Kids first Hornby Set - Help with base board etc

[TRB]

My 7 year old is a prolific saver, I can safely go in toy shops and while his sister spends her pocket money (and then some!), he never parts with his cash and prefers to save it in the bank.

That is until yesterday when he saw a Hornby set he liked the look of. It was a Virgin Trains Pendolino - I guess because he went on Virgin trains last week. I'm quite pleased as mum is uber-sensible and I'm irresponsible so he's somewhere in the middle!

Anyhow, he bought the basic oval with a few of the extra recommended track packs. It came with a ghastly paper mat and the manual shows how you stick this to board and have the track above. I think personally, it'd be better to have track straight on the board but ditch the paper.

So I need some help with making the board (as yet not bought it!) look like the play mat. I never had a train set, but vaguely remember seeing people with sticky 'grass' or whatever it was.

Bearing in mind how sensible my lad 'normally' is, the board (1800x1200mm) should last quite a while before needing expanding.

Any tips, or anyone got a basic arrangement that noobs could put together?

[marshal_alan]

standard 2" by 1" frame with 12mm mdf or plywood on top, make your frame so that there is cross bracing every foot. will be rock solid, legs made from 2" by 2" hinged on the baseboard with bracing from half inch angle iron. If you arent competent in joinery then speak to your local friendly joiner who will build you a decent baseboard. i cant stress strongly enough but the baseboard is the foundation of a model railway/train set. Make an arse of it and it will never be level and the trains will derail. do it right and it will last a lifetime. would budget £100 for a 8' by 4' board. might sound a lot but it is worth it

[miniman]

Good advice. I built a decent frame but used Sundeala hobby board instead of MDF / ply. It is, simply speaking, st.

[Busa mav]

Sundeala board worked well for us too

[kenny Chim 4]

Hi there.

Once you've sorted the board the two of you can paint the top with matt brown paint. Then get some track underlay such as this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-R638-Gauge-Underlay... It acts as a cushion and also looks like stone ballast. Lay the track on to that with fixing pins.

You mentioned that grass effect. You can buy it in packs very cheaply such as here: http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/model-railways/jav... Quite a range.

Just apply Copydex or wood glue (both very child friendly) to wherever you want on the board, scatter, let set and either shake or brush off the remainder.

When I was a kid, my dad made a rudamentary model tunnel by removing the (other) end of a soup tin, cutting down the side and bending to shape. I then busily covered the sides with home made papier-mache to create the surrounding hill.

You can now buy bridges and stuff like this: http://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/Peco-PS-36-La... Just add water and saves a lot of mess

Edited by kenny Chim 4 on Tuesday 23 April 23:14

[lufbramatt]

For "grass", a 50:50 mixture of water and PVA glue, with a few drops of washing up liquid (v. important) in a cheap wilcos trigger spray bottle works really well for glueing it down.

[TRB]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Having looked on ebay I see 2 different materials used to make the track. Do they work with each other if I buy some older 'retro' stuff?

[lufbramatt]

Try to get nicke silver track as it won't rust. Hornby and Peco geometry is slightly different so you might end up having to cut little filler pieces if you mix them, although peco points are much better than hornby. Stick with "dead frog" points for the time being otherwise it means doing more wiring to avoid short circuits with "live frog" points.