I had a very interesting weekend well Saturday anyway touring layouts at an informal American Railroaders convention in Auckland. We visited four layouts including our hosts N gauge.

Second: A double and treble deck GNR layout in a converted double garage.

The government owned NZR was very slow in completing rail links in Northland ferry sailings on Kaipara Harbour ceasing in the late 1940s when Dargaville was finally connected to the national network.

Finally: How many modellers can fit into an isle on a classical multi-level American layout? [attachment=:name] Built on the ground floor of a split level house it almost qualifies as the classical American basement empire, while scenery is reasonably complete in the main area, the layout has extended into an adjoining workshop and into the area underneath a raised deck. Track is mainly handlaid.

Smoothness of running without lurching through pointwork without hesitation or lurching was the most noticeable contrast between the two HO and the NZR layout thanks to matched NMRA track and wheel standards, in contrast to the Peco Universal points and wheels made to different manufacturers standards.

The tour gave me a lot to think about including whether to build an American N gauge or Irish Narrow gauge layout in the garden shed as the space available is tight for a realistic Irish broad gauge layout in 21mm or 00.