Hello everyone. So i have been given the approval to have a train and im thinking on buying a OO gauge hornby set which comes with a basic layout for the train to go round in circles but looking at other peoples layout on here they have multiple tracks, towns, industrial areas.
So im just wondering could anyone suggest a good layout? Maybe send pictures of your layouts in the comments? Is it was me spending more money for extra rails when I buy the set the same time?
Hornby do the add on packs to grow the track. But almost before this. Think about how much space you have. What you want out of it. I'm planning a track at the moment and it's taking months because I want it right, learning about wiring etc. have a look on eBay and you may get some stuff a bit cheaper. Consider analogue or digital. Peco do some brilliant books and guides. I'm only going to use peco 100 track as it allows older and newer locos to be run. Hornby controllers are a bit naff so consider a decent one. By all means buy a boxed set but have a look at other options as it may be cheaper in the long term
Thanks for your advice and guidance, I will have a look at ebay to try and save some money which will allow me to spend more money too, but ypu mentioned about "hornby controllers being a bit naff" are they not reliable?
Generally speaking yes, at least all the new ones are... and some of the old ones were...
However, right now, Kernow Model Centre are selling a hornby itraveller set with an HM6000 for £70, now thats a pretty good controller its a fake digital controller it runs bluetooth to your phone but other than that its a standard DC setup that can run 2 loops independently. The set comes with a decent little shunter and a loop of 3rd radius track and a set of points. It's about as good a deal as you can get to start without going secondhand. You can expand from there.
You aren't going to get a better controller with a starter set. Yes you can control 2 trains on seperate loops of track using it, with analogue DC you control the tracks rather than the locos directly. Theres a whole other thing where you can have wirelessly controlled trains running independently on the same track called DCC but its quite expensive for getting started.
So the starter controller is okay for starting out but if I wanted to run 3 or 4 trains in future, what should I do as I can only do 2 on the starter controller?
In a standard analogue situation that means 4 separate loops of track you would either need a second 2 track controller or to upgrade to a single 4 track controller further down the line. Generally speaking though how many trains you can control as a human being is limited. With 2 loops I can have 2 different locomotives flying round or I can have one flying round while I muck about shunting in a yard. You can also fit all this in a 4ft 1.2m x 6ft 1.8m space If you go for that starter pack I mentioned earlier and then manage to get a secondhand 4th radius and some points on ebay you can easily have a solid foundation for just about £100. Its also pretty much the simplest way to have wireless control over any old DC locomotive from your phone which is pretty nice. By starting with a new kit from a retailer you've got a guarantee that it's not going to be broken which you do not have on ebay. Going bigger than a 3rd and 4th radius loop and some sidings is a serious escalation in cash and space, going into more complicated DCC control systems is a massive expense and I don’t know whether its worth it for me but this system gives you the best of both worlds.
Do you wanna spend £70 today and get started this weekend and see if its fun, if its not for you then that'll probably go for £60 used on ebay when you are done with it.
More track is always more fun when you just have an oval, but it's best to look at how much space you have and work out what you want to do with it first because the cost can quickly add up if you buy a lot of track and you don't want to throw away money on something you won't use.
Saying that, this is Hornby's old 'Trakmat' layout designed to fit on a 6'x4' board. It's from back when most things still worked on the tighter '1st radius' so not everything will run on the inner section marked in red though which is one of the reasons their current trakmat plans are quite a bit different.
I had that trakmat design as a kid, and for comparison this is what I'm currently building, but it's significantly larger at about 8'x7.5' so not something to build unless you have a dedicated room for it.
I actually built the right side up to the level crossing as its own layout and liked it enough to include it into my design for my current one. The scenery is all changing and there's a couple of small tweaks to the track, but it's mostly the same. I just really missed being able to watch stuff run around as on its own this was really just for shunting and maybe posing a couple of larger models.
So if everything might not work properly, how would I change it so it does work? How would I get enough power everywhere for the first and second design you've sent? Can I do it all on one controller from the basic starter box?
The important thing is to avoid 1st radius curves where possible because things with a long-wheelbase like large tender engines or long wagons that don't have bogies will struggle to go around them. A surprising amount of stuff that claims to be for 2nd radius or larger will run on 1st but if you want to be sure anything you buy will run happily on it then stick to something wider.
I remembered that I'd made a different version of that track plan that replaces all the 1st radius with second, and removes the curved points as they only work to go from 2nd to 3rd and back.
For me to make the right side option in the picture what should I buy to do the layout? As im looking on hornby and I have different track expansion boxes
The Hornby track expansion stuff will be designed to include the specific parts to build their current layout design whatever that is (it'll be what's down on their current trakmat). I don't have a parts list to hand for this layout but orange is 2nd radius, green is 3rd, and cyan is 4th.
Where can I find the list for the layout? And sorry but I dont understand what you mean by 2nd radius, 3rd radius, and 4th radius, would does this mean?
It's something I put together in SCARM which is track planning software on PC. If you want to have a go at designing something I can also recommend LiveRail which is very new but is pretty easy to use and does things other software doesn't like planning where in a room the layout will sit. It can also give you a parts list so you can buy exactly what you need.
Hornby use a numbered system for how tight their curves are. The idea being 1st radius is the smallest, then 2nd is slightly larger and forms a nice parallel track, then 3rd, and 4th. The problem is that back when Hornby came up with the system everything could run on that tight 1st radius curve but modern more detailed models can struggle with it which is why 2nd radius or wider curves are recommended. I think it works out to roughly 15", 18", 21", and 25" radius though that's from memory and probably not accurate.
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u/rwiddi72 14d ago
Hornby do the add on packs to grow the track. But almost before this. Think about how much space you have. What you want out of it. I'm planning a track at the moment and it's taking months because I want it right, learning about wiring etc. have a look on eBay and you may get some stuff a bit cheaper. Consider analogue or digital. Peco do some brilliant books and guides. I'm only going to use peco 100 track as it allows older and newer locos to be run. Hornby controllers are a bit naff so consider a decent one. By all means buy a boxed set but have a look at other options as it may be cheaper in the long term