Hi Monty.

Three welcomes. One to the great world of railway modelling; a second to the world of AnyRail and a third to this forum. I'm not too familiar with Hornby as I model German outline so take my comments with a pinch of salt.

First thing I noticed was that you have two reverse loops in your layout. I don't know how much you have boned up on model rail design so if you know this already fine but if not, be aware that these can both lead to a short circuit as they join what was the outer rail on entry to the loop to the inner rail on exit. There are several ways round this but none of them are tidy. Personally, I would ditch the left hand reversing loop, one is enough.

I am also concerned about access. From the shape of the layout, it looks as if this will be against a wall;; if I am wrong then ignore this paragraph. Assuming that the top and left edges are against a wall then you are going to have real problems accessing the right hand end of the station area and ends of the sidings. And, talking about the sidings, if you are only running one train at a time, no problem, but if you wish to run a train on the main circle and shunt at the same time the shunting activities will get in the way of the main line. Most sidings are fed via a headshunt. However, the right hand reverse loop leading into the branch line prevent that.

Looking at the branch line, you have a very short platform there and, if you are working steam, you will have to work a push-pull service. Also, the platform is really a bit too short to be used as a headshunt. I would suggest you rethink the branch line and try to simplify the run to it.

Irrespective of whether you take any notice of what I have said, you have produced an interesting layout that could give you many hours of fun. In the end, that is what it is all about. )

With best wishes,
Chris.

Hi Monty.

I was messing about with your plan to illustrate the headshunt. In teh process I have lost both reversing loops which you may not wish to do but it is basically an ideas thing. I didn't address the branch but I am sure you can mess with that (try putting the station at an angle; try siding going up into the empty space to the left of the line; could even bring it back onto the left end of mainline - that would give you a reversing wye). The only thing I didn't do tcos no time now was to try running the branch outside the mainline and then have it curving away to the extension board. That would get rid of the crossing and allow you to run the main line and branch independently. Finally, look at other peoples' layouts - there are plenty on the Web and in magazines such as Railway Modeller, the Hornby magazine, British Railway Modelling etc. You have plenty time to do that while planning the eviction!!

All the best,
Chris.

Like Chris, I can't resist messing about with layout design. Attached you'll find two modifications of your original, bot featuring a little more extensive use of flex-track in order to smooth some curves in the two looped track sections.

Since I agree with Chris's comment about the headshunt, I let the second layout expand the area a little in order to ease that situation. One reversing loop is removed, though it doesn't seem that way to a casual eye. Shaving a little off the inside corner of the layout also leaves us room to construct the third point of a 'wye' that can be used to turn engines or short trains, if you decide to remove the remaining reversing loop entirely.

I hope this serves to give you some room to mess around with the design yourself

Thanks for your interest, Peartree. Since Chris replied to my first post, I've designed one or two other layouts, taking into account his comments about a headshunt and reversing loops. Once I've settled on something that I'm happy with, I'll upload it for further appraisal, (or condemnation!!).

Monty

*prepares to write his condemnation*