I am at a loss for words here. This is one of the most impressive layouts I have ever seen. Amazing what can be done in T Gauge. Keep up the good work!
Oddly enough, the turntable is actually easier to do in linear motor T than in the larger more conventional scales, since the mechanism is simpler and much less alignment accuracy is needed. Ditto for automation in general. The difficult parts were getting normal railway features such as turnouts and shunting working properly.
It's great to see this looking complete, and I love the choice of era - nice to see those old GWR locos and stock. Very impressive construction and operations, especially for this scale!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful work of art which like a clockwork runs so precise as video. I didn't even know about a T-scale 1:480 size which is so impressive when representing the station wide area. Best Albrecht
Oh yes. And then making the video draws a line under the project and says "finished". After that, the next bit is deciding what to build for the next project :)
Glad you like it. Compliments from real railwaymen are worth bonus points! The sequences and shunting were deliberately kept simple for exhibition audiences, and I tried to strike a a balance between authenticity and not boring the audience. I have experimented with making working semaphores in this scale, but doing that in quantity and making them reliable... nope. Colour light signals are perfectly doable, but obviously wrong for the period. I suppose I could have just put black Xs on each arm!
O.O...it actually RUNS!?!...I just couldn't, HO seems too small anymore which is why I went to ON30..my extreme congratualtions to you and this fine modelling!!!
This is very well made and inspirational! I feel this would be useful in museums. I imagine it would require very little maintenance due to the lack of moving parts while also allowing preservation of a large area and taking up very little space in the museums space.
The simpler layouts can generally look after themselves, but with complex shunting moves trains can sometimes slip out of place and need to be watched. The oldest has had 2 weeks of continuous running with no signs of wear, but I don't know how they would hold up to 52 weeks per year.
Still Very convincing despite the macro size, the linear drive works super, speeds are not overly exaggerated like the commercial available T scale trains with motors in them. And the 2D printed track is much better in appearance in this small scale than the actual T scale track does. Does every vehicle have a magnet?
Thank you. While the system does have its quirks, you can see why I abandoned conventional T. The speeds are intentionally still a little high since this is designed for exhibitions, and I don't want to bore the audience while trains crawl across the viaduct and through the station! And yes, every vehicle has multiple magnets, generally 4 or 8 for rail, 3 or 4 for road.
This actually messed with me at first oh my god. This is amazing, well done! The linear motor stuff is amazing, i’m struggling to figure out how you even get most of this to work, like how do things uncouple or switch lines, how do wagons even stay on the rails??? Also, I think you’ve somehow fixed both the issue of space and the issue of cost in model railways.
Thank you. There is more info on my website, but I chose this route to get around the severe limitations of conventional T. And yes, while it has its own limitiations and isn't viable commercially, it does solve most of the usual problems and allow some very nice tricks. I am certainly not looking back!
It is very much a case of making a virtue of necessity. There is nothing commercially available, but the tiny size means that designing and 3D printing is **much** easier than in the larger scales. As a bonus, it gives me complete freedom about era, scale and prototype. And yes, G&S seemed very appropriate for music - in small doses anyway, since it is a bit of an acquired taste!
Like everyone , I suspect, I am awed by this layout. One question, are your locos and rolling stock coupled to each other, or are they all driven at the same speed by the linear drive beneath when a train is formed up?
They are uncoupled but move in formation, the same way as the road vehicles all move at the same speed. That means I can couple and uncouple by simply stopping the train over a section break and turning off power to one section.
I model in N gauge and that's small enough for me. But my main gripe is the lack of EVERYTHING when compared to HO/OO gauge. HO/OO is king even though N scale is a close second. With T gauge you would be forced to make everything yourself, there's simply nothing out there available for T gauge?
Not quite that bad. There is a small range of T products, but very limited, and of limited use to me since the drive system is so different. Also, architectural models and model ship builders often work in 1:400 or 1:500, so I can get brass etched fences, railings, people, etc. In practice, however, I do end up making nearly everything else myself. The tiny size means that I can get away with very simple, almost crude, models, and since I have to do the work anyway I have complete freedom in what I model - any era, any prototype. Like most things, there are both pros and cons.
I would like to know more about how the tracks are made. Do you find them in stores or do you make everything yourself? Is there a place where we could see close-ups of the track in service, and the points..?
I have to make everything myself. There is more info on my website (see this video's description), including under-board pics, plus videos here of earlier projects and test tracks. The "Malmsbury - Building the Layout" video probably has the most technically interesting pic of the points, even though it doesn't actually have any!
Truly amazing. You have come such a long way since Sarum, which was an outstanding layout. Is the rolling stock to your own designs, or are they from "Everything T Gauge"? OT's are great, the massive finger can do such gentle things, eh?
Thanks! Sarum was a learning experience in so many ways, but really was a dead end for me. While the linear motor approach certainly causes its own trials and tribulations, it does solve all of usual problems with T. And yes, all the trains and structures are my own designs. Those models are very low-resolution (as you can see in the closeups), which makes it quite easy to design them from scratch.
Is it actually running on rails, or just printed pictures of track? I'm not knocking the modelling, just trying to understand the limitations of this tiny scale.
The track surface is paper; the actual track underneath is a circuit board that the paper is glued to. Correct rail height in this scale would be about 0.3mm, so it would be barely noticeable anyway.
So what does it look like over 100 years later after decades of advancements and improvements? For some reason I am imagining a rocket base, something with the look of Star Fleet Academy, but I know England does not do space. So maybe now it is a huge modern station like Frankfurt or Amsterdam? I would love to see it now after so many years of investments, does it skilfully combine the old with the modern, or did they remove this old masterpiece to build a huge concrete monstrosity in the sixties? At least you Europeans know the value of the old and railways and invest in them, here it would have been demolished many years ago to build a freeway and a carpark.
It has changed very little in 111 years. The viaduct, goods shed and loco depot are long gone, and a few buildings along the main street have been replaced by newer ones, but that is about it. I was able to do most of the work from modern pictures. Well, I did have to edit out the heliport, so does that count?
