In the summer of 2024 the club decided that we needed a new small layout that could easily be transported in a car to exhibitions and so demonstrate just what can be achieved even in a very small space. To that end plans were drawn up for this: Newcastle Triangle, the club’s new N-gauge micro-layout. Fully assembled the layout measures at just under 7 feet by 2 feet while the scenic box is just 18 inches by 9 inches. The layout and the electrics have been kept as simple as possible, therefore it is capable of being operated using either analogue or DCC controllers. When complete the layout will consist of both upper and lower level lines that cross each other, with the lower level built initially.
Construction began in September 2024 with the photos showing the progress from bare boards beginnings through to scenery work, the fiddle yard cassettes (used for both storing and turning the trains when not in use), and installation of the upper line. Given the time frame it is felt that the building of this layout progressed well – in spite of what the layout’s designer described as: “Several false starts. Redesigns and redesigns of redesigns”.
In keeping with a tradition of our club: the layout takes its name from our local area – in this case the Newcastle district of west Glenrothes. Helpfully, the layout’s designer has also written a fictional backstory for Newcastle Triangle to fit it in with our other layouts.
This model shows a section of the Newcastle Triangle in Fife. The upper line is one side of a triangle which connects the old Woodside Central line – now a stabling point for Diesel Multiple Units (DMU’s) – to Levenbank in the north east and Prestonhall in the west. The low level line is the old Levenbank to Cadham Bay Harbour freight-only branch.
The triangle is not only used for servicing stock but is also used to turn DMU’s to even out wheel wear. Gone are the great days of the harbour branch when coal was king. Now the only regular traffic seen on the branch are short trains mainly hauling malt for the distilleries, china clay and esparto grass for the paper mills along with exports of finished paper products, blankets and spirits heading to the docks. There is the occasional train of pipes and the rare working of nuclear waste.
