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

County Gate was begun in the autumn of 2005. We now take the layout to quite a few exhibitions and by and large, it has been very successful.

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. Mostly, we find we can now run with no problems but every now and then the whole system seems to take umbrage with me! While software remains stable, some of the system is electro-mechanical which is subject to changing climatic conditions at times and also appears to be sensitive to 3G transmissions if made too close to the layout.

A layout is never actually finished and we continue to try to improve modelling standards and running qualities. We also have some very exciting new rolling stock planned.

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

The website has now been redesigned. It was initially intended to be a simple affair but somehow grew! With over 1000 hits each day, it was time to make it better.

happy modelling

John and Jenny