Google Earth View of Brewhouse Quay

nevard_120709_DSC_6818, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

Continuing the looking down from the clouds, falling from an aeroplane or going up in a hot air ballon theme, here we have Brewhouse Quay in all it's 4ft x 2ft glory. This angle hopefully shows off the trackplan which I was quite pleased with, as well as a first for me building the funny 'K' shaped trackwork the engine is just about to attack. It was the result of messing about on the back of an envelope down the local pub and at the time thought unique, but recently a 2mm scale (aka 2FS) modeller was in touch to say that he built a wharf many years ago with a similar track layout called Chapel Wharf - take a look, it's lovely. This all goes to show that somethings with limited space there are only a certain number of ways tracks can be bent and split to fill a small area I guess!

Google Earth view of Arne Wharf

111128_arne-wharf_IMG_1984, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.

People often ask me about the track plan of Arne Wharf and whether it's a roundy-roundy or end to end operation, and what size it is.

Click to enlarge! Not the sharp curves!

The above Google Earth inspired view should hopefully help here, and what you're seeing is on a footprint of just 24 x 36 inches. The little spur top right is served by a little fiddle yard which folds down, but it's not necessary if you just what a train to run aroud and round. I almost forgot the scale, it's called 009, which is 1/76 running on rails that are 9mm apart - that equating to 2ft 3 inches, which is known as narrow gauge. Why 9mm? This is to take advantage of N gauge mechanisms.

The minimum radius is a nother question often asked, all I can say is that it's quite tight, the siding bottom left only really being suitable for 0-4-0 locos and short 4 wheeled wagons. At a guess the gauge is probably in the region of a 5 inch radius, maybe less, but I do know that a dinner plate was used as a template! In 009/narrow gauge it works well, but can limit what locos access which areas - but that's half the fun!

• For more photos and little more about Arne Wharf follow this link HERE!
• For even more info, folllow the Arne Wharf link at the bottom of this post for further blog postings.

Arne Wharf will be at Model Rail Live 22/23 September at Barrow Hill Roundhouse - follow the link top righ of this page.