Model Railway Forum

Evening all,

I thought I'd start a build thread for the layout I'm currently building for my 2 yr old son for Xmas (as well as for me ).

I last had a 'train set' when I was about 13. It was made of 4 ~2ftx~8ft wide boards in a square in my bedroom. It only had too loops with now sidings and after I paper mached the tunnel I didn't do any scenics, but I could sit for hours watching my Swallow liveried Intercity 225 and Br blue Class 37 thunder round and round. I've been waiting 20 yrs for an excuse for another, and just over 2yrs ago he showed up!!

He completely mad for Thomas stuff. His first words after 'mum' and 'Dot' (our dogs name) were 'Thom', 'Perc' and 'Gorgan'. Noticed 'dad' wasn't one of the first! Even now he calls me 'Gar' more than 'Dad', kids these days.... no respect,lol. A year of so ago I bought him a couple of Hornby sets that were on sale, a Thomas one and a Percy one, and whilst in Thomas land in the summer I convinced the mrs to let him have a loco so long as he pointed to it and say its name. She forgot that the only ones he could say were Thomas, Percy and Gordon! So we've also now got a Gordon.

Anyway onto the new layout. My intention was to do a ~6x4 layout that would fit on the dining room table or on the floor in the living room and small enough that I could move it about. I wanted 2 loops and some sidings and originally a turn table to keep the link with the Thomas tv show but decided it would be too complicated for now so settled with 4 berths that eventually will have a shed over them. After hours of experimenting on Scarm I decided on this
In an ideal world there would be more crossovers but a combination on sprialling costs and its main purpose of running Thomas round and round I thought it was a good compromise. I used what I could from the sets I'd already bought, but the extra track still came to nigh on £200 plus I bought some Xuron cutters and other bits and bobs (as well as a used Flying Scotsman and a pair of triang teak coaches when I 'popped' into Lord and Butler in Cardiff to pick up an extra point... oops).

So far I've got all the track tacked down to check everything for real then I'll be pulling it up and laying some cork sheet down. Ill then paint all the ply white and the cork grey and add some skirting board around the edge to both stiffen the board and catch any errant rolling stock. I'm not going to do any other scenics to this. I want to wait for him to get a bit older then we can paint some roads and grass and rivers and build cardboard tunnels and sheds and generally treat it like a kids train set for a while and then see if it develops into a nice layout or just a taster that will convince me (and him) to do a bigger layout in the loft.

As for control it will be all DC using the controllers that came with the sets as well as an extra controller for the sidings so daddy can play while mini me races Thomas and Gordon. And thats how it was going to be, until I went to a model railway exhibition in Pontypridd a couple of weeks ago when I saw a layout by (I think) Rhondda model railway club who that was a basic 2 loop setup with simple but functional scenery specifically made for running Thomas trains for kids. They had incorporated a switch on 2 corners of the base board, one for each loop, so the kids could start and stop each train which I thought was a brilliant idea for young ones who like playing with switches like my boy does and will be great for my my nephew comes down they can play trains together.

I'll be doing some more work this weekend with the deadline drawing ever closer and I'll try and remember to take some photos as I go.

Gareth

Sounds like a great project for both of you.

Look forward to seeing it progress. Your son will love it.

You will need an extra power feed for the headshunt along with some insulated rail joiners. The plan is nice. You can either use two controllers with cab control (Either wired common return if the controllers can work with common return or wire the non common return method) OR just use three controllers.

I've got a third basic Hornby controller that I've had connected to the headshunt with a Hornby power connector, its a DCC type one, which was all my LMS had in stock the day I was there, which I think means no suppressor so should I get hold of a DC type one? I've used the 2 r600 type power tracks that came with the Thomas and Percy sets that are the brown button type which I think means they had got a suppressor built in to them.

Where should I be putting insulated joiners? I've had it all working and the left hand point between the fiddle yard and the inner main line should keep the head shunt and inner loop power separate and I'll just have to be careful with the points between the inner and outer loops. The Hornby controllers I'm using seem to go into short circuit protection quite quickly if one is forward and one back and they end up connected together.

I'm thinking I can have a bit of an inglenook going while mini me races his trains around the loops.

The first double pair of insulated railjoiners need to go inbetween thw pair of R8073 points that link one oval of track to the next. (The crossover points).
I need to draw out the plan and photograph it on my other tablet as it is easier to show you via a diagram...

How does a loco get from one loop to another across the insulated points? Is it a case of synchronising the inner and out controllers and just driving over the gap?

I finished temporarily laying out the track today and I'll be pulling it all up to lay the cork tomorrow so now is a perfect time to be ironing out any bits and bobs.

This is the general method of DC wiring if using standard Hornby points which have insulated frogs. Note the positions of power feeds. The wiring is mainly ideal for cab control dividing the layout into four sections. If you omit the headshunt and the extra set of inner sidings running from the headshunt, you only need the one pair of insulating rail joiners in between the two ovals of track and two power feeds (One to each oval of track).
I hope this makes sense.
For cab control you only need two controllers and one double pole double throw centre off switch for each of the four track sections (Assuming you are using the whole layout plan).

An easier simplified plan to wire.

An in between version....

The power point in between the pair of points at the headshunt will need soldering (Better to solder to rail joiners in this position in case the points suffer damage... Peco sell ready soldered rail joiners ideal for this position.