aramand

Hi,

Well its been a long time since I've been on here but I was around back when this forum started I think so 'Hi' to anyone who remembers me - hope ye are all well! Anyway my plans for building a layout took a back seat for the last couple of years so I've not been active at all. I was going through my stock just to see what I had and decide what to do with it, I might try build a small layout at some point in the future but for now the stock needs to move from the room it was being stored in.

The question really is of all the stuff I have the only one I know very little about is a vintage Lima Class A (I think!!) - at one point I was wondering was it just a repaint but I think it might have been an official release. Anyone know anything about these ? There is no model number that I can see and I don't have a box so all that is on it is 'Lima Italy' underneath.

I put a DCC chip into it a couple of years ago and it runs very well now. As with all my stuff I'm trying to decide whether to keep it or move it on but if I was to sell this I've no idea if its worth €20, €50 or stick it on ebay as 'rare' for €500

BTW I can't remember exactly but I think I paid around €50 for it couple of years ago.

Thanks for the input - I can certainly reduce the main board from 3ft to 2.5ft I think, would make it more comfortable to work on while doing scenery and everything else...

Not sure that I can do much with the Helix width, I guess it may be able to reduce a little but Dave reckoned it would need to be 3.5-4ft diameter to accommodate the correct radius curves. Plan would be to try and keep the scenery simple on that (perhaps a hill and tunnel structure) but even so of I got a de-railment at the back of the helix I could be in trouble to reach it!

Apologies not sure why the image is showing up twice in the last post..

So, latest incarnation is the following :

Going to go with a double level on most of the layout but keep the lifting section so the door to the room can either be open or closed while the layout is being used.

On the Helix - is there a default or recommended height drop ? I've never seen one in real life but from a pure practical point of view and being able to access the lower level I'm thinking a 2 ft drop in height (the main part of the double level will be 3ft wide so need to be able to access the back of it) The lower level will not have any scenery on it and will really be a storage/fiddle yard.

Overall it would be made up of

-- 4 foot diameter helix (drawn as a 4ft sq but maybe round off the outside corner)

-- Double level 2ft * 2.5 ft

-- Double level 8.5 ft * 3ft (probably made up from 2 separate baseboard maybe 4ft * 3ft and 4.5ft * 3ft)

-- 2ft * 2.5ft

-- 2ft * 1.5ft

-- Lifting section approx 1ft wide and 3ft long

The tracks on the drawing are just indications of 3 loops I want to incorporate, the outer one will probably be a simple loop alright and be completely disconnected from rest of the track as it will run a live-steam loco, the inner two loops will be made more interesting rather than just running straight lines (hopefully!)

Thanks - some great ideas there!

Ok, I'll pm you details

Are the Mk3 coaches the ones from Lima - i.e. 2 coaches number 7161 and 7162 ?

If so will you take £40 incl P&P to Cork ?

Any pics ? I assume they are still in the box and in excellent condition ..

Cheers Anthony

 

The station is a Hornby item, iirc, its a thomas the tank engine station Will have a check

 

The next phase (arriving thursday) will cut through the wall to the right behind the signal box, and cross the stairwell with a giant suspension bridge (and yes, I'm rather looking forward to that!!! )

BTW just in case anyone is interested there are a couple of those stations available on ebay (from Germany) :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261093765741?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

€41.90 + €12.50 postage

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions - will definitely invest in a set of spacers and those tracksetta tools! I'm having enough trouble getting the tracks to join up in my drawings not to mind when I actually get to lay some real ones

@Dave by "multi level" do you mean almost 2 different layouts or just putting in some elevation into it ? One thing I was thinking of adding if the space allows is for a third completely separate loop on the outside of the layout that would be used for a Hornby Live Steam - it obviously cant join up with the rest of the layout but would be great for it to just have its own track to run around the outside.

Why not keep it running around the outside of the room and have a lifting draw bridge or lift out section instead of the base board cutting in to let the door open

That is certainly an option - I havent decided if I'm going to try and built the baseboard myself or not so I was trying to keep it relatively simple but I guess having a lift out corner piece is no more difficult than a straight piece...

Bang on! What location are you thinking? Urban/rural or a mixture?

It wont be modelling any specific area but will try and go for a mix of urban/rural....

Ok, so this is the latest proposal subject to planning permission!

Its all a bit rough and ready and the loops dont join but I'm sure with a bit of time and patience I could work out the correct track pieces and in any case I'm sure with flexitrack that could all be sorted...

I'm limited to 50 pieces on the trial version of Anyrail so I cant put in the points or complete the tracks in the station or goods area but I'm sure you get the idea!

As always comment or criticism welcome

I think looking at the above plans you are heading towards what I call scalextric train sets keep it simple is my advice:o

I agree with you the layout images I quoted where just examples of the general 'shape' (i.e. rectangle or L-shape), main requirement is for a double mainline loop (the bigger the better) and then build around that with a station and whatever else I can fit...

While I would like to do that I think I'll have to work on the assumption that the door will have to stay as it. The room may need to come back to being a bedroom at some stage and also as part of the attic conversion the whole landing area was redone so I may be killed if I go making significant changes

I'm not liking either plan because the first one is "all things to all people" - 4 stations, gradients, the whole shebang. The second one is essentially a hornby track plan with a bit sticking on to it. Might I suggest a third strategy, and feel free to tell me to sod off.

