DunKirk, NY
Dunkirk is a small city on the shore of Lake Erie in New York state. The city is 35 miles southwest of Buffalo.
The layout is influenced by the videos posted on the YouTube channel “Wide World of Trains”. The videos, which are posted nearly every day by a local railfan, show the movement of trains in and around his home town of Dunkirk, mainly of the CSX double track main line which connects the eastern seaboard of the USA to Chicago. The layout features three areas that are common sites for his videos. From left to right, we have:
A small yard that is on the eastern edge of Dunkirk, and which is right next to a major rail served industry – the Nestle Purina dog food plant.
The elevated main line trackage that runs right through Dunkirk with East 3rd Street running parallel to the railroad before it joins Main Street which, in turn, runs through an underpass down to the lakeshore.
On the western edge of Dunkirk, there are a series of country roads that cross the mainline. This area is a mixture of small farms and general wasteland. The modelled scene is based on two of these crossings - Lake Rd and Temple Rd.
The layout is built on a modular system defined by the Sydney N Scale Model Railway Club, utilising aspects from the club’s historical module system, and Freemo-N. The modules are designed to fit into the back seat of a standard size car, and the scenes can be expanded as required, just by adding more modules. The layout is DCC controlled, using a wifi connection to allow members to use their phones or other wifi controllers to run their trains.
The layout uses Peco track, with code 55 on the visible section and code 80 in the fiddle yard.
Dunkirk will be first seen at the Dee Why exhibition in July 2025.
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