Hello from Haverfordwest

[Probablynot]

Hello from me, another Brian, living in the furthest west part of south west Wales.
I'm not exactly new to model railways. I remember being given one of those clockwork Hornby sets as a child, with a gleaming circle of track, a station and (I think) a level crossing. I still remember Dad setting it up, level crossing on one side and the station dead opposite.
Then he wound up the loco and set the train in motion.
Round and round went the train, quickly at first, then slower, and slower, until it came to a halt astride the level crossing.
I cried and cried! "It didn't stop at the station!" I bawled, and I don't think I ever played with it again. Even at that age, I'd really wanted one of those train sets that had a button you could press to start and stop the train.
That would have been my third birthday. It was July 1939, and I didn't see much of Dad after that until he came home injured in 1944 after crashing his Beaufighter in the Libyan desert.
The desire for a 'proper' train set never went away for the next 80-plus years, but it was never a desire that got fulfilled.
Until last month, when it all got the better of me and I bought myself a Flying Scotsman set (Hornby R1255M).
Now, I'm aiming to set up a layout in the shed that used to be my model shipbuilding workshop. I've got some basic woodworking to do (to extend the running surfaces), but then I'll be desperately looking for some help organising the layout.
First question: Can I actually *cut* the track pieces to make them fit the layout that I want, or do I have to work within the confines of manufactured standard sizes?

[Mountain Goat]

You are about an hour and a half away from me. Track pieces can be cut as flexible track is designed to be cut to length, and other track can be cut as well but one may need to take care how one does it so that railjoiners will fit onto them, though one can always solder.
Congratulations on your new set. Model railways these days are not cheap but they are good, but also consider secondhand to save costs though make sure they are ok before buying if you can.
Welcome to this forum.

[Journeyman]

Welcome to the group, you will find them all very friendly and helpful.
I’m just up the road from you in the hills!
Very similar background to you, Father bought a clock work Hornby and Aunt Beatty gave me a lot of secondhand track for Christmas. Always wanted an 00 gauge which I bought last year.

Dave.

[darkscot]

First question: Can I actually *cut* the track pieces to make them fit the layout that I want, or do I have to work within the confines of manufactured standard sizes?

Welcome to the forum. I have only been to Haverfordwest once in my life, that was in the late 1980s when I passed through on the way to Milford Haven.

To answer your question, yes you can cut the track pieces to make them fit. However, I would not recommend doing that with the track that comes with the train set. As Mountain Goat has said, normally people use flexible track when the need to make something fit.

[Brian]

Hi Probablynot (Brian)

Welcome to the forum.

Your question re cutting track has been answered already so hope that helps?
One thing not to do is to try and make sectional curved track into a smaller radius than its fixed at. In fact curves should whenever possible be as large a radius as possible.

We look forward to reading more form you and perhaps seeing your progress as the weeks and months pass by.

[Bandit Mick]

Welcome to the friendly forum.

[Walkingthedog]

Welcome Brian from Brian.

[teedoubleudee]

Hi Brian and welcome to our forum

[Puddles]

I started with a train set in a box but never used the set track that came with it. I used flexitrack and points from Peco so it all went together with no problems. I did use the set track as a minimum guide for the radius and made sure I did not make the curves any tighter than the set track provided with the train set.
Looks like you are about to create a fine layout with the experience you have of model boat building.
Puddles

[sandy]

A warm welcome to the forum. lots of help available here. I am Building a new layout at the moment and the help I have recieved on here has been really good.