Return to hobby and trial layout.

[ITG]

That squiggle of track on bottom left of the loop looks and will run awful. Too small a radius. You are disadvantaging yourself relying only on track you have in your possession. Although only a trial and learning layout, you need it hold your interest.  Locos that won’t run through that squiggle will lead to frustration. And loss of interest.

ian

[Keith Addenbrooke]

If I could add a thought under the “anything else that might be useful” heading, could I suggest trying some modelling for practice while you consider layout ideas an options - perhaps a building kit, or a small scenic diorama that includes a piece of track.  Experience suggests this can have three benefits:

 

1.  Doing some modelling can help the motivation while developing layout ideas, so there is a wider knock-on benefit.

2.  You may discover there is an aspect of the hobby you really enjoy, but didn’t know, so it can feature in your plans.

3.  Equally, you may find there’s an aspect of the hobby you just don’t enjoy, so you can allow for that in your plan too.

 

In my case, I learned I enjoy structure building, but don’t enjoy track laying.  Your experience might be entirely different, but there’s only one sure way to find out.  Just a thought, Keith.

[DCB]

On 17/06/2024 at 17:13, Jeff Smith said:

Here is a demo baseboard I built many years ago, 1'x3'.  1/4" ply and bracing.  Track bed only where there is track, the rest is open frame covered with cardboard strips and papier mache.  My standard is 6" below track level to allow for lower terrain, and for Chirk to allow the panel controller to be fitted.

 

 

This  is the sort of construction which suits between truss layouts   No  Base table just  solid track beds, yu can't get big sheets up there anyway

The loft looks like it would rake a 20ft X 9ft continuous run layout with a 3 or 5  ft operating well, Mine is about 15 X 9 usable but no trusses   I doubt even  3ft X 3ft board will fit the hatch.  so the small layout seems a bit pointless    My abandoned loft layout had a large 00  oval with sidings and three storage loops which to make 30 wagons 9 coaches and has done a lot of running despite never being more than 30% complete.    It was and is over complicated  with 3 levels and an ability to send trains clockwise or anticlockwise from the storage and the automation required proved far too expensive.    Had I built a station one side and storage sidings the other it would have been a lot better, but I  inherited a shed layout  and  at 60 pus climbing loft ladders is no longer much fun.   The entire area under the baseboards on mine was/is storage.

[Harlequin]

Hi Mike,

 

It's difficult to give any kind of useful feedback on single board oval trainsets because, almost by definition, you can do whatever you like without any regard to the prototype.

 

If you have ambitions to make a real model railway then it will be easier to give help and advice (and that has been the assumption for much of the commentary in this thread so far).

 

Edited June 19 by Harlequin

[Jeff Smith]

7 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Hi Mike,

 

It's difficult to give any kind of useful feedback on single board oval trainsets because, almost by definition, you can do whatever you like without any regard to the prototype.

 

If you have ambitions to make a real model railway then it will be easier to give help and advice (and that has been the assumption for much of the commentary in this thread so far).

 

I guess it largely depends on what you want to get out of a model railway.....  Having actually built an 8'x4' On30 oval layout (8'x2' scenic), I'm afraid I got bored with it quite quickly even though it was carefully thought out with some shunting potential.  However I really enjoyed building it......but I guess that's what I like best......

 

If you haven't built a layout lately you may be surprised at how much effort is required to build more than just a basic trainset type layout - even a flat top board requires convincing ground cover, ballasting, detailed buildings, fencing, trees (make your own, commercial ones are too small and unrealistic), concealed point motors, proper wiring, etc, etc.  Building a small diorama on the kitchen table can teach you a lot and guide your thoughts.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Hi Mike, I’ve had a brief re-read of the thread so far and wonder if I could make a second suggestion, please?  
 

In addition to recommending you try some modelling to see what you like / dislike (my earlier post), my actual suggestion for your OO trial layout (1m x 2m) would be to put the track and stock you’ve bought to one side for now and, if funds are OK, actually buy a train set to try out in the loft.  Unused ones can be found second hand to save money.

 

Why?  Getting everything into the loft, building a board and navigating the trusses, seem to me to be the key things to test (as well as checking out building regs).  In my experience, a train set is an easy way to make those things easy to test (I bought my own first proper train set when I was 39 and getting back into the hobby - it was well worth it, and fun too).  
 

Once satisfied, I would then return to the questions of layout style and design, theme and genre, taking time to explore them in depth while still having a useful test track for running in locos and stock.

 

Just a thought, Keith.

 

Edited June 21 by Keith Addenbrooke