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

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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). Thor Trains was a great selection of HO plans but now seems to have stopped. I’ll update this shortly. #5 Model Railroad Hobbyist.com Not quite. Please take another look at the Scarm diagram. There are 2 diamond crossings. The return loop in the centre needs to leave the outer line at the bottom and cross the inner line via a diamond. Hence the train moves from the outer line to the inner line when reversing. Trains drive on the left. The return to the upper level (to be prototypical which is not essential) needs to leave the inner line and cross the outer line via a diamond crossing again. That crossover you have put in is facing the direction of travel of a train. Not so much these days, but in the past on real railways facing crossovers were avoided. BUT its your railway! The outer to inner crossing on your reversing loop would make the electrics simpler for DC too.

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. 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. 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.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). And that goes for the simple layouts too. A theme really does ‘glue’ all the visual parts of a layout together. Having seen David's reply (arrived while typing), if you still do want to go electrofrog, read on .... 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. In my previous post I was worried about a leaky roof dropping moisture onto my layout. Well, it’s not what I thought. The following explanation from my brother means a much easier fix.

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.

A return loopdoes take a lot of hassle out of operating as you can reverse a train without shunting 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? 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? However if you mirror image the plan the sidings become trailing problem solved, and if you put two extra sidings on the fan of three and remove the return loop sidings it removes one electrical complication. as you can put in a diamond crossing and have the loop going from outer main to inner main and not actually forming a loop,

Well, my initial enthusiasm for building my new layout continues but I’d forgotten a couple of key issues since I built my first layout. Probably most important is the sensible display of HD buildings. They need to be spread out across the layout and in a way that maximises their display value. So, I want the turntable with its shed (and extension) to invite the eye to look at the parked locos within. I’ve attached a picture from my old layout which, hopefully, shows the look I’m after. 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!!)Quite a plethora of comments alread, which is great! You can always rely on RMwebers for comment and advice.

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.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.