the construction of County Gate model railway
Friday, June 7th 1935

County Gate was begun in the autumn of 2005. County Gate has attended many exhibitions both in the UK and abroad. County Gate has won many 'best in shows' which we are very proud of.

The model is kept in a converted farm barn which is 38ft X 16ft. The building has a painted concrete floor which could be a bit more level. The walls and ceilings are lined in drywall. The barn is heated and has a de-humidifier. The more detailed modelling work is conducted in my study where comfort is a whole lot better.

The layout was intended to be portable from the outset with exhibiting in mind. We were able to find a large trailer on EBay, so from the outset, everything had to be fit inside it.

We had always wanted to build a railway in a landscape, as for us, the scenery is just as important as the trains. For this reason, we have chosen the scale of 009 (4mm/ft scale on 9mm track). This had the advantage of small trains and scale. If we had been really accurate, we would have chosen a gauge of 8mm but this would have made it a much longer project as we could not have used any proprietary equipment.

009 scale has not always enjoyed the best reputation for reliability and this has been a constant bugbear for us, forcing us into new technology to keep trains running reliably. As the trains are so small, wear has also been a problem to overcome, as on exhibition, huge distances are run.

The move to complete automation has been as satisfying as building the model and has actually taken more time.

The build has been a most rewarding adventure and we hope that you may enjoy sharing it with us. We have compiled an extensive 'how to' section which may be of help to some of you.