‘N’ GAUGE LAYOUT GAINSFORD JUNCTION

Klaas Jansma has created a mesmerising layout, which employs the timehonoured oval track plan to great effect.

Words: Chris Gadsby

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Photography: Chris Nevard

“ What makes this layout great? There’s so much going on at ‘Gainsford Junction’ that your eyes don’t know where to look. You can literally spend hours just soaking it all in as the trains roll by. ”

Many of us took our first steps in this hobby with a simple oval of track, and maybe a siding or two, on a small baseboard. Such a set-up provides the perfect starting point, as we can watch the trains run around and around as much as we like, then do a little shunting when the fancy takes us.

Eventually, however, the urge may come to move away from the minimum-space oval and perhaps look towards an end-to-end layout. But in doing so, we lose that ability to sit back and watch the trains roll by.

Not everyone has the space for a ‘roundy-roundy’ layout, especially in ‘OO’ gauge or ‘O’, but this is where ‘N’ gauge excels, offering the chance to develop the oval concept into something much more exciting. This is the approach taken by Klaas Jansma with his ‘N’ gauge layout ‘Gainsford Junction’, which incorporates the best elements we recall from our first train sets but boasts way more features. Indeed, Klaas has created an exhibition-quality layout that may never leave home, but it has the power to keep viewers enthralled for long periods nonetheless, as there’s just so much to see.