It all started with a creation by Emrys Hopkins in response to a challenge raised on the Small Layout Design mailling list. Emrys is fond of making designs with three-way turnouts and double-slip switches. Tiny Knotter Yard was no exception!

As it happened, I had those two pieces of track in my cupboard, so I decided to see how well Emrys’ “paper design” would work out in real life. I got a 30-inch slab of pink instulating foam and assembled the HO gauge track sections on it. Voilà! everything fit! In fact, it fit in only 30×14 inches–less space than Emrys’ layout software had allowed!

Pleased with the effect, I continued by throwing on some G scale scenic doodads (left over from the Squarefoot).

Now we were getting somewhere! The whole scene looked enticing enough to persuade me to lay on some of the Gn15 trains in my Squarefoot collection. The resulting mockup is pictured on this page.

Thus far, I have spent several hours switching cars around this little yard, and giving miniature Estate visitors a thrilling ride all the way from the quay to the yard lead! It’s great fun, and could be operated in several scales besides Gn15, such as On30 or HO/OO standard gauge using short locomotives and small cars.

The little layout is really easy to make, it took me about 45 minutes to bring it to the mockup stage you see here. I used Peco three-way and double-slip turnouts, and Atlas nickel silver sectional track (code 100). You can then spend as much time as you like perfecting the scenic setting. This remarkable design has a lot of room for scenery, despite its very small footprint!

Emrys and I agreed in discussions that a “real life” version of Knotter Yard could be improved by adding about 3 inches to each side of the layout board, thus extending the yard lead and the rather short sidings at the left side. They would each then be about 11 inches long–enough to hold a small switching locomotive and one U.S. 40-foot car in HO scale.

So we leave you with a final inspirational view of the KYER mockup. Have fun!

This page originally appeared on Carl Arendt’s Micro Layouts for Model Railroads website and is © Carl Arendt At His Peek.‘