Breaking the Record Breaking Layout - Making Tracks at Model World Live!

One of the best videos covering Pete’s layout! Lawrie, your insight whilst driving was both entertaining and informative. I thought you conveyed both the stress and difficulty brilliantly. People who expect to just press go fall into a group that have yet to try it. They can’t possibly understand the load on the couplings or the weight of a 7 meter train on the slow line. Thank you for your “fresh eyes” perspective. Some points if I may: 1) The slow lines are the most difficult to operate, 2) You picked the most difficult train and 3) you drove it up and down an incline and around a bend, all at the same time, with the “overseer” in attendance. We have badges for those who survived a good shouting at. Add in a bonus that you paid attention and went back for the bits that fell off too. After a few hours operating you tend to just get on with it. You appear to have had a few minutes and did really well. I would encourage you to get stuck in with another session or two later in the year. Congratulations, your baptism is complete. Hope to see you again.

Your anxiety was understandable and entertaining. To me Mr. Waterman sounded more amused than annoyed though. I don't think he took it all that badly 😂

That was funny 😂 thank for sharing. Can’t believe how much I was in your footage. I was the guy in glasses at the introduction and then not long after filming you filming me as I walked past filming the layout 😂😂😂 Thanks for sharing Andy

lawrie sounding like the train announcer not the narrator

Lawrie, this may be one of our best ever episodes. Thank you so much for really giving a true idea of the extraordinary scale of the Making Tracks layout, and despite your trepidation at meeting Pete Waterman, one I don't think he was as mean as you thought at your first encounter, merely trying to advise you (more "foolish boy"), and second I think your driving skills were pretty impressive considering that you were completely new to such an experience. And also you did the tour of other layouts really well, giving Charles a real chance to explore the scenery as you gave a really intelligent commentary on them, and fun to see you joing in again. But yes, we could have done with more of the Chinese one! Wonderful stuff.

What could go wrong indeed. A valiant effort Sir and good to see you overcame your discombobulation regarding your initial meeting with Pete. btw we have just completed 50 miles of working railway in a virtual world. No not Minecraft ... lol and we think we probably qualify for some sort of award too :)

Lawrie, i fully understand your terror and suffering. After completing a re-wiring of my clubs layout for DCC, we introduced 2 types of running sessions, one where you needed a tablet to enter a new section (with as many as 8 operators running on the layout, with sharing the two mainlines so we had to have people to actually to speak to each other, with some services running opposing to others. And, another session, where in order to move from one section to another, you had to ring a traffic controller (TC) who would provide a verbal warrant from x to y location. Downside to that was that many people forgot to call the TC prior to moving and would cause chaos, and only ever had two collisions, thought the amount near misses could be rather dramatic. Being the editor for the newsletter, it allowed me to have a good amount of fun to add.

I wouldn’t worry Lawrie, the other operators were clearly having issues too. As for Pete Waterman, well he’s like Zaphod Beeblebrox (ok apart from the fact he only has one head and two arms 😂) : "he’s just this guy y’know"

Best video so far featuring the making tracks layout..🎉🎉🎉

Wonderful eccentric British achievement made me smile thank you.

What's really amazing to me is the fact that they are running the trains at relatively high speeds the whole way around. I've seen people run trains on really big layouts, and even on small ones, and they always seem to either derail or hit spots where they just lose power or something else goes wrong. Here they are running fast passenger service at 100 smph or more, running massive freight trains, or just running the line. This is outstanding just how precise they've built the whole layout to operator that smoothly where their only problem now is the failure of the couplings due to just the sheer weight they are pulling.

A brilliant insight into driving the trains on a layout this size! It was highly entertaining, and I couldn't help laughing at your commentary about how you found it. I was fortunate enough to be on 3 driving shifts over the weekend, and I can echo the concentration levels we needed to hand trains around the layout between the 4 of us operators (4 operators per track, thus 16 people controlling trains at any one time!). I was the person who was wondering where the 4th tablet for our line was ... and found it in your hands! (do you recall??) ... I'm one of the drivers in green jackets you had to negotiate - we were just discussing our "plan of action" for our driving shift at the time, as you were there before the show opened on Sunday morning. You see me again later wandering up and down behind you as you are talking to Pete. I would very much echo Dave Fenton's comments too, yes, the slow lines can take more concentration, and can be tricky. Although you suggest you were quite stressed at times, hopefully overall you enjoyed the experience!

Looks like those container wagons were severely underweight. I don’t know how those derailments could have been avoidable. I know all too well how anxiety inducing running trains on a big layout is lol

As a layout, it’s a very impressive piece of work. It isn’t quite a work of art, but it’s certainly making an impression on me!!

I have to admit, I'm envious that you got to run on that layout, Lawrie!

As someone from across the channel, it is quite intereting to hear TT being called "the new gauge". But nevertheless, it's always great seeing people having fun.

I always thought model railways to be a relaxing pleasure now l am not so sure.Well done sir.

For a layout of this size, they should be using Kadees, lol. Them tension locks suck

That is so much my dream model railway, i would love to have the space for this

That was brilliant. I felt your pain! Makes me want to make a much longer layout!