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

Product Information

Sorry, but the trouble with people who don't read a thread from the start is that they don't realise that the baseboard exists already and there is plenty of room around it - otherwise I agree with everything you say! I would read up and decide what control system you want for the layout DC (analog) or DCC (digital) and then get the best controller you can that suits what you want to do.

On a more quirky note – the table legs for my new layout were cut to the same size as my original layout. However, in a longer but narrower attic space they just looked too high. Sounds odd but I ended up cutting two inches off their length and now they look in proportion. What’s more, he’s got busy with a theme in mind. I think that’s important because over the years the layouts that turn out the best always have a theme in mind from day one. Quite a plethora of comments alread, which is great! You can always rely on RMwebers for comment and advice.

Hornby R8156

The wife and myself have finally cleared our box room in preparation for providing our son's Hornby trains with a permenant home/layout. The room is long and narrow so we intend to build on a 8' x 4' (2.4m x 1.2m) board [albeit cut to approx 44"/110cm wide MAX and possibly 7'/2.1m - this is to allow space around the board]. Note: We anticipate cutting an access hole somewhere in the middle of the board! Looks like you have a train set controller this is not the best have a talk to a hobby shop about a better quality one, unfortunately it is common to all brands train set controllers they are not adequate once you start expanding the set.

An 8' X 4' actually needs 14' X 10' as you need to be able to get round the whole table to make good use of the board and run a scenic divider down the middleish sort of location to make it seem bigger than it is. Is the gradient going to be too steep and if so- how can I raise the top platform a little to extend the run - i.e. I have 3 tiers of height. Borrowing from Kebang, I took his set-up and applied it to 7 x 5, a foot more each way, but with the access and operation space moved inside.Putting the second station above the first means that you can make the branch station a little bigger than shown, with perhaps a small goods yard as well as David's carriage siding. You could make some model loco shed faces and hide the actual locos under the upper board for example. If space is an issue, consider instead an end-to-end layout, which can be built along one or two walls of a room and need not take up much floor space. Additional temporary sections could be deployed to extend the layout into a circuit if wished, and stored away under the fixed section when not in use. Alternatively, N gauge is very good for smaller portable layouts as it's half the size of 00. Two 4x2 sections hinged in the middle would give you a 8x2 layout when unfolded- enough for a decent continuous circuit in N but only a small end-to-end layout in 00.