This is our new OO gauge layout which is under construction.

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Back in 2013 with new members arriving at YMRG and most of them being OO modellers the club agreed to build a ‘OO’ gauge layout.   We wanted to continue the standard of our exhibition layouts.

A couple of our members, Dave and Keith, had played around with an idea for a replacement 4mm layout before we settled on ‘The Summit’ in 7mm.  The idea for the layout was not so much a location as how could we construct an exhibition layout that had scenery 360 degrees around it and the two of them came up with an overlapping figure of eight with two separate fiddle yards for each direction.  We already run both our round and around layouts as two separate layouts with the fiddle yard being split in two.  It made perfect sense to actually move them apart and hide under the scenery.

Next we had to find an interesting prototype location where any of the members could run their stock and it wouldn’t look to out of place which was always going to be the problem as with all clubs we have a very wide range of eras and regions within the club.

Then one of our members came in to the clubhouse with the idea of a flying junction. About the same time as this was going on there was a Supplement in Model Rail which described Battledown it as an ambitious plan/inspiration for a large crowd pulling layout.

Well YMRG like to accept a challenge and after discounting Battledown due to the 3rd rail electrics not being required, Ayhno Junction in Northants was selected as it gives us all we are looking for, a gradient to hide the crossover, middle of the country so you can get away with a lot of different stock, a freight passing loop to give us operational options, and now a junction and feature girder bridge on the flyover.

Construction continues apace with updates posted to our blog…