Building the Micro N-Scale 2' x 3' Model Railroad

A short slideshow of the construction of the 2' x 3' micro n-scale railroad. A walk through of the completed layout can be found here. • A Micro N-Scale 2' x 3... . A lighted night view of the layout can be found here: • Night Train Micro 2x3 ... . This layout features a double loop Kato Track and a Kato Turntable with 2 sidings, 3 #6 switches and Arduino controlled signals. The building structures are all custom designed card stock representations of buildings in Portsmouth, NH around the 1965 time frame, with liberal modifications to suit the small layout footprint. There is the North Church of Portsmouth, J. J. Newberry's, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, the Portsmouth Railroad Station, Yoken's Restaurant, and my boyhood home on Kent Street.
This layout was inspired by a layout presented on the channel "Steve's Trains". I highly recommend his channel especially if you are unfamiliar with creating scenery and are interested in the details of how to build a similar layout.
The music is from Sonic Fire Pro, Timelapse Album, "Dream & Love" song, Dream Variation.

[@redstone71]

The cardboard buildings are awesome. I did not expect that result.

[@whodgdon]

Thank you!

[@curtismarean6963]

As someone who works with very small models, I can appreciate the effort here! Very nicely done!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Curtis. Love your Marx windup train. Had one as a kid so many years ago.

[@DadCooks2]

This is an outstanding slideshow of how you built this layout. You have given this old model railroader some great ideas.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks for the nice comments, Dad

[@cottydry]

I really like this layout. The upper level adds a lot. There's a lot of features in a minimal footprint. I've probably looked at 100's of sample N scale layout images and this one rises to the top.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks for your kind comment!

[@cottydry]

@@whodgdon Bill, Can I ask why you used risers for the inner/lower loop? Are they needed to bring the elevation up to match the turntable entry? How high are the risers? Thanks.

[@whodgdon]

@@cottydry Greetings. I used risers just to make the layout more interesting than a flat layout. The rise is about one inch. The turntable was then adjusted to meet the level of the track. If the layout had been built without the rise, the turntable could have been lowered to suit.

[@cottydry]

@@whodgdonThank you!

[@myoldreteacher]

Love this so much! Always fun to gift the kids a chance to play along.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks! Sometimes the old kids need to give the young kids a turn, too.

[@slorailfan]

Thank you for sharing all that. Very nice.

[@whodgdon]

Thank you!

[@RudiVDS]

Nice small railroad layout. Love this builld

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Rudi !

[@thomasmcnab5068]

A beautiful layout & excellent work on your part!...tks for sharing!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Tom!

[@jamesdenson4730]

Love the custom buildings!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Jim. They were fun to design in Photoshop, and then build.

[@hntrains2]

Very close to a Melinda and Bill production! ;)
Great job!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, hntrains!

[@roberthicks2364]

I want to have a small town loop like that with a trolley. Looks great!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Bob. Sorry I missed your comment earlier!

[@NScaleDystopia]

Very nice. The printed buildings are very impressive!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks so much!

[@bt-rl4mh]

Looks great and fun

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, b t

[@skoggiehoggins1445]

Perfect, super nice!! probably one of the nicest small-size N layouts :) :) :)

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Skoggie !!

[@rrad8106]

WOW! Exceptional!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks R Rad

[@sailingschooners8668]

Awesome.....and so much in it....

[@whodgdon]

Thanks! I think there might be room for one in the fwd berth....?

[@davidsheriff8989]

@@whodgdon My wife and love sailing so wherever we go we find a boat trip...

[@SteveBrant55]

Looks wonderful! Wish I had a small layout like this!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Steven. Perhaps the art in this layout will inspire you to create one as well. You can do it!

[@medwaymodelrailway7129]

Nice new video .Hope there more to come.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks. Hope to do more sometime.

[@Miertreg1]

Nice train 👍👍👌, nice video.
Best regards from Germany Gert

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Gert!

[@peterlutz7191]

With your ideas, I just may be able to build a small layout in my studio apartment, thanks!

[@whodgdon]

You can do it!

[@duck1946]

Excellent !! what more could i say.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Don !

[@giangigiangi-fq1ep]

Great work

[@whodgdon]

Thanks!

[@jorgzimmer7259]

sehr schön

[@whodgdon]

Vielen Dank

[@conecuhvalleyttrak]

The buildings look really good. Nice work! 👍

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, sorry I missed your comment earlier!

[@MartoNscale]

That's a very nice small layout.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks so much!

[@wipatriot510]

This IS an advanced project...

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Patriot!

[@philipgarsidebooks]

I really like your custom designed buildings.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Philip!

