‘OO’ GAUGE LAYOUT ELBOW LANE
Small details, big ambitions
After half a centur y of club membership, Dave Smith was elbowed into building his first home layout to satisfy his need for noise.
Words: Chris Gadsby
What makes this layout great?
We all know that nobody ever seems to have enough space, but when it’s severely limited it can force you to be creative and clever with your design. Dave has done a great job of using the non-scenic part of ‘Elbow Lane’ to his advantage, so he can maximise the usable scenic space.
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Photography: Chris Nevard
2 Originally, Daveplanned to use manually operated points, but he later decided to use servo motors leading to a new experience for him, learning how to wire them up.
If you’re a member of a model railway club you’ll know how much fun it can be. Not only can you spend time with like-minded people, but you can also help to build some fantastic layouts that pool together the skills of everyone at the club. When a layout is operational, it also provides you with the opportunity to run some of your models if you don’t have a layout at home. This was the situation for a long time for Dave Smith, secretary and treasurer of the Carshalton and Sutton Model Railway Club, of which he had been a member for 50 years before embarking on his first home layout.