‘N’ GAUGE LAYOUT DAWLISH WARREN
The coast with the most
‘N’ gauge gave Chris Morris the space and freedom to go to town with the landscape, and run scale-length trains to boot.
Words: Chris Gadsby
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Photography: Chris Nevard
What makes this layout great?
"This is a great example of the benefits of ‘N’ gauge, with the railway blending into the scenery. You don’t need endless metres of track for a superb layout, and when the scenery is the focal point rather than the railway, it makes the scene that much more believable."
We are forever endorsing the advantages of ‘N’ gauge in model railways, primarily around the ability to fit much more into a scene than ‘OO’ gauge allows. This is often thought of in a horizontal sense, fitting more of the surrounding landscape into an area, but in the case of Chris Morris’ ‘Dawlish Warren’ there’s a significant vertical advantage to ‘N’ gauge. The stunning sandstone cliffs of the Devon coastline shoot out at you, the receding coastline has been constructed exquisitely and the model of The Mount Pleasant Inn has been built in such a way that it’s recognisable in an instant. All of that before you even start to look at the trains, which could well be different every time you visit. Another advantage of ‘N’ gauge is that scale‐length trains are able to run on this layout, despite its fairly modest size.