[@stevekinney7423]

Ingenious !!!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Steve!

[@ulises7473]

Buen trabajo. Mejor que muchas maquetas de gran tamaño. Un saludo

[@whodgdon]

Muchas gracias, Ulises74!

[@scottthomas5999]

Great job 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Scott !

[@evolutionbath6100]

Excellent work. Of course Matthew turns it up to maximum. I would’ve done the exact same thing at his age. And now at my age I’m like what the hell are you doing! You’re gonna derail. I’ve become old

[@whodgdon]

Yup, me too! Thanks for the kind comment.

[@gusneaker]

Beautiful. Congratulations!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks!

[@stevekinney7423]

Absolutely awesome. Well done you've created something rather special.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Steve

[@wellhausen]

Very nice!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Andreas!

[@tonyromano6220]

Amazing

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Tony !

[@dahlbergt]

A very nice project and end result! Well done!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, dahlbergt

[@harold1098]

Awesome!!!!

[@whodgdon]

and Thanks, again!

[@pacificcoastminiatures]

Love your buildings! What did you design them in? Glad to see the grandkids approve! And the night shots are amazing!

[@whodgdon]

Thanks! I designed the buildings using Photoshop. You will notice a horizontal scale on the page with some of the houses. This scale is on a separate layer and could be moved around and rotated during the design phase, or hidden, as needed. I also had a scale on a separate layer vertical axis, which is hidden in the video of the house layouts.

[@desmond9168]

Having had a go at a similar project during lockdown I congratulate you! So satisfying? I particularly commend your making the buildings yourself? I used a ‘bought’ set of buildings.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Des. Well, the buildings are not as durable as bought buildings, but then again, I couldn't find the buildings I wanted, so I printed them out of card stock instead. They work fine, just have to be careful working around them. I crushed the church steeple already. Luckily it's easy to make a replacement.

[@desmond9168]

When I said bought, I did mean card stuff from a firm called Metcalfe? They are very good. Welk done again!!

[@vernhalen6878]

How did you go about creating your own structures? That would be awesome - could replicate anything for a layout!

[@whodgdon]

The structures are made from folded card stock. I designed them unfolded in Photoshop, printed them out on heavy cardstock on my ink jet printer. The inside of the structures were painted black, and the window areas were cut out. The structure design was printed again on light weight paper, then the lightweight paper window areas were cut out and pasted inside the card stock structure cutout windows. This way light shows through the windows but not the structure. The structure was then folded up and glued. LED lights were added to illuminate the windows. Yes, you could replicate any building this way for N scale. They are not as durable as wood/plastic structures, but they work well for me.

[@deswright2075]

Very beautiful work,i feel i saw this piece before? Isn't that house on the hill a replica of the house you grew up in? Or am i getting mistaken for another layout? Either way its a stunning build an so inspiring,thank you for sharing it...
Blessings from Ireland☘👍

[@whodgdon]

Yes. There is another video of this layout running. See ua-cam.com/video/zgP--ydL6A4/v-deo.html

[@buster349100]

Very impressive 👏
How old was the lad?

[@robot7759]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Rob !

[@tomasbenedictomaza]

un niño afortunado yo nunca tuve algo así de niño solo ya de adulto que no pierda la afición

[@whodgdon]

Si, gracias Tomas

[@johnneville7273]

Hello great layout in a small space was wondering do you no the track part number for the kato unitrack please.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks. See Steve's Trains (ua-cam.com/video/OKG2oWZL9ic/v-deo.html) for a complete listing of tracks for a similar layout without the turntable.

[@matthewHondalife]

Looks awesome, about how much does something like this cost to build. Thanks

[@whodgdon]

Thanks Matt. I don't dare keep track of costs. A wild guess might be something over $700.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, Matt. I don't dare to keep track of costs. I would make a wild guess at something over $700

[@matthewHondalife]

@@whodgdon ok cool , thanks.

[@johnneville7273]

Hello great little layout may I asked you do u have track part number for bottom track I looked at Steve's train layout but still not able to get to join up would be very grateful if u can help.

[@whodgdon]

Thanks, John. My layout is very similar to Steve's, but it is slightly different. If you email me at [e-mail], I'll send you a pdf of my track layout with part numbers.

[@Lighting_Desk]

Really wanna get into N gauge but its so expensive.

[@whodgdon]

You can do it! Start small: ua-cam.com/video/h_aUPK8Hy84/v-deo.html

[@johnneville7273]

Hello lovely layout do you you have a list of tracks number you used all a track plan

[@whodgdon]

Yes I do. email me at [e-mail] and i'll send you a pdf file of my initial planning. I might have made a few changes after that, but it's pretty close.