One day I saw a picture on the Gn.info forum Gnatterbox, of a wagon traverser.. one thing lead to another, as these things do.. 

Firstly I spent an evening happily chopping and gluing bits of plastic together to build a little Gn15 traverser based on that picture.. this I dubbed 'Mk 1' , as hopefully I can learn and improve on a rebuild.

Then.. I got to thinking about a setting for this little traverser. I didn't want to start on  a full-blown layout but something  little more interactive than a static diorama appealed,  one thought lead to another.. a spare bit of plywood.. a bit of foamcore.. and Gnott's Widgets was born. 

Another evening with plastic card and  a 'spud' motor unit lead to the birth of my little Gn15 'trammer' battery loco too..

In the meantime, Gnatterboxers decided to make the wagon traverser building into a friendly competition.. but I can't wait until Christmas to reveal this little micro!!

The layout board is small.. only 400 x 150 mm. A 4mm ply surface on a simple softwood frame. The traverser runs in a shallow pit on rails with a gauge of about 55mm (the base of the traverser is about 4 feet squared in scale) Although the rails are electrified, to transfer current to the traverser .. Mk 2 still has plastic wheels so that bit is theory at the moment. The 'pit' is actualy made by building up the ground level on either side with foamcard.

The idea for operation is naturally quite simple.. a loco pushes a couple of empty wagons, one at a time, onto the traverser. These are pushed by hand onto the middle track, waiting for loading . From here, wagons are hand pushed to the entrance to the works at right rear. Here they are loaded with heavy boxes of widgets, ready for export. Now a chain is connected to the loco on the front track, drawn around the bollards and attached to teh loaded wagon. The loco pulls the wagon out and onto the traverser using the chain. The traverer is pushed by hand back to the front and the wagon is deposited on the right hand siding to wait to be taken away. I reckon three or four wagons in play could keep this interesting.

Scenically, still a bit of work to do.. mostly weathering.. particularly to try and create an impression of degraded concrete and compacted dirt on the ground surface.