‘N’ GAUGE LAYOUT FARMERS DROVE
Fen-tastic Voyage
Entering a friendly layout-building competition gave Steve Farmer the impetus to get ‘Farmers Drove’ completed – and choosing an East Anglian location gave him a very level playing field indeed.
Words: Chris Gadsby
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Photography: Chris Nevard
What makes this layout great?
“‘Farmers Drove’ is one of those layouts that you can place instantly from the landscape. This is further reinforced when you look at some of the small details, and Steve has done a great job in keeping everything true to the area.”
It is human nature to be competitive. The desire for each of us to prove that we are better at something than everyone else is ingrained in the back of our brains, whether we’re aware of it or not. The Olympics is a classic example of this, but competition can be brought into almost any scenario. There are writing competitions and concourse competitions, and even ‘who can eat the most nettles?’ competitions. The world of competitive model railway building is somewhat small, and rather than getting fixated on trying to prove that they are the best model railway builder in a group, most people who participate in these competitions do it for fun. Perhaps the most widely known example of competitive building was Channel 5’s The Great Model Railway Challenge, but small competitions have been occurring across the country for much longer than that. One such competition led to Steve Farmer constructing his ‘N’ gauge layout, ‘Farmers Drove’, which he built for a competition between himself and a few friends.