The original McHALE'S YARD  Gn15

This was my first attempt to build a Gn15 layout and was originally in a 4' by 2' format and, appeared as such at the Midland Railway Centre, Butterley and Crewe Heritage Centre in 2010.

I decided to sell this layout (I had an offer I couldn't refuse!). Part of the deal was that I kept the name 'McHale's Yard' and some of the vehicles and buildings I had already removed from the layout, replacing the buildings with other new ones I had made. Also my GN15 Bachmann Davenport conversions went, along with some newly built wagons. I have replaced them with some new On30 Davenports (for use on Colorado) and I still have some Gn15 cab conversions if I ever rebuild McHale's as Gn15 in the future.

UPDATE 29th September 2014

Yes, I've decided to rebuild McHale's Yard, this time as an end-to-end layout, some 12 foot by 18 inches. I will be similar to the concept I had in making McHales as an eight foot by 2 foot layout, but the narrow boards will allow me to fit it in the 'new' car. It will be designed so that it can be used as an 8 foot by 18 inches or 12 foot by eighteen inches...

More wagons have been produced, along with some diesel locomotives of the 'speedster' type running on Tenshodo spuds and Bachmann GE44 bogies. A steam loco has also been built using a Bachmann 0-4-2 On30 locomotive and a tender, which will represent Mr McHale's own steam locomotive and will only appear on special occasions towing a coach for his friends.

ABOVE: Jim McHale plays with his "Class 37", whilst the Davenport shunts in the yard

At an exhibition, someone commented on the lack of rusty vehicles, so here are a couple of pictures I took at a North Wales scrapyard last year to show that most modern cars when scrapped are due to an electrical problem, engine fault or hidden rust (chassis and/or floor) - unless they have been torched! - and find their way to a scrapyard as sorting the problem will cost more to than buying a another car.