Hello, total newbie, near Southampton

[Mountain Goat]

Hello. A friend of mine has made a 00 gauge layout and she has made it so it raizes when not in use. She is having tremendous fun making it.

[Maria]

WOW, thank you all for the very warm welcome!

Some great advice which I’ll be following through. I had no idea there was a shop in Poole, and the other suggestion for the layouts is great, so thank you all.

I must admit, I hadn’t considered having to lean over the board, we may need to reduce to 3ft, I’ll need to check the track to see if we can loop it back it within that space

So many things to think about!!!

Thanks again everyone

[bulleidboy]

WOW, thank you all for the very warm welcome!

So many things to think about!!!

Thanks again everyone

Hi Maria

Yes, there are many things to think about, especially before you start spending. How big is your room? Do you want to just watch a train(s) running round and round, or will a train be just something that moves on your model. In my case (Wykeham - Somewhere in the south), I knew exactly what I wanted before I started building - having said that I had spent a long time looking at track plans and watching YouTube videos on how things were done.
When we start we are all desperate to see a train moving, but there really is no need to rush things. I have been working on my layout for six or seven years and there is still a long way to go.
Will you be modelling in 00 or N gauge, are you planning a DCC or analogue layout - all these things need serious consideration before you start.
Are you going to model the steam era or modern diesel/electric locos? Of course it's your layout so you can do what you like (Rule 1 ).
I have attached a link that will give numerous layout plans and for various sizes - https://freetrackplans.com/index.html

As has already been said, if there is anything you need to know, do ask, it can save so much time, and remember no question is a silly question.

BB

[Mr Bones]

Welcome to the forum Maria. Friendly helpful bunch on here, enjoy.

[Maria]

Well, we got a bit carried away with the baseboard!

I shall continue on a new thread as progress has been made from saying hello

[andruec]

Welcome to the forum and a fun hobby. Your baseboard is a similar size to mine but slightly longer and not as wide (mine is 2.1m by 1.5m) and I can confirm that reaching to the middle isn't ideal. I solved it by having all the track that's more than 500mm from the edge be elevated on separate baseboards. That way I can work on them separately. Nonetheless I have a couple of runs that would be a problem if I had to solder drop wires on the 'far' side.

What gauge are going to run? It is just about possible to have track going over track in n-gauge but to accomplish it you either need to split the incline into two as I did or install a helix. 1.5 metres is just enough to raise track half way for n-gauge (30mm).

N-gauge does let you do more in less space it's a bit fiddly.

[Maria]

Hi Andruec, it’s “00”

We’ve just been placing track on the board to see what we like at the moment, and playing around with the possibilities.

We can get an oval on the right but will be splitting track into 3 on the left (or at least that’s today’s plan )

We’ve thought about elevating some track but at this stage want to keep it fairly simple as we are just starting out.

I think we’ll also need to do a bit of bork on prepping the baseboard before we consolidate the design, but I suspect it’ll have a 1970s feel