Alpine Valley

Over the past couple of years Alpine Heights has received a lot of attention at exhibitions. It's been one of the most popular boxes. However, all that attention and it's very distinctive snow white colouring meant that it was in some cases it had the effect of 'oh, I've seen that before!'. I decided to have a go at another Snow scene, this time twice the size with lots more alpine buildings.

All of the buildings in this box have been designed and built from scratch. No choice, there simply isn't a range of alpine chalet type buildings on the market. They are mainly made using Metcalfe builder card as a base and then print outs of various timbers on the top halves of each one. The four market huts were made from a scan of the OO set given away free by Metcalfe Models, halved to N Gauge and printed onto card.

Most of the buildings are fitted with LED lights, a 20 string set running under the foam board base and up into each building. The Christmas tree and the Christmas market huts are lit with a separate set of coloured LEDs in the same way.

The Ice Rink is made from a sample piece of Perspex, illuminated from below.

The track is by Kato. 12 pieces of 117mm radius curves and just two short straights, laid in a kidney shape.

The most expensive part of the box is the people, a set each of Noch Skiers, Skaters and children on Toboggans.

The locos and stock used are Kato pocketline steam train and coaches.

Power via an analogue controller plugged into banana sockets at the rear of the box with wires going into the track in one of the two tunnels.

The backscene, an image from the internet, slots into the rear of the box. This has a set of bright white LEDs fitted around it's to and out edges to complete the picture.