 

Use the entire 9 x 8.5 ft space, (you are the injured party) keep an operating well in the middle, keep a double line running loop to the outside of the plan to watch the trains go by. Pick two locations and make one a station with a fake branch line to have two platforms, and dmu/cravens for local services. Make the other location on the opposite side of the board for freight/oil/ballast/beet or passenger stock maintenance/storage - whatever suits. The bits in between to be roads, wooded areas and village/town scenes.

 

The lift out portion can be a piece of ply or a suspension bridge, depending on imagination.

 

I'll do up a sketch of what I'm thinking if you want? Richie.

That would be great - thanks - my creativity is pretty limited!!

Excuse my very crude drawing but I guess I could do something like this (I dont have Anyrail at the moment so using MS Paint :-) ) :

i.e. not quite a full rectangle but cut a section out for the door and have the track basically cut the corner out. Whether that section would be liftable or not could be decided or if could be permanent and just have a well in the center.

Have agree with Robert on this one, that second plan looks very "train-set!"

 

My priority would be to make the double loop as long as possible. So providing the room is just for your layout, I would build the loop around the outside of walls. If you did this you could make each basboard up to 2 feet wide if you wanted to and still have a large operating well in the middle. You can build in a lift-up or removable section for the door to open, or alter the door to open outwards.If you can get away with it you could even remove the door altogether! (don't laugh)

The room will be dedicated to the layout so that least that is one good point!

Dont think it will be possible to change to the door to open out just based on the current layout of the landing, I did think about having a removable section of track but again not sure how easy that will be be and it complicated by the fact that the door is pretty much in the corner of the room so it would have to be a removable corner of track for it to work....nothing is ever simple :-)

finally to get back into the terminus you'll need to do a 'Killarney' and reverse back in.

 

This is one major drawback of that type of design alright but I was thinking last night if it would be possible to have an underground section from the main station to join up with the opposite side of the loop but of course that introduces the whole complexity of a reverse loop and not sure how easy that would work...

Yes, would be interested.

Hi,

So my original space for my layout is no longer available as when we converted the attic it was deemed too nice to 'mess up' with trains! So, I'm banished to what was once a bedroom!

However, I'm having trouble deciding what the best option is in terms of building the baseboard shape - the room is 9ft x 8.5ft so not massive and you have to take account that there is a door opening into it. The 2 options I can think of are basically a rectangular layout of maybe 9ft x 6.5ft with a hole in the middle so I can access the back portion - something like this :

or else go for an 'L-Shape' with a loop at one end and maybe long platform at the other, something like this :

Ideally I'd like to have 2 full loops as large as possible and maybe add in a little elevation but I dont think I have enough space, originally I wanted a 'U-Shape' but the space is just not big enough to get the curves in to complete the loops

I'm tending towards the 'L-shape' at the moment but not sure, the loop looks very small and uninteresting. I'm having terrible trouble visualising it !

Any suggestions welcome - anyone have a similar size layout where you could offer advice...

Thanks,

Declan.

Picked up #071 on Sat, ran it in on a temp layout on DC and just put a Bachmann 36-554 (3 func decoder) into it now. As expected not everything works but F0 does the white marker lights, F1 red marker lights and strangely F2 does Cab 2 light so no headlight control and no cab 1 light.

Thanks for the replies and apologies for the slow response on my side, unfortunately have hit a little bit of a planning permission problem Now that the attic is converted and painted and looks like possibly the nicest room in the house there are some second thoughts on me taking half of it for the trains!!

May have to re-assess or scale back the plans a little but at least my PC is back up and running again so I will get started on some plans and see what you think. That SCARM program looks good, like the 3D rendering of plan!

Hi,

I havent been around much for the last while but I've finally got my 'space' for a layout so time to start planning and designing....all ideas, inputs welcome!

Recently converted the attic so its going to go up there, space is 14ft wide and I can come out about 5-6ft into the room so lets assume overall I have 14ft*5ft to play with however its going be up up against the wall on 3 sides so cant make use of the full space or I'll never reach the back. I'm thinking a dog-bone is probably the best option ?? I dont intend to model any particular area, station, era etc but will be primarily Irish stock with some British paying a visit every now and again!

Couple of things I'd like to incorporate :

-I would like at least 2 main continuous loops

- a main station

- Goods yard with some opportunities for shunting etc

-I have a 'Live Steam' loco so I'd like to include a complete separate loop for that

-Side walls in the room are only 3ft high so baseboard going to be low at the sides, would like to include some elevation to bring up the height in the main section

- Was considering putting in a helix and having storage yards underneath but that will probably be a separate project.

I've had a quick look at the free trackplans but havent gone into detail yet.

Would become any suggestions or advice on things I shouldnt forget!!

Thanks,

Declan.

There are available to order from here :

http://www.studio-scale-models.com/TFreight.shtml

The guy who runs it is also on here as user 'Weshty' so I guess you would either PM him here or contact via the details on the Studio Scale Models site itself.

Hi,

Package arrived this morning

For anyone else waiting they are delivered by An Post so keep an eye out for the postman I guess. Thanks Michel for keeping us updated and have to say it was excellently packaged!

Now just need to find the time to run them