Pipers Yard and Boxer's Yard at North Tyneside

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Piper‘s Yard is Andrew‘s 'micro' OO creation, following his favourite theme of industrial shunting in the BR era, this time purely the green/blue period of late 60‘s/early-late 70‘s.

The layout is based around S. Piper, a manufacturer of rubber pipes/hoses for use within industry, and which relies mainly on rail transport for the import of raw materials and the distribution of finished products. The layout measures just 3‘ x 1‘ (4‘ x 1.5‘ including the removable fiddle cartridge), and asides from S. Pipers factory, a warehouse, small goods/coal yard and a variety of engines provide a fair bit of operational interest and potential in rather a small space.

All of the buildings and other fittings are a mixture of scratch/kit-built, while an attempt has been made to create the sort of run-down scene so typical of many industrial areas around the country. Piper‘s Yard took about four months to build, and made its first public appearance at Locomotion‘s Model Motion event at Shildon in March 2015.

Boxer's Yard is a micro layout, first shown at South Shields in 2005

This layout has been designed to pack away into an aluminium flight case (including stock). With less than 5ft. of length, it can be set up in even the smallest location. If you see this layout at a show you will be left in no doubt that any home can have a model railway.

The buildings are based on real prototypes, or have elements of real prototypes within them. All are to scale, and attention has been paid to the quality of detail. Locations range from Durham City, to Darlington, to Richmond in North Yorkshire. Some of the buildings have modelled interiors; no mean feat in 'low relief'. Some of the interiors are also illuminated and small cameo scenes can be viewed through the windows.

A sentinel shunter an ex L&Y pug, a BR Class02 and a Y7 are used for shunting. Because of the small size of these locomotives, they are not out of place on a small layout - sometimes realism is a question of proportion.