Model railway layouts

[Simpo Two]

Not for me (before fifty anoraks are hurled in my direction) but for my neighbour who is finally pursuing his ambition to have a trainset in his garage...

Last week I helped him build a splendid baseboard/table that folds down from the wall, but now it's up to him to decide on a track layout. The board is 10' x 5'. I just wondered if anyone has any links to ideas for layouts, photos etc?

[V8mate]

Depends on how much of an anorak he wants to be.

Some people design their own fantasy railway. Some people pick a country and era and then use that to theme a self designed layout. Some people get actual track plans and try and re-create a particular real railway.


Apparently.

[z_chromozone]

When I was a child (some time ago), Hornby did a guide to suggested layouts. I think that there were pictures and track designs based upon different sized layouts. It may be worth looking it up.

Surely there must be some stuff on the net to help too.

Z (I think that my Mallard is still in the attic)

[Stigmundfreud]

I always found a loop works well, if feeling adventurous an inner loop too.

[Simpo Two]

V8mate said:

Depends on how much of an anorak he wants to be.

Well he did want to recreate Ipswich station... I have no idea why... but has abandoned that idea as he can't fit it on.

z_chromozone said:

Z (I think that my Mallard is still in the attic)

I have a Wrenn diecast 'City of Stoke-on-Trent' - the only survivor from my own layout - sold in 1979 to pay for a cassette deck

[RedexR]

LOL anyone see James May and favourite toys from our childhood , " I've got a layout "

[tribbles]

z_chromozone said:

When I was a child (some time ago), Hornby did a guide to suggested layouts. I think that there were pictures and track designs based upon different sized layouts.

I remember that too. They also did some plastic scale track pieces (which were the same as the track bits) that clipped together (a bit like a very small Scaletrix track), and you could see how the layout would be. From memory, they were about 1/10th the size of the real bits.

[Darkslider]

When I was little me and my dad had a big Hornby train set on a 10' by 6' board. All of our quality time used to be making hills and mountains out of papier mache, houses and villages out of cardboard, cliffs out of bark and cork, you name it.

[xllifts]

AnorakCough try here used it for my nippers to get ideas coughanorak

http://www.myrrlayout.com/R/Aspfiles/listing.asp?s...

http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/track.htm

Hope it helps you with your trains

Edited by xllifts on Saturday 18th October 22:33

[V8mate]

Simpo Two said:

V8mate said:

Depends on how much of an anorak he wants to be.

Well he did want to recreate Ipswich station... I have no idea why... but has abandoned that idea as he can't fit it on.

Not even in 'N' gauge?

[falcemob]

10X5 isn't that big unless he's working in N or narrow gauge. For that size he might want to build most of it to one scene such as a station or goods yard, or both and then have a hidden loop at the back.

[Pigeon]

Simpo Two said:

V8mate said:

Depends on how much of an anorak he wants to be.

Well he did want to recreate Ipswich station... I have no idea why... but has abandoned that idea as he can't fit it on.

You always get that, any station or other piece of real railway complicated enough to be interesting is too big to fit in a reasonable space.

One option is to take inspiration from real life track plans but cut things down and shorten things and maybe bend them round a bit to fit.

Another option is to model in N rather than 00. You still get the same problem but not so badly.

[King Herald]

Stigmundfreud said:

I always found a loop works well, if feeling adventurous an inner loop too.

I'll agree with that. It gets pretty boring having a single straight track across the board.






I'm sure Google images will throw up some pretty impressive toy trains model railways.

[sadako]

http://tmrc.mit.edu/

[sjn2004]

falcemob said:

10X5 isn't that big unless he's working in N or narrow gauge. For that size he might want to build most of it to one scene such as a station or goods yard, or both and then have a hidden loop at the back.

Or possibly HOm, Bemo make a good range of Swiss narrow gauge but they are a bit pricey. The rolling stock is a lot shorter and you can have much tighter curves.

http://www.bemo-modellbahn.de/

[drivin_me_nuts]

Could do worse than look here,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/

some of the work here is stunning and the attention to detail remarkable. (also a friendly forum which is rare...)

[speedchick]

There is a small book that has layout suggestions in it, we have one somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. Also the model railway magazines have a lot of hints and tips in them.

When the plan was for my other half to have a big layout, he got busy buying the trains and I got busy with the Metcalfe building kits (the trains just do nothing for me)

We did find that the Metcalfe kits looked a lot better than the Hornby 'Smallville' Platic buildings.

But now he has decided to forget about the trains, in pursuit of his HGV licence, so we have a load of trains listed on Ebay at the moment. (email me if anyone wants the seller details.... be quick, they finish tomorrow night!)

We also need to decide what to do with the buildings that I built, I think we have a church, brewery, farm buildings, a station and a huge viaduct.

[900T-R]

Unless he wants it to look like ehm, a toy train layout and assuming 00/HO scale, his best bet will be deciding on one scene like a part of a station, then make the trains disappear under a road viaduct, platform canopy etc. on either end and make it a functional layout by means of a hidden loop with extra tracks to 'park' trains. What really undermines the illusion of looking at a 'real' part of a railway system is having trains running after their own tails in the open...

Edited by 900T-R on Sunday 19th October 11:34

[miniman]

Went into the toy shop in Bourton on the Water last week which turned out to be a proper model railway shop. Is it wrong that I am toying with the idea of building my 5-month-old daughter a set?

[900T-R]

miniman said:

Went into the toy shop in Bourton on the Water last week which turned out to be a proper model railway shop. Is it wrong that I am toying with the idea of building my 5-month-old daughter a set?

Yes, very. Stop being an apologist poofter and buy your own set!