Why a micro?
In 2009 having spent several months looking at Carl Arendt's site dedicated to micro layouts, I decided to make one myself. Carl's criteria was for a four foot square operating area and the layout must have a reason for being there.
My initial thought was industrial and my first layout was factory based. Another one I made was an end of line in a rural area, these can be found on many light railways that popped up all over the UK.
Exhibitions
The first exhibition I attended with a micro was a real eye opener for me. I set up on two trestles at wheelchair height and operated from the rear. I sit on an upturned waste bin that doubles as a container for lights, a curtain and a power supply. I had an idea; pulled the layout back a bit and got two chairs and put them at the front. It wasn't long before someone sat down and started a conversation, a proper one, not the few comments I'd been used to on previous and much bigger layouts.
I had time to explain how I made something they were interested in, a wagon, a point, a controller, a loco. I soon lost count of the people who said they would never have thought that 0 Gauge would be OK in a small space. I would offer to let them have a go, if they accepted then they used the controller and I sat at the front with the shunters pole. I really enjoyed seeing the layout from a different perspective.
It's so much easier to sit, do some shunting without having to move very much and carry on doing it while chatting to someone interested.
My layouts are scratch built; the track made from card sleepers and 00 rail, the points from copper clad strips or from card, the locos from card and styrene, the wagons and vans from card and paper, the back scene from photographs and the locos are powered from a homemade controller. I also offer to email interested modellers, drawings, the controller circuit and instructions in 'how to' PDF format.
