WHAT MAKES IT INNOVATIVE?

Graham’s ‘OO’ gauge take on Shap will eventually be built into a larger layout that will fill his 42ft long railway room. What enables Graham to build such realistic re-creations of the northern fells is his innovative approach to baseboards. He cuts the base for the track from strips of 9mm plywood, 120mm wide. Each strip is 5ft long and he glues and screws a further strip of 100mm wide 9mm ply to the underside to form a ‘T’-shaped beam. This becomes the backbone of a section of baseboard. Each board has a pair of legs that are 17mm longer at one end to give an overall gradient of 1-in-90 (a touch more practical that the real 1-in-75). Scenery supports are cantilevered off the main beam.