Model Railway Forum

It is with a slightly heavy heart that I have decided to abandon my old hornby dublo stuff from my childhood and start a fresh in N. I have been allowed a spare room which is an L shape basically 8 x 8 with a 5 x 3 cut out. OO would be possible but quite limiting so, with the exception of my Hornby Dublo Barnstable, who will end his days in a small diarama in a glass case on the wall, I think I'm going to sell up and move on. At age 61 its over 50 years since I was last involved in building a model railway and its going to be my lifes work no hurry just some quiet happy me time. My main interests are GWR and SR steam but having said that if anyone brings out a west country/bob BR version without the spamcan and Walschaerts valve gear I'll be first in the queue. My railway my rules . I belive Dapol are bringing out a spamcan one so that will have to do for now. I also like the peco code 55 track and i'm assuming at 9mm gauge its similar to EM in 4mm so quite scale. I'm also a massive aviation fan and a small airfield will be part of the scene. Easy enough in OO but I think a delve into 3D printing might solve that. This has been on my mind for the last 10 years so time to crack on I think

Have you considered TT gauge. Not too big not too small. Just a thought.

N gauge is a good choice. Lots of stuff available and a healthy second hand marketplace too. I agree with your choice of Code 55. I have used both 55, on my own layout, and 80, on our club layout and the Code 55 is much easier to work with. I'd also recommend using Unifrog points wherever you can.

Have you decided on DC or DCC yet? To be honest, if you're starting ftom scratch with a new layout it's a bit of a no brainer to go DCC.

Remember to design your track layout before you build your base board. That way you can make sure you don't have cross support battens running under points where you may want to install a motor. Anyrail software is great for designing your layout snc easy to use. You can download it for free initially and only have to pay for a licence ehen you have more than 50 sections of track.

Good luck.

Not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but if you are into planning using a PC here is another contender https://www.scarm.info/index.php
R-

Morning , chaps, and thank you so much for the helpful replies. I have SCARM and anyrail. I have initially drawn a track plan the old fasioned way with a pencil and compasses but I will try to replacate it on the computer before going any further. I've not decided about DCC yet as I have several home build PWM controllers but I agree DCC is probably the way to go although it does have cost implications. I do like the TT 120 but it is currently quite limited with regards to locos with no SR or GWR currently available. If I dont make a decisdion and stick to it its not going to happen so N it is . Thank you for your encouragement - I'll keep you posted

I'm like you Nick, much prefer the old method of pencil and compasses. I planned my latest 009 project that way earlier this year, first on A4 square grid printed paper then full size directly onto the baseboard. I love my computers and use them extensively for anything I can but can't be bothered learning another piece of software when I can do the job quicker. Look forward to your progress.

Thank you. Yes I'm actually quite happy with what I've produced on a sheet of A4 so may well just get building the baseboard and draw it out full size. I believe Peco do templates of their points (or are they called turnouts now lol) on their website so I can check everything fits before spending too much money,

Nickk wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 10:56 am Thank you. Yes I'm actually quite happy with what I've produced on a sheet of A4 so may well just get building the baseboard and draw it out full size. I believe Peco do templates of their points (or are they called turnouts now lol) on their website so I can check everything fits before spending too much money,

Buy a few lengths of flexitrack (you will need it anyway) and print off a supply of the Peco templates and start shuffling them around on a board - often the best way to get started.

After I sold all my OO stuff and changed to O gauge, I had a loco running within 2 days.

Once you get a bit of track down it will inspire you to get things done. Steve is absolutely correct, get some flexi.

I'm doing the same, planning the track before I start putting things down... I've done it on the computer, with AnyRail, and I'm also doing it with the track, loose-laying it on the board(s).

in doing the second part, I found a much better layout that I preferred over my original design... it's worth doing!