The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Hi, after some years, before which I was in a nice shed with my layout, I am starting again in a corner of my bedroom. The shed didn't work as it was too cold and the animal kingdom often invaded the tunnel I had made as well as the shed!!. I am just buying and laying track, as well as working out what I can fit into the space. This is about 5ft by 4ft in a sort of fat 'L' shape. I am trying to make a thin L opposite to this to to complete an oval or roundy-roundy.
I'm struggling with what track to get as far as curves are concerned, one track piece said a 22.5 degree arc. Does that mean the whole curve or what?. I don't really know this bit!!.
I have an 0F 0-4-0 'Pug', a 0-6-0 Tank engine and my treasured King Class 'King George V' which is a very old original Lima product. Hopefully pics to follow.

The 22.5 refers to how many degrees of a circle the curve is; 22.5 equals one eighth of a complete circle. Depending on the manufacturer, there should also be something to indicate which radius of curve it is, Hornby used to make four IIRC to allow a four track layout

Or you could use Peco flexible track and set out your own curves.

Dazzled wrote:Or you could use Peco flexible track and set out your own curves.

Thanks for that chaps. Flexible track seems a good idea, I only need tank engine size stuff to run on it into the sidings and so on.

Planning is all important before you start. What type of layout do you want? A circular loop to run trains round on or end to end running with a station and yard at one end and a fiddle yard/storage sidings at the other. Are you bothered about accuracy (or should that be how bothered are you about it)? The greatest radius curves will be more prototypical but space may constrict what you can do. I only say this because years ago I built a layout, then I joined the railway and discovered most of what I did was wrong. I ripped it up with every intention of doing it right, but have never got back to rebuilding it

Ratch wrote:Planning is all important before you start. What type of layout do you want? A circular loop to run trains round on or end to end running with a station and yard at one end and a fiddle yard/storage sidings at the other. Are you bothered about accuracy (or should that be how bothered are you about it)? The greatest radius curves will be more prototypical but space may constrict what you can do. I only say this because years ago I built a layout, then I joined the railway and discovered most of what I did was wrong. I ripped it up with every intention of doing it right, but have never got back to rebuilding it

Thanks for that Ratch. It's not going to be right I think, I have made room for an oval for my 4-6-0. Inside this is a marshalling/siding yard for some shunting for my 0-6-0 and 0-4-0. I have read some mags and know what SHOULD be done but it will be a fictional setting due to space and mostly steam. Perhaps with a Deltic or the like thrown in to ruin the historical accuracy!!.

Good luck with it Marky, I hope you get lots of enjoyment out of it

Ratch wrote:Good luck with it Marky, I hope you get lots of enjoyment out of it

Thanks Ratch. I've just completed the outer oval and the engines all run although to varying success. The 0-4-0 is quite happy, the 0-6-0 is a little hesitant on one or two tiny places including the points. The King George V is okay but weakens the farther from the power track it gets. Mind you, she is over 40 years old and has never been serviced or checked or anything so I'm not holding it against her!!.
P.S. It did bring me enjoyment simply by having the 0-4-0 running around with it's trucks. I was like -->
Pics....

Nice work so far Mark!

Not often you see a hand drill nowadays too!

Thanks. The drill was my dad's, hopefully he remembers giving to me and doesn't think I pinched more of his tools!!. I'm struggling again with the oval. Due to space concerns (the oval sticks out too far into the bedroom space, meaning mum will no doubt whack into it if it's permanent, She has a history of shooting down models aircraft while dusting), so it needs to be removable but my problem is this:- how do I make it removable with track on it?. It needs to come down and be set up quickly but if the track is fixed I can't slide it apart and not having it fixed might cause it to bend too much. I tried taking the fishplates (the bits that connect track if that is what they are called), but the circuit wasn't as successful as it was with them.
Any one know more than me?, and have advice that a novice railwayer like me can carry out?. Ta.

I could suggest a few options but it's difficult as I don't know what space you have available.
If the oval is too large then why not reduce the length of the straight pieces of track in between and bring the end sections closer together?

Here is a photo of the layout board I made that we used at Telford in 2015. It is 6ft by just under 4ft (it was 4ft wide but wouldn't fit in my car so I had to saw a bit along one edge).



It is one solid piece and all of the track is nailed in place and connected with fishplates. It was intended to be a running layout but we had problems with power so it became a static exhibit. It is wired with connection point soldered to the side of the track. You can have more than one connection point as long as the wires connect back to the same terminal on your controller.

If you make your layout boards into one piece like this (mine is 3 bits of MDF screwed together below the layout with batons of 40mmx22mm like the ones you seem to be using) would you be able to stand it against a wall when not in use? All you need to do each time you use it is stand it on a table or something and then connect the wires to your controller and get out your rolling stock, scenery and building and away you go! This would also make it portable so you could even have it out in the garden in the summer.

I'm lucky enough to have space in the loft for my layout. If you need any help just ask - I can show you photos of how to do things if you aren't sure.

If I can help also Mark just say the word. I was an ardent railway modeller for many years and still have the remains of my layout in the loft. I was also Director of Engineering at a heritage railway for a couple of years and still have many contacts in both model railways and the 1:1 scale variety.

This looks fun to watch, I'm also planning on dabbling with a very small HO/OO layout and fancy building a lngelnook puzzle that only takes up the size of an ironing board, check out this link for more info on what I mean http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/ ... kplan.html

Regards Splash

NO, no, no.

I'm not getting into railway modelling again.....hopefully.

I still have something along those lines in the loft partially built....it's in N gauge, about 6' long by 1' wide if anyone is interested in having it.....
It is part landscaped with a lot of home made trees (using Woodland Scenics dries flower stems and flock), and the track is laid. Free to a good home