HORNBY Digital Train Set HL4 Big Layout Track for 8x4 Board - Train A

Product Information

What’s more, he’s got busy with a theme in mind. I think that’s important because over the years the layouts that turn out the best always have a theme in mind from day one. The limit on number of locos in use is the amount of current they draw. The Powercab can also be made to display how much current it is supplying. If you find you need to draw more than it can supply, then you could always update it later on. There's another oddity that you will discover if you try different sizes. No matter what alternative material you try, the maximum size that doesn't twist or bend is between six feet and four feet along its longest side and between three and six inches deep. This is why large exhibition layouts are made up of so many small boards, they resist bending, even if six foot long sections are so heavy that they require two men to lift.

One of Powercab's strongest points is its modularity. The Powercab is essentially a very good starter set. If your layout grows beyond it, you can buy all the components separately to upgrade it to whatever you want. I am new to this, and it is far from complete, but I thought I’d share some piccies of how I am getting on. An 8' X 4' actually needs 14' X 10' as you need to be able to get round the whole table to make good use of the board and run a scenic divider down the middleish sort of location to make it seem bigger than it is. Hi I would not start with 8X4. If you can get all around it 8X5 is better, if you have a central operating well 8x6 is better if you can't get all round and it goes long side to the wall then 8X 4 is too big a reach.And that goes for the simple layouts too. A theme really does ‘glue’ all the visual parts of a layout together. Well, I thought things were going well with my layout design finally settled and I’d begun to get all enthusiastic. However, an unexpected challenge has arisen. In a nutshell it seems that in a very hard frost – some little mositure droplets can form around the nails that hold our roof tils on. This moisture can then run along the nail shaft and onto the layout. It’s a bit odd as the roof is watertight in the worst possible storms.So, I need to move the layout and sheet up the roof space above the layout. What a pain. But, thank goodness I learnt from experience and built the baseboard in modules. (baseboards.jpg)By the way I attach a painful picture of what happens to a biggish layout if you can’t get it out of your attic ! (layout sawing.jpg)Work still in progress ! Post No 4 A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.

A huge collection of plans, apparently 400 designs, categorised by size and type (oval, double oval, branch line etc) and location (for prototyping) although these plans are mainly focused on the London Midland region. Is there a way of replacing a 3rd radius curve (R609) with a point and shorter curve - to allow us to mimic the branch for the engine shed? Your shed is only just a bit smaller than the third bedroom in my new house, (when I finally move), so your plan will be of great interest to me. I have to leave space for a pull out bed though. A fair few sidings (and or branch) - to store trains on the layout including a high speed train - say 4 units You could run round a longer train in the branch platform if you reversed the crossovers, especially the one on the left (or put the platform on the other side of the loop).

Hornby R8156

I posted an answer to your question you posted on my topic here, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104302-a-new-family-8x4-layout/?p=2112778 so I won't repeat myself here. The prospect of starting from scratch has been a bit daunting but after moping around for a few months I’ve finally started to build the new layout. This time round I’ve tried to use my experience to make improvements on my original efforts. First off has been to use SCARM software to help me plan my new layout and give me an early idea of the general design. Here is my basic design. Having seen David's reply (arrived while typing), if you still do want to go electrofrog, read on ....

The wife and myself have finally cleared our box room in preparation for providing our son's Hornby trains with a permenant home/layout. The room is long and narrow so we intend to build on a 8' x 4' (2.4m x 1.2m) board [albeit cut to approx 44"/110cm wide MAX and possibly 7'/2.1m - this is to allow space around the board]. Note: We anticipate cutting an access hole somewhere in the middle of the board! Go out your pace – one of the most relaxing things about this hobby is you can potter and go at your own pace. There’s no hurry. It’s all part of the fun. Looks like you have a train set controller this is not the best have a talk to a hobby shop about a better quality one, unfortunately it is common to all brands train set controllers they are not adequate once you start expanding the set. I suppose we're a little "trapped" between building the first layout while ensuring we leave options for the future (I.e. expansion, redesign, etc). I grew up with Lego and that offers endless flexibility as you never fix it to a board!!)Putting the second station above the first means that you can make the branch station a little bigger than shown, with perhaps a small goods yard as well as David's carriage siding. You could make some model loco shed faces and hide the actual locos under the upper board for example. As I understand it box rooms are not very big so an 8' X 4' island layout is probably not the best use of the space, I would suggest as Tony57 has a wall hugging narrow shelf layout around the walls of the room. I'd like to create two levels and get used to gradient work - as my future aspirations will be to do this on a bigger layout so will need practice landscaping Your post on the other thread mentioned 5 coach trains. They're going to look awfully long, and I don't think any of your sidings will hold them.

On a more quirky note – the table legs for my new layout were cut to the same size as my original layout. However, in a longer but narrower attic space they just looked too high. Sounds odd but I ended up cutting two inches off their length and now they look in proportion. I think David & Jon (jon_1066) have offered a great plan that interprets your original idea and the suggestions of others very well. I think they have a gift for that! I know that the reversing loops create electrical problems, but if you go full DCC then this can be taken care of. The running opportunities probably out way the difficulty/cost. I'm an amateur at anyrail - haven't figured out colours and layers yet so I've broken the second tier out as below so it makes sense. Anyway the plan. The sidings are the wrong way round for left hand running as per UK as you need to reverse in to sidings to shunt, engine trailing and the return loop is an electrical complication.

So, my initial SCARM plan has changed considerably and a very basic re-worked layout seems to be approaching what I think will be close to a final configuration. I’ve attached one picture to show the basic arrangement so far.