I bought the updated version of your system earlier this year and have been as pleased as punch with it.

Fabulous that something I always wanted to see. Very interesting lovely stuff

Love the seedy, down-at-heel 80s vibe!

Thanks for that. A really inciteful tour of your layout room. I like you, prefer to watch trains running by and listening to the sound as they go over the tracks. The branch line operation is attractive to me and in truth, it's just how they operate. Regards Stephen.

Doing a full 360 makes it look so much bigger than I thought it was, looks brilliant.Thanks

It’s an amazing layout. I have binge watched all your videos of this new layout build. Picked up some great ideas for my own layout. Excited to see what additional detailing you do.

Brilliant video as always. Don’t be so hard on yourself with the super-elevation, it’s by far the best I’ve seen. Cheers

Have been waiting for this video for a while, it’s great to see the whole layout and how the areas all work together as well as the less developed areas and imagining how you’ll tackle them. It looks pretty special so far. The area in front of the houses just make me think of a petrol station. Plenty of london boroughs with those type houses opposite a petrol station. Whatever you decide to do though, you’ll absolutely crush it Richard. It really is a pleasure watching your journey

Nice looking layout Graham. It’s coming along fine. Take care and stay safe, regards Gary, Western Australia 😊

Amazing layout, looks so simple but the level of detail is superb, love the scrap yard…..

Been subscribed for years now, and You have my admiration, definitely. Layout is superb even if so simple. Patience for details is spectacular. And the tons of "how to" we can learn from your videos is priceless.

Some great inspiration here, I'm just about to move my layout from a 9ft x 9ft spare room into a 10m x 6m hayloft the conversion of which will be complete early in the new year. My dilemma at the moment is I want it to be big enough to run full length trains but not so big that I can't operate it on my own but unlike you I do want to be able to do some shunting as well as watching the trains go by if the mood takes me.

I have a an O gauge layout in my loft - your tips will really help me - Brilliant - thank you

Great work Richard! Nice too see the layout in it's entirety . Cheers from down under

Your layout is superb. It reminds me of traveling into London every day from Kent into Cannon St on network south east in the 1980s. Country side soon blends into urban and mile upon mile of brick viaducts. Nothing like this in Texas and pretty much all the trains here are massive freights. Thank you.

A great video. Puts everything in place. If only I had an older house. Mine has typical 70’s forest of timber work so no use whatsoever. Definitely need to keep that view of the viaduct and houses . One of the best settings I have seen. So realistic.

Great overview Richard! Making me all the more excited for future progress. I reckon that sharp(ish) corner opposite Rumbelows/Everard Market might make a good spot for a pub!

Thanks for this, nice to see the layout, wonderful work, really looks great. One thing I haven't seen is shoes and the odd boot in the cess, used to see them all over for some reason.

It would be neat to put a star projector in that room for "night time" running. I bet it'd work great on that white ceiling.

Well done, Richard. Been following for years, since Mark 1 in fact. It really is one hell of a thing. You should be very proud.

Such an excellent layout, so much I could say but I’m really taken by the opening, according to my calculations the HST right at the start was passing at a scale 110 mph. Also I like the way you’ve got the carriages to lean which can happen filming trains going fast. Thanks for the tour and all the best 👍🏼

Great tour. Really coming together well now. Dunno how you find time to do all this, work your job, and restore your fabulous Granada. Great stuff! 👍

Hi Richard thanks for sharing tour of your layout. When you view it up close it gives the feel of a longer layout but watching it today at a more distant it looks smaller but still looks great. Please take care and stay safe..

It's just silly bits of detail like the culvert that make this the best model railway on RU-vid. Well done chap

Hi Richard, thanks for the video. I wish I'd had someone to advise me several years ago about keeping things simple!!! I listened to my son and he persuaded me to build a helix - aargh!! The helix works well but the upper deck to where it leads is nowhere near finished. Like you I like to watch the trains go by so instead of getting on with the construction I'm often tempted just to run trains on the lower circuit so that further delays progress!!!

It's nice to get a perspective of where everything is on the layout, I didn't realise how low it is and how small the area is too , you do have a vast space that most people would love to have but from your video's I had the illusion it was much bigger lol. A very interesting video Richard some key elements I might apply to my layout.

This is a most inspirational video. My own house has a loft which is very similar except that as it's a mid terrace, there is a bit more room to play with. Unfortunately my loft is absolutely full of my main obsession to the extent that it is quite difficult to move around inside. My proposed solution is to make a much slimmer layout and mount it on brackets attached to the horizontal beams which in your loft, mainly have your electrical wiring attached to. However both house gable ends (if that is the correct description ?) Can have a much deeper width of board, enough to contain the fiddle yard on one side and a detailed layout on the other. Rather depressingly it has been more than 15 years since I designed and built the base boards (from repurposed laminate flooring) and wooden angled brackets but failed to install them properly and lay down some tracks. The reasons for my failure to implement my design to a fuller extent are numerous and difficult to avoid but basically I have too many other items filling up the whole of the house and every time I attempt to progress further I am sidetracked by other priorities. I think that I should ditch the base boards and replace with lighter materials and make sure that I finish the 'white boarding' of the roof area so I don't have to do it with the layout in place. Oh well thanks for the extra inspiration and motivation to progress !

