How I built my own micro layout in a guitar box...

The Norco Railway's "Lydia Branch":

Welcome to Lydia, a fictitous agricultural town hidden somewhere in the hills of San Bernardino, California.    This N scale micro-layout represents the end point of a small branch line which serves the town of Lydia; hence "The Lydia Branch".  The era is sometime in the autumn of 1972.  This is an aerial view of the entire layout, as it exists so far.  On the far right is the entrance to the staging cassette, where trains both enter and exit. 

  This is where I began:  a carboard box specific to the shipping of electric guitars.  Though small, it had possibilities, plus that box top makes it easy to carry my train set around to other places.  The long side of the box is 41 inches, and 15 1/2 inches along the wider end.  The total layout area is 336 square inches.  That's a little on the large side compared to most micro layouts, but it is still below the limit  ( the limit is 756 square inches).  The shape is unusual for a model railroad, but that merely served to encourage creativity!

  Lydia's industries don't generate much traffic anymore, and the passenger station no longer justifies daily service.  Thus, wooden crossbucks and the locomotive's horn are the only warning motorists receive when the local inbound makes its infrequent appearance.  The Norco Railway Company is fictitous; it was the name of my former room sized layout.  The nose logo is a horse.

My layout is a switching layout.  I once was spoiled by large layouts with long main line runs, but now I am surprised having learned how much time I  spend just switching cars.  If there are more than three cars "in the box" at any one time, engine movements require some advance thought!  

I like to keep the names of the industries vague...not knowing exactly what the factory makes means I can spot all kinds of freight cars at any spur.  In the photo at right, you can see the entrance where the layout connects to a staging cassette.

   Extra traffic to the layout is served via this reversable  staging cassette. 

These are town industries not served by the railroad, located at the central intersection.  They give me a chance to model other things that interest me beside railroading, plus they make fine conversation starters!

Lydia Station is a structure scratch built using bristol board and heavy cardstock.  Plans used were from an old issue of "Model Railroader Magazine"...a Milwaukee Road Combination Passenger/Frieght Depot.  The left half of the depot features an upstairs apartment for the station agent.  Because of the freight house, this spur can also be an industry for switching, accepting "less than carload" freight.  It can also receive mail or Railway Express cars.  The photo at right is The Sidetrack Cafe, made from an old passenger coach.

All my life, I always believed that a "small layout" was 4 X 8 feet.  I've been pleasantly surprised to learn just how much detail I can place in a micro-layout without looking overly busy; all it takes is a little planning and a little thinking "outside the box"  (pardon the pun...I just couldn't resist!).   Another plus:  all these photos were taken with the advantage of outdoor sunlight, something I was never able to achieve with large pikes.  Photography is greatly simplified with a micro-layout.

It is worth noting how much improved model photograpy has become since the dawn of the digital camera.  In the past, N scale was difficult to photograph due to depth of field problems.

    Today's digital camera's do a magnificent job compensating for this liability.  The small size of the cameras also make it easy to get the lens closer to the scene.  Because of their extreme close up, these two shots give the impression they could have come from a much larger layout.

                   The layout is covered and stored under the bed when not in use.

While this project went together relatively quickly, I'm still adding more details.  It seems that every time I look at it from a new direction, I realize something else that ought to be in the scene.  Most absent is people; this layout could use them at several locations.  I will be adding additional photos as I go along, so make a point to come back and visit this site from time to time. I also welcome your comments or questions.  Email me here at:

guitarboxtrainset @ zoomshare.com