St Ann’s Cove: We’re up and running!

Pete Kelly brings the latest from RMM’s N-gauge ‘St Ann’s Cove’ project, including shaping the inner harbour, glueing the Kato track into position and getting the trains running smoothly.

Before completing the double-track circuit of our ‘St Ann’s Cove’ layout, a significant section had to be cut carefully out of the baseboard so that the Kato bridge over the harbour could be lowered on to its wooden supports and the tracks clicked into position. 

It was a job for my landscape gardener friend Chris Davies, a keen modeller himself, who scratch-built two people-pulling diesel-outline locomotives for Lincolnshire’s former Stickney Garden Railway.

When he’d finished, and the sawdust was scooped up, the two second-hand Bulleid Light Pacifics bought especially for the project – one in original air-smoothed condition and the other in handsome rebuilt form – were ready to go.

First, though, the tracks had to be stuck into position with white wood glue – and one advantage of the raised ballast-effect Kato track is the ease with which a pencil can be run along the sides to mark exactly where the glue should be applied. 

Don’t glue anywhere near the Kato points, and neither do you need to take it right up to the places where sections of track are joined together. Keeping a uniform space between tracks was easy to gauge by the fixed double-track bridge and level crossing sections.

For the full article and to view more images, see the December edition of Modelling – available now!

For a complete list of stockists and how to get your copy, visit: www.railwaymagazinemodelling.co.uk/distributors