Snug End 
Phil Bird OO gauge 4mm scale
Snug End was inspired by a competition in the Hornby Magazine to build a diorama in 3 square feet (432 square inches). The baseboard is 45.4 ins x 9.5 ins (3 square feet) and is used at home like that, for exhibitions two small extensions are added each side to the upper level for the railbus and a third at the rear for the mainline, to change trains.
The design is based on an Inglenook Shunting Puzzle and was drawn and redrawn many times to get it all to fit within the area whilst shunting with a Diesel up to Class 20/25. The track is hand built, using SMP parts and rail, directly on to the plan. All points are Ys but are different radii (e.g. 21 inch/24 inch). The base board parts were cut to size by a local building supplier from off—cuts and they only charged £9.
Stock is mostly Bachmann with two sets, one has modified couplings for hands free uncoupling. The other set has been fitted with finescale (3mm) Sprat & Winkle; the S & W advice is not to use them below 36 inch radius, however they are being used here at 21 inch, but need careful setting.
Control can be DCC (with sound) or DC (analogue). I find the concentration using DCC to be much harder than analogue for such a small layout and therefore sometimes like to fall back on analogue to relax.
I like to think of Snug End as a Compact Layout although strictly speaking it falls within the Micro Layout category.
