Details of the N gauge model in the video
The model is built in N gauge and measures 5 foot long by 10 inches wide. Hopefully it shows that a small N gauge layout can have lots of activity. It could be treated as a shelf and fixed to a wall. It is completely automatically controlled by 4 SA units and associated boards.
The scene is set in the potteries hence the canal and the characteristic bottle kilns painted onto the background. The BR blue rolling stock and the smoke from the potteries suggest it must be the early 80s with the pottery industry still in full production; in fact they are so busy the Canadian Pacific Railway seems to have loaned some engines to cope with the movement of clay and coal.
In the foreground of the layout but not seen in the video is a canal, a reminder that industry developed adjacent in the age of canal transport. Much later canals were sometimes used to move fired pots between sites during processing. There was less breakage by canal than by road transport.
The diagram shows that there are 4 completely separate systems in our layout. Some of the points in the station throat are there simply to make the layout look busy and do not actually move (unused tracks are shown in purple on the diagram).
Six separate trains are automatically controlled and up to four of these can move simultaneously. As all 4 SA boards are unconnected to each other and the trains wait for different times at the station, this gives a random effect with different numbers of trains moving in different directions at different times.
The high level (blue) at the back is controlled by an SA10. This has a single train running alternately in front and behind the left hand factory. Note the factory loading bay light switches on when the train arrives. To give this effect an IRDOT-1D is used and its red detection LED has been replaced by a white LED fitted into the factory. The train also runs past a boiler house fitted with a flickering fire effect and a garage where cars are being welded. (1980s cars soon became rusty!) This uses our welder effect with the LED placed inside the garage building.
The rearmost of the low level lines (red) is controlled by an SA9-S. This is a shuttle with a siding at the station end so that 2 trains run alternately from the station into the tunnel, pause and then return. In front of this the tracks (yellow) are controlled by an SA9.1-S board. This track has a siding in the tunnel. Two trains run alternately from the tunnel to the station, pause and then return. The difference between the SA9-S and the SA9.1-S is that the SA9-S controls two starter signals at the siding end, whilst the SA9.1-S controls one starter signal at the single track end. You can see the signals change to green just before a train departs and return to red after the train has left the station. The signals and platform lamps were supplied by CR models.
At the front of the layout (green) the goods line running backwards and forwards between the station and canal is controlled by a SA1.
The points on the layout are controlled by Servo motors and Dual Servo controllers. As well as providing slow movement of the points they operate off 12 volts DC as do the other components.
The whole lower level works from one of our 12 volt DC power supplies. For convenience the upper level works from a separate12 volt DC power supply.
Our standard SA boards are designed to operate solenoid point motors such as Hornby, Peco and Seep. The SA boards allow adjustment of waiting time, speed and rate of braking and acceleration. No controllers are used on the layout.
Note that the SA boards supply a DC voltage to the track. This system does not use DCC. IRDOT-1 boards are used to locate the positions of the trains for stopping and initiating braking. SA boards work equally well with OO gauge or Z gauge.
There are a whole range of SA boards for different circumstances. Information can be found through the product index where they are described by function.

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