PRACTICAL TRACK LAYING USING A PROJECT LAYOUT

THE following sequence of pictures illustrates the building and laying of plain flat-bottom rail track to ‘EM’ gauge, placed on cork track bed. The same principles apply for ‘OO’ and

‘P4’ gauge too, and note the use of numerous roller gauges throughout the rail fixing process. The layout is a ‘Covid’ layout, started as the pandemic became acute, with lockdowns becoming a fact of life. Lockdowns meant that many modellers found themselves with the time to build a layout and consequently they went shopping for materials; this, together with manufacturers closing temporarily, caused shortages of track and other products. This resulted in the extensive reuse of plywood recovered from old layouts (not a bad thing as it was very dry, stable and seasoned) and an effort to pull together as many track making parts as possible. Consequently, a mix of different materials was used on the layout which turned out to be more beneficial than one might have expected!