Did anyone order.... Pizza?!

Over the Christmas and New Year break I had set up my 009 layout 'The Old Quarry Line' on the workbench as something to sneak away and run a train on if time allowed. Which it did, and would often lead to a request from the smaller members of the household to see a "choo choo" running.

Imagine my surprise when the requests continued after the layout went away, so I hatched a cunning plan and rang the local take-away....


...who couldn't help so I retrieved a pre-prepared base from the workshop and added Peco 009 'crazy track' as a topping...

In what is probably a micro-layout first the basis of this is a 250mm disc of 6mm MDF that first saw use as a canon wheel (the barrel of which was 3" downpipe!). During one of my periods of doubt over the 009 project this was given a square frame of 12 x 21mm timber underneath and a ring of cork on top, before being left to mature.

The rails were removed from a yard of Peco track and bent using a home-made rail bender made from three screws and a piece of wood, as advised on the Gnatterbox many moons ago. The sleeper base was cut up and reassembled with all the joins between sleepers on the inside of the curve. This was then laid using a home-made 4" 'tracksetta' style template following a pencil line drawn using a compass, with a slither of card under the outer rail to provide basic superelevation. The whole layout is just one piece of track, wires were pre-soldered to the last two rail joiners I had in stock - luckily everything went to plan!

Extra toppings will be decided in due course....

Happy New Year!

Colin