Welcome To N Scale Notes
A website and blog about my N scale modular layouts and the real railways that inspire them, plus quite a bit about 3D printing too.
Keep scrolling to read more about this website, my layouts and models or click the button below to read the N Scale Notes blog.
My Layouts & Modules
Currently, very much work in progress but here’s what I’ve got planned and/or underway…
Layout One (WTE Plant)
Industrial sidings serving two industries, a waste to energy plant and a chemical loading facility, based on a real location in Runcorn, UK.
The track-plan and industrial structures are generic enough for the layout to be located in either the UK, US, mainland Europe or even Japan.
Layout Two (City Rail)
An elevated urban railway running through a dense urban area similar to those found in Berlin or Manchester city centres.
I intend to experiment with modular scenery to allow the layout to be operated as either a UK or mainland European layout.
Other Modules
I enjoy finding real-World locations that would make interesting modules.
The ideal module can be operated on it’s own (the ultimate small-space layout), with other related modules (as a flexible, temporary layout) or in conjunction with one of my larger layouts listed to the left.
Scratch-Building, CAD & 3D Printing
I grew up playing with both model trains and plastic kits; as my skills improved I often wanted to scratch-building extra details to make my models more accurate. 3D printing has opened up a whole new World in this respect, now I can create my own super detail parts or even create my own models from scratch.
Container trains are a massive part of modern rail-freight across the globe but I always felt that there was a lack of variety and accuracy in the container models available from major manufacturers. What’s the point of having super-detailed and painstakingly weathered rolling-stock if you’re just going to plonk a generic container model on it?
So I started to design and build prototypical, super-detailed models of intermodal containers using a combination of 3D printing, etching and scratch-building.
But it didn’t stop there…
So Why Modular Layouts?
If you follow certain rules when designing your track and scenery (known as a modular standard) you can easily link and arrange your modules in a variety of ways and even connect them to modules built by others.
Then I stumbled across the idea of modular scenery and I realised I could use this concept to offer even more flexibility and allow me to operate rolling-stock from any of my areas of interest on the same modules…
Like many people I don’t have the space to build a permanent layout; a modular layout is composed of relatively small and mobile pieces that lend themselves to being temporarily setup when space is available and put-away when you need that space back.