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Posted 20 hours ago

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

£9.9£99Clearance
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ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
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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. 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.

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. The room is oblong and the board sizes are based on allowing access along one side and both ends of the board. The board would be fixed (possibly hinged) along one wall. The suggested access hole is probably more necessity than preference as the size of the board makes it difficult to reach the items (i.e. points or derailed locomotives).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. A lot of people build a 6x4 or 8x4 for their first layout, but very few do so for their second and there's good reasons why. DCC - wha'ts a good controller i.e. Bachmann Dyn Ultima, NCE Powercab seem reasonable - or Hornby Elite - as starter kits. I've seen that NCE Powercab initially can only have 2-3 trains? 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.

A bit of my re-design is to do with practical reasons. For example, it doesn’t make sense to lean over three sidings when using the turntable – so they need to be more distant. I too have a NEC Powercab and really like it. Tried others when visiting Digitrains in Lincoln and found it the easiest to hold and work with. I found I could actually use it left or righthand which meant it frees you dominant hand for doing things like uncoupling, point control and other hands on tasks. Easy to walk round the layout with it too. You can add another throttle (NEC CAB04,05 or 06) very easily for two operator control; 2 kids, a very useful feature.

Hornby R8156

If space is an issue, consider instead an end-to-end layout, which can be built along one or two walls of a room and need not take up much floor space. Additional temporary sections could be deployed to extend the layout into a circuit if wished, and stored away under the fixed section when not in use. Alternatively, N gauge is very good for smaller portable layouts as it's half the size of 00. Two 4x2 sections hinged in the middle would give you a 8x2 layout when unfolded- enough for a decent continuous circuit in N but only a small end-to-end layout in 00. Quite a plethora of comments alread, which is great! You can always rely on RMwebers for comment and advice. 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. 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. And that goes for the simple layouts too. A theme really does ‘glue’ all the visual parts of a layout together.

A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. I was very disheartened at the prospect of losing my original HD layout as we embarked in relocating to Scotland. I attach a pic to give some idea of my layout.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. Borrowing from Kebang, I took his set-up and applied it to 7 x 5, a foot more each way, but with the access and operation space moved inside.

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