Alexander Seal

Layout Design

Don't forget:

Controllers and sockets

Hinged panel like Freshwater to protect wiring and increase space?

Brassknocker Basin was designed specifically as an entry to the 2mm Scale Association's Diamond Jubilee Layout Challenge. The rules were simple, and as track to 2mm finescale standards was a given already, the only criteria of interest was:

The scenic area of the layout must fit within the footprint of a rectangle 60cm x 9.42 inches (600mm x 240mm). There are no restrictions in the size of the non-scenic area. The layout must contain at least one working turnout within the scenic area.

I've always been fascinated by David Mallott's 'Chapel Wharf' which was small enough to fit into its purpose made suitcase to be carried as hand luggage on planes, trains etc. Initially I tried to come up with something along similar lines, but I was always disappointed by the lack of a proscenium arch, curved backscene etc. Eventually I realised that with the desire to exhibit the layout and fit in around my shift working career it would be inevitable that I'd always be carrying the layout in the car. After a brief flirtation with an Iain Rice style 'Vicarage Study' concept I crawled around the back of my car with the boot closed and established that by folding the back seats down I could have one baseboard 3'6" long that would have scenic and staging areas on one board with no joins oto worry about and the arch, lighting and backscene all built in as one unit along the lines of Iain Rice's more recent 'cameos'.

Baseboard 1000mm x 360mm with 340mm train table fiddle yard

Baseboard depth considerations:

Arun Quay, Chapel Wharf

Presentation

Track Height of 1400mm (roughly 4'3"). Jerry Clifford's Highbury Colliery