8'00" X 2'00"

I like to make model railways which are ‘different’ and interesting for both the public and layout operators.  Hopefully this one is no exception.  It is a chocolate factory.  Each day the workers arrive by train.  Once they have had their morning cuppa, the raw ingredients are delivered by train – milk, coco powder and the various fillings.  Although the factory can make eight different types of chocolate, production is limited to five each day, and they are all distributed by train.  So the railway shunter has first to load the five chocolates into the correct wagons. Once this has been done, the five wagons have to be sorted into the correct order for distribution.  This can be quite challenging as shunting can only take place within the factory yard.  Once the train is assembled it departs, followed by the empty ingredient wagons, then the workers go home in their passenger train.

 

Railway modellers may recognise the track plan; it is a variation on the well known ‘Inglenook Sidings’.  In my case it is modelled as a narrow gauge railway, with much of the rolling stock being recycled and modified items from my standard gauge layouts.  It is also my first attempt at using Kadee magnetic couplings to avoid a big hand appearing from the sky to uncouple the wagons. 

 

This exhibition is the layout’s first public appearance, so I hope everything works!

 

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