My young nephew (who lives with us) has built a huge layout in our loft,a couple of years back he commented that he would need to remove a part of it to make a fiddle yard,after explaining to me what it was I suggested using the gap beside the stairs into the attic,he said that he could only get three tracks across that gap so it wouldn't be worthwhile. I devised an elevator basically,what he ended up with is what looks like a 4'x4' 9 shelved book case with an open end,mounted at the end of the layout in its own framework. I made a simple lowering and raising mechanism from a hand wheel and some wire rope and small pulleys from the yacht chandler's, with simple bolt latches for each level,he then fixed 3 strips of track into each level to align with 3 tracks that come from the main track layout as it raised and lowered. Since I built and fitted it he has further covered the front with 'high rise' flats and connected the tracks up to their various points etc. It works very well and gives him about 110' of track for storage over the 9 levels which has led to his drive to buy more wagons and engines to fill it up.

Really informative and entertaining video - it's great to see how the whole thing is fitted together as it's often not obvious from just looking at the tracks. Thank you.

Hi Richard, really enjoyed the tour of your layout, it certainly gives one a real appreciation of the size of your layout and how it operates. I can just see you relaxing with a coffee or maybe something stronger watching the trains run around your wonderful layout.....enjoy Cheers Greg

Hi Richard, alway good to step back and share the achievements to date. Layout is looking fantastic, thanks for touching on the control system as well. For me, the stability in running, and while you pointed out issues with the superelevation, overall it’s very smooth. Absolutely, another row of terrace houses (different roof line) including backyards, and near the canal a derelict pumping station (part of) to pull in the red brick into the scene. Looking forward to you breaking through the 100,000 subscribers !!!! Thanks again, have fun

looks great Richard, your eye for realism is definitely paying off the trees in particular look the part and the overall look is just exquisite. the big challenge now is to make a station which meets the standard of the rest of the layout. I am sure with your eye for detail this will be the centre piece to the layout one complete. stay safe and thank you for sharing your hobby with us all.

That vacant spot in the town I think should be a big old building that makes you look over it or down the streets. Towns and cities don’t have wide open spaces perfect for viewing they are long, narrow and towering concrete jungles were you catch glimpses of the railway. Plus up could make it removable for photos and filming

Thanks for showing the whole room. I’ve often wondered how you laid it all out. Always enjoys your videos Richard. Your opening video and music segment gets better and better.

Nice vid, I'm moving from N Gauge to oo and space is at a premium . I have been struggling to work out a layout , but after seeing your video and the reasons why you have gone for a more simplistic track system has given me a way forward. thankyou

Where you are putting another building next to the Farce Insurance one (lolz) it would be cool to make it so you can see from the inside of the building out through the windows onto the layout by looking through what i assume you will have as an open side as if youve literally cut it down the middle. Cant wait to see

Great to see your setup in its entirety, and also looking forward to seeing "Watford Junction" take shape in the coming months :-)

Wow this is so cool and relaxing to see great work this has been my favorite train scene ever.

Excellent. Always room for more ideas. I think the space at the front of the town, would be perfect for an open-air market. That way the road isn't obscured by any buildings.

Definitely needs a pub in that space by the bridge with a beer garden!

Tysm everard junction..thoroughly enjoyed this video..fantastic setup and hardwork...many thanks...looking fwd to the new scenery overtime at the station and platforms area in good time.. Keep up your hardwork.

Beautiful work! Your vision and craftsmanship have really captured the feeling of a railway moving through the outer urban to surburban areas. While the prototype and architecture are different to what I know, you have captured/recreated the essence/feeling that takes me back to the hundreds of hours I spent traveling around Sydney Australia by train in the late 80's to late 90's. Can I make a couple of suggestions that might help "set the stage" to make the layout even more encapsulating? Drawing off museum/art gallery/semantics based concepts, for our initial response, the environment we present an object in changes our perception of the object. The object in this case being the layout. I think if you gave the exposed timbers in the loft a quick once over with a sander and painted them semigloss (?) white, it would make the room and hence the layout feel more finished and of higher quality. While I was at it I would give the brick wall another coat or two and move the wiring out of sight or make a removable cover for it. When you extend your backboards up I would consider rolling them into the angled ceilings and taking the sky up further above the top of the baseboard. The idea being to both increase and define the volume of what is model railway/ what is visually unimportant, at the same time drawing in the viewers focus. I imagine taller "sky" might make framing RU-vid long shots easier too. It also increases the percieved "size" of the layout with minimal cost with no need to build, detail or maintain extra scenery. It might not be practical for your layout but personally I love layouts with both top and bottom valances as they really focus your attention on the layout and give it a more encapsulated/defined feel. Like the curtains around a theatre stage or a frame on a picture. Framing an object subconsciously tells us we need to focus on the object and once focused on the object we can mostly ignore what is around it as that is just the space to house the object, so is unimportant. The other thing that I have yet to try but intend doing is a rough scenicing of the hidden sidings. Just ballasting the track, a dirty brick retaining wall along the back and some detritus, ground signals, relay boxes etc to give it a generic railway yard feel. This would make the hidden sidings feel like a connected but maybe less important part of the railway system. The other option, probably best done before laying track would be to paint the hidden siding area either Matt Black like backstage at a theatre, or a semigloss white. Either show that the area is both "finished" and that it should be considered as an "offstage area" needed to make the magic happen elsewhere. Just some thoughts.