Brockhampton
The society's new continuous loop N gauge
The Societies 24ft Continuous Loop N Gauge Layout
Some years ago, N gauge layouts lost their popularity, and the range of rolling stock became limited. However, during the past few years it has regained popularity and more N gauge layouts are appearing at exhibitions. The range of locomotives and rolling stock now being supplied by Graham Farish and Dapol is comparable to OO gauge products.
Brockhampton during construction
After years of work and many problems, we are pleased that Brockhampton is now nearing completion and boasts full operational flexibility. Making it’s first exhibition appearance at the NFMRS 2014 Open Day with no central controller or operating points motors. The layout had progressed a lot at it’s last outing at Exbury Gardens over the Father’s Day weekend in 2021. Despite progress over those years, the layout has under gone complete rewiring and received a new control panel with LED indicators in the latter half of 2021 with a new control panel to operate the shed added in 2022. A branch line has been added since the layout’s first outing and has recently been extended to incorporate an interchange-terminus with the London Underground at the end of the layout.
Members complete work on Tuesday evenings at Brockenhurst Village Hall and despite having access to the layout for just 3 hours a week, we are able to complete a surprising amount in that time. On some weeks, the layout is erected for the evening for members to use the layout and run their stock instead of performing any work.
The layout consists of a continuous double track mainline with a hidden fiddle yard at the rear, and six track through the station at the front capable of accommodating 8 coach trains, although trains of more than 20 carriages have been known to pass through. On the outer loop, a shed at the far end of the station is used for stabling locomotives and is served by it’s own control panel on the front of the layout to minimize disruption to the mainline. A branch line also runs from end to end, serving the central station and a terminus-interchange which also boast a parcels office. The interchange is also served by a shorter shuttle that immediately disappears into a tunnel and is just waiting for Revolution Trains to deliver their London Underground stock. The layout is built to no particular era or area to allow members to run any stock at any time. Even at exhibitions, the Swiss Bernina Express can be seen passing the Brighton Belle. At present, Brockhampton is only geared for Analogue stock but DCC compatibility is being considered.
The layout is made up of six boards each 4' x 2' and can be assembled to operation in just half an hour by three members. When fully assembled into a 24' long layout, the continuous double main line track at the front display area of the layout represents a scale length of about 2/3 of one mile.
