Hi and welcome to the forum. Delighted to have you on board with us. Get settled in and done back with a bit about yourself. Cheers for now Toto
Thank you All for the warm welcome. I am a Noobie at model railway and in the process of completing a railway room (3m x 2.6m). I have been working on it for some time and have yet to find/detail the ideal layout in OO gauge to aim for. I am hoping to find inspiration here at Platform1mrc. Control will definitely be via the ‘Dark Side’ as I am well into the world of the Arduino (having designed a 16 way automated garden watering system using the weather info from openweather.org). Best Regards, Paul
Hi Paul I would recommend you have a go at a small Inglenook type of layout, in OO this could be approx 4ft x 1ft (1.2m x 0.3m). Why ? I hear you say. Well, when we start out, we make mistakes, we also need to hone our skills and find out what we really like about the hobby. A small Inglenook shunting layout allows you to do this without starting a whole empire. Parts required 2 or 3 lengths of flexible cable, two points. A loco and 8 wagons - the shunting puzzle normally sets the challenge of creating a 5 wagon train from the 8 wagons on the layout, in the shortest number of moves. But from this you will have a go at track laying, wiring (even the dark arts of detection and automation if you wish), scenics, buildings etc etc, in other words all the stuff required to complete a layout, but in a fairly compressed space and time frame. On bigger "the One" projects it easy to get disolutioned way before you even get something running. Post up any track plans you come up with, and I'm sure plenty of us will chip in with comments, and advice towards any pitfalls or tweaks. It gives us something to do away from our own trials and tribulations Any questions - just ask Paul
G'day Paulo9999, Welcome aboard from Sydney. Should be plenty of inspiration among our 'Members Personal Layouts' pages for you to glean ideas from. Enjoy your stay and if you have any questions, fire away ! Cheers, Gary.
Hi Paulo9999, like Paul_l I would suggest an Inglenook type layout as a first build, quick to build, compared to a larger layout, that gives satisfaction faster, plus if you build into the design the possibilty of extending/adding on later. Plus, I would highly recommend when you get to build the bigger layout that you build it so it can be dismantled into smaller sections rather than scrapping it if ever needs to be moved or sold on. If you have a look at my Lockoford Yard thread, that was my first fully finished layout that sold back in 2017, much to my regret. Keep up the updates! Cheers, Pete.
Hi Paulo9999 from sunny Spain ... enjoy your new adventure into the model railway world. Your already ahead of me with the dark side knowledge, I'm still struggling with ac/dc never mind dcccc n hard dinna you know stuff ... but good luck Ian vt